SPECTOR® Club - Part 52

[iceboxbass]

Originally Posted by awilkie84

You won't notice much of a difference in size. It's really only 1/2 an inch extra above the 12th fret, and that's spread out across all the fret spacing, and the same from the 12th fret to the bridge.
I've switched effortlessly back & forth between a 34" and a 35" and really couldn't tell without looking closely. The only thing I really noticed was the fundamental notes being slightly more prominent on the 35" and the lower strings being a teeny bit tighter.

I remember the 35" being talked about awhile back on here and it was mention for the most the bridge is moved toward the butt end of the body so as not to make the over all length of the bass longer. And I believe it was done that way for the "sweet spot" above the pickups.

Originally Posted by anton72

I've had two 435s before and had no problem at all with the fret spacing or neck lenght although my hands are not big. Actualy on 435 the extra inch of scale is achieved by bridge moved closer to the body end rather than the overall lenght of the instrument.

+1

Originally Posted by sifi76

Thanks man! all good advice.. I was thinking of DDT's simply because I prefer DR's in general, but yeah wasn't too sure about them fitting the bridge.. the other option for extra long's was prosteel's.. but not a big dd fan, damn things snap faster than most other brands.. not sure who else makes x-long strings, especially tapered.. have to do some research now

Several members here have went with CircleK strings as they're tapered for the B & E.

Originally Posted by Mr.Bassie720

Looking forward to it brother. Congrats on yet another wicked Spector. NBD for me as well. A couple of months ago I ordered an, what I call, MMBop. I was intrigued by the idea and figured it would work well for the punk rock thing that I do. To be honest I was a little underwhelmed by the sound clips that were released. The bass sounded a little sterile. The players that reviewed the MMBop are all excellent, so it was not their fault. I was concerned enough that I started plotting different pickup options and electronics. I purchased an 18V circuit that I have on standby. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let me start over The bass arrived from Czech Republic via the NY shop. This one has serial number 11452. The finish. Excellent! Beautifully done. Subtle, not garish. Neck pocket. Booty hole tight! My JAR was the same in that regard. Excellent neck to body contact. Some of you guys know that I favor a thinner neck profile. I fully expected to have to shave the neck down. All the reviews pointed to a very substantial neck. The MMBop did not disappoint. The neck is pretty thick. But here is the kicker, it's comfortable! I probably will shave it down in the future, but it is definitely not a critical situation. It's has a classic C shape that stays very consistent as you head up towards the body. This substantial neck is certainly contributing more than a little to the amazing tone that this bass brings to the musical table. Yep, the bass sounds wicked! I know some of you will say "It's a Spector, what do you expect". As I said I was not expecting what I got. The thing cuts through. I hooked it up to the SVT CL with the mandatory 8x10, and it destroys. It snarls and growls in a very aggressive, yet pleasing way. I believe thats the inherent problem with sound clips. They cant give you the whole tonal picture. You need to play this thing nice and loud to fully appreciate its capabilities. The MMBop is equipped with an EMG HZ dual coil pickup. This is EMGs passive MM type pickup. In normal dual coil mode it gets the job done in a big way. To my ears it sounds thick, with strong mids and high mids. The low end is fat as, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Not boomy or muddy in the slightest. Spector chose to use the Tonepump 9V circuit. A move that was questioned by many, including myself, hence the US 18V circuit on standby. I believe the internal trim is set at 50%, I did not want to fiddle with it because it is perfect for me, as is. Pulling up on the volume puts you in single coil mode. Surprise again. I expected a thin not usable tone. Wrong! Slightly less output, but more clarity. Very nice for taking excursions into upper fret land. Some other pleasant surprises. The control plate has inserts and machine screws, very cool. Inside is well shielded and neat. No hum was detected in dual coil mode. In single coil you get a small amount, but you have to be listening for it. Your audience certainly would not notice it. Weight on this one is a very very comfortable 8.6 LBS. Spector aluminum alloy bridge in black. No intonation screws on this run. Hopefully soon. This is something I want, not for me so much but for my tech. Intonation screws make his life a lot easier. It is my understanding that, one day all Spectors will have intonation screws. Regardless of country of origin...I have a dream. The tuning machines are Gotoh style and work they way they should. Very smooth and, so far, are holding tune just fine. Here is something that I have to say is cheesy. Disclaimer, I am a Spector player, and obviously, a fan. Huge fan, but cheesy is cheesy. Honestly it's not a big deal. I'm just having fun with it. The cheese factor is the side fret markers. The dots. They appear to be painted on. If they're not painted on, then they were put in sloppily. Also, I understand wanting to use black to match the black crowns but, white is a lot easier to see on a dark or dimly lit stage. Another minor complaint. No strap lock buttons. Cheesy. But heck, if these are my only complaints so far, then what we have is a really solid instrument that sounds fantastic. Like the bass for which it is named, its not going to be a tone chameleon. But the things that it does, it does exceptionally well. Killer rock and roll tone. Punk rock? Fuggedaboutit! Wicked!! Another thing I should have mentioned earlier. This bass came with the absolute best setup I have ever played. Incredibly low, buzz free action. Out of the box! I was floored by this. At this point I have played various Spectors at different price points. My own and ones owned by other club members. This thing slayed them all. Including US made NS-2s. I'm just talking out of the box setup. Brilliant. Sadly, I can't keep my Forte and this MMBop. I have to sell one. This very painful for me, I feel that my Forte is a work of functional art. In my opinion it looks and sounds like no other. The fact that I am entertaining that very ugly prospect should indicate how amazing the new Spector ReBop-4 is. It's crucial!

