Most Japanese basses bodies were made of basswood at the time, and some of them use basswood today, although there's a lot of shift to less known but even cheaper woods. Basswood can have decent sound, and it's light.
That is a great sounding Bass! My first Bass was a cheap copy of a Fender Jazz, made by Memphis. The action was SO high, but I had no idea it was. I just played it that way, because I thought that was the way it was. And then I bought an Aria Pro II, sometime in 1986. Oh!!!! Basses are not like the Memphis. Oh!!! I can actually play this thing! (And I'm grateful I started out on the Memphis. No matter how high the action was. I was learning Chris Squire, Glenn Hughes, Larry Graham, Steve Harris and Stanley Clarke on that thing. Little did I know when I got the Aria Pro II, what I learned playing the Memphis, made me absolutely fly on the Aria.) So maybe I'm just a fan of the Aria Pro II series. Maybe it's nostalgic. But I love the sound of this Bass in your video.
Okay, I absolutely love everything about this bass. I am awestruck by just how weird this is and on just so many levels...it's really really awesomely weird.
If any bass needed a G&L-style two-tone system, it's this one. Not to mention you could probably series/parallel that big neck mess if you're brave enough :)
Some of those later vintage Arias are super high output passive basses, I have an early Korean Integra made just after they moved production out of Japan and were using up their parts stock (it still has the MIJ bridge from the RSB series) and it's the loudest bass I own. Can't get any tone out of it other than in incredibly beefy rock tone so it's a one trick pony but it just does that one sound so well.
I found a weird Tokai on EBay. It’s a neck-through cherry burst with three jazz pickups set up *exactly* like a Stratocaster. The bridge pickup is at an angle. Master volume, TWO tone knobs, (one for the neck pickup and one for the center pickup - no tone for the bridge) and a 5-way switch. Thinking about doing a push/pull to have all three pickups wailing at once… 🤪
Great video again Lobster.. I had an Aria Pro II fretless (neck through) that I bought new in 1982. It was a beautiful looking bass but the electronics were a problem and I sold it 20 years ago but still miss it 🤷♂️
Great to see you review these old basses Mr L. Perhaps a few more Arias could be shown, as I don't know much about them, and they generally become overlooked with so much choice these days.
@@ajkandy Aria recently reissued the SB 1000 and I never said "shut up and take my money" faster in my life. That bass is about as close as you can get to say an Alembic or Wal while still being mass produced.
I had a friend who owned one of those but defretted, and he always told me that with flatwounds and the tone to 25% you could get as close to the tone of an upright as humanly possible with magnetic pickup bass. Also the douple P pickup has this sorta Music Man-y thing to it, like a MM pickup when soloed at the neck.
Pretty cool review, lobster. Aria made some pretty good basses. Cliff burton famously played one. And this one sounds pretty good. For a bass with some funky pickup configurations, it does have a great sound. It sounded pretty cool with a pick. It’s little bright but it does have radical tone. Personally I would be playing aria basses. The models I would go with is their explorer styled bass and their integra(igb) model bass that has a jazz/mm-styled pickup. I thought that was such a cool sounding bass. Other than that, aria makes great basses that are underrated pretty much like Yamaha.
I recently had a similar Fernandes; it was a great bass and the build quality was remarkable. Looked brand new. Inevitable these will start climbing up in value (well, maybe). Very playable!
Yo Lobbs! I asked you if you wanted to make a video on vintage basses from japan and here we are, thank you!!. I would like to add that I am now 10 minutes away from picking up an aria cardinal 380 bass... what the hell!??? XD
The Pro II line was released in the mid seventies. They made a beautiful Gibson Les Paul Custom copy, with gorgeous inlays. Aria also had a copy of the JB with maple neck that sounded terrific.
A note on the color,. that green hue you're seeing is probably the yellowing of the clear over the color coat. Also, lots of japanese manufacturers were using pickups like these, kinda dimarzio/schaller copies. My favorite parts P has a Squier II neck, a mim body, and a pickup like these from an Ibanez Roadstar p. Thanks for the great video as always!
