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Why is Spector so popular on TB?

#144
beatdatthang said:
I got into bass in 1984 at 10 years old. Saved up mowing lawns and delivering newspapers and bought my first bass (an awesome Aria Pro II) that year. I was into rock and metal and noticed that so many of the bassists played these “Spectors”. I was never a Fender guy (I thought they looked too ‘70s - like a station wagon with wood paneling - and still do) so those curved lines just caught my attention. There were no import versions then so they were all expensive custom shop basses then.

What finally pushed me over the edge is when I saw Queensryche in ‘88 touring to support the newly released Operation Mindcrime album. Eddie Jackson’s tone was just an amazing mix of crushing a clear. I’d never heard anything like it live. I later saw Skid Row and Rachel Bolan had that same crushing tone. The more I looked the more the guys with the best bass tone were playing Spectors.

I finally got to play one in a music store in the late 80s (an NS-2A) and I was floored at how comfortable and just plain loud unplugged it was. Bell-like tone. It sounded like a piano but would snarl and growl when I would dig in. Guys like Mike Starr and Rex Brown just reinforced this as time went on and I’ve been a Spector guy ever since. I’ve bounced around and tried most name brand bass by this point but nothing compares with my Spectors for me. This is the tone I get from my Spectors and the tone I hear in my head that keeps me coming back:

Click to expand...

It roars like a 400 pounds tiger ! Love it !
 
#147
Just Wrong said:
First, this is a legitimate question and not meant to be trolling.

Some will disagree, but it seems to me that we like the gear we like in part because we heard it on the records we love:
Click to expand...

I mean...it's kind of true for me.

Alex Webster(Cannibal Corpse) is my favorite bassist. He currently plays a Spector. I bought a Spector.

I wasn't looking for one, and it's a lower/mid model, but when I was looking for a 5 string, and this happened to not only be at a store I visited, but also the best 5 string I found over 2 days, I bought it. It definitely didn't hurt that my favorite played the same brand(but a better model).
 
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#149
The original version, the neckthrough, that resulted from the collaboration between Stuart Spector and Ned Steinberger has endured to become an accepted, classic design in wide use. This is significant, as lots of basses for more than a few reasons have come . . . and gone inside the NS' timeline.

The seductive part of these basses is twofold:

Not just the curved body, but all the rounded contours. There's no hard edges in wood save for the edges of the fingerboard and headstock. It just wants to tuck up to you, no body edges to catch your hand or arms or clothes, and they are very comfortable to play and wear.

For many years they were always all maple. Not always the lightest thing, but that hardness helped create a native tone that on demand would cut through most anything. You don't see lots of them in metal for nothing, and it's bright for slap specialists like Doug Wimbish.

The first time I tried one, it was in satin maple, little more than an oil finish, an NS4 with EMG PJ's and it was a moment that stands out among the 100's of basses I've tried, the feel was simply unlike anything else and the tone was very confident.
 
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#150
The funny thing is, for me, when I was in high school and just starting out on bass my Dad had all these Bass Player magazines from like 1999 - 2004 and there used to be a ton of Spector advertisements in them, but I used to hate the shape of those basses for some reason, even though I appreciated the build quality (The woods were cool) I just couldn't get into the shape of the body (I think it was because they looked really long).

They didn't grab my attention until I got into Protest the Hero and saw what Arif Mirabdolbaghi was doing with them. Not only did all the crazy stuff he did look fun, but he got a great warm tone out of those basses, plus they were actually stunning to look at. Turquoise (Uuuuuungh), green and zebrawood Spectors I believe he had, then moved on to those Coda Jazz basses before leaving the band.

Btw, for someone who hasn't played a Spector, what would you guys say are the differences between Spectors and Warwick Streamers? I remember a Rockbass Streamer that had quite the chunky neck.
 
#152
Snapped this photo when I was auditioning a GR bass cab at a local music store (Chuck Levins just outside of Washington DC):

PXL_20240516_172430890.jpg

My 2¢: I owned one for awhile back in the 90's. Quality and tone were outstanding, but definitely not my thing overall, mainly because of ergonomics: 24 fret instruments with stubby upper horns tend to neck dive (unless the body is heavy, which has its own drawback). Disclosure is that I'm an unabashed FSO guy. Plenty of bassists enjoy instruments with non-Fender ergonomics, and that's totally cool.
 
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#154
For me, it is because the P/J NS (as in Ned Steinberger) design is one of the coolest and the EMGs gave them quite a "modern" sound.

Keep in mind that, at one point, the Warwick Streamer was an exact copy of this model and Warwick had to pay a fee to continue making them (Streamer bass - Wikipedia), until they later modified it.

I would say the NS inspired the Ibanez Soundgear P/J as well in terms of sound and design.
 
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