# Aria 7-strings!



## Shannon (Jan 9, 2006)

I was basically searching for a 7-string Stratocaster knockoff & I found these. 

The Aria STG-004/7 Strat (avg. $199 street price) - http://www.ariausa.com/series/stg004_7/stg004_7.html

The Aria MAC50V7 (reminds me of an Agile Interceptor or Ibanez RGA) - http://www.ariausa.com/series/MAC50V7/mac50v7.html

Anyone seen these before? Thoughts? I am definately tempted.


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## Shawn (Jan 9, 2006)

Saw one on e bay about a month ago while browsing. It was that exact same model (strat one). Pretty cool looking.


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## Jesse (Jan 9, 2006)

I like the second one


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## David (Jan 9, 2006)

yeah, the 2nd one looks awesome.


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## garcia3441 (Jan 9, 2006)

Take the second one.


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## Shannon (Jan 9, 2006)

Yeah, the 2nd one looks cool and all, but am I the only one who thinks it'd be cool to have a 7-string Strat for the collection? That first has that vintage vibe to it.


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## donsimon (Jan 9, 2006)

I own a mac 50v/7. Its a nice mid-level 7. The bridge pickup sucks though, lacks prescense. The neck is thin and quite ibanez-like (my friend who owns several ibanez 7s says it feels just lika an rg7). Its overall light-weight. The trem is a licensed floyd which works just fine. I´m happy with it.


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## NegaTiveXero (Jan 9, 2006)

I really like that first one, and I came very close to getting one once. They come in a shitload of different colors. Blue with maple fretboard, Red with maple fretboard, black (like in the picture), and sunburst (rosewood).


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## XEN (Jan 9, 2006)

Matt Raines sells a strat knockoff, but I know nothing of the guy or the quality of his instruments, only the prices, and I do not approve of those at all.


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## noodles (Jan 9, 2006)

I wonder what the routes look like under the pickguard. It would be nice to be able to replace the pickguard with a blank from Warmoth, cut your own p/u holes, and mount those single coils like Leo intended.


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## eaeolian (Jan 9, 2006)

noodles said:


> I wonder what the routes look like under the pickguard. It would be nice to be able to replace the pickguard with a blank from Warmoth, cut your own p/u holes, and mount those single coils like Leo intended.



I kinda like the psuedo-Jake look...


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## noodles (Jan 9, 2006)

I thought Jake's slant singles were ona Charvel with no pickguard.


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## eaeolian (Jan 9, 2006)

noodles said:


> I thought Jake's slant singles were ona Charvel with no pickguard.



Nope, the original Jake guitar was a hardtail Strat with a shaved neck (w/a painted 'stock and a Charvel logo, but it was the Fender neck) and a pickguard.


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## noodles (Jan 9, 2006)

That's a cool pic, too. I keep forgetting what an amazing player he is.


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## Shannon (Jan 9, 2006)

I'm entertaining the idea of picking up that Aria Strat and giving it the EVH treatment.


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## Vegetta (Jan 9, 2006)

I've seen the first one before but never actually played one... Im not too keen on angled neck/middle single coils....

Ynqwie was a aria endorsee when he was in Alcatraz


Shannon be honest You were searching for Aria Giovonni and stubled upon these hahahah


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## The Dark Wolf (Jan 9, 2006)

noodles said:


> That's a cool pic, too. I keep forgetting what an amazing player he is.


 I've been a long-time Jake fan. My favorite Ozzy stuff is when he and Jake were together.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Jan 9, 2006)

I owned the first one before. It was the first 7 string I had. The thing is a peice of shit, and I knew that when I had only been playing guitar for 4-5 months. The pickups suck, I hated the neck, and the frets were so tiny. I sold it and picked up an Ibanez after owning it a year. It's a cheap beginner guitar. For anyone used to something decent, I'd say go with something a bit higher quality. Then again, maybe I'm just picky...


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## Shannon (Jan 9, 2006)

Vegetta said:


> Shannon be honest You were searching for Aria Giovonni and stubled upon these hahahah



 It's Giovanni!!! Nah, I've got almost 2000 pics & quite a bit of video on her. I'm good...for now.

Actually, I typed in "7 string strat" on Ebay.


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## Chris D (Jan 9, 2006)

I have the Mac50 & love it...

Dunno about the 1st one though.
[edit... that was a crap post, I was distracted by my wife's cherry pie]

Right.
What I like about the Mac50:

The overall feel is like a much more expensive guitar.
I got mine 2nd hand for £150 off ebay & after a good polish, clean & lemon-oil, new fat strings, setup/trussrod tweak it's sweet.
Coil-tap on both pups is nice, neck pup tapped is kinda strat(ish)-sounding, but not totally, pretty glassy but lacks the strat "honk".
I don't mind the bridge pup at all, I get a pretty good metal tone from mine.  