Hey Lobster. That is a very unique bass. Easy mod to change over the controls to have a fader. Also, It is very very loud. And you liked it. You know want to "Rock It". ✌️😛✌️. Thanks for the fun wake up video. I appreciate it as always. Until we groove again. ✌️😎👍🦞🎸
FYI the Esp model is the original version and it's a signature bass of Masayoshi Yamashita from Loudness. I'm familiar with them as i own 6 differnet versions of the ESP PPJ 😄 Good job on the review
@@Yoochuu I have a 1980s custom built (by ESP) Random star bass version I'll part with soon, it'll likely be up on reverb within the next week. Are you looking for one?
@@shipwreckedonapopulatedisland Thanks for your answer. I'm mostly after a Yamashita esp ppj160 bass but I'll check on reverb for your bass. Never seen a bass version of that one. Does it look like a Killer KB-Dagger PJ bass ?
@@Yoochuu similar idea to that model, could also say its like an explorer but they've cut a V shape into the bridge end of the guitar. I actually sold two since making the post, which were the traditional fender shaped that Mr Yamashita played. Remaining are the RSB, Esp white mistress, prototype model and a standard model. Really cool basses and they certainly catch people's eye 😄
Could you possibly demo the Michael Kelly Pinnacle? It’s a great looking affordable bass with lots of tonal controls, but there are no good demos on the internet that demonstrate them
Hey Lobster! That is a great bass with a great sound! You talked about the crappy tuners, the redundant passive controls and the noisy J pickup. Do you plan of modding it, maybe with proper shielding, some controls to turn off half the mega P pickup or something to make the J pickup more relevant?
two p pickups especially in series have significant more output than a single j pickup. the two vol make sense because you can dial the volumes in and can change between j or double p with the balance knob without volume difference is too high. that,s my 2 cents. cheers from germany.
I used to play a white one of these in the early 90s in the UK. A fantastic instrument. I saw a tatty one for sale a couple of years ago - I should've snagged it. 😢 BTW - it only needs one control to ensure the P pickups are on full 🤘🤘🤘
If I had one of these (as I love those mid 80s to early 90s Arias) I would change it to Master Tone, Master Volume, a 3 way switch and change the last control to a 2 way rotary for series/parallel for the monster P!
I had an Aria LP style guitar it was the best guitar Ive ever owned. I wish the neck pups were 5 mm closer to the neck . how is the neck profile was it thin ? thats what made the Aria I owned so special.
The Japanese had some weird ideas in the 80s ;-) Cool thing! However, I prefer the SB series. I had an opportunity to test drive an SB-700 some time ago (the same model John Taylor used for Duran Duran's debut album) and, apart from slight playability issues (it lacked an elbow contour, had tight string spacing and was heavy as phukk), it was a stellar bass. It sounded AWESOME! I took it to a rehearsal and it really shone in a band setting. If you have an opportunity to lay your claws on one, I highly recommend testing it - or even buying the thing. Lovely ❤️ As for series wiring - can you give me some tips on how to rewire my Sterling Ray SUB 5? I really want to rewire it to parallel but I have no idea how.
Hello mr. Lobster, I have a video idea for you: I'd be really interested to hear, what difference do you hear/feel, that makes you want to install a preamp in a passive bass. To me when an instrument fulfills its purpose in a mix it, sounds good enough. Because of this I'm completely baffled that in the modern bass market you can barely find instruments with modern features, but with a passive setup. Either copies of old fenders, or modern features but with a preamp.
Sounds good, but the pointy headstock would be a deal killer for me. Unique bass, something you'll likely not see anyone else playing at a jam or get together.
I wasn’t expecting a video to drop just like that, but me likey!! Overall it sounded pretty good. Do the angles on the P’s make a tonal difference? I wonder that about the Warwick thumb as well
I appreciate you covering all sorts of basses including new stuff and weirder old things like this
He truly is the Doug DeMuro of basses 😅
I have an Aria Pro II CB-380 and I love it. Those basses from the 80's are just awesome.
