Aristides guitars. Worth try??

R

Redneckstomp

Active member
I am thinking of add a new guitar. As a superstrat lover I've been playing Ibby RGs. I want something different. This Aristdes guitars looks interesting. Can somebody give feedback??
 
Dude they are flat out, 100 percent amazing guitars. Like, absolutely fantastic. The best part about them is their consistency due to their design/building materials. So if you’ve played one model that was setup right and love it, you can pretty much rest assured buying one unseen of the same model will yield the same results. I played one of their 7 strings with lundgren M7 pickups in it and I swear to god it about blew my dick clean off. Great guitars.
 
VESmedic said:
Dude they are flat out, 100 percent amazing guitars. Like, absolutely fantastic. The best part about them is their consistency due to their design/building materials. So if you’ve played one model that was setup right and love it, you can pretty much rest assured buying one unseen of the same model will yield the same results. I played one of their 7 strings with lundgren M7 pickups in it and I swear to god it about blew my dick clean off. Great guitars.
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There is a 6 string version with Duncan Nazgul/Sentient loaded model near my site. I am thinking of brand new. Thank for the feedback!!
 
I wasn’t as impressed honestly. Had one and played many others. I do agree about how consistent they are though. 110% true there. I guess they’re pretty good overall, very nice playability and necks, but they left a lot for me to be desired in tone (let’s not forget that guitars are actually musical instruments). With the resin they’re made out of they lack all the growl, richness and complexity in tone when compared to my wood guitars. It is true though that non-wooden guitars (like also my aluminum and carbon fiber ones) tend to have much more contrast in sound with pickup swaps, but they still maintain their core tonal qualities regardless. They are actually pretty loud and quite resonant acoustically iirc, which initially is impressive, but once you look past that and really just listen to the tone itself it’s actually pretty bland and somewhat plastic-y to me

Also mine actually needed a setup badly after a few months, despite hearing since they’re not wood that shouldn’t happen, but it did still, but that wouldn’t matter to me if it was one of my better sounding guitars

For a non-wood guitars I would recommend much more so the aluminum EGC’s (they’re killer) or carbon fiber with stainless steel fretboard Etherial’s. I myself have 2 EGC’s and 1 Etherial Zatha with those materials
 
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braintheory said:
I wasn’t as impressed honestly. Had one and played many others. I do agree about how consistent they are though. 110% true there. I guess they’re pretty good overall, very nice playability and necks, but they left a lot for me to be desired in tone (let’s not forget that guitars are actually musical instruments). With the resin they’re made out of they lack all the growl, richness and complexity in tone when compared to my wood guitars. It is true though that non-wooden guitars (like also my aluminum and carbon fiber ones) tend to have much more contrast in sound with pickup swaps, but they still maintain their core tonal qualities regardless. They are actually pretty loud and quite resonant acoustically iirc, which initially is impressive, but once you look past that and really just listen to the tone itself it’s actually pretty bland and somewhat plastic-y to me

Also mine actually needed a setup badly after a few months, despite hearing since they’re not wood that shouldn’t happen, but it did still, but that wouldn’t matter to me if it was one of my better sounding guitars

For a non-wood guitars I would recommend much more so the aluminum EGC’s (they’re killer) or carbon fiber with stainless steel fretboard Etherial’s. I myself have 2 EGC’s and 1 Etherial Zatha with those materials
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What about Mayones?? Heve you tried them?
 
I had one and thought it was a bit meh. The edges of the fretboard were uncomfortably sharp which completely threw me off. The fretwork was good. Guitar sounded fine.

Supposedly the material is not impacted much by humidity but is by temperature.
 
They're incredible - forget about the consistency and stability, they sound incredible as well. Extremely resonant, they just have a little "more" than most guitars I've played.

I loved it so much I bought another one and rarely touch anything else anymore.
 
For that kind of money I probably would look at Carillion and GNG.

But people I know say they are very consistent and stable, so might be worth it for a gigging musician.

