# Composite neck/body material - Aristides Instruments. What are your opinions?



## Cloudy (Oct 11, 2014)

I recently acquired an Aristides 060, quite the cool guitar. The body and neck are made out of a pseudo-super wood material called Arium which is suppose to be a non-wood replacement for guitar building. I really hope this design takes wind, I'm very pleased with it so far. To the touch it feels a lot like any matte/painted guitar wood, especially the neck, but when you knock on the surface it feels like heavy duty plastic.

A little bit pricey but the order process with them was smooth as butter, can't recommend them enough. Its also a top notch quality guitar.

Anyone else have any guitars made from unorthodox materials?


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Interesting guitar. My thought with materials other than wood is there is no way to have a wood grain look, although they could likely make a fake one since they do it on flooring and elsewhere. Is that paint or the colour of the material?


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## Cloudy (Oct 11, 2014)

Steadfastly said:


> Interesting guitar. My thought with materials other than wood is there is no way to have a wood grain look, although they could likely make a fake one since they do it on flooring and elsewhere. Is that paint or the colour of the material?


Its paint, the colour of the material is closer to a plain white. 










Not the most attractive plain look but for solid painted instruments it works like a charm.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Nice, congrats!
I hadn't heard of this brand.

Flaxwood make composite guitars, somewhere in the Netherlands, I believe.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Was this from the seymour duncan contest?

I have no issues with composite materials so long as it sounds good.


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

I love Parker's Fly. It uses carbon fiber to minimize weight. What is the weight of these?........


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Neat idea. I wonder how they sound and play?


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## boyscout (Feb 14, 2009)

I wonder if these sound nearly-identical to each other.

Elsewhere, maybe here too, debates have raged about whether the wood in a solid-body guitar affects its tone. Some (including me) say the differences in wood can make audible differences between otherwise-identical guitars. Others say it makes no perceptible difference (they are wrong, of course).

In these guitars, if the "wood" is homogenous throughout, same density, no grain, etc., then - allowing for tiny differences in machine-wound pickups - any one of these guitars should sound nearly identical to any of its brothers.

Who's gonna buy two to prove this theory?!


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

The only way to scientifically prove it is to play them in an anechoic chamber and record them separately.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

I did a little research on these Aristides guitars. I like the idea of the one piece body and neck. They don't have a large selection of colours and they are pricey. Here is a video on the 010 model.

[video=youtube;2VRKcEfm9Is]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRKcEfm9Is[/video]

Website: http://www.aristidesinstruments.com/page/guitars.html


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## DrHook (Oct 28, 2013)

I have a Composite Acoustics GX model made of carbon fiber. i love playing it and the sound is amazing although the look of the carbon fiber gets a little boring after a while  What's keen to note, is that most composite material guitars are made with tighter tolerances and consistent quality in manufacturing. For me, if they can duplicate the resonance and sustain of wood, then I'm all for it. As well, I've yet to adjust the neck as there's zero flex due to seasonal changes.


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## Cloudy (Oct 11, 2014)

Parkers have peaked my interest for a number of years, love seeing guitars made from graphite/carbon fibre. 

Seymour Duncan did a contest with Aristides earlier this year but it was for an 010, this is their newer model the 060.

The price tag is a bit daunting but they're a new boutique company so its to be expected. Like flaxwood, Aristides is also out of Netherlands, not sure if they work together or not.

Mine weighs in at about 8 pounds.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

One of the things yu don't really get to do, as a guitar-maker intent on doing more than one-offs, is pick the weight/density of the wood used for the body. I'll rephrase that. You CAN pck the density, but you have no assurances that you can crank out body blanks with identical specs on any sort of even modest volume level (e.g., limited run of 200). What composites like this permit is consistency. If a person wants to buy a one-off like the beauty ngroenveld showed off here, that's one thng; such pieces are contracted for or bought after examination. If you want to walk into a store, or go on a website and order somethng, you want it to be what you expect, and the consistency of composites permits that.

I think it is also fair to say that a predictable body resonance also allows the builder to make more strategic pickup and bridge choices.


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## Cloudy (Oct 11, 2014)

This is exactly why I'm all onboard with composite materials^

Now, naturally its not going to be 100% everytime but its going to be a hell of a lot closer which is pretty cool to see. I'm excited to sit down and play a few back to back at NAMM this year.

That and they have a pretty fantastic array of colours to choose from at Aristides.


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

Accept2 said:


> I love Parker's Fly. It uses carbon fiber to minimize weight. What is the weight of these?........


I have a Parker Nite Fly! I love the carbon fibre neck. Your fingers just glide over the neck! My guitar weighs in at 3.5 lbs. I love this guitar absolutely. This guitar is a jack of all trades. This guitar is with me for life. I have played Les Pauls, Fenders etc. before and while their nice n' all I think this guitar IMHO beats them all! The sound I can get from this guitar is incredible.


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## Brajuha (Jun 20, 2018)

Aristides guitars are excellent, and keep getting better. In some ways almost too perfect if you like minor imperfections, they will be hard to come by. The brand suits more of the metal scene, but the T/0 is a great classic looking guitar, and very comfortable to play. I had a custom T/0 built with Greg koch gristletone pickups and love it. Feel free to ask me about the process. Their customer service was absolutely top shelf as well. Treat you like a friend as opposed to a customer.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Necro thread.

Nice looking guitar though. Is that a kill switch between the pots?


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## 2manyGuitars (Jul 6, 2009)

About 7 months ago, someone posted here looking for someone in Ottawa to grab a guitar that the kijiji seller wouldn’t ship. I answered the call and sent this Aristides 010 to Saskatchewan.


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

There's a company right here in Canada called Synergy instruments making carbon fiber guitars that look pretty cool: https://www.synergyinstruments.com/


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