Most Japanese basses bodies were made of basswood at the time, and some of them use basswood today, although there's a lot of shift to less known but even cheaper woods. Basswood can have decent sound, and it's light.
That bass is a passive tone monster !!!
Sounds crazy with a pick
Massive tone to pointy headstock. Long live these 80s instruments! Nice review. Love it!🤘
I love the pointy 80's amazingness, but I LOVE that tone! Massive! I want one.
That is a great sounding Bass! My first Bass was a cheap copy of a Fender Jazz, made by Memphis. The action was SO high, but I had no idea it was. I just played it that way, because I thought that was the way it was.
And then I bought an Aria Pro II, sometime in 1986. Oh!!!! Basses are not like the Memphis. Oh!!! I can actually play this thing! (And I'm grateful I started out on the Memphis. No matter how high the action was. I was learning Chris Squire, Glenn Hughes, Larry Graham, Steve Harris and Stanley Clarke on that thing. Little did I know when I got the Aria Pro II, what I learned playing the Memphis, made me absolutely fly on the Aria.) So maybe I'm just a fan of the Aria Pro II series. Maybe it's nostalgic. But I love the sound of this Bass in your video.
Okay, I absolutely love everything about this bass. I am awestruck by just how weird this is and on just so many levels...it's really really awesomely weird.
If any bass needed a G&L-style two-tone system, it's this one. Not to mention you could probably series/parallel that big neck mess if you're brave enough :)
There were some Japanese Fender Boxers from the mid 80’s that also had crazy pickup configurations like that.
reminds me of the really old Fender Boxer basses (i think that’s what they were called).
Some of those later vintage Arias are super high output passive basses, I have an early Korean Integra made just after they moved production out of Japan and were using up their parts stock (it still has the MIJ bridge from the RSB series) and it's the loudest bass I own. Can't get any tone out of it other than in incredibly beefy rock tone so it's a one trick pony but it just does that one sound so well.
Glad to see you reviewing this Aria bass. I always see interesting basses like this on Reverb, and im always intrigued.
I found a weird Tokai on EBay. It’s a neck-through cherry burst with three jazz pickups set up *exactly* like a Stratocaster. The bridge pickup is at an angle. Master volume, TWO tone knobs, (one for the neck pickup and one for the center pickup - no tone for the bridge) and a 5-way switch. Thinking about doing a push/pull to have all three pickups wailing at once… 🤪
I have an Aria Pro II 380 Cardinal Series. I love it as a late set bass. Super high output.
Great video again Lobster.. I had an Aria Pro II fretless (neck through) that I bought new in 1982. It was a beautiful looking bass but the electronics were a problem and I sold it 20 years ago but still miss it 🤷♂️
Great to see you review these old basses Mr L. Perhaps a few more Arias could be shown, as I don't know much about them, and they generally become overlooked with so much choice these days.
Agreed. The classic SB1000 needs some love - the Jam’s Bruce Foxton played one towards the end of their run.
@@ajkandy Aria recently reissued the SB 1000 and I never said "shut up and take my money" faster in my life. That bass is about as close as you can get to say an Alembic or Wal while still being mass produced.
Please do more reviews on bass guitars from the 80s!
I liked the tone.
I had a friend who owned one of those but defretted, and he always told me that with flatwounds and the tone to 25% you could get as close to the tone of an upright as humanly possible with magnetic pickup bass.
Also the douple P pickup has this sorta Music Man-y thing to it, like a MM pickup when soloed at the neck.
Pretty cool review, lobster. Aria made some pretty good basses. Cliff burton famously played one. And this one sounds pretty good. For a bass with some funky pickup configurations, it does have a great sound. It sounded pretty cool with a pick. It’s little bright but it does have radical tone.
Personally I would be playing aria basses. The models I would go with is their explorer styled bass and their integra(igb) model bass that has a jazz/mm-styled pickup. I thought that was such a cool sounding bass. Other than that, aria makes great basses that are underrated pretty much like Yamaha.
I recently had a similar Fernandes; it was a great bass and the build quality was remarkable. Looked brand new. Inevitable these will start climbing up in value (well, maybe). Very playable!
