Aria STB make-over

[rushbo]

Well, here’s another “not quite a build diary but a story of a build”…

So, it started when I bought a second hand Aria STB Bass from FleaBay. I managed to grab it for £50 complete with a little practice amp, which I shifted for £17 at my local Crack Converters. So far, so good. My original plan was to just keep the body and look out for a “Jazz” type neck to use, but after playing around with the Aria, I found the profile to be nice and slim…perfect for my dainty, girlish hands. I’d already scored a cracking EMG35P4 pickup, so I was (almost) good to go.

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This is what I bought, complete with rather random stickers...

I decided I was going to go for an all-out “Liberace style” Bass – Gold hardware, fake pearl blocks, fake M.O.P knobs, reddy-brown tort scratchplate (crafted by the Bass Doc, natch)…the whole nine yards. The machine heads were second hand Wilkinsons and the bridge was a second hand no-name high mass jobbie. All very yummy and as camp as Christmas. I stripped the thing down (nowhere near as backbreaking as the Squier I did last year…) routed out a battery port and modified the pup recess to fit the EMG. I primed it and applied many coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White. The early signs were good. Getting the logo off the headstock was another thing entirely. This wasn’t just a normal decal…the wording seemed to go through the headstock like the lettering in a stick of Blackpool rock. After what seemed like many hours I gave up and decided to paint the headstock too and I’m really pleased I did.

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Stripped...

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That pesky headstock...

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...primed


The fun started when I lacquered the thing. Whilst casually spraying coat number 6 or 7 on my loverlee looking custom bass, it fell to the floor with a bang, bounced three times and came to rest on the concrete floor. Bum. Yep, it was dinged in about five places, quite significantly too. By now, my patience was running pretty thin and I was rapidly falling out of love with the project, so I finished it off as best as I could, leaving the dings exactly as they were and threw on the Pups, custom decal and hardware. All I wanted was a bass that worked which I could use a beater. Well dear reader, I could not believe the glorious noise that came out of this bass…powerful, defined and HUGE! It must be the EMG pup. This thing is a Rock machine. I gave it a quick polish with some T Cut, a minor tweak here and there and it’s my new favourite bass. I’ve accidentally made a relic bass – how cutting edge am I? It’s still not quite finished as it needs gold screws for the neck plate and bridge and a couple of screws for the machine heads, but I couldn’t wait to gig with it. It didn’t disappoint. Through my Genz Benz Contour rig, this thing sounds gorgeous. Light too. The good thing about making an “imperfect” instrument is that you don’t get too stressed when you knock it about as it’s already pre-damaged. Smart.

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...my idea of a joke

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Check out that strap...


Once again, I feel slightly embarrassed about putting my humble bodge- bass amongst these incredible boutique jobs (nuts made from crystallised angels tears, tuning pegs carved from the horns of a Unicorn etc), but I like it. It’s quirky, unique and if I knew what “plays like butter” means, I’d probably say that about it as well.

Summer is coming – what better way to avoid August’s warm drizzle than by hiding in your shed doing unspeakable things to cheap Korean basses?

[rubis]

Excellent