The aria 714 mk 2 looks rather nice for the money

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for the less ‘well off’  who want something that looks boutique (Suhr etc ) it seems well put together

https://ariaguitarsglobal.com/product/714-mk2/
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Comments

  • WonkyWonky Frets: 188
    There's a review of this guitar in Total Guitar magazine right now and it's pretty positive apart from the single coil pickups, which could easily be upgraded in the future should the need arise.  It looks like a cheaper/maybe better value Ibanez AZ to me, which itself is a sort of cheaper/maybe better value Suhr.
    My money is on it being a good guitar and maybe even a great guitar with a few upgrades in the future.
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  • Jetsam1Jetsam1 Frets: 600
    They retail for around £330 or so? Looks nice anyway. I have no issues with veneers if they are done well. A Wilkinson trem is a good start too. Haven`t seen an Aria for many, many years...

    Sounds allright to be fair. The criticism I have is what were they thinking with the jack socket???? Oh dear.

    I would probably be quite happy with one of these looks nice and solid in the important ways.
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  • Jetsam1 said:
    They retail for around £330 or so? Looks nice anyway. I have no issues with veneers if they are done well. A Wilkinson trem is a good start too. Haven`t seen an Aria for many, many years...

    Sounds allright to be fair. The criticism I have is what were they thinking with the jack socket???? Oh dear.

    I would probably be quite happy with one of these looks nice and solid in the important ways.
    The new Charvels have an upside down jack socket too, but it's on the rear lower edge. I think the idea is that it puts the cable in the right place to go straight through your guitar strap when you're playing standing up
    Too much gain... is just about enough \m/

    I'm probably the only member of this forum mentioned by name in Whiskey in the Jar ;)

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  • Jetsam1Jetsam1 Frets: 600
    Jetsam1 said:
    They retail for around £330 or so? Looks nice anyway. I have no issues with veneers if they are done well. A Wilkinson trem is a good start too. Haven`t seen an Aria for many, many years...

    Sounds allright to be fair. The criticism I have is what were they thinking with the jack socket???? Oh dear.

    I would probably be quite happy with one of these looks nice and solid in the important ways.
    The new Charvels have an upside down jack socket too, but it's on the rear lower edge. I think the idea is that it puts the cable in the right place to go straight through your guitar strap when you're playing standing up
    That would make sense. Where were guitars like this when I was starting in the mid 90s?

    I freely admit that I often find the budget models more interesting than the £2000 fancy ones.
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  • WonkyWonky Frets: 188
    I honestly think the jack socket is facing the right way.  It's evolution FFS
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  • ArjailerArjailer Frets: 103
    Jetsam1 said:
    They retail for around £330 or so? Looks nice anyway. I have no issues with veneers if they are done well. A Wilkinson trem is a good start too. Haven`t seen an Aria for many, many years...

    Sounds allright to be fair. The criticism I have is what were they thinking with the jack socket???? Oh dear.

    I would probably be quite happy with one of these looks nice and solid in the important ways.
    The new Charvels have an upside down jack socket too, but it's on the rear lower edge. I think the idea is that it puts the cable in the right place to go straight through your guitar strap when you're playing standing up
    That seems really sensible!

    It'll never catch on  :smiley: 
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  • Jetsam1Jetsam1 Frets: 600
    Arjailer said:
    Jetsam1 said:
    They retail for around £330 or so? Looks nice anyway. I have no issues with veneers if they are done well. A Wilkinson trem is a good start too. Haven`t seen an Aria for many, many years...

    Sounds allright to be fair. The criticism I have is what were they thinking with the jack socket???? Oh dear.

    I would probably be quite happy with one of these looks nice and solid in the important ways.
    The new Charvels have an upside down jack socket too, but it's on the rear lower edge. I think the idea is that it puts the cable in the right place to go straight through your guitar strap when you're playing standing up
    That seems really sensible!

    It'll never catch on  :smiley: 
    Yeah..... Progress............. Haaaarumphhh.
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  • Jetsam1Jetsam1 Frets: 600
    What is the take on modern Aria guitars then in general? I`ve seen Japanese made ones have the reputation way back when. Anyone played around with this mid range level of guitars from them?
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71953
    edited August 2019
    Yamaha Pacifica meets Suhr...

    I've always liked Arias, ever since my first ever electric guitar, a 1984 Matsumoku-made RS Standard. They had a terrible bad patch all through the 90s, but have now recovered something of their former quality, if not quite the originality of design.

