Aristides Guitars

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Fred the Shred

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Ah, the nXt! Those were super cool things, but Catalyst appeared to have some "eh..." craftsmanship in the end of the day, so you'd get the material but not the Aristides quality tied to it. A shame though - I always found the nXt to be super cool looking.
 

SnowfaLL

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If you google catalyst guitars in Google and try to use "view cache" or maybe it was the way back machine, you can find a spec list of the catalyst headless guitars like that one (think it was the NXt? Model had NX in it I believe)

And I agree with Fred, my Catalyst Panthera isn't anywhere near as well built as my 070 (esp with age) but it's still a decent guitar. I was strongly considering a refret, still might. It is a neckthru arium Strat though, cant go wrong!
 

LeviathanKiller

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If they did straight black Rs, I probably would have ordered one this weekend. I'm a long-time detractor of the brand purely because I think the scoops look stupid as hell, but after having climate-related issues with two guitars on Saturday (including a fancy-pants Suhr), I was just about ready to live with the scoops, haha.

The one way I can live with them, I've found, is a matte/satin black 080S, because the angle, proportions, and scoops combined with the flat black give it a reasonably acceptable Lockheed-Martin Skunkworks vibe that I can dig on. However, I can't really dig on it for $3.6k and a potential 7 month wait, so that's a no.

I heard about the R series being cheaper and faster, but the anthracite isn't dark enough to really pull off the same aesthetic. So yeah, if black R was an option, I'd probably be on the build waiting list as I type this, haha.

I'll definitely let you know if I hear anything back, and yeah I imagine it'd be somewhere in the 2600 EUR range for something like an 080S in the Raw series. Wait time is like around the 3 month mark too, so not too nuts.

This is nearly the sole reason why I want an Aristides and will most likely be ordering an R series this year. Sometimes I just want to play and not bother with adjusting things when the weather is temperamental. Stability is awesome. The EverTune bridge alleviates things a bit but makes the guitar quite heavy and doesn't address fret sprout or action due to the neck adjusting itself as a result of humidity and temperature.
 

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Fred the Shred

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I play those things all over the world, and the stability is indeed a huge point in their favour - it's not this exclusive thing, as there are wooden guitars that just won't budge unless under the most extreme conditions, but since each and every Tiddies stays basically put and only the strings move, being able to tune the thing before the gig when temp has settled and not bother with it since is quite a godsend for sure.
 

Jonathan20022

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My Thorn Rune and Majesty are like 90% as stable honestly, I have the trem blocked in the Rune and it's typically on the dot or a string or two will be 2 - 4 cents off.
 

Jason B

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I remind anyone rationalizing their GAS for an Aristides on the basis of neck stability that Vigier exists; and can periodically be found on the used market for 40% off their new price.

On the other hand, I am very much looking forward to buying someone’s Aristides less than a month after their purchase, for over a thousand less than they paid, then bumping their NGD with my own photos, appraisal, and nitpicking; complete with “man, a glaring issue like this would be unacceptable on a Squire or Abasi - If I hadn’t bought this used at a heavy discount, I would have felt screwed!” sentiments.

...

Bonus predicted sentiment: “Wow! Good thing the original owner spec’d this turd out in an ugly pastel color and pickup combo no one else would; or else someone else might have made a low-ball offer higher than mine! Man; tax season will leave you hurting you every time. Gotta wonder why people time these orders so that they’re delivered a month before tax season!”

Come on, guys - It’ll be a classic thread. Let’s start a gofundme.
 

I play music

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I remind anyone rationalizing their GAS for an Aristides on the basis of neck stability that Vigier exists; and can periodically be found on the used market for 40% off their new price.
Vigier look hideous and make no multiscale ERGs and so on...
 

Fred the Shred

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It's a matter of preference, to be honest. Vigiers are super reliable axes that also don't come cheap if you're buying new, and the offer, as pointed out above, is quite different than that of Aristides.
 

narad

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I remind anyone rationalizing their GAS for an Aristides on the basis of neck stability that Vigier exists; and can periodically be found on the used market for 40% off their new price.

Also humidifiers/dehumidifiers exist. They can sometimes be found on the used market for 40% the price of the satin finish neck option on an Aristides.
 

Fred the Shred

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To be fair, humidifiers and dehumidifiers are worth nothing to me while on the road, but they do mitigate issues (sometimes a LOT) at home / in storage. Stability in my case matters the most in two circumstances, namely in the studio and live, and obviously there's little if anything you can do to control the environment of the latter. When I'm doing open air stuff in particular, it's impossible to have anything other than the instruments' own resilience to suboptimal conditions.

I understand where you're getting at, but many means of improving on instrument stability were not developed taking into consideration our ability to shape the environment, and very rightly so. That's another point in favour of stuff like Aristides, Vigier et al - I've never seen them just start acting wonky no matter the stage where the action was taking place.
 

narad

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To be fair, humidifiers and dehumidifiers are worth nothing to me while on the road, but they do mitigate issues (sometimes a LOT) at home / in storage.

I totally get it in your case, but for the other 99% of Aristides owners, the closest the guitar is coming to a touring gig is when Fedex grabs it from the local shipping center. People just need to be realistic. The way a lot of guys talk about stability makes it sound like wood guitars are made of tofu.
 

