Custom & Unknown Arias: Part 6

Here is an interesting Aria bass called the Zodiac. It's not quite my style, but it would sure be a conversation piece! It is a custom shop model as you can see by the "AP" logo as well as on the fretboard inlay. You can also notice the unusual output jack location, it's on the back of the body. Other interesting features include the chrome pickguard and single control knob located next to the bridge.

Custom & Unknown Arias: Part 5

I found photos of a rare Aria Pro bass that I believe is part of the RSB-Fire lineup. The RSB-Fire was basically a signature model for a Japanese artist and I never saw any mention of it in markets outside of Japan. This particular RSB is a 5 stringer, with a green finish, a 6 bolt, multi-laminate neck, black hardware, and what looks like an ebony fretboard.

Here is the RSB-Fire 4 string model, in 'black mist' finish.

Aria DMB-380 / The Ventures

Dale Titus demos another Aria bass, this time a DMB-380. Dale demonstrates the various tones and features of this model.
You can also see a DMB-380 being played by Greg Hanna of the Dickies on the Warped Tour in 2010.

The Ventures clearly inspired this design as you can see in this great live video from Japan. It's the Ventures 45th Anniversary show. Bob Bogle is playing his signature Aria. Bob and The Ventures had several signature instruments made by Aria over the years. The 50th Anniversary Ventures bass was limited to 10 instruments.

Aria Pro II SB-CB Demonstration

Here is a nice demonstration of the Aria SB-CB by Dale Titus of Dana B. Goods (US distributors for Aria). For those who don't know, the SB-CB is the Cliff Burton inspired model offered by Aria. It differs from the SB-1000CB models in that it was made in Korea so it's less expensive. Also available is the SB-RI which comes in natural finish. The RI and CB are identical except for the finishes. Remember, the SB-1000RI/CB label means it was made in Japan and costs more. The SB-RI/CB label means made in Korea and is available at a lower cost. Be careful that you don't pay over the retail price on the Korean models! I have seen some sellers selling SB-RIs with SB-1000RI prices. Enjoy the demo:

Aria Anniversary SB Bass

I posted about an Aria 50th anniversary bass last year, but I finally found pictures of another anniversary bass. This might also be a 5oth anniversary, but it is an SB-1000RI with some graphic designs. Notice the logo is "The Aria Pro II" like the original SB-1000s, but the headstock shape is like the later incarnations. I wonder if this is a real bass or just a Photoshop mockup for the Japanese Aria site? If it's real, I guess the bass probably resides with Mr. Shiro Arai, the founder of Aria Guitars.

Custom & Unknown Arias: Part 4

Here is a rare headless SB with MIDI capabilities that I found online. As you can see, it is an "AP Custom Shop" bass. I have no idea when this bass was made, but probably in the early to mid '90s since that seemed to be the heyday of Aria's Custom Shop. If anyone out there has one, let me know.

Neil Murray and Aria Pro II

Neil with SB-1000 and SB-900 in 1981

Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Cozy Powell, Gary Moore, Sting, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Michael Schenker. These are just a few of the legends Neil Murray has played bass with during his long and distinguished career. (See my video links for proof!) Without question, Neil is one of the best hard rock bassists around and still going strong. He is currently playing with the We Will Rock You tribute show to Queen.

Neil was gracious enough to take the time send me loads of photos and recollections of his time using Aria Pro II basses. Neil has simply an amazing amount of information about his career. Unlike many rockers who seem to have forgotten everything, Neil actually seems to remember most of it - good news for gear heads like us!

Case in point: Neil shared a story involving fellow bassist Jack Bruce and the late drumming legend Cozy Powell. Neil says he was replaced by Jack for Cozy's solo album Over The Top because Neil's experimental Fender Strat bass wasn't getting a good sound in the studio. Meanwhile Jack Bruce comes in with his SB-1000, one of the first in the UK according to Neil, and lays down the track with a much better bass tone. Here is the title track from Over The Top featuring Jack Bruce on bass.

While with Whitesnake, Neil was able to buy his own walnut SB-900 and oak SB-1000 soon after, and would go on to use Aria for several years. It seems he preferred the SB-900 and had it converted to stereo output inspired by an Alembic he used previously. Neil says he played the SB-900 with Whitesnake on the album Ready An' Willing. Check out Neil's great bass line here.

For the next year and a half or so, Neil played the SB-900 on tour with Whitesnake including the Come An' Get It album. Listen to Neil on "Wine, Women an' Song" and the title track.

