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Unusual Spector at GC, please help

H

Hyde

Mar 30, 2006
323
1
#1
I'm making the trek out to the nearest urban population center to play some basses and possibly buy a bass this weekend, so I called around to find out what all the different stores had, in hopes of finding a Warwick, Spector, and Cirrus all within the same walls. Well, the person I talked to at Guitar Center, who seemed relatively knowledgeable, told me about a matte red, US-made, bolt-on, figured maple five-string Spector with an unusual-looking pickup. He said that all he really knew was that it was part of a brief run that Spector made, there weren't many basses like it out there, and that he really liked it. Unfortunately, he didn't know what it was called. Intrigued, I went to the Spector website after I got of the phone and, after much fruitless searching, found this on the third page of their list of artists:

"Meet Michael Oughton, a good friend and long time Spector Bass player. Michael worked closely with Stuart Spector to design this special edition bass for Sam Ash. Here's the description from the Sam Ash Catalog:

"This very special edition bass was designed by our Michael Oughton with Stuart Spector and is the perfect balance of visual aesthetics and state of the art electronics. The two-piece body is sculpted from AAAA maple in the classic Ned Steinberger contoured body style. The neck is crafted from hard rock maple with a Pao Ferro fingerboard, graphite reinforcement rods, and the signature Spector brass nut for brightness and sustain. Featured in this bass is the ADM (Advanced Dynamic Magnetics) pickup system. The pickup is a humbucking Villex passive pickup with the proprietary Villex toroidal inductor midrange control. The signal is then routed through the incomparable Aguilar OBP-1 active preamp, making this an 18 volt system capable of creating a full palette of bass colors.

Boutique basses with these type of features typically start at sale prices in excess of $2700. This bass, produced in the wilds of Saugerties, NY, lists for less than these basses sale prices. With a list of $2400 and a sale price of $1899, this is the “working professional’s” bass."
Click to expand...

There was also a picture of it at [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It seems to match his description perfectly, but I've scoured the internet, and that's all the info I can find (except for a brief mention on this thread:http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=158804). Does anyone know anything about these basses? When were they made? How many were made? What's the Villex pickups like? What's the scale length? Heck, what is this thing actually even called? Most importantly, why was this bass cheaper than the other US bolt-ons? I'm assuming it's at least partially due to the matte finish and lack of inlays, but is that the only reason, or were they made to a lower quality standard than their NS-JH5 brethren? What is a fair price for a used one?

Anyway, I'll know a lot more once I go play it, but it would be awesome if someone who owns one or at least knows anything about them can enlighten me.
 
#2
the Villex pickups are passive, I remember they were reviewed in 01 with a Modulus Flea 5; BP liked 'em. The reason they went with the lack of inlays was the fact that the original bolt-on NS-2J didn't have them, it wasn't really a cost matter. The matte finish, I don't have an answer for.
 
#5
Alright, it sounds like that is indeed the bass at Guitar Center. Apparently, fewer than 20 of them were made, which would be a kinda cool bragging rights bonus for an already awesome bass. I can't wait to go play this thing, and if it's anything like the other American Spectors I've played, I'm thinking I'll have a new bass by this weekend.
 
#6
HYDE, did you pick that Spector bass up? I have one of these basses, my bass was #4 made. It's an awesome bass. Very versatile. Great rock tone, great slap tone, u name it! And it's soooo comfortable to play. I love it, it's the only bass I've really played since 2002/2003. Get this, I waited 4 months for my bass to be made, when I finally received it, I used it for 1 month, then it was stolen at a gig! I recovered it 1 year later from ebay! Pretty crazy story, I have the full story here... http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2751061#post2751061
Anyway, Mike Oughton designed this bass, and it turned out better than expected, so he had a few made up for some friends(myself), and also put a few in the local samash stores. I believe there were 17 made. I beleive my bass was the only Blackcherry Sunburst!
I know it's been awhile since you posted this thread, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

did it look anything like this...
th_spectorneck.jpg

th_epiUL310s.jpg
 
#7
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread. I helped to design this bass and I still have #2 hanging about 10 feet from where I'm sitting now. As far as the price break, it was a special incentive deal we brokered for Sam Ash. It is a very special instrument that is made to the same high standards as all of the beaut's that come out of Saugerties, NY. Dominic, your bass is still georgeous and I'm glad that you still like it. This is very cool to see people talk about the bass. By the way, HYDE, the bass model is NSJH5SE (SE is for Special Edition). I hope you picked it up, let me know if you did and how it's working for you. Also, I'd like to know where you saw it (as in the city), the color of the stain, and what serial number it is. Most of them, save 2 of the 16 made, I signed on the flute on the back of the neck/headstock joint. There is one glossy grey burst out there that is fretted as well. I'd love to find that one!
Michael O.
 
#12
NKUSigEp said:
Certainly is a pretty bass! I'm sure if the OP is still wanting to check it out almost 5 years later (originally posted Oct 2006), these pictures should help! :D
Click to expand...

I knew it was an old thread, just saw the link in the recent for sale post and decided to add my pics since it was a very limited production model.

Since we have a pretty strong habit of passing basses around between us, hopefully these will come in handy to someone looking for info on one of these someday. Pics of nice basses are timeless!! ;)
 

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