As many of you know, I recently purchased the Aria Pro that was offered in the Mudcat auction. Not being overly familiar with Aria, I have been trying to research them. I checked eBay and found the following.

Click here

I don't know if this is there Pro model. It's quite obvious that the seller doesn't know a lot about it other than the fifth string peg needs work. I just had a geared fifth string peg professionally installed for about $20 U.S. The other thing that the seller mentions is that it is heavy. This tells me that it is probably one of their top of the line instruments, the weight would indicate a tone ring to me.

Rick Fielding had this to say about the one I bought. If this is their top of the line one, the same should apply:

...Being a long time banjo nurd (could take one apart and put it back together blindfolded) lemme tell you that these are considered SERIOUS instruments. The vast majority of current import banjos under 7 or 8 hundred bucks, are completely useless to a serious bluegrass player. They don't have the weight and hence no tone. Several Japanese companies (El Degas, Ibanez, and Aria Pro (the "pro" part is important) built excellent Gibson knock-offs in the seventies that were actually BETTER than what Gibson was offering in the RB 250 line.

I can assure anyone who buys it, that you'll have a pretty fine instrument, that will probably never go down in value. I haven't seen this (other than the picture) and certainly haven't played it, but I HAVE played a number of them over the years and they are SOLID!...

The other thing that could indicate that this may be the Top of the line is that the case looks like a top quality case, which usually indicates it houses a good instrument.

There is a link to contact the selller. You may be able to ask them if it has a tone ring. If they can't figure it out, you might have them weigh it. The one I bought weighs twelve pounds which this one should if it has a tone ring.