Yes, they are...or, at least, were. I had a guitar teacher when I was young named Robert Conti. He is a very well-schooled jazz guitarist in a very refined style. He had an Aria, and ended up having them make a "custom Robert Conti" model, designed after the Gibson L5. It was every bit as good as the Gibsons being made then. At that time, Aria guitars were manufactured by Matsumoku in Japan (designed ba Mr. Arai), but that ended in the late 80s, I believe. Now, they are more than likely made in Korea by Samick, I think by the same folks who make the Ibanez Artcore hollow bodies. By the way, Ibanez offers a lot of bang-for-the-buck on similar hollow bodies. I would recommend to anyone getting one of these guitars to plan on replacing the tuners (I have Schallers on my Aria TA-70 and TA-85 semi-hollowbody models), and the cheap jack, later the pick-ups. Very good quality in a basically plywood guitar, at a very good price.

moonbaby wrote: Yes, they are...or, at least, were. I had a guitar teacher when I was young named Robert Conti. He is a very well-schooled jazz guitarist in a very refined style. He had an Aria, and ended up having them make a "custom Robert Conti" model, designed after the Gibson L5. It was every bit as good as the Gibsons being made then. At that time, Aria guitars were manufactured by Matsumoku in Japan (designed ba Mr. Arai), but that ended in the late 80s, I believe. Now, they are more than likely made in Korea by Samick, I think by the same folks who make the Ibanez Artcore hollow bodies. By the way, Ibanez offers a lot of bang-for-the-buck on similar hollow bodies. I would recommend to anyone getting one of these guitars to plan on replacing the tuners (I have Schallers on my Aria TA-70 and TA-85 semi-hollowbody models), and the cheap jack, later the pick-ups. Very good quality in a basically plywood guitar, at a very good price.

Thanks a ton! The thing is quality guitars are hard to come by here, and choices few. This guitar, new is being offered to me for bout 400US. Even though i dont play guitar, not many around here have a hollow body, and i felt it could be a nice option to have lying around the studio...

cheers!
Sidhu