Product: Aria AMB-50B
Price Paid: US about 300
Submitted
01/07/2006
at
10:28pm
by
Glen
Features
:
9
Acoustic fretless bass, made in Korea, bought in 2002. The back and sides are some sort of ABS fiber, but not rounded like the Ovations, so it's much more comfortable. Thin body (about 3 inches), cutaway dreadnought shape. Piezo pickup with three-band EQ and volume sliders. The top is flamed maple, no doubt laminated. The neck is painted (mine is the black shade finish, with a black neck), and medium thickness. The bridge (string-thru) and fingerboard appear to be rosewood. Side dots were placed like on a fretted bass, so I covered them and put new ones where the frets would be. Scale is 34 inches. Mine is an unlined fretless, but I've never seen another like it for sale--the website seems to list only the fretted version. I found this one by accident.
Sound
:
8
Like most acoustic basses, it isn't loud unplugged. I sometimes play with one acoustic guitar player, and it's okay for that. For unplugged practice alone, it's great--certainly loud enough to wake my wife in the other room. Nice warm tone, in spite of the non-wood body. I use tapewound strings on it, and it has a nice mini-double-bass sound, with a little "mwah" when I want it. Amplified, it's not bad, but it needs a soundhole cover to control feedback.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
Finish is good, no flaws that I've noticed. The action is a touch higher than I like it, and with a non-adjustable bridge, the only way to lower it is to file the nut and saddle down. I haven't bothered.
Reliability/Durability
:
7
After a couple of years, I had two tuning machines strip out when I brought the strings up to pitch. They aren't expensive or hard to replace, but it's annoying. (The plastic nut also cracked, but that was my fault--I went to a heavier-gauge string without first enlarging the slot.) The neck has never needed adjusting since I've had it. I expect it to last as long as I do, but it isn't what I think of as a gigging bass; it's more at home on the back porch. Still, for a small, medium-volume gig, I wouldn't be afraid to use it without a backup--once I replace the other two tuning machines.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
No experience dealing with the company.
Overall Rating
:
8
I've been playing bass for about five years, guitar for 15 before that. Own several other basses and guitars, and though this is not a bass I use on gigs, I probably play it more than any other bass I have--I keep it on a stand by the computer, and it's easy to pick it up for five minutes at a time, 20 times a day. I like having one bass around that I don't need to plug in. I've compared it to several other acoustic basses, and for the me, it was the best choice. The Tacomas do sound better, but I wanted a more comfortable body size.
Product: Aria AMB-50B
Price Paid: US $279
Submitted
12/29/2002
at
04:55pm
by
Anonymous
Features
:
6
Sound
:
5
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
2
neck has fret buzz on e and a strings. one tuner slowly unwinds (about a turn a week)
Reliability/Durability
:
2
piezo pick-up is very unreliable, bridge started to separate after 2 weeks (order mine so it didn't sit behind a shop for who knows how long)
Customer Support
:
1
they told me I was abusing the guitar. I never tuned it high and never slap or hammer the strings. paid 25 bucks for the shipping. overall it was a 330 dollar 3 second long jimmy hendrix guitar smashing good time after the 3 week headache
Overall Rating
:
2
lousy. If your looking for an inexpensive acoustic bass buy an ibanez (forgot model i ordered in place of the aria, but it is their entry level model and i love it)
