Placing an order on this one was a gamble for me, but I made it after digging into Aria's activities of late as a manufacturer, and after some 3 months of using this guitar, I can say the gamble has paid off. Would you not be surprised to know that they are about as old in the business as Fender? Their basses seem to have a good following across borders, but I can testify to the quality of this Blackstrat myself, that I do not regret buying from a company that's not Fender's! Also, don't worry about the origin. These are only made in China. Most of the money goes to their headquarters in Nagoya, Japan, it seems! They're coming with new products every year at NAMM.