Please help me choose TalkBass !

Rock on my man. When you get it...play it like you stole it ;-)

 

Spectre for the win

 

I have a Euro ReBop. Mine is equipped with two EMGs and a TonePump preamp so I don’t know how much mine sounds like your candidate. But with the TonePump I think they can both probably get very close on some settings.

The tone on mine (by itself) is modern (as in “hifi”), fairly aggressive and modern sounding for the most part - although you can coax some real subtleties out of it with judicious EQing on your amp. I usually leave the bass set as flat as possible and do all my toneshaping with an outboard pre. But that’s me. Either way, a ReBop will definitely cut through. If I had to characterize the overall sound, the first thing that that comes to mind is “big and wide.” The second word is “clean.”

I can tell you the build quality and playability are superb with these basses. The shape really is ergonomic and very comfortable whether you’re playing sitting or standing. Something about it oozes that “boutique” vibe to me.

Neck is quick and comfortable, fretwork very good, action can be set very low if you like it that way, fast neck radius.

All in all there’s lots to like with Spector if you can find one at the price you want to pay. But you already know that.

As far as the mod goes, the Nordy Jazz is a really nice pickup. I can only think it was a plus having it in there.

 

If the Spector is a good deal, and you like it, get it. New Sires will be around for fairly reasonable prices... all the time. Spectors are a bit rarer. If you buy the Spector, and decide the Sire was what you really wanted, you can sell the Spector fairly easily and buy a Sire, no problem. The other way around would not be as easy.

 

You're welcome- I'm just another worship bassist, looking out for you. Another reason the Spector is the choice: Even if Sire went out of business, there is no end to the number of companies making Fender-esque basses, making it even easier to find something similar, should you one day decide to.

 

Get the Spector. And get a preamp with bypass and install that in your Fender. Most can be installed so that the bass can be run as original (truly passive), including the tone control, or as active. It won't give you the PJ combination, but it can give you everything else the Sire offers for much less than the cost of the Sire.

 

I think for worship music either would be fine. The Sire would even be very good, but the Spector is going to be Great. I personally like P-basses more than Spectors, but that's my hang-up and based on your experience an needs I'd definitely say go Spector.

Also, even if you don't get the ash body, the Sire will likely be a notably heavier bass. Probably no more than most Fenders and certainly lighter than the Sire J's but Spectors are very ergonomically well thought out IMHO. Sire's are very well featured, but you're not usually going to get the lightest weight wood on an instrument at that price point. That would be enough for me to go with the Spector, especially if I'm hefting it for rehearsals, possibly multiple services, etc.

Also, while I'm not generally someone who wants to own a lot of instruments, I've become a firm believer in the idea that a player does him or herself a service when they purchase the best instrument they can afford rather than just acquiring lots of instruments. A an example of this, my church bass is the best bass I own, a 4-94 style Carlo. Even though I bought it used, I could have bought a couple USA Fenders for what I paid for it. Thank heavens Carl Pedigo let me pay it off on layaway!. it is absolutely worth every penny and I do think the MM/J setup works very well for the range of Gospel music we play. It's also revamped my stable, leading me to sell almost half the basses I own and concentrate on a smaller, better selection of instruments rather than a larger collection of lesser instruments that are played less often.

Sorry about the wall of words. All this to say, get the Spector and rock the heck out of it at church. If later you feel the desire to have a Sire P later, go for it, they're not going anywhere.

 

I have a lower-end Spector and even without the curve body design they're still extremely comfortable to play for a variety of reasons.

 

Spector all the way

 

SPECTRE - Wikipedia

 

Yes. You should choose Talkbass.

 

How can you not be happy w/donuts?

 

Another vote here for the Spector. I think you'll find it more versatile, and combined with the Jazz you already own, you'll have a much larger tonal palette to play around with than if you went with the Sire. And as someone has also mentioned, you can always flip the Spector and pick up a Sire with change left over; not so much the other way around.

Someone also mentioned the different feel and physical positioning of the Spector. Personally, I like having different feeling and playing basses. It keeps life interesting. For the most part, all of the basses I own feel different to me, even though three are Peavey Foundations (one a fretless), The other three are a Korean Hamer Cruise 5-string, a low budget Spector Performer, and a Wishbass fretless. All hang differently due to different weights and woods, but all are equally comfortable to me.