Aria Pro II Avante Steve Bailey Signature Fretless 5

I was told this bass retails new for $1600. I purchased it used in 2006 (made in 2003), this used bass showed little use.
Made in Korea
A solid Alder body with a sunburst finish and an ugly tortoise shell pick guard. Fretless, two-octave 35" scale, Rosewood fingerboard, Maple neck, Gotoh bridge and tuners. The neck pocket is incredibly tight, and the neck is secured to the body with five screws. The neck is slightly above average in thickness and width.
Four control knobs stacked into two control the active electronics. One to control volume & blend, and Bass boost/cut & Treble boost/cut
Truss Rod access is at the body and the truss rod does not seem to be dual-expanding, though this could be wrong.
The bass is noticeably heavier than my peavey Cirrus and my Ibanez BTB
It offers great access to the second octave.

On an Eden World Traveler:
This bass sounds decent, but stops at that. It has a versatile sound. It can be warm, or bright, but does not sound special.
Basically, this bass sounds like it has no soul. In comparison to other basses, like my Peavey Cirrus or even a Japanese Fender, the sound of this bass has no character. It's nothing special.
When the treble boost knob is turned all the way up a shrill noise is produced, and causes a large deal of feedback when near the amp.
The wiring does not seem to be done very well, and there is some hum and clicking when you touch the strings or knobs.
Compared to my cheap, Yamaha 5 string that I defretted myself, this Aria

When I purchased this bass used from the seller I was *in shock* at how ridiculously high the action was (the string was about 1/2" above the octave where the 12th fret would be). It was higher than any upright I've played, but I saw no indication of a warped neck or any damage, just a desperate need for a setup. I was optimistic that I could set it up to my liking, as I do great setups.
When I got to work on it I was surprised to see that I could not get the action any lower than 6/64" above the octave, not too high, but I am used to 1/64" on my other basses. When I tried to go lower I got an insane amount of rattle from the first to the fifth position.
The slots of the nut were not cut deep enough and this made it painful to play in first to fifth position. After sanding the slots deeper the problem was close to fixed
The wood used for the fingerboard is too soft. Flatwound strings are necessary to not damage the fingerboard. They should have used a harder wood or at least coated the rosewood fingerboard in some sort of epoxy so roundwound strings could be used. I will now have to do this myself.

This is a heavy, well-assembled bass. I can see it lasting a long time.
The electronics sound like they need to be cleaned and re-soldered.

I have not been able to find any info out on this bass or even the company, aside from what I've read on Harmony Central.
Their customer service does not exist online

I've been playing bass for close to 8 years, and guitar since I was 4. I've been doing professional quality tech work for several years, but with Steve Bailey's name associated with this bass I didn't expect to have to have to use my technician skills for anything more than a personal customization.
Given a second chance, I would not have bought this bass. I would have saved up my money and bought a fretless Peavey Cirrus 6.

In this review I compared the Aria with a Mexican Fender which I would rate an overall 4, and my Peavey Cirrus 5 which I would rate a perfect 10

This is the 2000 model, Korean made. The bass was purchased new, in box. Features:

* Body appears to be a beautiful, select ash with an antique yellow sunburst finish, very shiny! Looks like a standard, relatively thick and polished polyurethane finish. Tastefully done.

* Fretless 34" neck over very thick, very smooth ebony/maple neck, oiled, very wide, somewhat thin, symmetrical. Third / Fifth / Seventh / Ninth / Octave dots on the side of the ebony. No fret lines (there is something inherently beautiful about a bare naked ebony fretboard).

* Gotoh/Schaller(?) tuners, a heavy die-cast aluminum bridge (Badass?)

* Volume/Tone/Blend controls, and a couple of machined/stacked control knobs, with an angled Strat-like jack on the front of the body.

* One of the highlights of this bass is the Seymour Duncan Steve Bailey-designed pickup/electronics set (more on that in a sec)...

All in all, a very well designed and equipped bass...

