Stratovarius Community

cliff wrote: I'm saying it again, stay away from Aria! Take an Ibanez or Warwick instead.

I bought the exception of the rule then. Mine still works well. Just some screws were missing but nothing else.

stratobabius wrote: I bought the exception of the rule then. Mine still works well. Just some screws were missing but nothing else.

You're lucky then!
Which Aria model do you have?

STB Deluxe. I searched for it and saw that they've been making this for 10 years or something like that.

EDIT: Looks like I had posted the link to it 2 pages ago... I'd forgotten that.
http://www.ariaguitars.com/int/03_produ ... pb_dx.html

stratobabius wrote:STB Deluxe. I searched for it and saw that they've been making this for 10 years or something like that.

EDIT: Looks like I had posted the link to it 2 pages ago... I'd forgotten that.l

Indeed, now I remember! This is a cheap model, but really good for the price, at least I heard only positive feedback about it.
Actually, same thing with my IGB50 (I just read someone complaining about the poor sound of its Infinity pickup)... Perhaps mine is just a bad serie model.

One of my favorite bassists of all time; the late, great John Entwistle of the Who.

Here is an isolation clip of the Ox playing "Won't Get Fooled Again". Somebody must have hit the "solo" button on Entwistle's channel on the mixing board, and recorded this. Great tone and great playing!

youtube.com/watch?v=IfDE-ZvfOwU

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

The Ox

NeonVomit wrote:The Ox

I miss the Ox quite a bit. He played with his solo group at the former Market Street Performance Hall here in my town, just a couple of years before he passed.

He and Keith Moon were just about the ultimate (and certainly most destructive!) rhythm section of their time. Have you ever seen the video of the Who live in the studio playing "Barbara Ann" with Moonie singing lead vocal? It's truly priceless...

youtube.com/watch?v=4d6mj7PG9qA

I'm not really looking yet, but is there any bassists in Raahe, or around somewhere.

miditek wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:The Ox

I miss the Ox quite a bit. He played with his solo group at the former Market Street Performance Hall here in my town, just a couple of years before he passed.

He and Keith Moon were just about the ultimate (and certainly most destructive!) rhythm section of their time. Have you ever seen the video of the Who live in the studio playing "Barbara Ann" with Moonie singing lead vocal? It's truly priceless...

youtube.com/watch?v=4d6mj7PG9qA

Lol classic! Thanks for that.

Yeah, certainly the most 'explosive' duo...

To me The Who are the ultimate rock band. Four ugly and ballsy lads playing noisy rock that keeps the girls in the back row.

Carcass wrote:To me The Who are the ultimate rock band. Four ugly and ballsy lads playing noisy rock that keeps the girls in the back row.

I think that at one time, the Who was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band (@ < 120 db). I think that the current record holder is Manowar (@ < 160 db!). Ouch...

I read somewhere that their roadie died, his spleen bursted due to exposure to high decibels.

Ouch...

miditek wrote:

Carcass wrote:To me The Who are the ultimate rock band. Four ugly and ballsy lads playing noisy rock that keeps the girls in the back row.

I think that at one time, the Who was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band (@ < 120 db). I think that the current record holder is Manowar (@ < 160 db!). Ouch...

I thought Motorhead were the loudest... but yeah it wouldn't surprise me if Manowar were.

Oh that burst spleen thing is an urban myth. High volumes cannot actually harm you other than ruining your hearing permanently.

NeonVomit wrote:

miditek wrote:

Carcass wrote:To me The Who are the ultimate rock band. Four ugly and ballsy lads playing noisy rock that keeps the girls in the back row.

I think that at one time, the Who was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band (@ < 120 db). I think that the current record holder is Manowar (@ < 160 db!). Ouch...

I thought Motorhead were the loudest... but yeah it wouldn't surprise me if Manowar were.

Oh that burst spleen thing is an urban myth. High volumes cannot actually harm you other than ruining your hearing permanently.

Here's a list of famous people with tinnitus- Pete Townsend is definitely among them. Don't forget your earplugs, folks!

members.fortunecity.com/nrbq1/tinnitus.html

Earplugs are the smart thing to do. Once your hearing is damaged, it can never be fixed.

cliff wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:The Aria II Pro's I've played have been good instruments. They're a safe bet.

