Friday, April 22, 2011

Aria: XL Standard

Yesterday's catch: Aria XL Standard.

Simple headstock design, very much in the Kramer vein. The Fretboard markers are blatant Jackson duplicates, no hiding that.

The neck profile for both the XL Standard & Deluxe is that slim, shred-worthy spec. In fact, it's slimmer than Ibanez's pre-2011 Wizard II make.

The neck heel is a little beveled to give excess to the upper frets but in use, it didn't help much. Nevertheless, upper fret reaches are not very restrictive.

What's this? A sumptuous neck binding for $195? Upon closer inspection, it's faux binding.

But for $195, the manufacturer had included a coil split switch- now this is value-for-money. Thumbs up!

I'm definitely happy with the bridge saddles; despite being the vintage/ traditional type, the action adjustment screws do not protrude to jab the picking hand palm while in play.

The Aria guitars are currently the value-for-money instruments we should consider if we are shopping on a strict budget. Many of us are battling past, repulsive Aria QC episodes in the midst of short-listing the current generation of Aria makes. These are definitely beyond your past nightmares, in fact, the manufacturer wouldn't be foolish to let QC issues dampen the business especially when the technology to create good, affordable guitars are now available.

9 comments:

Ijau D. Koceng said...

cool...

subversion.sg said...

it's a simple guitar that works :-) very happy with it.

Anonymous said...

hey sub have you heard yet? loomis and williams have quit nevermore!

Anonymous said...

awesome lookin, but i still prefer that nasty ash body ibanez.that you had recently.its more beefy lleh.

naz said...

the pic reminds me of your cort. Gotta love d split coil switch. Maybe you can do soundclip for d aria.

Bro, quick question, have you heard of a brand Aria Pro? R they the same company?

subversion.sg said...

same bro- that was the past reference :-)

reuel said...

hmmm i still will look elsewhere for my next axe...btw sub. u heard of rasmus by suhr? any idea whats the price like to get one here??

Abner said...

is the faux binding acceptable?.. im looking for a project guitar to experiment with..

subversion.sg said...

one of the best :-) at this price bracket...