NGD Aria DM-1

[HNB]

I saw this for pretty cheap online and figured it would be fun to try out. Shonen Knife use Aria guitars and such and I know they have been around for awhile. Thought it would be fun to have a Hi Flier style guitar that was new.

First impressions: The fretwork is nice. No sharp ends. The strings are centered on the neck great. The neck has a flat D shape like some of my other Japanese/Asian Guitars. I like them a lot. Rosewood is pretty. The neck is scarfed and voluted so it should be really strong. Knobs turn nicely. The Jazzy style tremolo even has the lock. Tuners are kinda generic import and work fine. I could upgrade them easily to Gotoh, but I think they are fine. The stock action is great. It was even intonated out of the box. Almost in tune also. I think it has 9's. When I swap pickups, I will go to 11's. Only bummer is the bridge pickup is DOA. Not sure why and I don't really care since I am going to change the pickups anyways, but it was a bummer. Maybe a ground came lose or something. I will know more when I open it up maybe tomorrow. Neck pickup sounded fine. Middle sounded like just the neck also since the bridge isn't working. Overall I am pretty impressed with the guitar. I am excited to hear it with the new pickups. Super Distortion in the bridge and a Tone Zone in the neck. Stock pictures!

IMG_20200324_181944 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_181953 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_181856 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_181904 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_181926 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_181922 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_181915 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[HNB]

I went to work taking it apart. Little tremolo detail that is cool. They branded it.

IMG_20200324_194327 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Toggle looked ok and wiring looked ok. Grounds are connected and hots are in the right place.

IMG_20200324_195333 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Mini pots. Pretty normal stuff.

IMG_20200324_195338 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

The P90 Pickups were attached towards the middle and lifted using springs on the mounting screws.

IMG_20200324_195623 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_195617 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

While taking the pots off and stuff to get the pickguard plastic off, I found out they were 500K so I can use them for my humbucker pickups. Score!

IMG_20200324_200609 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I got the DiMarzio P90 size humbuckers in place and put foam under them to lift them like a Jazzy. I feel like that makes them less wiggly and more solid then floating on two springs.

IMG_20200324_201118 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20200324_201740 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

All screwed down. (Man black shows fingerprints like crazy.... LOL)

IMG_20200324_204112 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I tested the electronics and..... the bridge pickup wasn't working. Figured out the toggle sucks. I tried bending the pieces to help it make contact but figure just getting a new one would be better in the long run vs screwing around with the stock toggle.

Gonna hold off on putting it all back together until the strap locks and toggle comes in. Should be a sweet guitar!

[LVC]

Nice score! Modern Arias don't have much in common with vintage models but they are solid guitars, on par with ― and sometimes superior to ― the nicer Squiers in my experience.

I remember looking for one of these about 10 years ago. They had just been discontinued and were becoming difficult to find. My interest dwindled as I found out about guitars with specs closer to original Mosrites such as Hallmarks, but I've still got a sweet spot for them. They also had a model with a Strat trem IIRC.

[HNB]

Got it all put together. I am pretty happy with it aside from having the Tone Zone in the neck makes the neck way louder than the bridge because they are both high output. Looks killer.

IMG_20200401_181344 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I did a video demo of the sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEbDtLI ... e=youtu.be