Product: Aria Diamond 12-String
Price Paid: US $250
Submitted
10/21/2003
at
07:14pm
by
manolis
Email: sitorisonics at cs<dot>com
Features
:
10
made in japan in the famous matsumoku factory (ibanez, greco, tokai, aria pro II, etc). two single coil pickups, two volumes, two tones, three way swit\ch. tuners are a little small and stiff, but it is 30 years old. action is remarkably low (specially for a 12), and the neck is straight as an arrow.neck has a narrow fretboard, but plays VERY well. these are all of the features i need for this style guitar.
Sound
:
10
i actually took off all the strings immediately. i replaced them with bouzouki strings (*). now it is like an electric bouzouki with a guitar neck. VERY cool. if you know what a bouzouki is, you should try this. much cheaper than the same quality bouzouki.
i play it through a fender dual showman with EXCELLENT results. i play it clean, but throu\w a little distorion in sometimes to piss my wife off. it is suprisingly noise free, and has a full FULL tone when used with the neck p/u. i am not crazy about the bridge pickup, but that may just be because it doesn't get the bouzouki sound i am after. for guitarists i think it would be cool.
i think my only dislike is that the tuners coulkd be beefier, but i could just replace them.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
well, it is 30 years old. it plays great. if i could find other 30 year old guitars that held up this well, i would be very happy. well, what do you expect from the old aria's? they are the greatest kept secret ever. specially their old effects. wait a minute. no, they are terrible. do not ever buy aria. keep the prices down :)
Reliability/Durability
:
10
again, after 30 yrs, it rocks. that is that. i am about to play the voodoofest in new orleans (60,000 peeps) without a backup.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
they haven't existed for years.
Overall Rating
:
10
i have been playing for almost 20 years. i play middle eastern and shoegazer psychadelic. i am into lush tones. this does it.