    I'd like this one more if it didn't have a needlessly ugly headstock - it's a partial nod to the original RS/Cat series, but without the same grace and 'sleekness' - and if the bridge pickup wasn't mounted half on the body and half on the pickguard, which is just messy and will make maintenance difficult... a proper pickup mounting ring would be far better, or even just mount both sides to the body and leave a hole in the pickguard for access to adjust it on the treble side (which would be an easy mod). I quite like the angled jack, although it's no more or less practical than the normal position really.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • ICBM said:
    Yamaha Pacifica meets Suhr...

    I've always liked Arias, ever since my first ever electric guitar, a 1984 Matsumoku-made RS Standard. They had a terrible bad patch all through the 90s, but have now recovered something of their former quality, if not quite the originality of design.

    I'd like this one more if it didn't have a needlessly ugly headstock - it's a partial nod to the original RS/Cat series, but without the same grace and 'sleekness' - and if the bridge pickup wasn't mounted half on the body and half on the pickguard, which is just messy and will make maintenance difficult... a proper pickup mounting ring would be far better, or even just mount both sides to the body and leave a hole in the pickguard for access to adjust it on the treble side (which would be an easy mod). I quite like the angled jack, although it's no more or less practical than the normal position really.
    I had a matsumoku one around 2000 it was a 79 I think and was the same as one Andy summers could be rarely seen playing in the odd video round then when he wasn’t using his custom tele. I think one of the boomtown rats had one too. It sounded great and weighed a ton
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  • lysanderlysander Frets: 574
    edited January 2020
    I found a new one for £240 and decided to "take one for the team" and ordered it.

    First impression: The one I got which was supposed to be blue is actually a turquoise that heavily leans green. Quite different from the pictures. The neck roast is also darker but it looks great.
    Overall very nicely finished, binding not perfect but still very good, the veneer is nice, if not perfectly book matched.
    It's made in china.

    Now the good:
    - It sounds excellent acoustically : very loud ( possibly due to the swimming pool route acting as a resonator ), bright , defined.
    - The neck is superb. Nicely built, nice wood, good colour, good shape, frets well dressed and smoothed ( though they could do with a bit more polishing, will be easy to sort out ). I could have done with higher profile frets, but they're fine.
    That's clearly where most of the money went
    - It looks good, for the most part ( see below )

    The bad:
    - The pickups are really dreadful. The review say they are bright, they're not just bright, they have a huge nasty upper mid boost, really unpleasant. For the bin.
    - The setup was very iffy. Neck was out of alignement ( easy fix ), action too high
    - The humbucker wasn't parallel with the trem ... Now this is bothering. It didn't seem to affect playability though.
    Now I've taken everything off and started measuring, I'm not sure why - everything seems fairly square and parallel, trem post screws seem in the right place to within a 0.1mm... I'm hopeful it's just the scratch plate, due to the odd mounting of the hum bucker ( half direct mount half pick guard )

    The ugly :
    Contrary to claims, I can't see any maple cap under the veneer. I don't care all that much, it sounds good, and the weight is good, but false advertising is no good.

    Overall it's a keeper despite the flaws.
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  • lysanderlysander Frets: 574
    edited January 2020
    Oh and the nut looks like graphtec and seems well cut.
    Width measures a hair or two under 43mm, which is what I was hoping for ( it's not in the official specs )
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71953
    lysander said:

    - The humbucker wasn't parallel with the trem ... Now this is bothering. It didn't seem to affect playability though.
    Now I've taken everything off and started measuring, I'm not sure why - everything seems fairly square and parallel, trem post screws seem in the right place to within a 0.1mm... I'm hopeful it's just the scratch plate, due to the odd mounting of the hum bucker ( half direct mount half pick guard )
    Definitely worth fixing that, either the easy way - mount both sides of the pickup to the body and enlarge the screw hole in the pickguard so you can get a screwdriver through - or the hard way by fitting a pickup mounting ring, which would mean cutting the pickguard to go around it but would probably look better.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • lysanderlysander Frets: 574
    Thanks, yeah I agree, will have a think about. It's hard to cut pickguards cleanly with hand tools and I doubt I can find a replacement if I mess it up. Might try the enlarged hole first and go the other way if it looks too naff.
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  • lysanderlysander Frets: 574
    edited January 2020
    @ICBM not the prettiest thing in the world but I think it will do.



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