Register Rules/FAQ/CUP Members List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read



Supporting Membership
Thank You

Latest Supporting Member
Donate to Upgrade Today


Home » Bass Guitar Reviews » Bass Guitar Reviews

 
Spector NS-4
Reviews
1
spacer
Recommended By Average Price Average Rating
100% of reviewers None indicated 9.0
4697Spector_-_body.JPG


4697Spector_-_body.JPG
supersize

4697Spector_-_full.JPG
supersize








Description: Quilted maple body wings attached to 3-piece hard rock maple neck. Mother of pearl inlays on a Pau Ferro fretted fingerboard. 2 EMG DC humbuckers with 18 volt 2-band Haz Labs preamp. Gold hardware, gotoh tuners, proprietary bridge.


Author
RAM

Registered User

Registered: May 2000
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 5357
Review Date: Mon March 22, 2004 Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Dead quiet electronics, even string-to-string balance, versatile tone, extremely well balanced
Cons: Heavy, can get a bit \"clanky\" if you play with low action

This bass has been with me since 1995, and has been my main workhorse for most of that time. It has a bright tone that cuts through everything, and switching the balance between pickups yields a great range of tones from a warm P-bass to a growly Jazz bass tone. It\'s a very modern-sounding bass, in that the clarity is undeniably undeniable.

The string spacing is good for finger-style players, as the strings are slightly closer together than \"standard\", but this might be bad for slappers. To me, this is odd, because this bass BEGS to be slapped! The width is somewhere between P and J bass width at the nut, and I\'d guess about 17 mm at the bridge. I\'m used to it, so it\'s no biggie. Also, the neck is very round. It\'s pretty thick profile is surprisingly comfortable for me, though some have complained that Spectors are like \"baseball bats\". I\'ve played Spectors that had thicker necks than this one, and I find it comfortable. The fretboard has a very flat radius, which I particularly like.

A downside to this bass is that it can sound a bit clanky if you don\'t play it with a light enough touch. I like a really low action (Carl at Lakland set it up for me and told me it\'s \"Entwistle-low\", but if I\'m not warmed up enough, I hit the strings to hard and it\'s really clanky!

Another thing that really bugged me was that the fretboard was not level (several years of playing in a crazy environment like Chicago) and I sent it back to Stuart Spector. He called me with this bass in his hands and swore there was nothing wrong with it. Unhappy, I took it to Lakland for a freboard re-planing and re-fretting. Kudos to Carl at Lakland for the most amazing fretjob I\'ve seen. But, negatives to Stuart for not recognizing this bass needed work. Surprising, because when I bought this bass new, I noticed how well the frets were seated and dressed...the mark of a true professional. Now I\'m not 100% convinced.

At any rate, it did cost me a bit to have the fretboard worked on, but the bass now plays dreamily!

------------------------------
Just think: it's always a different day, somewhere...
This user is offline
Click here to see this users profile Click here to Send this user a Private Message Visit RAM's homepage! Find more posts by this user  


Powered by: Reviewpost vB3 Enhanced
Copyright 2010 All Enthusiast, Inc.

Follow TalkBass on Twitter   Visit TalkBass on Facebook  

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:25 AM.




Copyright ©2011 Talk Music Group Inc. All right reserved.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.12
Copyright ©2000 - 2012, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.