Fred the Shred

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That is true, and that's why while stability takes a fair bit of the maintenance hassle off in those circumstances, it isn't really going to matter to the often hyperbolic extremes some fans will claim it does.

As you know, I swear by these things, but this is in light of my expectations, necessities and preferences in tone / feel - sometimes the virtues of these guitars are taken to some quite odd extremes, to be honest, and I'm not too keen on that personally, as it obfuscates the objective qualities that makes them what they are and why people are actually so happy with them in a number of contexts.
 

SnowfaLL

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On the topic of used Aristides, I got a question for you guys - what is with the fluctuation of pricing lately? Most used 070s go for roughly $2800-3500 US depending on finish it seems, but Ive seen a few lately around $2500, which makes me worried on selling mine. (to probably get a 2nd 060 or a R series) - I know that yellow one with Singlecoil bridge and Humbucker neck made sense why it sold so low, but I thought I saw a purple marble hardtail 070 sell for $2500 USD lately, that was insanely cheap.

Any idea on what my Deep Blue Sky Matte, Blonde richlite blank board, hipshot tremolo with Fishman Moderns in pretty good condition would be worth?
 

narad

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That is true, and that's why while stability takes a fair bit of the maintenance hassle off in those circumstances, it isn't really going to matter to the often hyperbolic extremes some fans will claim it does.

As you know, I swear by these things, but this is in light of my expectations, necessities and preferences in tone / feel - sometimes the virtues of these guitars are taken to some quite odd extremes, to be honest, and I'm not too keen on that personally, as it obfuscates the objective qualities that makes them what they are and why people are actually so happy with them in a number of contexts.

Yea, I played Jonathan's on two occasions and definitely want one, but a lot of the reviews and arium talk is pretty cringey, so wish the clique would self-regulate a bit. I just think they're pretty solid guitars, super top notch finish work, good fretwork, and the manner of construction means I'm not stuck criticizing neck joints, and routs, and binding, etc. Not really much I can fault them on besides a pretty rough edge on the forearm.
 

Fred the Shred

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Rough edge on the forearm? Must be my stupid picking / tapping antics, but never noticed that. Do you feel it's digging into your forearm or something when rested against the guitar?
 

jephjacques

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On the topic of used Aristides, I got a question for you guys - what is with the fluctuation of pricing lately? Most used 070s go for roughly $2800-3500 US depending on finish it seems, but Ive seen a few lately around $2500, which makes me worried on selling mine. (to probably get a 2nd 060 or a R series) - I know that yellow one with Singlecoil bridge and Humbucker neck made sense why it sold so low, but I thought I saw a purple marble hardtail 070 sell for $2500 USD lately, that was insanely cheap.

Any idea on what my Deep Blue Sky Matte, Blonde richlite blank board, hipshot tremolo with Fishman Moderns in pretty good condition would be worth?

The used market has been garbage in general for the last few years. I'm guessing the ones that sold super cheap were people who just wanted to move the instruments ASAP. Lord knows I've sold guitars at a big loss before just to get them out of my dang closet.
 

narad

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Rough edge on the forearm? Must be my stupid picking / tapping antics, but never noticed that. Do you feel it's digging into your forearm or something when rested against the guitar?

It's not leave-an-imprint tele-style bad, but I think I'd rate it below strats/bent-tops/bodens and obviously behind an EBMM JP. "Rough" was probably the wrong word -- there's nothing rough about it -- but it is an almost right-angle type of contour. Functionally could be better, but would really mess up the design to address it.
 

SnowfaLL

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The used market has been garbage in general for the last few years. I'm guessing the ones that sold super cheap were people who just wanted to move the instruments ASAP. Lord knows I've sold guitars at a big loss before just to get them out of my dang closet.
Yea I figured maybe but ive seen more than a few.. well if you are in Halifax and looking for an 070 before I move to Ottawa in the summer.. lol I'd love to sell without shipping, so most likely I'll bring to Ottawa and hope to find an Ontario buyer later on.. along with my JPX7 which will probably go.
 

Jonathan20022

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I totally get it in your case, but for the other 99% of Aristides owners, the closest the guitar is coming to a touring gig is when Fedex grabs it from the local shipping center. People just need to be realistic. The way a lot of guys talk about stability makes it sound like wood guitars are made of tofu.

I mean, negating neck warping from ever happening, fret sprout/lifting, shrinking fretboards, almost any shift in relief, and an ever changing setup is stability literally anyone can appreciate not just touring musicians. There's plenty of benefits to the marketed stability any composite instrument offers. Like I said before, if I don't have to wrestle with my truss rod and setup to get my guitar feeling how it did everytime I sat down I'll happily avoid it. I'm more observant about action and setup than others I know, so if my action changes from 1mm -> 1.4mm it's pretty glaring to me.

Wood guitars are stable, some less than others. But these clearly have the edge. I've adjusted my RG550's truss rod probably 3 - 4 times in the last year. I've only tweaked my 070 the day I got it 2 years ago now to set it to my preference, can't beat that.
 
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