Saturday, June 4, 2011

Aria Pro II Integras: IGB-85B & IGB-DLX 5

IGB-DLX 5 & IGB-85B
Jake from Australia sends in pics of his two Aria Pro II Integra basses. They're both early '90s models with the offset headstock design and both have black finish (my personal favorite). The 4 string is the IGB-85B ("B" meant they were equipped with Bartolini pickups), and the 5er is an IGB-DLX 5 or IGB-805 depending on the market they were being sold in.


The IGB-DLX 5 came with single coil pickups that are, at times, known to pick up radio stations! I have one of these basses myself and can confirm that unfortunate fact! Beside that little annoyance, they are great sounding instruments. Some DLX-5s came with a brass nut and all came stock with Gotoh tuners, a Gotoh bridge (with an Aria Pro II badge), and ebony fingerboards (pretty rare for Aria Pro basses outside of the SB-1000). Jake says his 5er plays wonderfully but is considering some after market pickups and going with passive electronics.


Jake modified his IGB-85B with new W4CBC Bartolinis since the originals were long gone. He also configured the passive electronics as follows: Volume, Volume, Tone, with the volume pots being push/pull. When the knobs are depressed the pickups are in dual coil humbucker mode. In this mode he says the bass is dead silent with high output and a full bass tone. When you pull the knobs you can go into a single coil mode, giving a classic Jazz bass tone with slightly less bass and a little more hum. The IGB-85B has become Jake's main bass with his only complaint that it is a little bit too light! Thanks to Jake for the info and pics of his basses!

Close-up of the SB style bridge.
Electronics featuring push/pull pots




No comments:

Post a Comment