Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar 

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

Just arrived and right out of the box I'm fairly impressed. Nice red finish, smooth fret ends, not too heavy @ 8lb 6 oz. Tuners feel smooth. The trem is floating and the guitar stayed in pretty good tune with light use. I'll adjust the string height to my liking as it higher then I like. The intonation was dead on. P90 type sound from the PU's as expected. Overall a nice instrument with cool Mosrite vibe for not much money.

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

If you know who the Ventures are,and love their music, you're going to love this guitar. No,it's not a Mosrite, but it doesn't cost $3000.00 either. I bought the candy apple red and it was flawless in appearance and it's playability was great right out of the box. Mine didn't need anything done to it at all. It has as near a Moserite tone and feel as your going to get in a guitar. I've been playing Ventures music for 50 years with strats, teles, and LP's and this looks like and plays like the real McCoy. If you never own another guitar, get one of these and you'll love it like I love mine.

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

On the plus side: This guitar is solid, well built, has a gorgeous finish and a wonderful sound.

On the down side: It doesn't have the flashy tremolo like some of the other surf style guitars and the screw-on tremelo arm is a bit hard to manage. Strap locks are a must with this guitar. It's heavy and it will drop out of a strap with a quickness. Intonation setup a must (like any tremolo guitar).

These downsides are quite forgivable for the price. This is a fantastic value.
I bought this guitar after researching several Mosrite copies on youtube and other sources. Upon seeing the actual guitar, I was blown away. I have the candy apple red version and it is absolutely beautiful. It is solidly built and shows no sign of any defects. It sounds great; throughty and robust but very clean. Everyone who has seen this guitar has been impressed. I've read complaints about it not staying in tune. I had this problem at first but a professional setup solved it for the most part. For the price, you can't go wrong with this. Just make sure you buy some strap locks and get the intonation set. If you want a Mosrite but can't shell out 3 Gs for one, I'm confident you'll be happy with this guitar.

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

The combination of features, unique design, excellent quality, and great P90 sound makes this a very attractive alternative to all the Squiers and Epiphones out there. These are apparently based on Aria's venture's model form the early 90s. It's good that there is an affordable almost-copy of a Mosrite. Call it a Mos-Strat!
I bought mine in Candy Apple red. It comes with two hot P90-style pickups. These pickups are much louder than other single coil pickups on my other guitars. The pickups have good tone to them both clean and with some gain on the amp. The modern 2-pivot Strat-style trem works well for light use, but is not made for dive-bombing. The combination of the pickups and the tremolo bar produce great surf sounds when played clean through a Fender reverb amp. The neck is very comfortable - not too thick or thin. The tuners look cheap but work well. The neck has a flat radius and has a matte finish.
Overall paint finish looks good. The neck was well finished with no sharp ends. I received it well set up requiring no work from me to make it playable.
For the price, this is a great buy! Although Mosrite purists will not like the basic changes to the original design (trem, pickups, large dot markers, etc.), this is an excellent and unique design. It comes with pretty much all the features you would want in a very versatile package.

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

Well, what can I say. Love this little axe! As with all guitars in this price range, one can expect to do a little set up, at least to their personal specs. Not the kinda thing you really "need" to hire a pro to do. Something you probably should learn how to do if your serrious about playing guitar. Sorta happens over time if you play long enough. No real problem with the tuning machines. As for the trem; great for surf. BTW: Seems like some guy named Dick Dale, you know "king of surf guitar", some claim he was the inventor of the same, used a srat, with a strat trem and seemed to have no real problem with it . Nor do I on this guitar. Duh. Come on! Can't beat it for the bucks! Pickups are really right there. Not a Mosrite, but hey, got the cash, buy a Mosrite. And who knows, 50 years from now these may pull high dollar. Just like Mustangs and Fender "Nobody wants that old tube stuff" Princeton amps. . LoL! Mines pink, yea I can walk that walk! Just simply rocks!

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

I have been playing for over 45 years and when I ordered this guitar I really didn't expect much. After reading a couple of reviews citing sharp frets, etc. I anticipated doing some work on this guitar. When I received it I was in for quite a surprise. This is one of the most comfortable necks I have ever played. The fretwork was superb (better than that on my American Deluxe Strat).....no sharp ends, no uneven frets. The nut was cut almost perfectly and the finish was flawless. The pickups are truly retro-sounding and very quiet for P-90's (especially in the middle toggle position which is hum-cancelling). I have had no trouble with the tuners but, then again, I'm not one of those dive-bombers with the tremolo. I would have liked a Bigsby and a solid white (instead of pearloid pickguard)but at this price one has to be reasonable. To me, this guitar is a tremendous value. It may be that I got lucky and got one of the good ones but, based on my experience, I'd say it's a keeper!

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

I got mine used, not sure how much it was used not a scratch on it.When I got her the frets were more than a little sharp but that was an easy fix and re strung with 10's and 3 springs, stock other than that. Unlike some other folks I haven't had a single problem with the tuners, no matter how much I use the trem it goes back to tune just like my Strats do.A Strat Trem not working for Surf.... What???P-90's sound great like they should nice and vintage sound.I'm glad I got one!!!!

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

For the price your getting what you pay for. Personally, I would spend the extra money on the Richmond Dorchester and have a guitar you can own for a lifetime. This Aria DM-380 (DM = 'Disappointing Mosrite' copy), looks cool, but it ends there.

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

I really wanted to love this guitar. It is quite beautiful and actually has a great tone. Sadly, the quality of the hardware does not hold up and you will end up spending so much on modifications that you might as well look into the superior Eastwood Guitars. If not Eastwood, if you have the money, then look into Hallmark.It sounds wonderful. There is no doubt. The P-90s are hot to say the least. The finish and construction is nearly flawless.The problem starts with the tuners. They are simply very cheap and, no matter how hard to you tighten them, will still detune.The second problem is the tremolo. First of all, a strat style tremolo is simply not suited for surf music. Second of all, there seemed to be an issue with the string guides inside of my tremolo which caused this guitar's G to go extremely sharp with even the slightest use.Third, and this goes with ANY tremolo/vibrato system, this guitar really needed roller saddles. I do not think this would have helped so much with my tuning issues, but I know that in the long run, after proper mods, this would seal the deal on any tuning issues.As I said, I have returned this guitar and have now ordered an Eastwood Sidejack. The quality is just much better and it includes a classic Jag/Jazz vibrato.

Comments about Aria DM-380 Diamond Electric Guitar:

I have wanted a Mosrite for years but lets be honest. They are severely overpriced. I play instrumental surf music and have really wanted that Brian Causey/Starcrunch tone. This guitar is as close as you can get and at a wonderful price. It requires some professional setup out of the box but when you get it set up right it is ready to go. I suggest heavier strings though...11's or 12's if you want some amazingly beefy surf tone. Also, you will probably have to add another spring or two to the vibrato, which brings me to my biggest complaint. The Strat style vibrato is just not the best fit for a surf guitar. They are simply not subtile enough. I am quite accustomed to a bigsby and this is taking some getting used to.