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SPECTOR® Club - Part 38

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#221
GBassNorth said:
Cool, that gives me another option. If all I can find is a used fretless I might be able to get a fretted neck for it and in essence have two basses. I'll talk to PJ to see what kind of damage that'll do to my wallet.
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A couple years back I was looking at a SpectorCore 5 that came with an extra neck, one fretted one fretless. The guy was a session player and only used it for one project. It sold really fast for $500.00!
 
#222
smadder said:
Thanks. That's really good to hear. The Forte 5 I have is definitely on the C side and I prefer the D profile of the Webster. It's so slim the volute is almost nonexistent. I want to get that done, then my goal is to put a Haz in it of some ilk (18 or 9, haven't decided). I know the 18 was specifically designed with the 5 string Spectors in mind and the EMG humbuckers as well which is why it's the pre on the NS-4. So while I love the 9v Haz, the more appropriate match for the Forte 5 is probably the 18v. Which is cool because it'll save me at least $150, and I can either keep a dummy pot on there or have my tech put a kill switch as I've mentioned before. And the more I think about it, the more I lean towards the 18 with kill switch option. That and a Webster profile neck and it'll be the 5 string of my dreams in terms of feel. It's already there in terms of tone.

I'll email or ring Spector and see what they've got to say on it. But I'm glad that it's been done before with no issues. Thanks for letting me know!
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I just measured my Forte 5 neck thickness, at 1st fret 1.4 cm/.55 in. , 12th fret 1.9 cm/.74 in. That seems fairly thin to me for a 5 string.
But I know what you mean...you want it comfortable for your hands. And that is an awesome thing to have a custom fit!
 
#224
JPSBassist said:
Hey everyone!

I learned something really valuable during my visit to the NY Workshop... seeing how the necks are shaped and hand shaved... hand sanded... there's a lot of room for variation.

So I've taken my cataloging of neck widths (across the frets) and thickness (front to back) to the next level.

Any of you who wish to participate, simply email me and I'll email you a high-resolution version of the form I created... or if you want to put everything down into a document of some sort, that's cool too.

I'm going to start building a database of neck thicknesses across the model lines. So from older Brooklyn models to the Kramers... to SSD and Woodstock models, I want to be able to pull up the extremes and the averages. To paint a better picture of what the neck profiles for any given set of Spectors might be.

Check out the sheet I completed on The Black Pearl. It'll show you how I plan to eventually develop 3D models of these necks.

Any of you who want to help I'd be really thankful of your efforts and time.

[email protected]
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Nice! I'll send you my Forte 5 measurements.
 
#225
Rick Blanc said:
So just to get this straight in my head: If I go with just the BQC control I could keep the TW pups and the ability to switch between single or dual coil modes? But that is a more difficult install than the whole BQC system?

If I go with the BQC System I gain the Volume/Blend and a simpler install but lose the Volume/Volume and the single coil option.

Is that about right?
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Correct but I just thought of one thing. The TW pickups have more pins on the back of them so you wouldn't be able to use the quick connects that come with the BQC System to attach to the pickups. You would need to use the existing pickup wires and solder them onto the pots I would think. Unless there is a way to just use certain pins on the pickup to keep them in Dual Coil mode only.

This is only if you decide to go with the BQC system though and keep the TW pickups in there but discard the push/pull capability. That would probably be a question for EMG though just to verify just to make sure so everything works correctly.

iceboxbass said:
Except...Doug Whimbish and Ian Hill sigs. :)
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by that.
 
#227
delucajohn2000 said:
Correct but I just thought of one thing. The TW pickups have more pins on the back of them so you wouldn't be able to use the quick connects that come with the BQC System to attach to the pickups. You would need to use the existing pickup wires and solder them onto the pots I would think. Unless there is a way to just use certain pins on the pickup to keep them in Dual Coil mode only.

This is only if you decide to go with the BQC system though and keep the TW pickups in there but discard the push/pull capability. That would probably be a question for EMG though just to verify just to make sure so everything works correctly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. not quite sure what I'm gonna do yet
 
#228
Since we're talking pickups and preamps:

If one had a Forte 5 with the 9v Haz installed, would it use the quick connects for the pickups like the NS-5XL does with the 18v?

I'm thinking to myself the closest I could probably get to having a true NS-2 sound in a 35" scale 5-string would be a Forte 5 with the 9v Haz and the EMG 40P5 and 40J pickups, but I wasn't sure if getting those pickups installed at the factory is an option due to the nature of the Forte.
 
#229
bunkaroo said:
Since we're talking pickups and preamps:

If one had a Forte 5 with the 9v Haz installed, would it use the quick connects for the pickups like the NS-5XL does with the 18v?

