Monday, March 06, 2017

Aria SB-404/5 Bass

Here's an Aria SB-404/5 bass that, stock, would have featured active electronics, a Mahogany body, Maple/Nato five ply neck (thru body construction), 24 fret Rosewood fingerboard, 34 inch scale length, two BDS-5 humbuckers, black hardware, and a Stained Natural (SN) finish. However, looking at it today, the only stock features are the strings-through-body bridge, neck and body. The owner had long ago upgraded this bass with gold-plated tuners, EMG 45HZ pickups and a RAM Bass preamp system (master volume, pickup blend, and boost/cut treble/bass controls).

He loves this bass to bits, but was troubled by intermittent hum and noise. While evaluating the electronics, I noticed a couple of problems  i) the control cavity was totally unshielded, ii) the back of the control cavity cover was bare, iii) connecting wires had not been trimmed to length; and iv) the preamp module had simply been shoved into place.

I suspected the lack of shielding and excess wire length to be the main culprits behind the hum and noise. Thus said, I proceeded to 1) shield the control cavity walls with shielding paint and a ground tab, ii) add an aluminium plate to the back of the control cavity cover, iii) trim excess wire length and resolder components; and iv) secure the preamp module. I'm glad to report that these measures succeded in minimizing the problem.  

Further Reading

Aria SB-404/5 Ovangkol 5-String Electric Bass Guitar | Music123

Bass Review - For Bassist : Aria SB 405/5

Aria Pro SB-404-5 | Reverb

















3 comments:

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  2. Beautiful Aria neck-through!! 😍👍


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  3. Danke schon, Senor Thomas. It is a gorgeous instrument

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