On Jul 11, 2006, at 1:59 PM, Steve Bryson wrote: > I seem to recall > hearing that Aria was a Yamaha product, but all I knew at the time of > purchase is that it was "made in Japan". It is obviously mass- > produced, with a simple soundboard and a punch-cut rosette.
It was my understanding that Aria lutes were built by a single maker in Nagoya for Aria. > But I've > certainly gotten my money's worth with it, and if I could find a > local luthier I would have the cracked pegbox replaced. It has good > enough action for me. The case that comes with the lute is very > nice. From what I've heard it's way better than the current $600 > Pakistani lutes. I'm sure it is worth fixing if you could find someone. > I'd want to see better > pictures of the pegbox, both sides to make sure there are no cracks, > and the height of the action first I had one way back when. One of the odd things the maker did was to not put a backing on the pegbox, this makes it weak. It does make it easier to put strings on though. I don't know if that is why he did it. At one point a brace came loose on mine. To replace it meant taking the top off so Hiro Watanabe built a new top for me and put a new bridge in a more historical placement and I had a much better lute. The repair cost almost as much as the lute though. This served me for quite a while and it didn't sound half bad. The neck was a wide clunker though. Oh yeah, another weird thing was that what looked like strips of black spacer wood between the ribs were actually painted pin stripes. cheers, To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
