Send Jason an email through the site with your tb name. He will take care of it. Then you will be in a world of saving's you've never thought could be true.
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Send Jason an email through the site with your tb name. He will take care of it. Then you will be in a world of saving's you've never thought could be true.
Has anyone ever compared the 9V and 18V USA circuits by chance? Besides the voltage and the 9V being 4 knobs and the 18V being 3 knobs, I am curious of any other differences.
It seems like Spector uses the 9V circuit in P/J configuration basses and the 18V circuit in ones with humbuckers so I am curious of the reasoning. My reasoning for these questions is my Rebop will be here in a few days and it supposedly has an Aguilar OBP-1 in it which I am not sure how it will sound. I am definitely going to rip out the EMG HZ's and put EMG DC's in it but this whole thing got me thinking about tone circuits as well.
It seems like Spector uses the 9V circuit in P/J configuration basses and the 18V circuit in ones with humbuckers so I am curious of the reasoning. My reasoning for these questions is my Rebop will be here in a few days and it supposedly has an Aguilar OBP-1 in it which I am not sure how it will sound. I am definitely going to rip out the EMG HZ's and put EMG DC's in it but this whole thing got me thinking about tone circuits as well.
worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
- 1,782
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
Send Jason an email through the site with your tb name. He will take care of it. Then you will be in a world of saving's you've never thought could be true.
Thanks brotha!
worshiprocker
Tonepump Junkie
- Aug 12, 2011
- 4,683
- 1,782
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Spector Basses
played the performer today at church and WOW... best mix in my ears and I was told by several people that they could hear me!! I love that an entry level Spector still cuts through the mix and sits perfect.. I even broke out some slap bass today.... man I love this bass....
Update on my NS-2A ... EMG active p pups on the way thanks to Sam sending me a link
now I need to find a J pup. I'm wicked excited to get these pups in..
and I might be adding a 2nd 2x15 to my rig soon....
Update on my NS-2A ... EMG active p pups on the way thanks to Sam sending me a link
now I need to find a J pup. I'm wicked excited to get these pups in..and I might be adding a 2nd 2x15 to my rig soon....
delucajohn2000 said:
One is the haz lab circuit 9v, the other aguilar 18v . They do sound different. The aggi is more hi fi, the haz is more growly imo. Both do growl though. Imo the rebops sound a little better with the Hz's. Swapped mine out for DC's and going back to the Hz's.
The bolt on is inherently a little more clacky , and for my taste the emg's bring that out a little too much. The Hz's are good and a little smoother on the highend. I think they might be the perfect match with the aggi in a rebop.
Emg's can be run up to 27v . The difference is pretty big between 9 and 18v imo. The output isn't any hotter, but they have more headroom and sound a little more open . There's not much if any audible difference between 18 and 27v to me though. Just my .02
Cool, thanks for the info Grendle. I guess I should play the bass and see if I like the sound before I think about ripping the pickups out
There is more information about it in our Official Discussion thread in the Bazaar (See my sig) as well as in the "My Experience with Bass Strings Online" thread in the String forum.
Glad you all find the site helpful!
madbassplaya said:
I ordered a used natural finish rebop5 from Guitar Center for a steal. It doesn't have the crown inlays so the Spector site dates it between 2002-2004 I believe. The sales guy said it has an aguilar obl-1 in it so if that is true, I am psyched. If it has the non trim pot tonepump, that will be ripped out immediately but it should get here mid week so I can't wait.
If it is an OBP-1 it would have to be an early 2002 as this is when they started to phase them out in favor of the Tone Pump.
played the performer today at church and WOW... best mix in my ears and I was told by several people that they could hear me!! I love that an entry level Spector still cuts through the mix and sits perfect.. I even broke out some slap bass today.... man I love this bass....
Update on my NS-2A ... EMG active p pups on the way thanks to Sam sending me a link
and I might be adding a 2nd 2x15 to my rig soon....
That is totally awesome brother!!!
I wouldve liked to have kept the Performer that I flipped but...I was on a mission to get a USA SPECTOR. Blasted GAS!
