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Well, on mine, to get a relatively "flat" response I boost the low mids (400 hz) a tad and cut high mids (800-1000 hz) and treble a touch.
Lately I've just been letting the bass do what it does in the mix and that is crash and cut like a mutha. Gig tonight with it and I'm bringing my new Euro for backup/set 3. Gonna be fun.
johnsonabq
Watch out where the huskies go...
That's what I like about my Euro now. I can hear the tone of the bass itself. Especially when I practice with my headphones on. It sounds great! In retrospect I only needed to install the OBP-2. I also replaced the TW's with DC's. I then sold the pre & pups to another Spector owner for an upgrade.
Your observation is why I've taken the plunge into the USA's because I want to enjoy the full Spector experience with a NS-5XL (18v) and a NS-2 (9v). Not to mention that for the over 40 years I've been playing bass I've never owned a bass with the kind of workmanship and high end wood that the USA's offer. I am very thankful that I'm in a place now where I can make this happen.
I often think back to the 80's and 90's when I was making a living playing/touring and ask myself, "Why weren't you playing Spectors?"
Man that sucks big time. I can't imagine. I have a few friends who are road cyclist. I used to race downhill moutainbikes a few years ago and they thought I was the crazy one. Truth be told it scares the sh@# out of me to ride a bike on the road. Thoughts and prayers are with you and your friend.......
Congrats on the new basses guys!
With all of the preamp talk, I have to say the the tone pump has really grown on me. Definitely a different animal than the OBPs, but serves me well when trying for the US9V sound. I like having the variety of both along with the BQC.
With all of the preamp talk, I have to say the the tone pump has really grown on me. Definitely a different animal than the OBPs, but serves me well when trying for the US9V sound. I like having the variety of both along with the BQC.
Well, on mine, to get a relatively "flat" response I boost the low mids (400 hz) a tad and cut high mids (800-1000 hz) and treble a touch.
Lately I've just been letting the bass do what it does in the mix and that is crash and cut like a mutha. Gig tonight with it and I'm bringing my new Euro for backup/set 3. Gonna be fun.
I set up the bass with a little more P-pickup and boosted the bass a little past center. I pulled some of the highs/ mid highs out of the amp and its sounding great but I'm going to next add that low mid. I'm also going up a step from the 105/85/65/45 strings that are on the bass before I lift up the action in hopes to play the string a little more and not so much on the neck....this bass is amazing!
Well I got some old Dimarzio's, a TonePump, and what I'm thinking is a Mighty Mite HAZ copy on the way for my old Brooklyn NS-2.
Hopefully I'll get this bass somewhat back to what it once was.
Hopefully I'll get this bass somewhat back to what it once was.
Hmm....
Although I'm not sure if the videos I saw were the same ones you speak of, I was always under the impression it was done basically the way you describe it.
I definately knew the horns were done by hand as, although not wildly inconsistent or anything, you can definately see some subtle differences from time to time (mostly the upper horn) where it might be a little more or less bulbous near the end or sometimes branch a little more or less out than the "norm".
Todd and I were just speaking of this as, one of the pre trade identifiers we used for the Tim Gaines bass was that the lower horn was a little "fatter" than normal. Not sure if Kramer did it the same way, but it is an '86 and Stuart was still there, correct?
Thanks for sharing this, Patrick. So cool to see these masterpieces being made, in pieces. Just curious, if we were to see a video from the Czech shop, would it look the same or would there be differences in how they build the basses there?
Outside pictures of NS2 #813, I think I got it dialed in and will run it on a PA system tomorrow before changing the strings....
The Videos I'm talking about were the Musician Network Tour.
Stuart had just gotten the CNC and was rather excited about it. So he talked about it a lot.
I guess the thing for me is that I have seen factory tour videos where there's 4 or 5 CNC machines set up and the tech presses the button for the program and they just punch guitar/bass bodies out with little human finishing.
You get consistent results... but there's no artistry in the build in my opinion.
Yes. And there's a "stumpy" NS-5XL that was in Europe, a friend of mine picked it up. The lower horn was almost 1/2 the size of the typical NS lower horn.
With the 3 USA NS-Body Spectors I have here right now, all of them have slight differences in the horn tip's shape. And I actually think that's cool.
From 1975 until 1985 Spector Guitar Company was two people... Stuart Spector and Alan Charney. By 1984 Stuart was doing a lot of admin and dealer and artist stuff... so Alan was handling a lot of the build process. Stuart still oversaw everything. But he wasn't standing at the machines all day. Perhaps 2 or 3. But then he'd have 2 or 3 in the office or out meeting with suppliers, or artists.
When Spector was sold to Kramer, Alan went to work in Neptune, full-time, doing what he'd been doing since he started working for Stuart.
And Stuart would come in (on average) 2-3 days a week and work side-by-side with Alan. He still inspected everything that left Kramer with his name on it.
And he was the one to do special artist basses like the 1.5" nut for Doug Wimbish.
So he was there, but not there every day.
Indeed. The are very evenly matched, which makes for some exciting games. Throw in an old-school hipcheck and I'm good.
Actually! I'm GLAD YOU ASKED!!!!
It would look the same, but with more people and more machines.
The Czech "factory"... I still like to call it a workshop because factory infers that there's an assembly line process or perhaps automation. Or perhaps hundred of people.
The NY Workshop has 4 people in the woodshop with Stuart, and Jimmy Eppard does the hardware installs and setups in a different area up in the front near the office.
The Czech Shop has 35 employees.
But the build process is the same.
It should also be noted that the Czech Shop is shared between Stuart and Ned Steinberger.
Spector and NS-Design instruments are made there. Very close friends to this day... Ned and Stuart share that facility.
johnsonabq
Watch out where the huskies go...
I see that in order to get the most out of my Rebop, I am going to have to upgrade my rig. I need at least 300 watts. Ideally, a power combo like my old Markbass CMP121P would do the trick although a true rig would be better. I played through an Ampeg stack at the Nadhville GC and people came out of everywhere to see what bass was sounding so good.
Torn, that bass is awesome looking outside . I seriously need to think about getting a ns2 I have an eye on one but 5g's is stalling that transaction for me at the present time . 
Torn, that bass is awesome looking outside . I seriously need to think about getting a ns2 I have an eye on one but 5g's is stalling that transaction for me at the present time .
I understand because it took me some time to collect the saving, but it can happen for you if you stick to the plan! lol
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