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Schecter or Spector?

Hi All,

New to this great forum. My 17 year old daughter has been playing my old 1971 EB-3 for about a year, and is used to a short-scale neck. Now she wants her own bass. I can spend about $300-$500.

First I had to talk her out of a 5-string! She's pretty short, and I think her hands are too small to handle one of those.

She liked the look and feel of the Schecter Omen-4, and the price is right, but some on this forum think they are junk. I wasn't crazy about the un-aligned look of the tuners.

She'd love a Spector, but I doubt I could find one in my price range.

She doesn't want an Ibanez, Fender, etc.

Any suggestions?
:confused:
 
Schecters are great value basses. The C-series basses are particularly nice. Even their budget 5-strings are great with 35" scale necks and narrow string spacing. Definitely good 5ers for smaller hands. And lemme tell you, the other weekend I saw a local punk/hip-hop band play and their bassist absolutely smoked... and she was only about 5'3" and killed it on a Warwick Corvette Standard 5-string so I wouldn't let her height or hand size restrict her from a 5-string if she finds one she's comfortable on.

For 300-500 clams, a quality bass can be gotten. If you and her are even willing to go preowned, you can get a higher end preowned bass for 500-700 clams.

Good luck in your search. I hope your daughter finds a really sweet bass that she loves.
 
Schecters are great value basses. The C-series basses are particularly nice. Even their budget 5-strings are great with 35" scale necks and narrow string spacing. Definitely good 5ers for smaller hands. And lemme tell you, the other weekend I saw a local punk/hip-hop band play and their bassist absolutely smoked... and she was only about 5'3" and killed it on a Warwick Corvette Standard 5-string so I wouldn't let her height or hand size restrict her from a 5-string if she finds one she's comfortable on.

For 300-500 clams, a quality bass can be gotten. If you and her are even willing to go preowned, you can get a higher end preowned bass for 500-700 clams.

Good luck in your search. I hope your daughter finds a really sweet bass that she loves.

+1

It's all about the ergonomics of the bass. Let her try all kinds of basses in that price range, trust me, she will let you know what is comfortable for her. There are some decent Squiers, Peaveys, and OLP's that may work for her in both 4 and 5 string models. The Schecters are also excellent basses. Also look at Yamaha. They have really excellent basses in that price range.
 
I've played both in stores and compared their features and I'd have to say Schecter is the best for the money in that range. Then again, I only played the Stilettos. Spector's are great bases, but in that range for a new one you'd get a bolt-on neck that seemed to me to be less slim and quick as the Schecter Stiletto's, and to me the Schecters look and sound better in that range too.
 
My first bass was a Schecter Elite 4, and played great. It is very well balanced and has a relatively narrow neck...excellent for someone with smaller hands. Great looking guitar, great sound, and a great value. You can sometimes find them $400 or less on the bay.
 
Given that Spector make beautiful basses like my one, I'd say go the extra mile and try and get hold of one. Even the entry level models are decent enough!

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Ughh that is the single bass I HATED the sound of, I really couldn't find a good tone out of it, IMO my cheap Peavey sounded better. It looked nice and played OK I guess.

Now Chris under my experience I really dislike that bass, mind seeing if you can make some sound clips, Ive heard that when someone else plays it they sound good. I don't know why


Also OP the spector Legend is a fantastic bass!
 
I think that we all need to see a picture of this daughter that you speak of, you know, to better help out ;)

But seriously, you should definitely take a look at the basses in your price range that you can get used- you can really find some great deals out there. I too agree that you should let her just try out as many different basses as possible (including 5ers) to let her get a better idea of what she's comfortable on. Good luck
 
Schecter Stiletto is an easy to play bass, lightweight, comfortable, small body, easy string spacing, and can be setup to play with minimal fretting effort. Another bass in that price point on the used market (since others are suggesting different basses) is an Ibanez SR series. Same as above apply, possibly easier to fret than a Schecter.
 
Ughh that is the single bass I HATED the sound of, I really couldn't find a good tone out of it, IMO my cheap Peavey sounded better. It looked nice and played OK I guess.

Now Chris under my experience I really dislike that bass, mind seeing if you can make some sound clips, Ive heard that when someone else plays it they sound good. I don't know why


Also OP the spector Legend is a fantastic bass!

Strange, I'd say of all my basses it's the best for "plug and play" tone. It's easier to get the sound you're after on this than it is on my Status, or was on my Kubicki. It's a fantastic sounding bass, and sounds as good as my Status, though the tone is somewhat different. It also sounds as good as my Kubicki did. Surely that is praise enough.
 
Schecter Stiletto is an easy to play bass, lightweight, comfortable, small body, easy string spacing, and can be setup to play with minimal fretting effort. Another bass in that price point on the used market (since others are suggesting different basses) is an Ibanez SR series. Same as above apply, possibly easier to fret than a Schecter.

I bought the Schecter studio 5 when trying out 5-ers. It is incredibly easy to play and an easy transition from 4 to 5 string. sound is quite decent, a bit middy but easily eq-d to sound great with your amp. I am 5'4" and can play it with no problems at all, a lot easier feel than my 'Wick Corvette 5 so i dont know about the Rockbass...The Schecter also was only around $600 with case i believe, after some haggling. Just have her play a bunch of basses, 4 and 5 string, and see which fits her best, both comfortably and sonically....dont surprise her whatever you do!

John
 
I just bought a Schecter Diamond Series 4 string, (which is very similar in design to the typical Fender Jazz Bass configuration). I can't believe the playability, tone, and overall quality of this instrument. It seems like I should have spent more than I did for an instrument of this quality. This is my first Schecter instrument, and after reading these posts, it appears that Schecter instruments deliver consistent quality and playability.

My Diamond J came with Grover tuners, and they really stay in tune very well, which is something to expect in better quality instruments. Finally, all Schecter guitars at set-up by hand in the U.S., even the guitars that are made in Korea (like mine), so if you take one right out of the box, odds are that it will be very playable and in tune across the fretboard, characteristics that are definitely "hit-or-miss" with most other mass-produced basses in your price range.

I saw several good deals for new and pre-owned Schecters on eBay yesterday. Odds are you can get a better pre-owned bass (if it's a Schecter) if you wanted to. It sounds like you daughter won't go wrong with her choice.

Good Luck!