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SPECTOR® Club - Part 48

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#181
sumgruuvz said:
thanks guys. so many of you are pro gk. is it because of the price or what is your determining factor? is it the sound with spectors? let me in on it now.
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Its all about tone to me... they just sound great... They do color the tone a little, but for me its in the way they do their active EQ that makes the tone so great. There is a youtube video explaining it, PM me if you want it. I can try to find it.

Price point is nice too... and that is a factor in any of my gear decisions. They are well priced and made in the USA.
 
#183
Fat240 said:
I am looking so forward to putting one in the plum, I switched the TP with my 9v tonight to see how it sounded in that bass and my band didn't believe that it was the same bass. Maybe I need to keep tweaking the TP but, I'm just not feeling it.
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I was a big TP fan till I got Spectors with 9V circuits in them.

Something you can try with the TP to make it sound closer to the 9V USA.

Try cutting the bass to about 20% up and the treble all the way down on the bass.
Use the Bass,Treble and Mid Adjustments on a outboard pedal or amp.

Boosting the Freq around 800-1Khz on an outboard pedal or amp will get your Euro with a TP closer to a USA 9V tone.

Of course this is just my opinion, but it is worth some messing around with till you wait for the 9V Circuits to be available again.
 
#184
LimaGuy said:
I was a big TP fan till I got Spectors with 9V circuits in them.

Something you can try with the TP to make it sound closer to the 9V USA.

Try cutting the bass to about 20% up and the treble all the way down on the bass.
Use the Bass,Treble and Mid Adjustments on a outboard pedal or amp.

Boosting the Freq around 800-1Khz on an outboard pedal or amp will get your Euro with a TP closer to a USA 9V tone.

Of course this is just my opinion, but it is worth some messing around with till you wait for the 9V Circuits to be available again.
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Sam has sent me clips of him doing this with his Hartke pedal and I couldn't believe how great it sounded.
 
#185
anton72 said:
You'll like Markbass. I also play through Markbass. I have LM250 head and Club121 cab, the lightest 400 Watt cab ever. I wanted to go for a combo at first but didn't like their piezo tweeters, they hiss.
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I have the little Markbass 801 Micromark, the newer one with the 8" speaker, and just added a MXR M-80 and its really unbelievable how good this little amp sounds now. For $500 I expected a lot and it hasn't let me down. Its the perfect little practice setup to get great tone without shaking the whole house. Point I'm trying to make is Markbass is the goods! I'd love to have one of the bigger ones one day.
 
#186
JPSBassist said:
Actually... there's another option for you to look at:

The BQC is a great circuit, which does sound great at 18v.

The Spector USA 18v Circuit has a great tone, quality and I honestly think it's my favorite circuit overall.

But recently I had an opportunity to revisit Aguilar's circuits in a new way and I have to admit I was pretty much blown away.

The bass below was made for Quintin Berry. It is a custom job done as a "thank you" to Quintin for all of his years as a loyal, faithful Spector Artist. And Stuart even gave it a special serial number, NS-4Q #1-804. It's NS-4 #804. But it's the first model made with this special control setup. And Stuart realized more people may want it.

PJ hasn't instructed me to change the NS-4 webpage yet, meaning it's not officially being offered as of yet. But I want one. I love the two compact, small knobs and how you get so much beautiful NS-Body wood with this setup.

The two knobs are actually routed into the space that the former (no longer offered) piezo bridge controls fit into.

This NS-4, when I plugged it in and dialed in my Redwood NS-4's settings... sounded just like my Water-Cured Redwood. So I immediately opened the back cover to see how Stuart had shoe-horned the USA 18v circuit into that configuration.

And I was shocked to find an OBP-2 sitting there staring back at me... running at 18v. For the next hour I A-B'd my NS-4 and Quintin's NS-4 and the sound was so close most of the time that I made it a point to talk to Dave Boonshoft at Aguilar during BPL about it.

Here's why I want to try the OBP-3 at 18v now. I didn't realize it... but Dave explained that the OBP-3 is special because they used both Operational Amplifiers (think Spector USA 9v Circuit) and JFET (think Spector USA 18v and TonePump Circuit) to make that single 3-band OBP-3 circuit.