Working with Whitesnake is impressive enough, but Neil also worked with Gary Moore who, tragically, just recently passed away.

Neil says he had several custom basses made for him by Aria. These included a red SB which was very similar to an SB-900 but with the pickups much closer together. He mainly used the fretted bass but also had a fretless version as well. You can see some pictures of it below as well as in my video links page. Here is a good video of Neil playing with Gary Moore where you can get a nice view of this bass.

Later, Neil was also played with metal legends Black Sabbath. Neil continued to use custom Aria Pro II basses during this time. One of these basses was a red Integra with customized pickups. This bass can be seen on "When Death Calls". You can also see Neil playing the red Integra with a legendary lineup including Brian May, Steve Vai, and Cozy Powell!

Continuing with Black Sabbath, Neil used a signature Aria model with Bartolini pickups. This bass had a really nice 'flame' maple top. A lucky Sabbath fan purchased this bass from Neil a few years back. It can be seen while being played on "When Death Calls".

Adverts for Neil's signature "ARB-CST" bass can be found here.

Update: here is a cool interview I found of Neil Murray along with fellow bassist Phil Lynott! Don't worry Neil, you'll never be 'too old to rock 'n' roll'!

Update 2: Just found another good video of Neil with Whitesnake, this time with one of his custom Aria SBs. The video is from Top of the Tops in '84 (watch in HD!).

Thanks again to Neil Murray for all of the great photos and information!

You can find Neil on Myspace and Facebook.

Billy Gould with Faith. No Man.

I came across some amazing old footage of the pre-Faith No More band, Faith. No Man which had two future FNM members Billy Gould and Mike Bordin. As the story goes, the singer, Mike "the Man" Morris (seen above, giving the evil eye to Bill) was ousted for being a tyrant and thus the band became Faith No More. I remember an interview where Billy said something about 'The Man' walking around in a trench coat 'pretending he was in England or something.' I believe I do detect a hint of a fake English accent in some of Morris' song intros (listen to the beginning of "Decay" for example)!

This show is a really great find. To top it off, Billy is playing a gorgeous Aria Pro II SB-700 in oak finish. It's already a well known fact that he used Integra basses in the 80s and early 90s, but I had no idea he had also used an SB. It also looks like he is using a pick for most of, if not all, of this particular show. Billy had already established his trademark droning bass lines by this time.

The video is from 1983 in San Francisco. Thanks to whomever filmed this back in the day and the uploader! Great stuff! It's kind of like Duran Duran (Billy's hair and SB-700) meets Killing Joke!

Here are two songs which Faith No Man had also released on vinyl, "Song of Liberty" and "Quiet in Heaven". They also play a few others...check them out! Here is "Life is Tough For Me" which starts out with one of Bill's hypnotic bass riffs.

IGB-600 Electronics Repair

Recently, I found an Aria Pro II IGB-600 in Japan that needed a bit of TLC (don't they all?). I took a chance on it and had it shipped over to me in Korea...

Warning: This post may seem a little lengthy and feel like it's never going to end, kind of like what I went through in Seoul trying to get it fixed!

Some background on the bass: The serial # is 913000, probably making this a 1991 model. The 600's feature active P/J pickups, soft maple body with a 'carved top', maple neck with rosewood fingerboard (24 frets) and black Gotoh hardware. The symmetrical 2x2 headstock is reminiscent of the SB series in its design, while both previous and later Integras had a more slanted headstock design. This particular model of Integra seems to have survived for about 3-4 years (1991-1994). They were marketed as the IGB-DLX (Deluxe) in the US. It's a notable model since it was used by Billy Gould for the recording of the landmark Faith No More album Angel Dust, and part of the subsequent world tour, which I have already documented on the blog...

Back to the repairs. When I got it, it was clear it was going to be beyond my meager capabilities in electronic repair (which are, admittedly, almost nil!). However, I was able to solder a couple of loose wires back and at least determine that the circuit and pickups were still alive, which was a big relief. Notice the mysterious brown slime on the circuit board which fellow Aria fan Trevor suggests may be from a leaking battery. Luckily it didn't destroy the circuit. Also, I was able to test the pickup balance and and treble controls using pliers to adjust them. The pots were functional but obviously needed to be replaced.