It's a very versatile guitar, you can even get good jazzy tones from it with the tone rolled off.  

I like it that the fboard isn't over-flat. Not sure of the exact radius though.
The frets aren't super-huge but not vintage-skinny, kinda inbetween.
Back of the neck profile is close to Ibanez ( regular not wizard )

The figured top gives the body a really "pretty" look, like a glossy schecter without the stubby horns, also the body is quite small.

If you're after a nice versatile 7 for not a lot of dollar then go for it!
I'm loving mine, maybe I just got lucky, check out the harmony-central reviews.

But it's not really a strat is it...  

The other one might have a more "vintage" feel with the little frets, & you could go with the pickguard swap option, you'd get the full 5-pos switch options & could fit all s/c etc, but I'd have a play on one first if possible.


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## b3n (Jan 9, 2006)

A 7 string strat would awesome...if it was any good.

Wonder how it compares with the squier 7


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## Chris D (Jan 9, 2006)

I have a Squier 7.

Aside from the body shape it's nothing like a strat.

But I like it, good no-frills metal beater, inverted head  

I'm considering making a V body for mine... 

BTW, I've edited my last post.


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## Jerich (Jan 9, 2006)

i think all Jake E lee referances on this topic are outlandish...as a Owner of one of Jakes Charvel's Number #00004 and a Board memeber of www.jakeelee.com and aealion in your photo you sunmitted if you notice(((  ))) that is a charvel Body not a fender!! Charvels neck joint's are squared not rounded..Go to Jakes website to read all the stats on that guitar..Mine is the Purple one on the site listed under (jerich) original Jake E Lee..the guitar now resides in a Glass case in my Office...


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## noodles (Jan 9, 2006)

Jerich said:


> i think all Jake E lee referances on this topic are outlandish...as a Owner of one of Jakes Charvel's Number #00004 and a Board memeber of www.jakeelee.com and aealion in your photo you sunmitted if you notice(((  ))) that is a charvel Body not a fender!! Charvels neck joint's are squared not rounded..Go to Jakes website to read all the stats on that guitar..Mine is the Purple one on the site listed under (jerich) original Jake E Lee..the guitar now resides in a Glass case in my Office...



He never said it was a Fender body. He said it was a Fender neck on that one particular guitar.


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## eaeolian (Jan 9, 2006)

Jerich said:


> i think all Jake E lee referances on this topic are outlandish...as a Owner of one of Jakes Charvel's Number #00004 and a Board memeber of www.jakeelee.com and aealion in your photo you sunmitted if you notice(((  ))) that is a charvel Body not a fender!! Charvels neck joint's are squared not rounded..Go to Jakes website to read all the stats on that guitar..Mine is the Purple one on the site listed under (jerich) original Jake E Lee..the guitar now resides in a Glass case in my Office...



Yeah, I couldn't remember if they replaced the body or not - but I knew the neck was still Fender. It's a very un-Charvel body, though, with the pickguard and top mount jack...

Whenever I see singles slanted backwards, I immediately think of Jake.


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## Shawn (Jan 9, 2006)

eaeolian said:


> Nope, the original Jake guitar was a hardtail Strat with a shaved neck (w/a painted 'stock and a Charvel logo, but it was the Fender neck) and a pickguard.


Shannon, I like the looks of the strat-style 7 too.  It would be cool if I could have this as a 7 ^.

Eaeolian, cool pic. I have a bootleg vid of the Bark At The Moon tour and man, does he shred it up and throw down, he totally nails Mr Crowley and then some. Jake E. Lee = 

Jerich, very cool that your the owner of Jake E. Lee's #00004 Charvel.


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## Digital Black (Jan 9, 2006)

I dig the Mac50. Seen both of these on ebay at one time or another. I was tempted...still am.....


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## Shannon (Feb 26, 2006)

Thread resurrection!
I found some new old stock Aria 7-string Strats on Ebay with some very large detailed photos (click the links). I am so close to just buying a red one with the maple fretboard. 
$199 Buy It Now.  

Red w/ Maple Fretboard
Blue w/ Rosewood Fretboard


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## maskofduality (Feb 26, 2006)

go for the red one! in _my_ opinion it looks classier


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## Shannon (Feb 26, 2006)

Yep. As I stated in an earlier post, I'm been wanting to make a 7-string version of EVH's famous "Red White & Black-striped" Frankenstrat. With the body & that 22-fret maple fretboard, I'd be that much closer to acheiving my goal.