So it's the best of both worlds... the analog, solid-state growl and grit with the clean, powerful, articulate JFET tech.

I've honestly decided to revisit the OBP-2 and OBP-3 circuits because I think when you add the extra headroom of another 9v battery to them it elevates their abilities into a totally different tonal realm.

The EMG is good... but it sounds like an EMG circuit... and I just can't get over how much the 2-band OBP-2 sounded like the 2-band Spector 18v circuit when you run the OBP-2 at 18v.

Link Removed
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Thanks for sharing the excellent observations and feedback, Patrick. I recently had the OBP-2 installed in my CRFM at 18v and it sounds great. NIce to know the relevant comparison to the US 18v circuit.

I now have two Euros, one with the trim pot tone pump and one with the BQC and PJ-X pups, and the Rebop with HZs, and the CRFM, so my range of tones is incredible. Now just need to find a US 9v to add and I will be content. :D
 
#187
JeffplaysBass said:
This man speaks from experience...I like that...:bassist:
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Me too. I've bought MiniMark combo and turned it back next day because of this. When I was at their store making product return, I decided to check the other, more "serious" combo which was NewYork CMD 121P. And it was the same. I agree that the piezo can not hiss by itself, but probably 102P combo amps are somewhat different (class A?). Having checked most of Markbass gear at the shop(fortunately Markbass dealer is 5 minutes drive from my place) I ended up buying head + cab with compression horn instead of piezo tweeter. To my taste the best sounding cab was NewYork 604, it sounds very punchy and articalate, but this was a bit pricey for me.
 
#188
ynot12 said:
I have the little Markbass 801 Micromark, the newer one with the 8" speaker, and just added a MXR M-80 and its really unbelievable how good this little amp sounds now. For $500 I expected a lot and it hasn't let me down. Its the perfect little practice setup to get great tone without shaking the whole house. Point I'm trying to make is Markbass is the goods! I'd love to have one of the bigger ones one day.
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Great! I also have this 801! Great little practice combo with "serious" sound.
 
#191
LimaGuy said:
I was a big TP fan till I got Spectors with 9V circuits in them.

Something you can try with the TP to make it sound closer to the 9V USA.

Try cutting the bass to about 20% up and the treble all the way down on the bass.
Use the Bass,Treble and Mid Adjustments on a outboard pedal or amp.

Boosting the Freq around 800-1Khz on an outboard pedal or amp will get your Euro with a TP closer to a USA 9V tone.

Of course this is just my opinion, but it is worth some messing around with till you wait for the 9V Circuits to be available again.
Click to expand...

or you can get the HAZ!!!...:bassist::bassist::bassist:
 
#192
ynot12 said:
I have the little Markbass 801 Micromark, the newer one with the 8" speaker, and just added a MXR M-80 and its really unbelievable how good this little amp sounds now. For $500 I expected a lot and it hasn't let me down. Its the perfect little practice setup to get great tone without shaking the whole house. Point I'm trying to make is Markbass is the goods! I'd love to have one of the bigger ones one day.
Click to expand...

Cool!!
 
#196
JPSBassist said:
Well. Unfortunately the NJ contractor (Haz Labs) that makes the USA 9v and 18v circuits for Spector has been behind on producing the circuits.

Make no mistake, I've recently gone through the history of the USA 9v circuit and it was designed by Stuart. The creation of the "NS-2 sound" was something Stuart worked on for over a year.

The circuits are made, one at a time, by hand. Haz Labs location is pretty far inland from the coast in NY, and I haven't heard that there was any damage there.

But for now, there's a shortage of NS-2 circuits... if circuits come in, unless there's enough to fill the orders that are waiting for circuits, they won't be made available for sale in the store.

If you've already paid for one, you WILL get your circuit. The orders will be filled in the order in which they were taken.

So I know it sounds like... well, like they're not ever going to send you your circuit. But they will.

My new NS-2 is waiting for one to come in too. So I'm in the same boat you are.
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I was about to pull the trigger on a 9v circuit when they went on backorder. I will just have to /deal/ with the current state of awesomeness until I can make it more awesome-er. :bassist:
 
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