Yo Lobbs! I asked you if you wanted to make a video on vintage basses from japan and here we are, thank you!!. I would like to add that I am now 10 minutes away from picking up an aria cardinal 380 bass... what the hell!??? XD
I gotchu!
Neck pick-ups on this bass reminds me of FGN Mighty Power tone. Luv non-standard / unique bass reviews. Thx Lobster.
Awesome,,where going back ,,Thanks Lobby!
Awesome bass, my dream
That is a weird one but surprisingly I really kinda dug it! I really liked the sound with just the "super P" pickup.
The Pro II line was released in the mid seventies. They made a beautiful Gibson Les Paul Custom copy, with gorgeous inlays. Aria also had a copy of the JB with maple neck that sounded terrific.
There were two of these on Reverb last night after I watched this video. One is already gone haha. Love that beefy tone!
i absolutely love this sound
A note on the color,. that green hue you're seeing is probably the yellowing of the clear over the color coat. Also, lots of japanese manufacturers were using pickups like these, kinda dimarzio/schaller copies. My favorite parts P has a Squier II neck, a mim body, and a pickup like these from an Ibanez Roadstar p. Thanks for the great video as always!
I thought they looked kinda like Dimarzio pole pieces.
What a strange strange configuration, very nice bass, sounds Fat and clear as hell, brings the boom for sure 😳
Love it!
Love it, need it and the ESP as well!!
The bass had great tone!
Hey Lobster. That is a very unique bass. Easy mod to change over the controls to have a fader. Also, It is very very loud. And you liked it. You know want to "Rock It". ✌️😛✌️. Thanks for the fun wake up video. I appreciate it as always. Until we groove again. ✌️😎👍🦞🎸
Its got a unique sound with both pickups together. A little ricky sounding. Pretty cool.
FYI the Esp model is the original version and it's a signature bass of Masayoshi Yamashita from Loudness.
I'm familiar with them as i own 6 differnet versions of the ESP PPJ 😄
Good job on the review
Selling one of them, by chance ?
@@Yoochuu I have a 1980s custom built (by ESP) Random star bass version I'll part with soon, it'll likely be up on reverb within the next week.
Are you looking for one?
@@shipwreckedonapopulatedisland Thanks for your answer. I'm mostly after a Yamashita esp ppj160 bass but I'll check on reverb for your bass. Never seen a bass version of that one. Does it look like a Killer KB-Dagger PJ bass ?
@@Yoochuu similar idea to that model, could also say its like an explorer but they've cut a V shape into the bridge end of the guitar.
I actually sold two since making the post, which were the traditional fender shaped that Mr Yamashita played.
Remaining are the RSB, Esp white mistress, prototype model and a standard model.
Really cool basses and they certainly catch people's eye 😄
@@shipwreckedonapopulatedisland Aaaargh you sold one Yamashitasan bass ?!?!? How can I look at your reverb store/account ???
Could you possibly demo the Michael Kelly Pinnacle? It’s a great looking affordable bass with lots of tonal controls, but there are no good demos on the internet that demonstrate them
I'm Japanese and I know the market in 80's.
This model never be popular in Japan back then. In fact, I have never seen this.
Hey Lobster! That is a great bass with a great sound! You talked about the crappy tuners, the redundant passive controls and the noisy J pickup. Do you plan of modding it, maybe with proper shielding, some controls to turn off half the mega P pickup or something to make the J pickup more relevant?
This bass sounds huuuuuuuge!
it got that boom, nice
very interesting find
Aria Pro basses are always very nice, but the original 80's Boxers by Fender Japan are something else!
Thanks Amber! I have one of the reissues coming soon for review :)
two p pickups especially in series have significant more output than a single j pickup. the two vol make sense because you can dial the volumes in and can change between j or double p with the balance knob without volume difference is too high. that,s my 2 cents. cheers from germany.
I have one of these in candy apple red,i really like it its very well made and mine is in great condition i think its a 1986 model
Man this bass reminds me of the Ibanez Roadstar II rb650 I used to own I regret selling it even though it was in kind of rough condition.
