I'm JP and I do marketing support and I am the webmaster for Stuart Spector Design, LTD. Makers of the Spector Bass.
We have a wide selection of basses to fit a lot of tonal needs. I personally own 4 different Spector Basses, each with a different sound than the next. So the application of what sound you want to make is important.
The NS-2 is the most commonly associated model with our name. Queensryche, Pantera, 1980's Ozzie, Billy Idol, Living Colour, Judas Priest since 1986, the Police Synchronicity Album...
The NS-2 has an active proprietary tone circuit made just for us. It is solid state... still made the same way it was in 1979 when we started using it. It is a 9v active system with Active EMG P/J pickups. And the "P" Pickup is reversed from the usual installation you'll find on A Fender P-Bass for instance.
We have the NS-4 which is our most power 4 String bass. An 18v circuit, tonally the same to our USA NS-2 9v circuit and dual EMG DC active pups.
Then we have a dual "J" version (NS-2J) and our Euro Series basses have similar setups but use our TonePump Circuit. It is a digital circuit, designed in cooperation with us in the Czech Republic and is designed to approximate the same tone as our 9v Solid State Circuit.
I know a lot of people don't like it... but the issue with is has been fixed for several years now. It's a very hot circuit. It used to come from the factory set really high and it would easily peak out. It colored the basses brighter than the USA models. We worked with our Czech designer to add a trim pot on the unit itself. I turn mine to 1/2 way. And this bass has incredible deep, rich tone.
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This is my NIN account. I take Trent Reznor's master tracks and drop his guitars and bass and rearrange/add my own. If you visit this page, look at the right side for a column called "Remix". All of the tracks there EXCEPT the Tarantino vs. Reznor Mix were recorded with a Neck-Thru Europe Series Euro4LX, with 9v TonePump and Active EMG P/Js. It is a stock Euro4LX. I've only adjusted the TonePump trim pot.
The Tarantino vs. Reznor Mix was done with a USA NS-4... the one that is featured in my NIN Profile Photo.
If you want to hear how good these basses sound, and see if this is the tone you are looking for, wear headphones with you visit the NIN.com site to hear my mixes.
and FYI, I played guitar on these tracks with a USA ARC6 Spector Electric Guitar.
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The main thing the neck-thru basses are known for is their legendary sustain. Like in Spinal Tap... hit the note, go to lunch and come back and it's still ringing. No joke. I'm a session bassist and I've hit a note in studio at the end of a song and it has rang on for 5 minutes.
The necks, action, comfort, weight, playability, tone, durability... these are the reasons to want a Spector.
As far as onlay... do you mean the laminate tops? Or the neck inlays?
You can order Spectors without neck inlays if you want. But all of our basses are either a mix of different tone woods, and therefore will have a laminate top of some sort, or our NS-2/NS-4 USA models can be ordered with solid AAAA Quilt maple wings.
I have one of the rarest and most expensive production Spectors... it is a Water Cured Redwood Model. And the wings are 50% Redwood and 50% Walnut. This is an $8,000 bass. And it sounds amazing.
Stuart doesn't just randomly pick wood because it is pretty as many builders do. He tests each new batch of wood for its tone and will mix woods to reach the best blend of lows/mids/brights to keep the instrument sounding like a Spector.
All Euro Models are Flame or Spalted maple (or Birdseye Poplar) over a thin layer of walnut with an alder back. This blend works to balance the tone.
I'm a pretty low-key guy. I like black... natural wood has never really turned me on... but I have to say my Redwood Spector is the most amazing looking and sounding bass I've ever seen.
You can order solid colors. And we have different neck profiles as well. You can order a Jazz Nut Spector (nut = 1.5") or our standard (nut= 1.68"). You can order a thinner neck front to back (the Ian Hill Model) or our standard neck, which to me is perfect.
We have bolt-on models as well. Our USA Bolt-On models feature Aguilar OBP-3 tone circuits. And pup options include the EMG MM (MusicMan) wide aperture pups.
Visit our site and if you have any specific questions I'll be glad to answer them for you or hook you up with someone at the home office in customer support.
Lastly, our website has a comprehensive list of authorized Spector Dealers world-wide. So if you are in the States you can find the nearest city with a deal. We have at least one dealer in each of the 50 States.
Thanks for your interest in Spector Basses. If you get one, beware, you won't be able to stop with one. I was a Spector player before I went to work for them. Now it's how I pay for my Spector addiction.