The Aria Pro II are usually really good instruments (I own a cheap Mad Axe model). However, stay away from the Aria (not "Pro II") products (that's the new name of "Aria Pro II". Actually, Aria changed their name to "Pro II" for a while to tell "we also make basses for professional players. not just first-prices") I bought that Integra 50 which has caused me only problems : neck broken after a couple of days, and now I have problems with the electronic. I had a look at the wire connectors, they seems to have been soldered by 5 years old kid!
Plus, the customer service of Aria is near of zero, I've tried to find a new neck everywhere (including Germany, Finland, France, Sweden, Norway, Belgium) : impossible. And now, i really regret that purchase.

@StratoFactor : I think it is almost impossible to find those old Aria Pro II nowadays, except some second hand ones.

I'm saying it again, stay away from Aria! Take an Ibanez or Warwick instead.

Yeah I know, I've found about three older Aria Pro II now and all are secondhand&in high prices which turns my guts upsidedown. Hopefully someone would be honest when selling used instruments

exe knight wrote:I'm not really looking yet, but is there any bassists in Raahe, or around somewhere.

How far away is Raahe from Kuopio or Iisalmi?

@StratoFactor : what happened to you? Did you mean that you bought some second-hand Aria Pro II basses and they are piece of junk ?

The problem with Aria basses is that you need to take quite good care of them. My first Aria had its tuning heads broke after only few years (bought some Gotoh instead, good stuffs), one piece of bridge is broken, the jack-in entry is leaving, had to do some pickup solders again. Still, I think that the old Aria Pro II of mine (it was build in Japan) has an extremely solid neck, it's almost unbreakable (I drope the bass many times, hit some walls or amps with it, plus an agressive playing...), even though I paid not even 200e for it.
The new Aria stuffs are usually made in Korea, and that's not a good thing, new necks are quite thin and easy to break imo.
btw : finally managed to find a new Aria neck to replace the broken one. it was a hell of difficult to get one!!

cliff wrote: The new Aria stuffs are usually made in Korea, and that's not a good thing, new necks are quite thin and easy to break imo.
btw : finally managed to find a new Aria neck to replace the broken one. it was a hell of difficult to get one!!

My Ibanez was made in Korea, and it's a fantastic solid reliable instrument. In fact, most basses are made in Korea.

Where an instrument is made is usually irrelevant. How much you paid for it usually is far more so.

NeonVomit wrote:

cliff wrote: The new Aria stuffs are usually made in Korea, and that's not a good thing, new necks are quite thin and easy to break imo.
btw : finally managed to find a new Aria neck to replace the broken one. it was a hell of difficult to get one!!

My Ibanez was made in Korea, and it's a fantastic solid reliable instrument. In fact, most basses are made in Korea.

Where an instrument is made is usually irrelevant. How much you paid for it usually is far more so.

Sorry guys for being such a smartass but truly it does matter where your bass is made. There really is a huge gap between a bass made in Korea and a bass made in the States. Also it depends on the factory of the maker of the bass. But yeah, usually if you have some money you should use it 'cause money talks in musicbusiness and expecially in instrument business. Ibanez's necs are quite breakable if they cost under 300euros Atleast the Ibanez I played sucked quite bad, the crack in the neck ate the sound and sustain totally and the playability was near 0. YOu've gotta be kinda pro or aggressive in terms of breaking a fivestringed Ibanez.

StratoFactor wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:

cliff wrote: The new Aria stuffs are usually made in Korea, and that's not a good thing, new necks are quite thin and easy to break imo.
btw : finally managed to find a new Aria neck to replace the broken one. it was a hell of difficult to get one!!

My Ibanez was made in Korea, and it's a fantastic solid reliable instrument. In fact, most basses are made in Korea.

Where an instrument is made is usually irrelevant. How much you paid for it usually is far more so.

Sorry guys for being such a smartass but truly it does matter where your bass is made. There really is a huge gap between a bass made in Korea and a bass made in the States. Also it depends on the factory of the maker of the bass. But yeah, usually if you have some money you should use it 'cause money talks in musicbusiness and expecially in instrument business. Ibanez's necs are quite breakable if they cost under 300euros Atleast the Ibanez I played sucked quite bad, the crack in the neck ate the sound and sustain totally and the playability was near 0. YOu've gotta be kinda pro or aggressive in terms of breaking a fivestringed Ibanez.

