So as stated in a thread by Mc, I picked up this Aria Diamond 1202T Hollow-body guitar together with a 30W solid state amp, a mic stand, a leatherette carry-bag and two old school coily guitar cables for dirt cheap on Sunday.
It belonged to an elderly gentlemen. Him and his wife have just sold their house to move to a retirement village. It was painful for him to let her go but he was keeping a black jumbo acoustic only as he was no longer playing this one that much. He was glad to know it was going to a good home but it was an emotional moment for him all the same. Having tried her out I felt she was not an extraordinary guitar, but a well built and "competent" one. There is a really sweet, jazzy tone at the neck pickup through a clean channel. Through the overdrive channel she screams beautifully and has nice "ambient" sound when you can balance and play with the feedback you get.
She rattles when you play as the pick guard hits the body right next to the bridge pickup. Once I am done tinkering with her I am going to stick a bit of double-sided tape underneath the pick-guard and that should take care of that problem. She was very dirty when I got her and smelt like really old wood (you know that smell right?), I had to get rid of the old strap, blow out the body through the F-holes with a compressor (cautiously so as not to snaps any wires), take her apart and clean her, especially the fretboard: That had layers of who-knows-what caked onto there. And the result is what you see below.
The nut is falling apart so I have used some foil as a temporary plan to get her to stay in tune and to set the strings at the right height. But I will be replacing that, the tuners and later the pickups as well. The electronics are still in good working order, all the knobs work perfectly and the wiring inside still looks like it is intact. Any ideas of what you would do if she were yours? I do not know if I want to get started with changing the pots and wiring, it seems like a bit pain in the back-side on a hollow-body. So are there any luthiers in Joburg that you can recommend who specialize in hollow-bodies?
