So, if I saw that natural one (shakey_slim posted) for sale w/out the battery box, I would be questioning "what" it really is given the info available.
It LOOKS like an NS-2J in the frontbut not in the back.??
Not knowing it was a prototype...
Begging the question - Did some one modify a Legend or something else into this? Did they do a really good fill job in the Pup area and put in J pups and what is it REALLY worth now, is it worth more or less now that it isn't what it WAS before.
I have been scouring Craigslist, eBay, etc for Spector basses to get an idea of what I want. I have seen people listing Performers as Professionals, Pros as Euro's, NS-2A's as NS-2s, etc.Sometimes it's obviously not (depending on your level of familiarity with Spector) what they say it is. I'm not eeeeven near JPS's level, but I can spot a lot of misrepresented Spectors as I look around the usual "for sale" sites.
I mean, If you didn't know better, you might "fall for" an NS-2 in the the few pics and a description from the seller, buy it for say $1400 and have a $400 NS-2A. I have seen a couple 2As with all gold hardware, which may have been home-brewed with those Gold Plating kits people use on car parts.
Don't get me wrong I'm NOT complaining about anything.
I am just trying to understand and get to know my FAVORITE bass builders line of products and how to tell which is which.
Some are marked as i.e. "NS-2J", some just a have serial number on the headstock or cavity plate, under the cavity plate, no serial #, etc...
The NS-2A's you've seen with gold hardware... All Korean-Made Spectors have the same size bridge. So you can take the gold Spector bridge off a Legend Custom and put it on an NS-2A.
So the best way to know a NS-2A vs the NS-2 is the only USA Kramers being made with pearl dot fingerboard markers was the NS-2O (for natural Oil finish). These were always solid quilt maple, natural finished and had pearl-dot markers. They were several hundred dollars less than the full-blown NS-2. And they still had the USA Brass Spector Bridge and Gold Schaller tuners.
So unless it is a matte/oil finished quilt maple finished model, all USA NS-2 models during the Kramer years had pearl Crown Inlays.
And the NS-2A (except for perhaps 5 or 10 towards the end which were special orders) had pearl-dot necks.
The serial numbers were important too... USA models will have a stamped number on the headstock... the ink used would run when the finish was applied so many of these "Kramer rubber-stamped" Spectors have numbers that are almost impossible to read.
NS-2A models will have NS followed by a number stamped into the plastic of the control cover. Early NS-2A models didn't have any serial.
Early Euros sometimes didn't have serials. But it's a good bet that most Euro models will have the "Czech Republic" stamp under the finish on the headstock.
Honestly if you think you've found a deal and want to be sure, you can email me the details and I'll try and run it down for you.
I'm honestly not looking to buy any used/pre-owned SPECTORs at this point. I've got a couple of new custom-builds in my sights and so you can trust that I'll shoot straight with you and won't interfere in any deal you may have working. And I'll tell you if it was a deal I'd do if I were you.
There are some scammers out there. But for the most part I've not seen too many people try to pass off a Spector as something it wasn't. Most of the mis-labels I see has to do with second hand lack-of-knowledge... i.e. "My buddy sold it to me... he told me it was a NS-4." When it's a Euro4LX. That sort of thing.
You can always ask me or go to the source, Mr. Walking Spector Model Knowledge-Base himself, PJ Rubal. Honestly, when I don't know something about a model I'll ask PJ. Unless it's about a Czech model. Then I've found that Phat on this board is pretty much right 99.99% of the time. So he's a great resource too.
Kramer Era Spectors (not the complete list but the three I mentioned in this post):
NS-2A
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
NS-2O
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
NS-2
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