I don't want to rattle on about the sound too much other than to say it is, without question, the finest sounding bass I own or have ever played. The highs have a wonderful rising mwah and real presense (without too much of a sparkle, like a Tele). The mid-range has serious presence with solid fundamental and first-order harmonics in your face with awesome warmth. But the lows... The lows on this thing are absoultely THUNDEROUS! I play through my SWR Silverado Special (350W, 2 X 12" drivers + horn), and even at low volumes, the pictures on the walls start vibrating and the dogs next door start barking. Unbelievable, solid, warm, gut-wrenching fundamentals on the low end -- similar to Pedulla's Thunderguts, but with more presense and growl. I had a friend over to jam (he was on guitar) and I started playing the "Bailey". After four or five seconds he stopped and looked up with this totally surprised look on his face and simply said, "Wow". Also, harmonics on this thing are a joy, and they jump out at you -- apparently, the tone circuitry was designed to emphasize harmonics (first & second order??)

I believe that a great deal of the sound is attributed to the solid mass of this guitar as a non-moving platform for the strings. But, certainly Seymour Duncan deserves credit, too, for their absolutely superb work on the pickups and the tone circuitry.

I recently read a review by someone who said that he was thoroughly disappointed by this guitar because the sound was for sh*t. I couldn't disagree more, and I have no idea what substances he was imbibing -- absolutely no buyers remorse on my behalf, this thing is a home run in the sound department.

Generally, the finish on the unit is superb, with a well-applied sunburst finish over what appears to be select ash. My unit had a bit of an unfinished or unbuffed section right at the tip of the headpiece (which should have been easy to finish - unsure why it wasn't). The ebony on the neck is an absolute work of art, perfectly smooth (like glass, highly reflective), and with an absurdly long radius (15"+?), and a very low action.

All components (tuners, bridge, controls) seem to be very stout, well made pieces, though there is no indication as to the manufacturer of the sub-assemblies. Standard volume/tone controls (stacked) with a very cool pull-mute feature which helps to keep extraneous noise down when not playing.

Really, the only two beefs I have with the bass are:

1. The pickguard, which is a formica-like print of a tortoise pattern (it looks tortoise from a distance, but when you get close, you notice that it is merely a print with no sparkle or depth -- kind of tasteless from an aesthetic point of view, but still perfectly functional). $5 extra for a good pickguard would have been nice...

2. The weight. You would not believe how solid and heavy this thing is. When I first started to lift it out of the box, I stopped pulling because I thought it was caught on something in the box! I haven't weighed it, but it must be in excess of 10 pounds. I'm surprised you don't have to register this thing with the authorities, because it could be considered a heavy blunt weapon! I believe that the very thick ebony on the neck contributes greatly to the weight, because the neck has a tendency to sink a bit when playing. I'm 6'4" and 250 lbs, so the weight doesn't bother me too much, but for shorter players, it might be a serious problem. Certainly, the absolutely concrete-solid feel this axe has contributes to its outrageous sound...

I've always been a bit skeptical of Korean manufactured guitars, but I have to admit, only highly talented craftspeople touched this unit when it was being crafted.

All in all, very nicely executed with just a bit of room for improvement.

Haven't giged with it (yet). I have no reason to believe that this bass will not survive being giged, especially with the solid feel that it portrays. I'll reserve comment on this section until I have more experience with it in some actual gigging situations.

Haven't had to deal with them and hope I never have to.

I've been playing for approximately six years now; I own a Fender American Delux Jazz V, a Fender Standard Jazz, an Epiphone Jack Casady Signature semiacoustic (Starfire -- wonderful bass!), and a Tacoma CB-10 acoustic.

I would absolutely purchase another one of these units if I needed to -- though that may be a bit of a challenge as they're no longer being manufactured. I sought this particular bass out because I was looking for a good fretless, admire Steve Bailey's work and trust his endorsement, and thought this unit would do the trick. Plus, it didn't hurt that I was able to pick up this axed for about 30% of it's MSRP as part of a liquidation!

I did compare this axe against Pedulla and Ibanez fretless basses, both very nice, but not nice enough to warrant plunking down $1,500 for the Ibanez BTB to a stratospheric $2,700 for the Pedulla Buzz or Thunderbass!

Very, very pleased with this unit.