I've never played an Ibanez that I felt would break. Certainly not a bass, and definately not a 5string. Again, if you find one under 300 euro you're looking at the ultimate cheapest type, which will have been mass-produced in the same factory as similarly-priced Washburns, LTDs, Squiers, Jacksons and BC Rich's, amongst many other brands.

There is every chance if you own two basses of different makes, they were made by the same guy in the same factory. Almost all 'Made in Korea' instruments are made at the same factory, owned by Samick.

And it does not matter where it is made, not in this day and age in any case. As they say, Fender Mexican products are made in Mexico by Mexicans. Their USA products are made in California by Mexicans. Having spoken to professional violin makers and luthiers, they claim the best instrument-making nation at the moment is Korea. A highly trained workforce working at lower prices.

There are instruments costing 1000 euro made in Korea, and ones costing 600 euro made in USA.

I'd take the 1000 euro Korea one myself for choosing a better instrument.

Does it matter if the hands are German or American or British or Chinese or Korean? No, it matters how much those hands are being paid, in relation to where they live.

Good point tho, but I've seen so many rip-offs that it's almost sad. it doesn't matter who makes them but where matters. If I'd have enough money I'd bu a Routa custom. But nooo...

StratoFactor wrote:Good point tho, but I've seen so many rip-offs that it's almost sad. it doesn't matter who makes them but where matters. If I'd have enough money I'd bu a Routa custom. But nooo...

If I had the money I'd get a 6-string MusicMan Bongo (which is coming out soon, apparently...)

Again, there are excellent instruments coming out of Korea, as well as rubbish ones.

In the word of the immortal film, 'Money talks and bullshit walks'...

Hey bassists!

I kinda need your advice.

I'd like to change the pickups of my Aria IGB50 (1 Precision and 1 Jazz) to have a heavy-metal sound, but still something that can also sound clear.

Which of those pickup models you'd recommand ?
Seymour Duncan SSPB-3 + SSJB-2N BLK (passive)
or EMG PJ-SET (active)

(the fingerboard of the bass is rosewood)

cliff wrote:Hey bassists!

I kinda need your advice.

I'd like to change the pickups of my Aria IGB50 (1 Precision and 1 Jazz) to have a heavy-metal sound, but still something that can also sound clear.

Which of those pickup models you'd recommand ?
Seymour Duncan SSPB-3 + SSJB-2N BLK (passive)
or EMG PJ-SET (active)

(the fingerboard of the bass is rosewood)

I personally prefer passive for bass, and active for guitar. I used to have a Hamer 4-string bass w/ a passive PJ configuration, and it sounded just fine through the old silver faced Ampegs that I used at the time. I also used to play a G&L 4-string with passive pickups, and they had plenty of tonal variety as well. If you were a session player and need lots of different sounds all the time, then I could see where you might need the EMG's but for strictly metal , the Ducans should be sufficient.

My personal opinion is that having good strings has a lot to do with the overall sound quality on a bass. You could have an Alembic bass and a rack of Ampeg stuff, and with dead strings the sound will be like, uh, dead strings. A bit on the muddy side. Just my two cents though.

My friend Steve from Glass Hammer used an old, cheap Vantage bass during the heyday of the pre-GH band, called "Wizards" going through an Ampeg V-4B head and V-9 cabinet. When I was really young, around 15 or 16, I used to ask him how he got such a monster sound from a relatively low end instrument, and he pointed to the fact that he always used a pick, and positively swore by Rotosound SwingBass series of strings.

Although Steve no longer uses that particular setup, he has maintained a pretty consistent overall tone for over 25 years (!) now. It's a bit less distorted now, but the type of tone/sound is essentially the same. You can tell it's Steve regardless of what he's playing through.

You can hear a great example of his sound on "Run Lisette Pt I." on his myspace page at:

myspace.com/glasshammer11 -> "Run Lisette Pt.I"

miditek wrote: I used to ask him how he got such a monster sound from a relatively low end instrument, and he pointed to the fact that he always used a pick, and positively swore by Rotosound SwingBass series of strings.

