Aristides 0I0 Electric Guitar

Aristides uses Arium - a material conceived to offer a consistent alternative to good old wood. The Aristides' body and (graphite reinforced) neck are "made out of Arium, moulded in a hard outer shell," explains the company's Chris Dekker.

"Arium consists of glass pearls and natural resins only, so the material is environmentally friendly. The last thing is a very good side effect, and of course it's good we don't need any scarce woods."

"Running into a higher gain amp the OIO sounds big, juicy and tough with that Duncan Custom providing additional output."

Aristides Poort began the development of what was to become Arium 15 years ago at the Technical University of Delft, in the Netherlands.

"The idea was to make the perfect tone material," explains Dekker. "Our guitar is one-piece, with no bolts or glued joints and no dead spots. All our guitars sound very similar, but we can experiment with the composition a bit: the bass, for example, is made from a slightly warmer sounding composition of the glass pearls and resins."

This hi-techery aside, the guitar is quite conventional in terms of pickups, hardware and function.

The OIO is a larger-bodied guitar, approximately 35cm across its lower bouts and 46cm from the tip of its upper horn to the instrument's base. Its body and neck are a one-piece die-cast moulding, with the neck joint beautifully chamfered away to create a heel-less transition from neck to body.

It's not fully solid either - there's a large cavity for the vibrato and its springs, then two further cavities either side: one housing the controls, the other empty. They're covered by a large plate, held in place with eight crosshead screws. The top is lightly arched, but also features some angular, modernist shaping.

With a 648mm scale, the OIO has a compound radiused ebony fingerboard and 22 heavier gauge frets (2.8mm wide x 1.36mm high). Nut width is marginally trimmer and there's slightly less taper to the width.

In depth we have 20.67mm at the first, 22.33mm at the 12th and a slightly fuller shouldered neck profile though still perfectly mainstream. The nut is again angled to improve intonation; truss rod access is easy via an open hole on the back angled headstock, we have six-in-a-line tuner layout and straight string pull over the nut.

You certainly can't fault the hardware - Sperzel locking tuners and Wilkinson's VS100 vibrato - nor the pickup layout of a Seymour Duncan Custom Trembucker at bridge and two Alnico II Pro single-coils, the middle reverse-wound with reverse polarity to ensure hum-cancelling in the mixed positions (2 and 4).

The controls are standard, with a master volume (with pull/push coil-split for the humbucker, which voices the screw coil) and tone, plus a five-way pickup selector.

This is certainly one guitar that should be on the short list for those after amazing tone and sustain....

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