- Sep 20, 2008
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- Jim Dunlop USA, King Kong Cases, Golden Eagle Energy Drink
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SPECTOR® Club - Part 38
- Thread starter Bryan R. Tyler
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worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
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- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
biamping as actually using both heads? ya that would sound killer..... My guitarist has been getting lazy and only bringing his half stack. If I show up with 2 full stacks that would be awesome!
worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
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- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
I would love to have another svt , but I have been lightening my load . Most shows lately I've been using one swr son of bertha 15 I want one more , but I have an ampeg I can use . Yesterday my Kustom kbx500 came in . My initial impressions of tone are : it sounds like a markbass lm2/3 . It has that sound . And 5 pounds 500 watts , it may be the new main amp . I'll know more about it later tonight after a show .
Also I'm about to work on my preamp . Fingers crossed .
Also I'm about to work on my preamp . Fingers crossed .
worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
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- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
I started out with a lighter setup. My current rig is my favorite so far. We have a roadie so the weight isn't too big of a deal.
$400 for 500 watts.... can't beat that
This guy asks if I'll ship the red Euro LX to singapore and cover shipping and insurance costs.
Dude. It says US shipping in the listing for a $1100 bass worth $2000. I can't even afford to split the shipping to Singapore.
I feel bad because it would be great to help someone out and get them into a Spector, but I really, truly could not afford to do this. So I politely said no and continue to wonder why this summer sucks so bad for trying to move stuff...
Oh well. Happy Saturday folks!
Don't worry Smadder - that red beastie is sure to move soon.
If you didn't need the money so quickly, I'd offer to trade you my red sparkle Stingray for it....
If you didn't need the money so quickly, I'd offer to trade you my red sparkle Stingray for it....
worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
- 1,782
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
- Sep 20, 2008
- 3,369
- 38
- Disclosures
- Jim Dunlop USA, King Kong Cases, Golden Eagle Energy Drink
smadder said:
This guy asks if I'll ship the red Euro LX to singapore and cover shipping and insurance costs.
Dude. It says US shipping in the listing for a $1100 bass worth $2000. I can't even afford to split the shipping to Singapore.
I feel bad because it would be great to help someone out and get them into a Spector, but I really, truly could not afford to do this. So I politely said no and continue to wonder why this summer sucks so bad for trying to move stuff...
Oh well. Happy Saturday folks!
I'm sorry man, as you know I'm in the same boat and have had a hard time moving gear myself. Shipping for free to Singapore is like me saying sell me that bass for 800 shipped to my door....not gonna happen
Trying to dail in the NS2A I picked up and I realized I will have to raise the action a bit. I think I'm a little heavy handed I guess. It also has a lot more high end than my Legend 5 with a haz copy pre. I'm not sure if this is a result of the P/J pick-ups compared to the DC's of the Legend or the pre's and or both. Both basses tone controls have center detents and the Legend I run pretty close to the middle( about 55% of both). The NS2A I have the bass abot 80% and the treble around 35%. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Yeah, if it were about trading (I wish) I could get my hands on a lot of stuff: I've been offered 6 string Spectors, 4 string Euro (pre LX) Spectors (which is sooooooo tempting), Roscoes, Sadowskys, even a Pedulla. But I don't want to trade because then I'm gonna just have to turn right around and try to flip it again and me no likey.
good luck with it smadder,
If I had the cash I would be all over it, but I had enough trouble getting the cash for my NS2A. My budgets shot until my wage ramps back up.....
If I had the cash I would be all over it, but I had enough trouble getting the cash for my NS2A. My budgets shot until my wage ramps back up.....
Just my opinion (and I'm assuming you have a Haz copy in the NS-2A as well), but it's probably mostly the pickups and how they are interacting with the Haz based on their intended tonal footprint as designed by EMG.
The preamps that EMG installs inside it's pickups (be they CSs, DCs, PJs, Alnicos, JVs, MMs, etc.) are all the same. The only different internal preamp they've got is in the X series, so unless you're comparing those with the regular EMGs, you're dealing with the same internal pickup preamps.
However, The way the coils are wrapped in EMGs (and this is across their models) differ to get the desired tonal footprint. 40DC humbuckers tend to have a more detailed and crispy high end than the P or the J, and the MM pickups are wrapped differently to get that Music Man tone.