Thanks for all the infos!
Does your friend use the regular Swing bass strings (RS66LE), or the double ball ending one (RDB66) ? I'm a bit surprised because from what I remember the Swing bass didn't sound particularly special to me.

I think the bassist is also a big part of the sound.
If you ask Mark King to play with a cheap Squier model, it will still sound like Mark King, you know

Talking about sound, have you tried the Line 6 Toneport USB Recording Interface ? You can have really impressive sounds and effects with it (for both guitars and bass).

I'm very picky with my strings, I only use Exilirs. And do whatever you want, dead strings will simply not vibrate in the same way as new ones. Some people like that muddy, old sound. I dont

Pickups... I like active ones for bass, but I'm not super-picky about pickups. I just want them to sound good!

As for using a pick, I sometimes wish I was a pick player. It sounds so awsome! But I'm too used to fingerstyle...

miditek wrote: I used to ask him how he got such a monster sound from a relatively low end instrument, and he pointed to the fact that he always used a pick, and positively swore by Rotosound SwingBass series of strings.

cliff wrote:Thanks for all the infos! Does your friend use the regular Swing bass strings (RS66LE), or the double ball ending one (RDB66) ? I'm a bit surprised because from what I remember the Swing bass didn't sound particularly special to me.

You're welcome, Cliff. I believe that Steve used the regular SwingBass- #RS66LE's, if I am not mistaken.

cliff wrote:I think the bassist is also a big part of the sound. If you ask Mark King to play with a cheap Squier model, it will still sound like Mark King, you know

I agree completely. I think that 80% comes from your fingers, style, talent, etc., although having a pro-level rig does help with tone, although I'm a firm believer in good strings, particularly for the bass. David Carter(the guitarist of Wizards, and original GH guitarist) used to use a tiny 50w MusicMan head through Marshall cabinets, and he got a monster guitar sound as well. He even sounded good when playing through a cheap Peavey Backstage 30 at his workplace, a music store called the Sound Post.

On an interesting note, the new GH guitarist, David "Shreddy" Wallimann, is one of your compatriots, and is a native of France. He has a cool profile on youtube "Wallimann" with some interesting demo videos.

miditek wrote:Talking about sound, have you tried the Line 6 Toneport USB Recording Interface ? You can have really impressive sounds and effects with it (for both guitars and bass).

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to check out the Line6 system, although if you'll recall, both NeonVomit and myself were drooling over the virtual Ampeg system (similar to the Line6 stuff) earlier in this thread.

miditek wrote: Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to check out the Line6 system, although if you'll recall, both NeonVomit and myself were drooling over the virtual Ampeg system (similar to the Line6 stuff) earlier in this thread.

That was the AmpegSVX Plug-in, right?
I gave it a try, but the direct mic-input in my laptop gave something absolutely horrible. I should try it again once I get my Line 6 Toneport USB interface.
Actually, the Toneport has some Ampeg simulators bulk-in (especially the Rock Classic - based on the SVT model - that I like really much).
U can buy some more stuffs for the Toneport, it's called "Bass Expansion Packs" (http://line6.com/modelPacks/toneport_bass.html), this plug-in is only 100$, much cheaper than the 350$ required for the AmpegSVX plug-in!

Btw, check what I found on Thomann website, a Ibanez heavy bass. Check the price!!
http://distantskies.free.fr/divers/ibanez666.jpg
original link : http://www.thomann.de/fr/ibanez_icb300exbk.htm

NeonVomit wrote: Alcohol.. try boiling your strings in water for about 5 minutes. No, I'm not joking. Add a bit of vinegar to the water, and just boil all the grime and dirt out of them.

It's certainly working!
This will save me a month or two at most...

stratobabius wrote:

NeonVomit wrote: Alcohol.. try boiling your strings in water for about 5 minutes. No, I'm not joking. Add a bit of vinegar to the water, and just boil all the grime and dirt out of them.

It's certainly working!
This will save me a month or two at most...

I read somewhere that if you do that too often, it kinda ruin your strings.
If you want to keep them clean, one better idea is to use some liquid like this one : http://www.thomann.de/fr/dunlop_formula65.htm - I have had the same Daddario strings on my bass for 4 months now, no sight of dirt on them