Paolo85 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) Hi everyone, nice to meet you. I am a "basschatter" but now I hsppen to have two guitars and I am curious about this one. I bought this off ebay. Almost by accident, I made a £35 bid when the auction started just to dip my toe in, then decided to buy new Fazley telecaster, and to my surprise I won the auction for the Aria as well. From what I can see from the photos, it is very similar to the STG003 now on sale for about £130. But the bridge is different, and the Aria logo is different. This is not a "pro II". I cannot find a serial anywhere nor a "made in.." The guitar is old, the neck wood looks aged. The pickguard has darkened a lot - it is bright white underneath the knobs. The neck is glossy. The frets are small. I am new to guitar but they are smaller than in my Fazley, which I doubt jas jumbo. The fretwork seems great to me. I can set action lower than in Fender's setup guides with no buzz. Nut slots are cut very well. As you can see it has issues (the black marks on the back of the neck cannot be wiped away). I doubt this is the purchase of the century but I wonder if this may be from a time when Aria STGs cost slightly more than £130. Edited December 20, 2023 by Paolo85 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 Morning and welcome. I have a few Aria's, they are great value. This is a slightly older model but definitely made in China. They reinstated the 'Pro II' moniker about 5 years ago so this is before that. I would suspect from the early 2000's so probably about 20 years old. They are good strat copies, nothing amazing, but nothing bad either. Perfectly decent but would benefit from electronics changing as that is their weak point. The bridge looks like a drop in replacement at some point (a Wilkinson?), they would have been a vintage style bridge with the bent saddles. I really like the necks on these and used the neck off my one on a partscaster home build and then bought another neck off eBay (for as much as it would have been to buy the guitar whole) to do another home build... In fact, my main precision bass is an Aria from this period, and I have a Magna series hot rod HSS strat similar age and I really like both. I also have one of the newer (Pro II) thinline telecasters, but I don't think the feel is as good as the older ones, it needs a bit more playing in. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdwardMarlowe Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 Yeah, I spotted that bridge too. I did wonder whether Aria had done a series where they used better hardware, but you are probably right it's a later replacement. Which suggests a previous owner enjoyed this guitar well enough to take the time, effort and expense of that modification. There may be others - I would expect they at least did a good set-up on it, but I wonder too if any of the other big plus points you've noticed were down to the same owner's investment? Be interesting to have a look under the guard to see if there are any signs of anything being changed there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 4 minutes ago, EdwardMarlowe said: Yeah, I spotted that bridge too. I did wonder whether Aria had done a series where they used better hardware, but you are probably right it's a later replacement. Which suggests a previous owner enjoyed this guitar well enough to take the time, effort and expense of that modification. There may be others - I would expect they at least did a good set-up on it, but I wonder too if any of the other big plus points you've noticed were down to the same owner's investment? Be interesting to have a look under the guard to see if there are any signs of anything being changed there. They did use better hardware on other models. My Magna series Mac 60 has got the Duncan Designed pickups and Wilkinson hardware and is very nice indeed, but the STG range of this era was very much the beginner series, but excellent versions none the less, if a little bit vanilla and bland. They have done more recent upgrades to the STG series which are supposedly nicer and based on 57 and 62 era strat, but they are designated Pro II (and double the money too compared to the regular base model) but I haven't had the pleasure of trying these as yet. I am a big fan of Aria overall, I have probably had a dozen models from the japanese era through Korean manufacture up to modern Chinese ones and yet to have a real duffer. Most of my basses are Aria (a TSB 350 from 1980, a violin bass from 1969, 1990s Magna bass and P Bass STB from early 2000s - only one pesky Westone bass to muddy the water) and some of my favoured guitars (including my homebuilds) are either Aria or homebuilds using Aria parts (again, only a couple of Vintages and a Tanglewood acoustic to spoil the view on my guitar stands). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paolo85 Posted December 21, 2023 Author Share Posted December 21, 2023 (edited) Oh yes! How did I not spot the Wilkinson logo! @EdwardMarlowe I think you are right somebody loved this guitar. Before they sold to somebody who just dumped it in a filthy corner (it was in a terrible state when I bought it). Nut slots could have easily been cut to a good height by the owner who installed the new bridge. I suppose there may be a small chsnce that dmall frets and good fretwork overall have to do with a fret dressing. Unlikely though st this price point. I once had a cheap Squier P bass made in China from early 2000s and it had small frets. Maybe it was the fashion back then? I'll have a look under the pickguard at the first string change (not very soon I hope/guess as I have put some Thomastick flatwounds on! Edited December 21, 2023 by Paolo85 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdwardMarlowe Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 4 minutes ago, Paolo85 said: Oh yes! How did I not spot the Wilkinson logo! @EdwardMarlowe I think you are right somebody loved this guitar. Before they sold to somebody who just dumped it in a filthy corner (it was in a terrible state when I bought it). Nut slots could have easily been cut to a good height by the owner who installed the new bridge. I suppose there may be a small chsnce that dmall frets and good fretwork overall have to do with a fret dressing. Unlikely though st this price point. I once had a cheap Squier P bass made in China from early 2000s and it had small frets. Maybe it was the fashion back then? I'll have a look under the pickguard at the first string change (not very soon I hope/guess as I have put some Thomastick flatwounds on! Could be. If this one was intended to be a more 'vintage' spec, they might have installed narrow / tall frets like Fender did way back when. Medium-Jumbo and Jumbo frets seem to have started becoming much more of a norm on everything into the 90s? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randythoades Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 39 minutes ago, EdwardMarlowe said: Could be. If this one was intended to be a more 'vintage' spec, they might have installed narrow / tall frets like Fender did way back when. Medium-Jumbo and Jumbo frets seem to have started becoming much more of a norm on everything into the 90s? My vintage orientated Aria 615 TL (essentially a 69 thinline tele clone) has small skinny frets too (which I actually like) and a flatter radius (which i don't like so much) so you are probably right. The target market was possibly more vintage minded so makes sense. Although I don't really think that either of my old STG necks are that skinny, more medium so it may well have had a fret dress by the previous owner. But well done to @Paolo85 for trying to resurrect it, I hate to see guitars neglected. Treat her well and she should provide more years of use. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