Their aesthetics don’t do it for me as a superstrat enjoyer.
 
Aristides are one of if not the best built guitars out there. The necks on them are thin like Ibanez all the way up to the 24th fret, no neck joint and no clunky neck-thru contours like on regular guitars. The back cavity on them is somewhat big and it sort of acts like a chambered or semi-hollow guitar. As a result of that, Aristides are really loud acoustically and resonate really nicely.

I've worked on thousands of guitars at this point in my career. There aren't many guitars out there I haven't played, set up or fixed. The only guitars I own right now are several Aristides and a PRS (this was handed down to me). It's nice to have a guitar that will never experience fret sprout, will never have to condition or worry about the fretboard, will never have to level it (hopefully) and will have to make few adjustments to it during the course of a year. They aren't as crazy expensive as people like to think, one of my 060's with a hipshot ran me $3100+/- another 060 with an Evertune and a custom inlay ran me $4000+/-. I intend on keeping these guitars for the rest of my life so it's a small investment. Grab one used if your curious, they hold their value.
 
Redneckstomp said:
What about Mayones?? Heve you tried them?
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Yes, had 3 (2 Regius’s, Duvell) and tried tons others. Not too many guitars (or gear in general) I haven’t tried at this point. I evaluate though guitars really on sound and Mayones (along with the vast majority of recent boutique guitars) I find really sterile/bland sounding (all that poly and multi-piece glued necks probably aren’t doing much favors with respect to tone either). They look awesome and play great, but with an uninspiring sound the rest doesn’t matter to me. I don’t usually say much when guys talk guitars here though since I don’t think most of the ones mentioned tend to sound good. It seems sadly most builders are so meticulous with a fine toothed comb about everything but the damn sound on a musical instrument of all things lol. It’s almost like a restaurant that gets everything 10/10 except for how the food tastes. Alright, sorry for the rant lol

My guitars are largely various ones from the ‘50’s through ‘80’s that I find a lot more inspiring/musical tonally, the aluminum EGC’s and carbon fiber Etherial for something unique and cool soundwise (lots of clarity with them), and Marchione’s, the one boutique guitar (and Tao, which I gotta get eventually) that actually delivers for me on all fronts. Admittedly very overpriced, but it is what it is and so is a lot great gear
 
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I ordered one from the factory a number of years ago but got rid of it fairly quickly. I preferred my Mayones Duvells.

BTW... those multipiece necks on Mayos are awesome. You want a neck that is stable, straight, and strong. That's exactly what Duvells have. Tone? Hard to beat wenge, bubinga, ebony, purple heart, etc. Better than any maple or mahogany neck I've come across. I've had four Duvells over the years and I like them more than any other guitar I've had. But really, it depends on what you're looking for. Do they have as much character as an old LP or Strat? No. But they aren't going for that kind of thing in the first place.
 
FourT6and2 said:
I ordered one from the factory a number of years ago but got rid of it fairly quickly. I preferred my Mayones Duvells.

BTW... those multipiece necks on Mayos are awesome. You want a neck that is stable, straight, and strong. That's exactly what Duvells have. Tone? Hard to beat wenge, bubinga, ebony, purple heart, etc. Better than any maple or mahogany neck I've come across. I've had four Duvells over the years and I like them more than any other guitar I've had. But really, it depends on what you're looking for. Do they have as much character as an old LP or Strat? No. But they aren't going for that kind of thing in the first place.
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I respectfully disagree. Functionally it makes sense, but tonally I’ve yet to try any guitar with that many pieces involved the neck (with those woods types also) with a great sound and I’ve had (and tried) so many now. They IME have sounded sterile, stiff and brittle, even some vintage examples I’ve had. I also IME found bubinga not to be a great tonewood (other rosewoods are much better, although I know Bubinga isn't technically the same species) and wenge I found often to have a pretty coarse sound, purpleheart can be quite good though (I had a guitar with an entire body, neck and board that was all purpleheart with loads of growl and nice complexity)

