Initial impressions:
The bass is everything I expected, as I already own a Euro, and more. First of all, the colour is amazing, it's a lovely transparent emerald stain on solid quilted maple wings and 3 piece maple neck thru. This thing feels amazingly solid and you can really feel the whole bass resonating when you pluck a note, needless to say the sustain is fantastic.
Next up, playability. The action is on the deck - probably the lowest I've ever played on any bass. I dig in quite hard when I play so I will probably raise it a bit, but right how it's perfectly acceptable in terms of buzz and makes tapping really easy. The action seems to be much lower than I could get my other Euro to be, but I suspect that's because the nut is cut lower on the green one.
Tone: Needless to say I love the Spector tone, it may not be for everyone but I think it's perfect for the stuff I play with my band. It's aggressive and cuts through the mix with no problem whatsoever. I usually run it with both pickups full, bit of treble and bass boost and play with my fingers. With some light distortion it's sounds a bit like Alex Webster (Blotted Science/Cannibal Corpse), except without the crazy 3 finger playing. I must say though, it's not the perfect bass for everything. I tried playing some acoustic stuff (I'm not just a metalhead you know) at a gig and the tone was way too aggressive, even with just the bass boosted, neck pickup and playing lightly with my thumb. I imagine it's like the equivalent of playing tech metal on a violin bass.
I've noticed that the neck seems a bit thinner on these old Euros compared to the my other LX one, although I can't be 100% about that. The body also seems a bit thinner but that could be an optical illusion of the alder/walnut/maple sandwich on the LX. Surprisingly, both basses are about the same weight, despite lots of people telling me the older models are heavier. The only other difference is knobs
My only gripe with the bass is that the inlays are a bit sloppy, I assume they're CNC'd but there's more filler around the pearl than I expected on a bass built as well as this. I examined my LX more closely and noticed the same thing actually. The only difference than it would appear that they've started using darker coloured filler so you you basically can't see it. I don't think it's something that you'd really notice unless you are really anal about these things like me, in fact I never noticed it on my LX after owning it for a year until I saw this one and went to look for it specifically. Having said that it's not something that bothers me at all, because everything else about the bass makes up for it. My other pet hate about Euros in general is the fact that the jack sockets aren't gold/black to match the other hardware. Again, that's just the perfectionist in me. :lol:
The bass is everything I expected, as I already own a Euro, and more. First of all, the colour is amazing, it's a lovely transparent emerald stain on solid quilted maple wings and 3 piece maple neck thru. This thing feels amazingly solid and you can really feel the whole bass resonating when you pluck a note, needless to say the sustain is fantastic.
Next up, playability. The action is on the deck - probably the lowest I've ever played on any bass. I dig in quite hard when I play so I will probably raise it a bit, but right how it's perfectly acceptable in terms of buzz and makes tapping really easy. The action seems to be much lower than I could get my other Euro to be, but I suspect that's because the nut is cut lower on the green one.
Tone: Needless to say I love the Spector tone, it may not be for everyone but I think it's perfect for the stuff I play with my band. It's aggressive and cuts through the mix with no problem whatsoever. I usually run it with both pickups full, bit of treble and bass boost and play with my fingers. With some light distortion it's sounds a bit like Alex Webster (Blotted Science/Cannibal Corpse), except without the crazy 3 finger playing. I must say though, it's not the perfect bass for everything. I tried playing some acoustic stuff (I'm not just a metalhead you know) at a gig and the tone was way too aggressive, even with just the bass boosted, neck pickup and playing lightly with my thumb. I imagine it's like the equivalent of playing tech metal on a violin bass.
I've noticed that the neck seems a bit thinner on these old Euros compared to the my other LX one, although I can't be 100% about that. The body also seems a bit thinner but that could be an optical illusion of the alder/walnut/maple sandwich on the LX. Surprisingly, both basses are about the same weight, despite lots of people telling me the older models are heavier. The only other difference is knobs
My only gripe with the bass is that the inlays are a bit sloppy, I assume they're CNC'd but there's more filler around the pearl than I expected on a bass built as well as this. I examined my LX more closely and noticed the same thing actually. The only difference than it would appear that they've started using darker coloured filler so you you basically can't see it. I don't think it's something that you'd really notice unless you are really anal about these things like me, in fact I never noticed it on my LX after owning it for a year until I saw this one and went to look for it specifically. Having said that it's not something that bothers me at all, because everything else about the bass makes up for it. My other pet hate about Euros in general is the fact that the jack sockets aren't gold/black to match the other hardware. Again, that's just the perfectionist in me. :lol:
