To bump this up again.
Does anybody own or has some first hand experience with Aria TAB-66?
I have tryed on in a store yesterday, mainly 'cus it was on display, not expecting much. As far as first impression goes after 10 minutes of fiddlin with it:
Sound is very nice, at least for my particular (and somewhat uncommon) taste. My bass taste is Joy Division meets Violent Femmes on The Who gig (I'm strictly on plectrum side of the fence). This Aria has nice open, punchy (love those dancin' 'bout architecture adjectives) mids, and as whole bass has this great ringy, resonant, complex sound (unlike rigid precision of my Jazz). It has quite enough fundamental right down to open E. Neck seem jazzish in profile, very playable.
Finish and workmanship seem nice, in league of Japanese Fenders.
What bugged me (and what I have questions about):
tuners seemed fiddly and flimsy (compared to experience with my Hghwy One Jazz). Did anybody had problems with these? Also, here and there, while playing I had this vague feeling of "cheep bass", regarding the fact that some fret positions felt a bit off in pitch and tone, 'thou this my come from the fact that bass was sitting in store for 2-3 years with same strings without proper setup. Does anyone have some practical experience regarding setup, "setability" and related technical issues?
Finaly, bridge pickup sounded a bit weak and waaay un-even response string to string, neck pickup sounded great (clear and punchy, even thou its 'bucker in muddy-right-after-neck position) however, string to string balance was not so good (E was moving tables and chairs, D just papercups). Since judgement can be biased 'cus strings are old (and probably crappy in the first place), I guess imput from regular user of TAB would be wellcome. BTW, both pickups on sounded very good (for somebody who wholehartedly hates both-on position on Jazz), and with much better string to string ballance, which seems wierd??
Quote:
Originally Posted by ishouldbeking  One of the band's opening up for my band on Monday had one of these... and it was pretty rad in person! He ran it through a sansamp for a ton of treble grind, beat the hell out of it with a pick, and that thing was just snarling... really cool. Anyone here got one? I'm curious about the playability and general quality of construction. It looks like this, only the one I saw was all black. |
Ok, you can at least shed some lite on one important issue that can't be experienced by testing in shop - how does this Aria sound in band context, on stage? How does it compete with guitars and drums (my band is sort of postpunk garage thing, so often my bass lines has to compete with fierce drums and guitar)? And finaly, since your main axe is my The Holly Tone Grail, how did Aria sounded compared to your Ric (if both of you played on same amp/PA)?
cheerz & and thnx in advance for answers
urosh
