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NBD - Aria Pro II 313 Detroit

#41
SirMjac28 said:
That bass is sweet and little touches like the nice string tree really impress me. I love the grain and that finish is awesome. I didn't know these basses existed until this thread so thank you for posting it is definitely on my radar now.
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No problem, I wanted to do a NBD precisely to put these on people's radar. :thumbsup:

It's a great bass for not much $$$. The hardware is pretty decent too - I dig the Wilkson bridge with brass saddles, goes well in keeping with the vintage looks. The tuners are pretty good - they hold tune, although in mine, the G tuner can be a little stiff in turning occasionally. But on the whole, I'm completely digging it! :bassist:
 
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#42
stingray69 said:
Just wanted to do a quick NBD on a new instrument - an Aria Pro II 313 Detroit. Aria is a bass name that I used to know, but honestly, I thought they had gone out of business around the 2000's. Apparently not. I just never hear of them anymore, or see them anywhere, at all. The Aria name had all but fallen out of my memory of bass names. But, I stumbled across them recently and this one caught my attention. It's apparently part of their relatively new Hot Rod Series release a couple of years ago. Why 313? Because apparently 313 is the Detroit area code. Anyway, I think the idea of this design is to be a kind of mix of both vintage looks & modern features, and it definitely is that!

The features are both impressive and unique. I'm a huge P/J fan, but I've never seen so many features packed all into one P/J style instrument. Things like 24-frets, Roasted neck, Ash body w/open-pore Sunburst stain finish, spoke wheel truss adjustment.

The finish is just beautiful - the open-pore Sunburst stain leaves the body very resonant and lively. Every little ridge and valley of the Ash grain can be felt - feels very earthy/woody. The stock pickups sound really good!
I usually find most stock pickups kind of bland & I tend to want to change 'em out pretty quickly after getting a new instrument, but these are impressing me with their growl & clarity. I think I'm going to leave them stock for a while, if not permanently.

Another unique feature that I've never seen before is the extra distance between the pickups - Aria placed the P pickup about an inch further towards the neck than anything else I've seen in a typical P/J setup. Not sure what kind of changes in frequency cancellation this equates to, but there is much midrange clarity and it gets some great growl when you dig in. I was thinking it might things a little darker & hopefully not muddy. But whatever voicing the pickups have is working in this case. This bass also loves gain & overdrive! :bassist:

If there is one downside, it's that Aria chose not to shield the control cavity at all - just bare wood and pots in there, no shielding paint either. So there is a little single coil hum when the J is soloed. Nothing a little copper foil won't fix.

Besides the need for a little shielding, I'm digging the way it plays & sounds. I'm loving the whole vintage look, but yet it has modern features under hood so to speak. Another thing I love about it is that the body is slightly downsized, smaller than a jazz bass for sure. This keeps the weight down nicely. This particular 5-string weighs just a pinch over 9lbs. It weighs in at 9lbs, 6oz. The price is surprisingly good as well - $519 brand new at most places on the net.

Given the features and the build quality, if someone had told me this was a $1500 -$2,000 instrument, I would not bat an eye. They also make these in Natural Finish and a Transparent White. I was told by an Aria dealer that the Natural Finish will not be in store for 8-10 months due to supply issues. But judging by how much I'm digging this bass, I can easily see a Natural Finish in my future. Highly recommended to check these out if your in the market for a P/J with these types of features. :thumbsup::bassist:

A few pics...

Aria-Pro-II-313-Detroit-5.jpg


IMG-20220513-175455162-2.jpg
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Beautiful bass. I never knew that Aria was still in business.
 
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#55
Winton said:
Funny thing that. Aria actually have an older model that’s a J-bass that came out before the Harley Benton. Apparently, either my with the same parts or same Indonesian makers.
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Yeah, I had my eye on one before seeing the Harley Benton. I know the Aria has it stamped on the back Made In China. I'm curious if the Harley Benton is the same. They're the exact same body with different necks.
 
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#56
It's easy to imagine a factory making the exact same model to different price points - tolerances, QC and raw materials can have meaningfully different prices. The HB is clearly going to be sold with a closer factory gate to retail price ratio, but that may or may not be the end of the story.

Someone needs to buy ten of each and pull them all apart.... :smug:
 
#58
Bought one of these this week (313 Detroit 5-string in sunburst finish), and sadly it's going back to the store today. I realise it's a cheap instrument, but it had some flaws I couldn't live with. Seeing as how happy OP was with his bass, I'm assuming that (like with many other cheap instruments) QC varies a lot between each individual bass.

1: After some basic setup, I found that the truss rod had to be absolutely maxed out to get the neck reasonably playable

2: The fret ends were definitely less than ideal, and felt pretty sharp when sliding down the neck

3: The B string was *significantly* louder than every other string, even after checking string and pickup heights. The P pickup was the worst offender, but it was a big problem on the J pickup as well. Tried messing with the EQ on my rig, and even going direct into my interface, to see if it was an EQ problem, but no. Even going direct the B string was overloading my input when the other strings were safely in the green.

So sadly, it's going straight back to the store. It's a shame, because I really liked the look of it, and the weight was extremely comfortable. I didn't weigh it, but it was probably the lightest 5-string I've ever tried, not counting the Ibanez EHB range (which are headless and semi-hollow).

The quest for a modestly priced P or P/J for continues.
 
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