Overdrive777 said:
The Rebop nuts are made out of plastic (not sure specifically which kind) and the Euro Neck-Throughs are brass. Spector experts, correct me if i'm wrong.
- Jun 16, 2005
- 3,584
- 31
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Spector, Aguilar, Darkglass
CarlosRoberto5 said:
I thought it was graphite composite? And the euro neck thrus are USUALLY brass unless they come with black hardware.. I lucked out and got a brass nut and black hardware
No offense Grendle but this isn't exactly correct...
The USA 9v and USA 18v circuits are BOTH made by HazLabs... The ReBop has had many different circuits through the years but comes standard with the Czech-made TonePump now.
Regarding the USA circuits... I have both, and have compared them side-by-side.
The output on the 18v IS hotter than the 9v. This surprised me the first time I switched them out on the same amp.
The difference with the knobs is a minor thing... the three knobs of the 18v model have a stacked bass/treble knob so in reality it's pretty much the same setup as the USA 9v.
One knob for overall volume, one knob for blend, one for bass and one for treble.
The main thing is that the 9v and 18v USA Circuits are based on the older op-amp system which is known to loose signal when processing a lot of bandwidth from the pups. The reason the 9v USA Circuit is known for so much growl is because HazLab's and Stuart's (remember the HazLab/SPECTOR circuits are made to Stuart's specifications) solution for the signal loss was to add additional op-amp circuits and distort the overloaded signal... distort meaning "distortion". Which is the source of the growl.
Different manufacturers handle the op-amp signal loss problem differently... but the most common method for addressing this known issue is to add more voltage to the circuit, reducing the resistance.
The 18v USA Circuit does just that. And as a result the extra headroom provided by the additional voltage, creates a cleaner, less distorted sound. Not to say you can't get the 18v circuit to sound "growly" because you can... but you can also clean up the sound and get a clearer tone if you want.
I have to say that I prefer the sound of the 9v circuit better... but honestly I think it's because I prefer the P/J setup to dual humbuckers. There's more tonal range... it's almost a 3D sound effect from the P/J setup whereas the dual humbuckers tend to sound more alike (given their positions under the strings).
If I get time after BPL I'll record some samples with both for you.
But really you had gold hardware to begin with and switched your bridge and tuners out to black...
But you are absolutely correct... if you get the black hardware the bass usually comes with the graphite nut whereas the gold hardware models come with a zinc/brass alloy nut, made from the same material as the bridge.
My gold hardware Euro had the brass nut and my black hardware Euro has the black graphite nut.
And the nut material IS graphite.
The nuts of Euro basses come with either a gold-colored zinc/brass alloy nut (made from the same material as the bridge but not polished)...
Or if the bass has black hardware there is a graphite composite nut.
Thank you for your replies!
The thing is that I bought a used NS2A a couple of weeks ago and the nut was broken. So when I let my local music store change the nut, they didn't have a graphite nut (as I asked for) so they put on a bone nut... Since the color if the bass is cream white it should be fine BUT I think bone don't have the same brightness in tone as the graphite nut has. Could anyone confirm that or am I just overthinking it???
The thing is that I bought a used NS2A a couple of weeks ago and the nut was broken. So when I let my local music store change the nut, they didn't have a graphite nut (as I asked for) so they put on a bone nut... Since the color if the bass is cream white it should be fine BUT I think bone don't have the same brightness in tone as the graphite nut has. Could anyone confirm that or am I just overthinking it???
Between Graphite and Bone, I would think the difference would be negligible, with the bone maybe being the slightest bit darker, but I honestly don't think it would be a noticeable difference. Swap either of those for brass, however, and I think you would notice a brigther tone with the brass.
rockstarbassist
Inactive
My ex-Brooklyn was P/J with a 9V and my NS-5 is 40DC's with 18V.
IME, the 9V gets a little dirtier/grittier quicker when you boost the onboard EQ. The 18V you can really crank the B and T controls and it still stays pretty freakin' clean. But that's why they match those certain pre's with the pickup configs. My P/J was more cutting/aggressive and not as big on the supportive/fundamental tone. My NS-5 is bigger and goes lower and a little more round- less direct and in your face.
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