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spector performer 4?

pcake

pcake

Sep 20, 2011
10,169
31,502
Los Angeleez
#1
i'm not that aware of spector, but i've played some without paying attention to which was which. last year, sam ash torrance had a few in stock, so i played one. and played it. and played it. through several amps. i enjoyed it, and i've thought about it a lot.

i believe that the spector performer (and other models) lower bout is a bit smaller than most of the basses i play. it looks a little smaller and it doesn't hurt my shoulder. or maybe it's just the location of the waist.

but i looked up the performer vs the legend (i'm still not clear on the differnce), and i find that a lot of people on this board prefer warwick rockbass models to the performer and consider the performer to be equivalent with a squier affinity of some type. these threads were all older, but they made me think...

yes, i liked the spector performer, but is it dramatically overpriced for what it is? does it have messy build quality and issues that you might expect to have from a $200 bass rather than a $400 bass? and what's the difference between the performer and the legend?

does anyone here own a performer and love it?
 
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#3
I don't own a Performer, but I've played both the Performer and the Legend.

I consider the Legend to be the souped-up version of the Performer, primarily because the Performer is a passive instrument, whereas the Legend has Bartolini pickups and the Tone Pump Jr. preamp. The Performer's body is nato mahogany, whereas the Legend is an ash body. I would've thought that this would make the Performer significantly heavier than the Legend, but in looking at some actual weights on Sweetwater's site, the difference seems to be 2-3 ounces at most. The build quality on both of the examples I played was comparable. I believe the Performer is made in Indonesia, and the Legend is made in Korea.

I think the Squier Affinity reference is not necessarily a reference to messy build quality but rather to price point. Just as the Affinity line is FMIC's entry-level point, the Performer is Spector's lowest-priced model.
 
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#5
pcake said:
do you like the tone pump jr with the barts?
Click to expand...
I like them to the extent that they delivered more of the traditional "Spector sound" that I hear in my head, which is a more modern, active tone. I think Spector has put together better pickup/preamp combinations (e.g., EMGs with Haz Lab, Darkglass, et al.), but those combinations are only available on U.S. and European models. So yes, I did like the Bartolini/Tone Pump Jr. pairing, though with a decent external preamp, I'd imagine that even a passive Performer could be made to sound closer to a Legend.
 
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#6
The more recent Spector Performer models (I believe they're made in Indonesia) are decent basses, nothing too special, I would however avoid the older DLX models (made in China). I thought being a "Deluxe" model would well, make for a better bass but I absolutely hated it. The output was very underwhelming - very weak in comparison to other passive basses I own, I mean you can hear a little of that Spector sound but it really sounded like well, a highly sedated neutered Legend. I didn't own the bass long but as a last resort before I sold the bass, I put a cheap preamp in it to see if it would try to salvage my purchase- it improved it somewhat but still not enough to keep it, a pretty sour experience overall. I thought at first it was just my particular bass being a lemon, but in reading some of the threads about the Performer DLX models, some have had the same experience and resorted to adding a preamp and/or changing the stock pickups. To be honest, I would probably pass on the Performer models and just get a Legend.
 
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#7
the thing is, i'm not looking for the spector sound because honestly i haven't a clue what that is. i haven't spent enough time playing spectors, and i've only played them in noisy sam ash stores. the bartolinis i've played i've really enjoyed, but i'm not generally into active preamps although i'm not opposed to them. but i did like the sound of the passive performer i played.

can't try a legend in store right now...
 
#8
pcake said:
the thing is, i'm not looking for the spector sound because honestly i haven't a clue what that is. i haven't spent enough time playing spectors, and i've only played them in noisy sam ash stores. the bartolinis i've played i've really enjoyed, but i'm not generally into active preamps although i'm not opposed to them. but i did like the sound of the passive performer i played.

can't try a legend in store right now...
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you played one of the later Performer models (not the DLX) which are pretty decent. Not a bad bass at all and certainly better than the DLX. Really weird but those two Performer models are like night and day.
this is the Performer DLX model I had. Body shape is long is different and not as compact as the standard. The fret markers are decals added on by the previous owner.

57694883_855383961463514_932804769989263360_n.jpg
 
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