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## zimbloth (Feb 26, 2006)

Dude, it may look how you want it to look, but more than likely it has shitty woods and plays like ass. If I were you I'd just save up for something nice instead of buying a guitar made in the People's Republic of Congo by children, just for the looks of it. I've made the mistake of buying things for looks before, and even after putting new pickups in, you're still often left with a guitar that has poor tone woods, doesn't resonate and sing, has low grade fretboard material, neck that plays mediocre if not horrible, etc.

Hold on to your coin! I think you may end up being real disappointed is all. Just my $0.02


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## Shannon (Feb 26, 2006)

I understand where you're coming from. However, this would NOT be considered a "main" player, rather a backup axe to my Schecter. Over the years, I've taken several chances on buying inexpensive guitars & for every crap guitar I've come across, I've also come across a few gems as well. Most notably, the Steinberger Spirit series, the Kramer Striker 7, the OLP Petrucci & the Agile Interceptor. All it takes is finding a good solid axe, then tweak the setup or perhaps a modification & BAM...a nice playing inexpensive axe. If I get it, we shall see whether it's great or sucks. 

Between my guitar tech & I, we could have some fun with this one.


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## Leon (Feb 26, 2006)

i dig the blue one, but it'd be cooler if it had the maple board on it.


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## bostjan (Feb 26, 2006)

yeah red one...

a co-worker of mine uses Aria guitars exclusively. I thought it was a bad deal at first, but he swears they are nice. I'm still a little skeptical overall, but it's good for him. The point is, that different people have different tastes. 

Someone told me Kramer strikers were highly ununiform in production. A guy who was a Kramer dealer said they would send batches of the same model, in the same year, but some of the bodies were poplar, some were agathis, and some were even balsa wood. I've playes some nice Kramers and heard horror stories about awful ones. I guess with a cheap guitar, you take a gamble.


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## Leon (Feb 26, 2006)

balsa?


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## Shannon (Feb 26, 2006)

^ That was problably before Gibson took over the Kramer line.


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## Jerich (Feb 26, 2006)

I must SAY hail SHANNON you always seem to find the finds brother!!! ....
I wanna get one of those in a crazy colored ones and canabilize...it....


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## kovachian (Feb 26, 2006)

That first Aria is basically the same guitar I posted another thread. I'd go for the first one, simply b/c too many 7 stringers look like the same ol' metalhead shredder axes. Not that a Strat knockoff is original but it's more original than the second one.





I get the feeling that no one has looked at the recent posts I made over here! http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/showthread.php?p=110447#post110447


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## Shannon (Feb 26, 2006)

kovachian said:


> That first Aria is basically the same guitar I posted another thread. I'd go for the first one, simply b/c too many 7 stringers look like the same ol' metalhead shredder axes. Not that a Strat knockoff is original but it's more original than the second one.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I'll be honest. I haven't looked at that thread in a while. Thanks for all the cool pictures there. I've been jonesing for a headless Timtone for ages now, but it's a long wait and DAMN pricey!


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## maskofduality (Feb 26, 2006)

if it weren't for the fact that i have a strat style guitar already (squier affinity version actually), i would love a 7 string strat. but i still need to get me a 7 string shredder (my GRX-7 just won't do! lol)


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## bostjan (Feb 26, 2006)

Shannon said:


> ^ That was problably before Gibson took over the Kramer line.





There are a lot of shred-style sevens out there relatively inexpensive. The Aria sevens look a little more metal than the average strat, even aside from the fact that it has seven strings. Way too few diversified instruments though.


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## fatclown (Feb 26, 2006)

Are the Mac 50 seven strings still in production? I searched for them online and I didn't get much. I was looking for how much they would be selling for.


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## Shannon (Feb 26, 2006)

^ You'll see them on Ebay and occasionally a new old stock model will show up, but I believe they (along with these Strats) are discontinued.


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## eaeolian (Feb 26, 2006)

Shannon said:


> ^ That was problably before Gibson took over the Kramer line.



Gibson's owned the Kramer name since the mid '90s. The quality has been spotty since the resurrection - I've played really nice and really crappy instances of the same model.


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## Shannon (May 14, 2006)

Resurrection!

I'm STILL GASing for that 7-string Strat. I think I'm just gonna have to buy it. 

Maple fretboard....Mmmmm.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ARIA-STG004-7-S...oryZ2384QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


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## Shawn (May 14, 2006)

kovachian said:


> That first Aria is basically the same guitar I posted another thread.


That is nice. I'd love that with a maple fretboard.  ^

Shannon, you should buy that one on ebay, that is nice.


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