I'm thinking to myself the closest I could probably get to having a true NS-2 sound in a 35" scale 5-string would be a Forte 5 with the 9v Haz and the EMG 40P5 and 40J pickups, but I wasn't sure if getting those pickups installed at the factory is an option due to the nature of the Forte.
Click to expand...

I do not know about the connections, but I know that Icebox ordered his Forte with the PJ setup and they were cool with it. He even got his with the OBP-3 instead of the OBP-2!!

I believe that you can do the exact setup that you are describing from the factory, but it might be a little extra! :bassist:

...I am thinking about doing the exact same thing at some point! Then I'll have the neck shaped to match the fretless I have on order! :bassist:
 
#230
delucajohn2000 said:
If you go with the BQC Control, you can keep the TW pickups in your Euro. The BQC Control just gives you the bass/treble pots and also the mid/sweep pots so you would use your existing volume pots. That is what I will be doing for my NS-JH5 but the installation is not as easy as the full BQC system since more soldering would be required. If you go with the whole BQC system, you get all of the EMG quick connections that make the installation so much easier and the only soldering you would need to do would be to the output jack.

I mean, if you don't put the TW pickups in single coil mode, another option would be to just use the BQC system and keep the TW's in dual coil mode at all times but I doubt you would want that. I happen to love the DC's so I put them in my Euro 5LX and sold the TW's but it's all personal preference.
Click to expand...

Ditto to this. The only thing I'd add is that not only do you keep your vol knob but your balance knob too. Then the bqc circuit (consisting of two stacked knobs: one b/t, one mid cut and boost/mid freq sweep goes where your current bass and treble knobs are. As John said , this is a bit less expensive than the full bqc system but does require more soldering to maintain the push pull pots (vol and bal knobs) to use with the tws. The bqc system also includes a volume and balance knob but are not push pull, so you'd lose the functionality of your tws. The bqc system is also a bit more expensive than just the circuit by itself. I, like a lot of folks, prefer the 40dcs to the tws, but it's all a matter of taste and what you want to change, how much work you want to do, and how much you want to spend.

Hope this helps!
 
#231
iceboxbass said:
I just measured my Forte 5 neck thickness, at 1st fret 1.4 cm/.55 in. , 12th fret 1.9 cm/.74 in. That seems fairly thin to me for a 5 string.
But I know what you mean...you want it comfortable for your hands. And that is an awesome thing to have a custom fit!
Click to expand...

Also, since they're all done by hand, this one may have turned out thicker. And also if you remember, this one was custom made/ordered. The signature on the back of the head stick reads "custom built for so and so" (don't have the bass in front of me right now but you get my meaning) right before the model, serial number, Stuart's signature, etc. so this guy could have intentionally ordered a thicker C neck profile. All I can tell you is that it's noticeably thicker than the AW. It's not a total baseball bat C but it isn't as close to a D profile as I'd like. So if pj says it can be done, I'm gonna get it shaved, tung oil it, then save up some more money to get it refinished later down the road.
 
#233
delucajohn2000 said:
Correct but I just thought of one thing. The TW pickups have more pins on the back of them so you wouldn't be able to use the quick connects that come with the BQC System to attach to the pickups. You would need to use the existing pickup wires and solder them onto the pots I would think. Unless there is a way to just use certain pins on the pickup to keep them in Dual Coil mode only.

This is only if you decide to go with the BQC system though and keep the TW pickups in there but discard the push/pull capability. That would probably be a question for EMG though just to verify just to make sure so everything works correctly.

Not sure what you mean by that.
Click to expand...

You can order the right quick connect wires and pots from EMG or bbg. If it were me, I'd call EMG To get the info then order everything from bbg. If it isn't on their site, they'll get it for you fast and it's less expensive than the EMG store.
 
#234
bunkaroo said:
Since we're talking pickups and preamps:

If one had a Forte 5 with the 9v Haz installed, would it use the quick connects for the pickups like the NS-5XL does with the 18v?

I'm thinking to myself the closest I could probably get to having a true NS-2 sound in a 35" scale 5-string would be a Forte 5 with the 9v Haz and the EMG 40P5 and 40J pickups, but I wasn't sure if getting those pickups installed at the factory is an option due to the nature of the Forte.
Click to expand...

You can still use quick connects, but only on the pickup side. On the 9v haz preamp side you'd have to solder.
 
#237
brotherbassj said:
Well the rebop five is nice....however Sam ash has a kramer era ns2a that is sweet but the preamp is shot! perfect if they came down at least 125 off the 499 price
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If the rest of the ns2a is good on cosmetics and hardware I'd jump on that Instead. I'd put money on them coming down on the price if you hammer them about the bad electronics. Then when you get it, just swap out the electronics front to back. This is just my opinion though.
 
#240
Brotherbassj

Yeah i looked at that ns2a today and it needs fretwork and the knobs are not original either. Plays pretty good but i wouldnt give more than 350 imho... If you wanna try mine out let me know
 
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