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Double Bass Aria Custom Shop and other MIJ - EUBs

Hello,

That's my first real post on that forum :D (I don't count the presentation post).

So, a friend of mine is in Japan. And he got sick, of gear acquisition syndroma. ****ty disease, which obviously can be transmitted through the Internet !!!:confused: Because I got infected too...:help:

He is a guitar player, and watching some guitars, he saw some EUBs, and knowing I'm thinking about EUBs and D.Basses for some time... So he sent me some mails... and you probably can guess the following...

So, some stuff I can find there seem a lot cheaper than in Europe. And I'm thinking mostly about MIJ EUBs.

Aria Custom Shop... I couldn't find a lot of info, I saw here that the fingerboards are in Maple, but that Aria EUBs seem good still. What do you think?

Or is there any other MIJ EUBs that I should prospect too? For ex the Yamaha SLB/SVB 200, but it's a little bit too expensive, I can go for about $ 1700-1800, not more. Even that, is already a lot.

Or other brands? For ex Atelierz ? In brief, what do you think?
 
There are quite a few Japanese EUB makers:

Aria and Yamaha, you´re aware of. The Atelier Z is actually made in Korea (I think), it´s also sold under the names Landscape, MD-Quest and Universal.

*Atelier Z website http://www.atelierz.co.jp
*Quest MD aka Landscape website http://www.quest-md.com
*Chaki in Kyoto makes acoustic DBs and EUBs but has no website (far as I know)
*Matsunaga is another DB and EUB maker that has no website
*Oriente website Link Removed
*R & Bell website Link Removed
*Seén website (Matsu****a Kobo) www.matsu****a-kobo.com
*Stud-B website www.stk-co.com

There was also a maker named Hashimoto, but I think he´s stopped taking orders. Link Removed

There could be more, but I think this is pretty much it. There are probably individual luthiers in Japan building EUBs on and off, though.

Mikael