In praise ot the Aria STB-J

[rushbo]

After watching an old Led Zeppelin documentary on TV recently, I got terrible GAS for a sunburst Jazz Bass. I've had a Fender Jazz in the past - a lovely Mexi model, purchased from this very forum, but I never really clicked with it. The GAS would not go away and when I saw a beat up Aria STB Jazz bass on FaceBook Marketplace for £40, I thought that would cure it. My initial plan was to replace practically everything with shiny new bits and hope for the best. I tested it briefly and all was good, so I set about removing the many layers of stickers and filth and cleaned it up. It soon became apparent that it didn't need much in the way of upgrading... I'm not a fan of the Aria headstock shape, so out came the jigsaw and once it was reshaped and oiled, I applied my oh-so-funny trademark decals. After it was cleaned and set up, I cranked it up through my gigging rig and it sounded fantastic! Funky and articulate, just like I wish I was. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, I took it to both my gigs last weekend to try it out in the wild. I received no scowls from the sound engineers at the sound checks, so it got a run out. Again, it delivered the goods.

 

Hardware is good, solid and accurate, the pickups are more than adequate and even the stock strings are great. I took them off, boiled them and put them back on as I didn't want to risk a brand new set.

 

This thing is great. And brand new, they're only £209!

 

For an investment of £40, plus £13 for the replacement plate and a few hours of my spare time (and an old tugbar), I've got a great sounding, cool looking instrument. If anyone is looking for a cheapo bass for whatever reason you could do a lot worse than one of these.

 

Here's a few before and after pics:

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23 by rushbo

[lemmywinks]

Just pulled my STB-JB-DX 5 string out for a play tonight, keep forgetting just what a fantastic budget bass it is. Such a great neck, same with the 4 string STB-J standard I had. Unfortunately I didn't get the stock pickups with my DX which is a shame as they're surprisingly good.

 

The guitars are impressive too, a mate of mine picked up their fat strat copy for £50 locally with an amp, gigbag and stand when he was getting back into playing, just played great with a super low action and was a great platform for upgrades.

Edited November 3 by lemmywinks

[rushbo]

24 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

Just pulled my STB-J-DX 5 string out for a play tonight, keep forgetting just what a fantastic budget bass it is. Such a great neck, same with the 4 string STB-J standard I had. Unfortunately I didn't get the stock pickups with my DX which is a shame as they're surprisingly good.

 

The guitars are impressive too, a mate of mine picked up their fat strat copy for £50 locally with an amp, gigbag and stand when he was getting back into playing, just played great with a super low action and was a great platform for upgrades.

I've found all this to be true.

 

As for upgrades - I'm in no hurry to change a thing. Anyone who enjoys picking up and tweaking cheapo instruments will tell you that there's a "honeymoon period" where you're basking in the glory of making an inexpensive bass sound half-decent. This can subside when you finally realise that the bass you bought for £100 and spent hours fettling and bodging now sounds like a bass that's worth about £!20.  I've had my Aria for about three weeks now and I've played it for hours at home and on stage. It's still very much a love thang.

Edited November 3 by rushbo

[lemmywinks]

9 minutes ago, rushbo said:

I've found all this to be true.

 

As for upgrades - I'm in no hurry to change a thing. Anyone who enjoys picking up and tweaking cheapo instruments will tell you that there's a "honeymoon period" where you're basking in the glory of making inexpensive bass sound half-decent. This can subside when you finally realise that the bass you bought for £100 and spent hours fettling and bodging now sounds like a bass that's worth about £!20.  I've had my Aria for about three weeks now and I've played it for hours at home and on stage. It's still very much a love thang.

 

 

I stuck an East Uni Pre 4 knob (£150 off here) in mine, it sounds phenomenal but to be fair it sounds mint in passive mode as well. More than holds its own with my other two gigging basses, both of which were much more expensive and have Nordstrands as stock.

 

If I'd have got the bass with the original pickups and preamp I may have left it as is but it was wired passive with a cheap (but excellent) set of WIlkinsons in there. After I set it up and gave the low B a blast I knew it deserved something a bit better!