He can’t play but he has always had a little interest in guitars so that’s a start .. He has been wanting one for some time and he spotted this in cash converters (hopefully not stolen!) …

It’s an Aria EA200 from the label , made in Japan. he plans to clean it up and get new strings on it.i know nothing about guitars but it does look very nice.

Just wondered if anybody on here knew anything about this … Is it a decent place to start if he decides to get lessons etc

Here’s the fella in question

That’s well nice, i like it a lot! : )

I bought a resonator guitar a few years back with big plans that came to naught.

I hear my 17 year old son playing the ‘Paris, Texas’ theme on his guitar now and wish I’d persevered.

Looks fine to me and if it gets him playing then that’s good 🙂

I have an Aria acoustic and it plays far better than a lot of more expensive guitars, according to my teacher, who likens it more than his Taylor………

Yup Japanese Arias are very good.as long as it’s been looked after and the neck angle is good which I’m sure it will be it should do him well for quite sometime.

Good looking guitar. The website below has loads of good lessons on it from very basic stuff up to an advanced level. It really helped me when I got back into it.

http://justinguitar.com

Aria Pro guitars are very good, that’s a copy of a Gibson ES390 Memphis Thinline, and a nice looking guitar. Beauty of those is that he can sit and strum away and be able to hear what he’s playing without needing it plugged in, because it’s a hollow-body. So long as the neck’s in good nick, all he needs is a new set of strings and he’s good to go. He can get a good little practice amp to play on for not a lot of money, something like a Pignose, or similar, like this little Fender:
http://www.soundsliveshop.com/p/Fender_Frontman_10G_Guitar_Combo_Amp/FEN-2311004900?CAWELAID=1830893475&catargetid=1822283407&cadevice=t&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CN-D54-H7bsCFa3KtAodNGoAYg

I’ll pass that link on Alexb27, thanks very much.
Count zero – thanks for the info. he picked up an amp when he got the guitar

Strangely, I was looking at a guitar rather exactly like that that was about £200 in Todmorden market… It’s a great guitar. I’ve had my (solid body) Aria Pro II since 1986…

I was playing an Aria Pro II my son has borrowed earlier. When he first had it the action was far too high even with 9s on as the tremolo mechanism is under sprung, it wouldn’t stay in tune either. I made up pieces of wood to block the mechanism and set up bridge for intonation etc.. It now plays quite nicely but the picks ups are rather fuzzy which isn’t helped by them being mounted too high (too near the strings). It’s OK for songs that are played with a mass of overdrive so it gets used.

Compare that with his Squire Classic Vibes Telecaster with Alnico 5 pickups. The neck is much nicer (a matter of taste I know), the set up was close to perfect out of the box, the pickups are clear and punchy (a clean source to distort as you wish with pedals/amp). I can’t resist picking the thing up having gone for years without playing.

Gitares have come down so much in price and the quality control of cheaper models so much improved you’re better buying new IMO. An Epiphone ES335 is you want a semi-accoustic like the one up top.