Product: Aria AF-60N
Price Paid: 325
Submitted
08/04/2009
at
09:20am
by
afunkymonk
Features
:
8
This is the Aria Auditorium series. Made in Korea as a reinstatement of Aria's well respected Japanese line from several years ago. Essentially a straight copy of a Martin OM42. 14 frets to the body, solid natural finish spruce top, solid bookmatched rosewood back and sides, rosewood fretboard with abalone snowflake inlay and a rosewood belly style bridge with snowflake inlay. Bone nut and saddle, plastic pins and endpin. Gold no name "Grover Rotomatic" style tuners which work very well. No electronics. Neck is a pleasant roundback martin shape, very similar to a 1942 000 that was in my friends shop a couple of weeks ago for a refret. A very solid package for the money.
Sound
:
9
Sounded great in the shop next to a lot of other very well made guitars which cost a lot more. Does a very good Martin impression, good note separation when picked and a surprising bass response. Strums hard without losing clarity and the rosewood warmth is instantly recognisable. Played next to my other Martin style guitar which is getting on for 30 years old, it lacks complexity and is a bit 'forward' but I'm pretty confident that it's got lots of room to grow as the top opens up.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
standard of finish from the factory was excellent - body is a gloss finish which is not cellulose but is still quite thin. Nice satin finish on the neck. Headstock is disappointing as the signature tries to mimic the Martin Decal and ends up just looking cheap. When I get time I will remove the decal and see what the peghead looks like plain. The rest of the guitar looks so good, it's a shame that Aria couldn't get this right. Eventually, I think I will replace the peghead veneer with something that better matches the rosewood on the back and sides, perhaps with a bit of abalone inlay to complement the body binding and fretboard inlay. It does have an overall 'factory' feel about it, but this will fade quickly I think.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Very well made, well set up.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
10
Been playing for 20 years, this is as nice a guitar as 99% of us could ever want. I am a name snob for some stuff, but to pay 4-5 times more for it? Not on this occasion. I looked at a lot of guitars in this price bracket and up to 500GBP and this was a no brainer. Solid wood guitars should and do cost more than this. I will change the gold grover style tuners to nickel sta-tites and put bone bridge pins and endpin in at some point just for the sake of completion. The peg head is a bit of a let down but that is just my opinion. This model is apparently discontinued so there should be a bargain around.
