Aria SLB2A

passive and active, as a guitar player turned bass player I have a thing about machine head accuracy but no problems here. Mine is simply tagged "Aria Pro bass SLB" so I hope Im in the correct catagory! Pink when i bought it second hand for my 6 year old, he reckond it was poofy! so I had it resprayed metalic blue, a few minor chips but I own guitars much younger in worse nick. Weekly gigs and rehearsals this baby is as solid as they come.

i can honestly say that the range of sound from this guitar is outstanding. through a carvin amp with built in noise suppressor it is totally silent unplayed. Our band covers everything from the roses to henrix and it does the buisiness!

if anything the action at its lowest (without buzz) is still a touch high for my liking but it wouldnt make me sell it. frets are ultra hard wearing mine has been flogged to death and no sign of wear at all. ( check out the frets on a two year old Ibanez with serious owner ). This is the most underrated bass available in my oppinion.

Never used a backup. its rare these days that an instrument can provide such security, If you can get one -- do! youll never regret it. My last band the bassist used a Stingray and This more than equalled it! Say no more.

Never had cause.

Played for 25 years, I knew the bass before bought it privately, thought of replacing it(just for a change)but nothing can touch it and Im including the big names. Im in love.

Made in Korea, approx 1991. Ply body, with a gloss black polyester or PU finish. Passive J-bridge and P-neck style pickups, branded Aria, with a preamp EQ circuit. Controls are vol, passive tone and active tone. An on-on-on selects between the two pickups and a mini-toggle knocks the active circuit on or off. The body is small and pointy - light, but can look a bit ridiculous on a big bloke. The neck is maple with a rosewood f/b and a satin finish (standard 34" scale). Quite fast, the nut width is like a Jazz but without that deep, V profile and fairly comfortable. 21 frets, Aria branded tuners. Although the body is black, and so are the Tele/P bass dome knobs, the (unremarkable, P style) bridge and (Schaller M4 style) tuners are chrome. Bit of a mish-mash. The headstock is also very pointy and will take out the eye of a careless punter if the stage is not very big.

If you want to sound like JJ Brunel of the Stranglers, this could be your bass. On mixed pickups, with the active on, it really has that trebly, attacking "TANG" sound. With brand new strings, the "E" is quite piano-like. If this bores you, your only option is to knock off the active and use the P-style pickup alone. Even then, it's still pretty bright. I've used this bass for some 20 gigs, and three recordings. It cuts through, but it's not subtle. Fine for indie, punk or harder rock but a complete bust when the folk/jazz combo ask you to dep for them. It can glitch when twiddling with tone settings, but was reasonably quiet once settled in. Yes, there is hum, but start playing and no-one will notice.

The action was neither the highest nor the lowest I've ever experienced - about what you'd expect for the price. Intonation has always been fine, all frets stayed in place and the tuners? They look pretty cheap but have never been a problem. The jack socket is the cheapest of the cheap and loosens as soon as looked at. No major problems, though. For the price, I think it was reasonably well set up.

As mentioned, I've played this bass for some 10 years and gigged and recorded with it. "Car wash" surface scratching appears pretty soon on the body, but wood-exposing dings have only come about from serious klutzness on my part. Despite weekly rehearsals, the frets are in decent shape and there is a little wear on the treble side of the pickup. When I hit a string, it says "Ow" so this is not bad going. I have always fitted Elites 45-105 and the truss rod has never required any attention. The intonation is still fine. The strap buttons are still firmly screwed in and it's never come off my shoulder unless I wanted it to. I always have a backup at a gig, but it never let me down.

Never had cause to speak to Aria

I've played bass for over 20 years, and semi-seriously with gigging bands for more than 10. A large part of that was done with this bass. I now play 5-strings, which is why the Aria got retired. It certainly beats most P-copies at this money (and lefties seldom see anything else). It really only has two tones: an in-your-face clank and a brightish mid pickup tone, but that's one more than usual. If I saw a mint one 2nd hand, I wouldn't pay more than #80; there are 'beginner' basses these days that are so much better. Still, it served me well.