Very strange but sounds fine!!
That Bass is juicy!
Featured in The 'Loudness - Crazy Nights ' Video
That bass sounds good! Should do a review on the fender Roscoe Beck.
I would LOVE to make a video on the Roscoe Beck!
@@LowEndLobster got to find one! It's not easy!
We need a Mod video of this bass, splitting de P pickup or changing the pickups all together, and shielding that J.
Cool bass tho
I used to play a white one of these in the early 90s in the UK. A fantastic instrument. I saw a tatty one for sale a couple of years ago - I should've snagged it. 😢
BTW - it only needs one control to ensure the P pickups are on full 🤘🤘🤘
What a bass....4 string bulldozer 🤣🤣😍😍😍😍...thank you so much Lob 🤗🤗🤗
If I had one of these (as I love those mid 80s to early 90s Arias) I would change it to Master Tone, Master Volume, a 3 way switch and change the last control to a 2 way rotary for series/parallel for the monster P!
I had an Aria LP style guitar it was the best guitar Ive ever owned. I wish the neck pups were 5 mm closer to the neck . how is the neck profile was it thin ? thats what made the Aria I owned so special.
I like this bass about as much as I could without actually having a chance to play it.
Ok. Now you're in my neighborhood. 😁
The Japanese had some weird ideas in the 80s ;-) Cool thing! However, I prefer the SB series. I had an opportunity to test drive an SB-700 some time ago (the same model John Taylor used for Duran Duran's debut album) and, apart from slight playability issues (it lacked an elbow contour, had tight string spacing and was heavy as phukk), it was a stellar bass. It sounded AWESOME! I took it to a rehearsal and it really shone in a band setting. If you have an opportunity to lay your claws on one, I highly recommend testing it - or even buying the thing. Lovely ❤️
As for series wiring - can you give me some tips on how to rewire my Sterling Ray SUB 5? I really want to rewire it to parallel but I have no idea how.
Exactly. I tried a Cliff Burton reissue at a Sam Ash and it was a beast! I owned so many Aria Pro II basses and the Japanese ones are top notch!
That mega-P pickup reminds me a bit of a Mudbucker on an EB-0, except much more useable and with more personality.
Hello mr. Lobster, I have a video idea for you: I'd be really interested to hear, what difference do you hear/feel, that makes you want to install a preamp in a passive bass. To me when an instrument fulfills its purpose in a mix it, sounds good enough. Because of this I'm completely baffled that in the modern bass market you can barely find instruments with modern features, but with a passive setup. Either copies of old fenders, or modern features but with a preamp.
Sounds good, but the pointy headstock would be a deal killer for me. Unique bass, something you'll likely not see anyone else playing at a jam or get together.
The perfect weapon, for if you fall out with the neighbours.....! It goes to 12🤣
That is a unique pickup configuration. Sounds great though!
I wasn’t expecting a video to drop just like that, but me likey!! Overall it sounded pretty good. Do the angles on the P’s make a tonal difference? I wonder that about the Warwick thumb as well
Did you retire the "claws out of 5" rating?
No, but I only rate production basses you can still buy new generally
These were similar to the ones Jason Newsted used way back then right?
You should get your hands on one of Aria's "The Cat" basses at some point - it seems appropriate :)
Fender Blacktop, wasn't that around the late 90s?
neato!
I wonder if those pickups are wax potted
Still, the strangest bass that came out of japan is the SBV series :)) the flying samurais
Yo dawg, we heard you like P basses, so we put a P pickup in your P pickup.
Please EMG this 🙏 😄😄
It took me 1.5 seconds to see the pickups and get a mini-shock
LOL The video is 13:12!
The noise is a lot, i would probably solo the p
omg its a ℙ pickup
10:56 hehehe tames the pee
Just got one of these for 200 usd
This is what happens when Japanese drink too much saki. 😁👍
Nice review usual lobster, but I don't like that bass at all looks and sounds like crap, sorry 😆
Your playing sure put lipstick on that... whatever it is. I'll have to pass on that one.
No Claw review ? BOOOOOO! Lol🤣