I also wasn’t comparing them necessarily to traditional old LP’s or Strat’s, but more so good example superstrat style guitars with nitro finish like some aged nitro Charvel’s I had or Marchione’s (that use also shellac), the tone imo is light years more 3D/complex/nuanced around each note and the way each note more fluidly connects to each other and the guitars just breathe a lot more. They sound comparatively alive almost human, where the others to me I find dead/not very responsive and therefore sterile as I perceive them. To me it makes everything sound a lot more expressive and inspiring and the right spec examples can still sound plenty tight, modern, punchy and aggressive. Just my opinion/experience though

And then with the metal or carbon fiber guitars they have their own sound (debatably less organic, but interesting) and I’d imagine quite stable too. Mine have never needed anything at least, while the one Aristides I had needed a setup bad after about 2 months owning it and not using it much
 
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I dumped my LP customs and R8 after getting into Mayones. Love the Duvell. Never owned a Regius but from the few I’ve played, I’m definitely more partial to the Duvell. As for Aristides, I was impressed by the one I played. I’d grab one at some point if the price was right, but not sure I’d pay new prices.
 
braintheory said:
I respectfully disagree. Functionally it makes sense, but tonally I’ve yet to try any guitar with that many pieces involved the neck (with those woods types also) with a great sound and I’ve had (and tried) so many now. They IME have sounded sterile, stiff and brittle, even some vintage examples I’ve had. I also IME found bubinga not to be a great tonewood (other rosewoods are much better, although I know Bubinga isn't technically the same species) and wenge I found often to have a pretty coarse sound, purpleheart can be quite good though (I had a guitar with an entire body, neck and board that was all purpleheart with loads of growl and nice complexity)

I also wasn’t comparing them necessarily to traditional old LP’s or Strat’s, but more so good example superstrat style guitars with nitro finish like some aged nitro Charvel’s I had or Marchione’s (that use also shellac), the tone imo is light years more 3D/complex/nuanced around each note and the way each note more fluidly connects to each other and the guitars just breathe a lot more. They sound comparatively alive almost human, where the others to me I find dead/not very responsive and therefore sterile as I perceive them. To me it makes everything sound a lot more expressive and inspiring and the right spec examples can still sound plenty tight, modern, punchy and aggressive. Just my opinion/experience though

And then with the metal or carbon fiber guitars they have their own sound (debatably less organic, but interesting) and I’d imagine quite stable too. Mine have never needed anything at least, while the one Aristides I had needed a setup bad after about 2 months owning it and not using it much
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Maybe I just don't have the ears lol. I've never noticed any of those sonic qualities with ANY guitar I've ever played. Most electric guitars sound about the same to me. Once you plug 'em into an amp with some gain and crank it up, most guitars' intrinsic sound qualities go away and you mostly hear the amp and speakers, with the pickup dominating the guitar's tone.

Also, Duvells aren't exactly designed to play genres of music where you'll hear all those nuances in tone you're talking about. They are modern, high-gain, metal machines.
 
FourT6and2 said:
Maybe I just don't have the ears lol. I've never noticed any of those sonic qualities with ANY guitar I've ever played. Most electric guitars sound about the same to me. Once you plug 'em into an amp with some gain and crank it up, most guitars' intrinsic sound qualities go away and you mostly hear the amp and speakers, with the pickup dominating the guitar's tone.