Congratulations MrBassie! That's a gorgeous looking bass!!!
Wow...Really can't keep both basses?!?! Why?! Excuse me for being Nosey but....

Originally Posted by farboozle

My rebop can get lower action than either my NS-5XL or the US bolt on I have . . .

Huh...That's one of the things that I noticed with both Fortes that I had was the strings were incredibly lowest of any previous Spector that I've owned. The. When I thought it couldn't get any lower...in comes the Coda 5XL! The ReBop 4DLX I had was the only Euro Spector that came close in string lowness.

[bunkaroo]

Originally Posted by Clearwave

I loved that album. It's one of the few records I learned from top to bottom. In my opinion, the bass work that Muzz Skillings did on that record is as good as it gets. To bad he left the band, good for Dr. wimbish and the spector club though.

I was not a huge fan of Reid's guitar solos but yeah everything else is awesome. I frequently would warm up on the verse bassline from Open Letter (To A Landlord) since it would stretch my left hand out pretty good.

One of my cover bands covered Cult of Personality a few years back and that song is a lot harder to keep together as a band than it seems.

[iceboxbass]

Originally Posted by ebradfordrich

Thanks, bro. I shall check in with the Pimp.

In semi-related matters, hells-yeah we're going to see Living Colour play all of Vivid in its entirety in April...

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/01...ur_dise_011113

That will be awesome fun!

[bunkaroo]

Not like I need to be thinking about another bass already, but I was looking at the new Spector site's Coda page, and it occurred to me I have yet to see a Coda 5 with a pau ferro fingerboard AND crown inlays. The options on the DLX read as though MOP crowns would be standard on the pau ferro. Just seems like every Coda I've seen with crowns is the BEM fingerboard.

Has anyone seen a Coda with pau ferro and crowns? I'm thinking my eventual (as in next year LOL) Coda 5XL-Deluxe build could be bahama blue with matching headstock and the pau ferro with crowns. Oh yeah....

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by iceboxbass

I remember the 35" being talked about awhile back on here and it was mention for the most the bridge is moved toward the butt end of the body so as not to make the over all length of the bass longer. And I believe it was done that way for the "sweet spot" above the pickups.

That makes sense, but when this is done it changes where the frets need to be. So, in essence, there is still 1/2" being added to both sides of the 12th fret, even if the bridge was the only thing that physically moved to change the scale.

Another way to put this would be that the 12th fret would have to move 1/2" in the same direction for every 1" that the bridge moves to change the scale. This, of course, causes every other fret to have to move, too.

[worshiprocker]

that mmbop haunts me.... too bad I'm already getting a blue bass.... AHHHH!!! I want it!!!

[husky123]

Yeah Joe, way to GAS everyone up! You guys have fun tonight....get some pics!

ps. Why am I shouting?! I'M EXCITED!

[brotherbassj]

Donny....have a great show tonight!!!

[ebradfordrich]

An interesting piece of Spector history...a '77 six stringer...



http://www.larkstreetmusic.com/cgi-b...ile=justin.txt

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by ebradfordrich

An interesting piece of Spector history...a '77 six stringer...

Dat upper horn!

[dukeisdog]

Originally Posted by dukeisdog

Man, woke up this morning stoked to play a show tonight and we're getting blizzard warnings.. Our drummers gotta drive in for about an hour and a half and it's looking like the highways are gonna be closed. I hate this snow sometimes!

And just got word from the BL that the highways are too bad for our drummer to make it in the city in time so we've gotta drop the show. Kinda disappointing as we haven't played out since December 21st but we have a show in the works at a bigger venue that should draw out a bigger crowd anyway.

[delucajohn2000]

Part of me wants to check out the Rebop MM but instead of the Tonepump, I would install that Nordstrand 2 band Music Man pre. Yeah, I know it's blasphemy but I love the tone on those old pre Ernie Ball Music Man basses and think it would sound great in the Rebop MM.

