Product: Aria Diamond 1402T Violin Body
Price Paid: US $400 used
Submitted
12/25/2003
at
10:39am
by
votemiles
Email: votemiles at yahoo<dot>com
Features
:
5
Found this guitar in a local second-hand shop. It's a hollow violin-body electric. Headstock reads "Aria By Diamond", no model number. Did some research on the web and found that the only production run for any violin-body guitar produced by Aria was 1967/68. Model number listed as 1402T. The two stock pickups are single-coils, with a three way selector switch. 1 tone and 1 volume knob. Neck is pretty thin and easy to play. Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. It's a little scratched and worn, but overall it's quite a lovely looking thing.
Sound
:
7
Pickups are REALLY low output. Gotta crank da amp. This is not a guitar that's gonna sound good through cheap solid state amps. An exception is the Vox Pathfinder, it rocks through that (ANYTHING rocks through that little bastard)! Very Beatle-ish hollow body kinda sound. It really needs a good amp to really get the best out of it. Sounds wonderful with a bit of tweaking on my Rivera 100-212 (think first two Beatles albums sort of a vibe). The best and most useable pickup position is at the neck. Any other setting and its just too thin and quiet to be of much use. Not a very versatile guitar by any stretch of the imagination, but it definitely has an old vibe of its own. I like it!
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
6
Had to change the tuning pegs cause they were rusty and loose as hell. Tuning kept going off. Fixed the neck setup as well. Still a slight intonation problem high up the neck after the 12th fret, but still playable. Wasn't in the best of shape when I found it, let's put it that way. Plays pretty well now though, after the repair work. Thinking of changing the main neck pickup, but am in two minds. I still kinda like the sound of them old Jap pickups. Hmm.
Reliability/Durability
:
6
Well, its survived till now, so a plus point for that. Knobs seem rather solid. Gotta take care of the old girl though, wouldn't want to bring her around for serious gigging and stuff. A studio guitar I think.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Erm, the production run ended in 68 I think, so there's nada on the service side anymore.
Overall Rating
:
7
What can I say. It's an old piece. I like it. Fun to play, and a real vintage kinda vibe to it. Not the most versatile piece on earth. But I still like it alot. To be honest, I wasn't exactly crazy about it till I bought my Rivera and Vox Pathfinder amps. That really made the difference! I suppose a Peavey Rage158 isn't the best piece to play this thing through, heheh. Not thinking of selling it anymore. I'm helluva fond of the old thing now. Suppose that's why I finally wrote this damn review!