Also, Duvells aren't exactly designed to play genres of music where you'll hear all those nuances in tone you're talking about. They are modern, high-gain, metal machines.
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Yeah I basically agree, I just like to nerd out about a lot of sound details lol. Through high gain amps these are generally subtle differences, but I enjoy listening for them, trying to understand what contributes to the tone, and find it inspiring even with the counterarguments about how little it may or may not matter in the grand scheme

Mayones guitars are probably though also designed with some shredders or lead players in mind (especially given the sleek playing necks) and despite initially being subtle, I do feel that’s an area where some of the nuances and better/more fluid note connection of some other guitars can make a difference in the player feeling more inspired, but for stuff with mostly chugs and powerchords less so

I will say though with some more extreme examples like my all aluminum guitars or all rosewood or Paduak body guitars I find them to have a very big difference in sound character even in a modern high gain metal context

I think also with the pickup dominating the sound it really depends. With higher output ones typically yes. I find the more woody and tonally complex a guitar sounds (especially the really old ones) the more it’s character shines through strongly even with very extreme pickup swaps, while guitars in the opposite direction I found you really hear way more contrast with each swap
 
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braintheory said:
Yeah I basically agree, I just like to nerd out about a lot of sound details lol. Through high gain amps these are generally subtle differences, but I enjoy listening for them, trying to understand what contributes to the tone, and find it inspiring even with the counterarguments about how little it may or may not matter in the grand scheme

Mayones guitars are probably though also designed with some shredders or lead players in mind (especially given the sleek playing necks) and despite initially being subtle, I do feel that’s an area where some of the nuances and better/more fluid note connection of some other guitars can make a difference in the player feeling more inspired, but for stuff with mostly chugs and powerchords less so

I will say though with some more extreme examples like my all aluminum guitars or all rosewood or Paduak body guitars I find them to have a very big difference in sound character even in a modern high gain metal context

I think also with the pickup dominating the sound it really depends. With higher output ones typically yes. I find the more woody and tonally complex a guitar sounds (especially the really old ones) the more it’s character shines through strongly even with very extreme pickup swaps, while guitars in the opposite direction I found you really hear way more contrast with each swap
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I love your elitist ear
 
@braintheory You say you have an Etherial? I am loving the Azwen 8 FV, but the wait is about a year. Do you know of any US dealers? My only experience was a very short time with a used zatha 8, but it was priced higher than new from Australia, so I walked. Have been looking at those and the Barlows, but iirc you said the Barlows weren't very inspiring.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
@braintheory You say you have an Etherial? I am loving the Azwen 8 FV, but the wait is about a year. Do you know of any US dealers? My only experience was a very short time with a used zatha 8, but it was priced higher than new from Australia, so I walked. Have been looking at those and the Barlows, but iirc you said the Barlows weren't very inspiring.
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I don't. I found mine used on reverb, which is probably your best bet. Very cool and unique guitar though. Lotta clarity and tightness to the sound and I find the playability to be great despite the weird scooped neck shape and fanned frets. Didn't really require adjustment for me actually. IMHO so much better than Aristides, although not exactly apples to apples comparison maybe. Also very light weight. In the 6 lbs range

I have a Barlow still with unique woods (Paduak body, yellow heart top, ebony neck and fretboard) so I kept it and tried others and yes, like most boutique guitar builders that don't care about sound, they sounded to me like yet another furniture with strings attached type guitar. Everything else was immaculate: the fretwork, playability, the way it looked, etc. What a shame and weird priorities they go for imo
 
braintheory said:
I don't. I found mine used on reverb, which is probably your best bet. Very cool and unique guitar though. Lotta clarity and tightness to the sound and I find the playability to be great despite the weird scooped neck shape and fanned frets. Didn't really require adjustment for me actually. IMHO so much better than Aristides, although not exactly apples to apples comparison maybe. Also very light weight. In the 6 lbs range

I have a Barlow still with unique woods (Paduak body, yellow heart top, ebony neck and fretboard) so I kept it and tried others and yes, like most boutique guitar builders that don't care about sound, they sounded to me like yet another furniture with strings attached type guitar. Everything else was immaculate: the fretwork, playability, the way it looked, etc. What a shame and weird priorities they go for imo
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Thank you! Appreciate the response. Yeah, the Etherials seem to be non existent. The one I'm looking at rn is about $5k, but I think I might just be okay with that for once. I still need to recoup a bit from recent spending, but pretty sure that's the route I'm going to take.
 
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