Aria PEB65

[Rayman]

I’m a bit of an Aria fan, especially the MIJ & MIK stuff…. love my Integra 5.

 

So I just picked this (tired and dirty) Korean PEB65…. just before starting the work on it, I’ve discovered it’s what appears to be Medium scale… 32.5 nut to saddles? Odd measurement?

 

Anyway, beautiful arched top, flame maple I think, trans blue with binding. Nicely carved and ergonomic, and a nice weight. Active too…. Which I wasn’t expecting.

 

Watch this space 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Rayman

[bartelby]

Beautiful.

 

[Pea Turgh]

Ooh, nice!  I like the neck/body transition.

[Cato]

Personally I find that a lot nicer looking than the Gibson version of a Les Paul bass.

[Rayman]

Yeah, I had a Les Paul a few years back, I definitely prefer the ergonomics of this.

[velvetkevorkian]

Very nice! Arch top + gut cut fixes my complaints about the standard LP shape.

 

5 hours ago, Rayman said:

32.5 nut to saddles? Odd measurement?

 

Possibly, or it might just be how it's intonated -- the nominal scale length would be the distance from the nut to the 12th fret x2.

 

[Rayman]

Yeah the saddles seem pretty well set to me…. to get the scale down to 32 they would have to be all the way forward.

 

I’ll measure to the 12th, cheers for that.

[Rayman]

Still comes out at 32.5

 

Thats a new scale to me, so I’ve ordered medium scale strings.

[Rayman]

Ok, so all cleaned up, fretboard oiled and a new set of medium gauge strings.

 

Very nice indeed. Very comfortable to play, nice action (you could drive a car under it before, it’s no wonder people dislike guitars and sell them, because they can’t set them up!). OOF!! Crazy output, I wasn’t expecting that, almost Stingray levels of top end. 
 

No idea what the controls are, I’ve found Volume and tone I think, I guess another is pickup blend? No idea what the fourth one does, Treb/Bass cut/boost? 
 

Anyway it’s a fabulous thing, very pretty and very punchy…. so there’s some more investigation to do.

[Rayman]

For those interested… 

 

Final tweeks done, just some paint/finish swirls to try and minimise. Crackly Jack socket seems to be cured by rotating a rolled piece of fine sandpaper around inside to abrade the contacts and a squirt of switch cleaner.

 

Really lovely bass, very modern tone, powerful output, very bright and zingy but still has a lot of bottom boost….. kind of Stingray like, and unexpectedly so. 
 

Totally unlike any of my others basses, so the perfect addition to the family.

 

Over and out.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Rayman