Unless you have drastically different Haz copies in each bass (like someone replaced the pots, or they are different model years or something like that), it's just the way the pickups are interacting with the preamp. Again, this is just my opinion from my experience using EMGs. A good example: When I had Chuckles' LX5 with 40DCs and the smadder setup and the Ian Hill with regular EMG PJs and the smadder setup (before I put the X series in them), the humbuckers had a lot more high end than the PJs. You could even tell when everything was set flat. So in my opinion, you're just dealing with different tones because the pickups vary both in design and what the frequency response is for them. I doubt there's anything wrong with the Haz copies themselves.
And I'm in the same boat as you. I want the action as low as possible, but I'm a heavy right hander, so I have to end up settling for medium low action. When I was at Jaymi's delivering the Ian Hill, he lowered it and I had a really difficult time playing it because I pluck so hard with my right hand. Same when I tried his Wimbish. It really threw me off. So I'm thinking about consciously trying to change my plucking style, but at heart, as much as I love playing neo-soul, hip hop and funk stuff (which is the bulk of what I get asked for), I was weaned on rock and it's hard to unlearn how my right hand attacks the strings. But my left hand loves the feel and ease of super low action setups, I just need to think about if I want to make a decision to consciously change my right hand attack or just stick with what I've been doing for years. It really would take a lot of work to change it because instead of thinking about the music, I'd be thinking about my right hand, you know what I mean?
I wish I could have the best of both, but physics just won't cooperate with my desires
.Sorry if I rambled a bit, but I hope this helps.
worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
- 1,782
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- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
The do have different pre's. The Legend 5 has a MM114 (I think that's the right number) haz copy at 9V. Acording to Sam (who owned the NS2A at one time) it has standard EMG active Pickups and a EMG BTS Pre wired at 18Volts. I'm hoping down the road to switch the pre out of the NS2A and put in a haz copy.
I find the EMG P-J's do have a little more high end than most EMG humbuckers because of the coil setup (single coil and split-coil vs dual coil in humbucker).
Also 18v preamps give more "headroom" and don't cut off the high frequencies quite like a 9V. The EMG BT is a lot more "hi-fi" than the haz and more focused on articulate notes, especially at 18v.
I have an NS20005 with EMG-Hz's and an 18V BTS and I find it is much more articulate and has more highs than my NS20004 with 9v haz-copy. I think switching preamps will cut down on the highs more, but the P-J pickups (in my experience) will generally have more highs than humbuckers.
Also 18v preamps give more "headroom" and don't cut off the high frequencies quite like a 9V. The EMG BT is a lot more "hi-fi" than the haz and more focused on articulate notes, especially at 18v.
I have an NS20005 with EMG-Hz's and an 18V BTS and I find it is much more articulate and has more highs than my NS20004 with 9v haz-copy. I think switching preamps will cut down on the highs more, but the P-J pickups (in my experience) will generally have more highs than humbuckers.
Okay then. This may be easier to adjust than you think. The EMG BT circuit has 2 dip switches on either the treble or bass pot circuit board (it depends on how old it is, but you'll notice it right away). It gives you 4 different options on what you want the center frequency to be on the treble control. You can open the back and change it around until you find something that sounds closer to what you'd like. There is still going to be a difference between the frequency response on the 40DCs and the PJ combination. But unlike the Haz, you can choose what you want your treble frequency to be on the NS2A. My advice would be to mess with that and see if you can find a sweet spot you're happy with.
Here's the link to the EMG site that explains what frequencies you can choose from on the BTS control (which is the official name of what's in the NS-2A):
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Click on "product data sheet" in the lower right corner of the page to get the .pdf and on the second page there are illustrations showing which dip switch configuration provides which treble frequency center point for the treble pot. This may help get things where you want them to be.
And just remember that there's no getting around the frequency differences between the 40DCs and the combination of the P & J. But being able to adjust your treble center point can only help.
I hope this helps and I apologize if I've just gone over a bunch of stuff you already knew. If you end up wanting to explore other pre-amp options for the NS-2A outside of a Haz, please PM me and we can talk about some potential options from EMG (and not just the smadder setup) for you that are pretty affordable. I'd be happy to help you out if I can.
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