The next problem was finding someone who would be able to fix it for me. Since my #1 option, Lance, was away on a trip, I ventured to the guitar wonderland in Seoul known as Nakwon, which is a large building full of music shops. It is a fun, yet ultimately frustrating place to visit. Fun in that you can look at thousands of different instruments in dozens of shops, frustrating in that the good ones (and even not so good) are quite high-priced. Frustrating in that you can pretty much count on the shop keepers to try and pull one over on you. There are exceptions, of course, but the exceptions seem to be outnumbered. Frustrating in the dearth of quality repair shops (G-Cat, one of the best, has left Nakwon for another part of Seoul). Also frustrating is that is basically devoid of any Arias! I don't mean to say it's a bad place, just be sure not to get suckered into paying too much for something. If you are ever in Seoul by all means visit! Just do you your homework, ask around different shops for prices and haggle a bit. For example, the cheapo bass strings were about 10,000won (currently $8.75US) at one shop, and 8,000won ($7) at another. Same thing with the cheap gig bags. Don't pay more than 15,000 won. But I digress...

Now, really, back to the repairs! I needed to have two pots, the balance and treble controls, de-soldered from the circuit board and then replaced with the same value pots. I thought it would be a pretty straight-forward job for most repairmen.

However, I tried three guitar repair shops at Nakwon and struck out. The first two shops didn't even attempt to fix it. They said they didn't have the parts or just couldn't do it. The third guy, however, took about 20 minutes to look around the electronics, mutter to himself, and do some tests. He said he couldn't fix it but he could replace it with some cheap circuitry for $50. But at least he tried, which the other shops wouldn't even do. As he was clearly not the man for the job I said 'no thanks' and bought a few knobs and cheap strings as a courtesy and went on my way. There was a fourth repair shop but I took one look at the owner and kept on walking...

Finally, I went to my last resort, Steve Kim of MD Guitars in Hongdae, Seoul. I went to him last not because he's not good (he's actually great), but because I was hoping to be able to get it repaired in the same place as my other shopping (Nakwon). I knew Steve would be able to do a great job and he actually did it right on the spot so I wouldn't have to make the long trip again to pick up the bass at a later date. As seen in the photos, Steve was able to clean off the mysterious brown slime, install a new battery clip and replaced the broken pots to get the electronics up and running again. At first I thought he had switched to a new circuit board because of how clean it looked!

Luckily, Steve also had some knobs for sale that just happen to be the same as the stock ones of the IGB so I had those put on as well. Finally, I put a shim under the neck and put on some 45-100 gauge nickel strings. The neck isn't perfectly straight so the shim was a necessary to get lower action. Now the bass plays and sounds great! Thanks to MD Guitars and Trevor for help on another successful restoration of a formerly sad-sack Aria bass! More photos of this IGB-600 can be found here.

RSB-900 Electronics Restoration

Similar to Shawn's SB-1000, I found a bass also in need of some new electronics and a pickup. The bass in question is a 1980 RSB-900, which is basically an SB-1000 with a different headstock and oval inlays. This bass has clearly been played and played hard. Check out the battle scars in the photo link. The pickup and electronics were both dead so I ordered new ones from Aria USA. After my friend Lance wired everything up, it sounds good as new! The new electronics are built a little differently, but they do sound pretty much the same as the originals. If you have an SB (or RSB) that has fried electronics or pickups, I highly recommend the Aria replacements to get back to the original tone. One last note, since these old RSB-900s didn't have an LED for the BB Circuit, I had Lance drill a hole to accommodate the LED that comes with the Re-Issued version. For more pictures of the bass than anyone really needs, go here!

Aria Pro II SB-1000 Wiring Schematics and Info

Naturally, I think Aria Pro II SB-1000s are some of the best basses around, classics even. However, they are somewhat notorious for suffering from pickup and/or BB circuit problems. As the vintage models are now 25-30 years old, this is somewhat to be expected. I've read about problems on several different bass guitar forums and people always wanted a schematic from which to try and solve the problem with. Nobody could ever seem to be able to find one, though. Hopefully this will no longer be the case as Aria USA was kind enough to send me the original SB-1000 BB Circuit diagram and marketing info. I also have the SB-1000 Re-Issue schematic (thanks Shawn!) for those of you who may have problems or questions about the newer models.

"Orion" Bass Cover

Not only does fellow Aria aficionado Seo do a fine job of modifying basses to look like Cliff Burton's Black 'n' Gold (pictured above), but he also does a superb job of covering Cliff's epic swan song, "Orion". He made the recording using his SB-1000CB which was converted to look and sound more like an SB-Black 'n' Gold I. Seo used Metallica's original guitar and drum tracks to go along with his bass work. Great job!