These are just some of the insane ideas I kick around in my head. Of course, I have no money so it's not like I can even do it but it's fun to wish

[sifi76]

Cheers guys for the all the advice, to be honest I sometimes found the 34 to be a bit restrictive towards the bridge end, in terms of where I play and cause I have long arms
(my fingers always end up over the bridge on my atk lol).. so in reality the 35 actually sounds like it's what I should be playing.. and yeah I was looking at just doing the usual with standard strings and going down to C that way, not sure about BEAD though, I might try that but it seems like cheating to me

I feel the inner bass critic would be saying "just play a five!" lol

still, now I can play my godsmack and the sword without floppy strings yay!

[Fat240]

Originally Posted by sifi76

Cheers guys for the all the advice, to be honest I sometimes found the 34 to be a bit restrictive towards the bridge end, in terms of where I play and cause I have long arms
(my fingers always end up over the bridge on my atk lol).. so in reality the 35 actually sounds like it's what I should be playing.. and yeah I was looking at just doing the usual with standard strings and going down to C that way, not sure about BEAD though, I might try that but it seems like cheating to me

I feel the inner bass critic would be saying "just play a five!" lol

still, now I can play my godsmack and the sword without floppy strings yay!

The F-404 is a little bit longer due to the jumbo frets. I have a F-404 with the tribal inlays and a DK-5 which are both a tad longer than the 35 scale Spectors.

I have been using the Circle K's and having real good luck with them on the Kreamer era's at D drop C. A .124 for your D/C and .086 .065 .047 should work pretty well . . . set your low string up for C# when you set string height and intonation. I did use the DDT's and find these are much better and have the taper to fit the bridge.

[delucajohn2000]

Originally Posted by sifi76

Cheers guys for the all the advice, to be honest I sometimes found the 34 to be a bit restrictive towards the bridge end, in terms of where I play and cause I have long arms
(my fingers always end up over the bridge on my atk lol).. so in reality the 35 actually sounds like it's what I should be playing.. and yeah I was looking at just doing the usual with standard strings and going down to C that way, not sure about BEAD though, I might try that but it seems like cheating to me

I feel the inner bass critic would be saying "just play a five!" lol

still, now I can play my godsmack and the sword without floppy strings yay!

I went through that whole stage of wondering if I should just play it on a 5 string but some of the riffs they pull off with music like Godmsack are pretty much only possible when using an open string. You see tons of posts on Talk Bass about it and they all respond with "get a 5 string" but that makes it even more obvious that they don't play that kind of music.

Some songs that are drop B I can pull off with a 5 string but there are others where I just don't have the dexterity yet to move my hand up and down that quick as well. Slipknot songs tend to pretty much stay to the B string but then you get a track like "Surfacing" that has a really quick riff that is just tough to pull off on a 5 string so I will most likely just keep a bass that I can use for the C#/drop B tunings.

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by delucajohn2000

I went through that whole stage of wondering if I should just play it on a 5 string but some of the riffs they pull off with music like Godmsack are pretty much only possible when using an open string. You see tons of posts on Talk Bass about it and they all respond with "get a 5 string" but that makes it even more obvious that they don't play that kind of music.

Some songs that are drop B I can pull off with a 5 string but there are others where I just don't have the dexterity yet to move my hand up and down that quick as well. Slipknot songs tend to pretty much stay to the B string but then you get a track like "Surfacing" that has a really quick riff that is just tough to pull off on a 5 string so I will most likely just keep a bass that I can use for the C#/drop B tunings.

THIS is the only reason I still keep a 4 string bass around. Tool, Rage, Godsmack, etc...much Much MUCH easier to play on a drop-tuned 4 string than on a 5er.
Also, Paul Gray's bass (Slipknot) was primarily tuned BEAD

[tomydacat]

DONNY ROCK IT

[sifi76]

Originally Posted by awilkie84

THIS is the only reason I still keep a 4 string bass around. Tool, Rage, Godsmack, etc...much Much MUCH easier to play on a drop-tuned 4 string than on a 5er.
Also, Paul Gray's bass (Slipknot) was primarily tuned BEAD

Yep, playing most tool that's not actually fiver based feels weird on a five.. hmm.. and considering how the tension works on the 35, I wonder if I can get away with some meshuggah or fear factory just by dropping to B and not having to reach for my nez five string lol (cause it sounds pants compared to euro's)

this is opening up a whole new level for me.. speaking of which.. pantera?

[ynot12]

Happy Friday, fellas!

A few questions for you all.

1) If you were to replace the HZs in a Rebop, which EMG pups would you get?
2) Who's played a SpectorCore fretless, what are your thoughts, and what is a good price to pay for one? I got a fretless bug out of nowhere today.

And lastly, Donny, tear it up tonight! Hopefully some of my friends out there saw my message and will be able to make it.

Thanks guys!

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by ynot12

1) If you were to replace the HZs in a Rebop, which EMG pups would you get?

I'd say DCs or a 35P & 35J (40P5 & 40J if you have a ReBop5 like me). I'm personally going with the 40P5 & 40J to get closer to the NS-2 sound.