Aria AS100SE

Just a little update of my previous review, for those of you who need it:

I recently hooked the Aria Sinsonido to my Fender Blues Deluxe Tweed amp and I was very impressed! I would gig with this guitar without hesitation, espacially for jazz or acoustic stuff. (Not for rock or rugged blues). It has a distinct sound: not quite an electric and not quite an acoustic, but nic: full, rich, round.

The other thing I would like to share is that I changed the strings to 0.011 Flatwounds. Not only reduced this change the finger-squeeking a great deal (I think the guitar needs that, even if you're an acoustic player), it gives the whole guitar a jazzier feel that makes it very suitable for all you jazzers out there who want to practise their scales without disturbing others!

Thumbs up for Aria!

Headless and boy-less travel design. 3 removable aluminium tubes form an improvised "body". Solid mahogany, natural finish. Bolt on neck, headless design. Stereo condenser-mic pick up. Active electronics with volume and tone control. 9V battery powered. Headphone jach. Open tuners. Comes with gig-bag. A reverb would have been nice, an external in-jack (for jamming along with an mp3 player) would also be. A y-cable can do that job also though.

I bought this guitar to have an easily transportable travel-guitar on airplanes and ohter means of transportation and journeys you don't want to take your expensive precious instrument with you. It serves that purpuse very well, with an overall length of 865 mm it fits, if necessary, in a large suitcase and I've read it fits most cabin-lugage boxes in airplanes. Due to it's solid construction you don't have to worry much about damaging the guitar, or about extreme climate changes affecting it.
Sound is therefore maybe less immportant, but: through a reasonable pair of headphones it has a pleasant sound even, that makes playing it realy enjoyable. I play mainly jazz at the moment, and therefore I bought this steelstring version, because I thought it would feel and sounde closer to my archtop jazz-guitars. I find myself turning the tone-control to the bass-side, otherwise it has too much treble that doesn't sound jazzy anymore. On the other hand, dialing in more treble does provide a good steel-string sound, somewhat similar to an amplified piezo-steelstring, but to my ears even better an more realistic. With the tonecontrol open, also all the playing-noise is amplified to point that maybe a little too much. Mind you, only through the headphones I put all this to the test, I haven't plugged it in an amp yet. I am thinking about changing the strings to flatwounds to make it even more close to my jazzguitar.

Very well built. No flaws. Frets and fingerboard seem just right. Tuning pegs do their job, although they look cheap they give no problems. Nut is properly cut. Action is a bit high to my taste, but can easily be adjusted by the thumbwheels under the bridge/pickup. I would have prefered a slightly wide neck-radius (i.e. a less flat fretboard) and a fatter neck, to make it closer to my jazzguitar, but that's just personal taste and of course not what the guitar was intended for. It playes very comfortable with the 3 rubber-coated and removable alu-tubes that form the 'body'.

Seem reliable and sturdy enough. Good solid wood and properly constructed.

I don't know. Did not need it, doesn't seem like I will.

The Aria is the cheaper version of the SoloEtte travelguitar. As an experienced guitarist (have been playing for over 20 years), I find it a nice and usefull travelguitar. I decided to buy a travelguitar after playing a friend's Yamaha Silent guitar during a holiday in France. The Yamaha was too expensive to my taste to buy just as a travel guitar (320 euro for the Aria versus 600 euro for the Yamaha!). I think the Aria is a better deal: full scale (the Yamaha's scale is shortened!), a more realistic sound thanks to the stereo condenser-mic pick up (the Yamaha has a piezo), an even shorter overall length (the Yamaha is 10 cm longer) and a solid wood construction (the Yamaha has a plastic housing for the electronics), and that all for half the price. Pro's for the Yamaha are: a digital reverb, closed tuning mechanisms, it has a more realistic headstock and the neck is glued on instead of bolt on.
Overall I'm pretty content with it and it's my favourite travell-companion! (Besides my girlfriend ...;-). I prefer this travelguitar design over small-bodied and shortscale designs (Martin Backpacker, Tacuma Papose etc). But I'm not an all-out acoustic player. It makes it less usefull for near the campfire, but a small battery-packed mini-amp could well solve that problem. The advantage is you can practise silently! (Well, almost silently. It does make some sound of course, just enought to keep your room-mate awake...).