Spector Neck-Thru 4 Strings - Phenomenal Bass, Incredible Value
Written: Apr 13 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wonderfully constructed, beautifully playable and rich and warm. A great instrument- a great value!!!
Cons: No batteryDoor. Unless "TooCheap" is a complaint, there's not too much else to groan about.
The Bottom Line: I don't think you can argue with this&I don't say this too often. You get everything you could want in a bass and a price tag that's almost not-believable...
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| nick1326's Full Review: Spector Ns2000/4 Top Neck Through Electric Bass |
Spector has garnered quite a reputation for making some incredible bass guitars. With a fairly wide range of instruments, ranging from entry-level to super-BLANG, the line contains an excellent blend of performance and high-quality instruments, yet all of them are excellent in the value department while offering optimal performance.
Perhaps the best exmaple of performance-to-cost is Spector's Euro line. Made in the Czech republic, the Euro line contains to lower-priced Bolt-on neck ReBob and ReBob DX series, while most serious players would probably sooner opt for the awesome "Euro" bass, which is constructed neck-thru (where the neck and body are on solid piece- further insuring excellent ring and sustain). This review will focus on the 4 string, fretted "Euro4" a neck-thru, active-electric bass with some SERIOUS clout at a seriously low price.
MSRP on the Euro4 is 2299/2499 for alder/mapletop or all maple finish instruments respectively. My Euro4 is a satin-finish Natural Maple (all maple). There are so many excellent attributes of this instrument I almost don't know where to begin..However overall, I'll start by saying despite the very low price I paid for this incredible bass, it has delivered superb quality, build contruction, sound quality and range of sounds. Towards the end of the review I'll also go over a few modifications I made to change that sound, and what effect it had- hope this help ALOT, it helped me expand an already wide range of styles and sounds from the stock setup.
The neck-thru design of the Euro4 is one of the greatest parts of the instrument. The neck is all maple with rosewood fingerboard and medium-heavy gauge fret wire. The inlays are mother-of-pearl Spector-Design. The fretboard is a long-scale, so the bass has a wider range of fingerings than a comparable fender bass. The neck is a 16 radius, it is more of a "jazz" neck- nice and playable- not "chop-stick thin" like some Ibanez or other designs, its also not "chunk of wood" thick like a P-bass. The neck is REALLY playable- it moves quickly and easliy and frets nice and solid without too much effort. My action is set pretty medium. I had a bolt-on Euro 4 string with low action. First, the quality of the Euro bolt-on is NO WHERE NEAR to quality of the neck-thru. Everything is cheaper- the plain alder wood body, as opposed to the flame maple on the neck thru is no comparison. The tuning machines on the neck-thru are beautiful Schaler tuners - the bolt-on version has gotoh look-alikes and they're not bad, but the Schalers are much better- and it's obvious the minute you tune or install strings. Also, it's worth mentioning that the brass bridge on the Euro4 (neck thru) is heavier and better than what comes on the ReBob (the bolt-on Euro 4 string) even though they look similar. There's a definite difference in ring and sustain- the Euro4 just feels more solid, plays like butter and sounds awesome. The ReBob feels lighter, it still plays very well and sound excellent- however of course there's a big electronics difference...
The Euro4 has a full-active electronics array- with stock EMG active P/J pickups and an active Aguilar Pre-Amp. This is a 9volt system. Mine however was later converted to a Bartolini active pre-amp and I switched the J pickup to a bartolini - it is darker, richer and warmer than the EMG. It's also got substantially higher output. My setup is fairly simple- I use a sans-amp into either a Fender rumble 60 for practice or an SWR Redhead. The super output and tonality of the redhead bring out some of the best attributes of this bass -- Also, the bottom end of the Bartolini's really kicks in with the better amp as well. Back to the instrument, build quality is infallable- I guarentee if you pick up a Euro4 and a US made 4 string, you'd be VERY hard pressed to tell the difference between them without looking at the back of the headstock to see what's written on there. Both sound incredible- if you're ego will let you live without the hand-signed headstock of the US instrument, I'd pick the Euro anyday- just pick one up start playing and it should be REALLY blaringly obvious that this thing is SUPER well made and plays like it.
Strings are so subjective. I really hate ALOT of the bass strings out there. GHS boomers continue to be my all around favorite. I like the sound of Rotosound RS66's alot, however I hate how they feel- they feel like rubber-bands under my fingers, even though they sound bright. On the Euro4 the bridge adjusts VERY very easily- and it's a very intuitive design- one of the factors that has garnered Spector ALOT of presence in the market in fact. It's solid, a snap to adjust and overall the instrument is not finicky with intonation- even a novice should be able to get it right. The bass plays very well with medium action. I can lower it further easily adding just a touch more relief if I wanted- but it's set up so nicely right now I'll leave it. The bass came with D'Darios- even though they're lively, I can't stand there strings- the GHS added some brightness on a bass that is already PLENTY dark and warm because of the Bartolinis- I think the GHS medium boomers are a perfect match- I get warmth AND brightness and attack. Running this setup with flatwounds is unreal- but you lose all traces of attack with the flatwound and bartonlinis- again, it's just that the bart's add more deimnsions of tonality and sonic-adjustability. The EMG J pickup is great- it's certainly brighter- however with the bart's I can really just move the blend switch over and get almosat everything the EMG setup gave me, but if I shift over toward to bart side, I get WAY more warmth and tonality that the EMG couldn't yield. Throw the sans-amp into the equation and you got a rig that is hard to argue with- even my medoicre (at best) rumble 60 sounds amazing- people can't believe the bottom end coming out of that little beast. While the sans-amp is a part of it, good sound starts with a good instrument- I gotta tell ya, the Spector Euro4 is everything I wanted in a bass AND MORE. As much as I love Warwicks, the flamed-maple body looks WAY better on the Spector- I also like the curvature of the body better on the Spector. Soundwise, I get everything I need out of the Spector- so the Warwick wouldn't really be worth double or triple the price.
I got a sick deal on my bass- While it MSRPs for 2499, I actually bought mine for just about a grand with hard-case and accesories- it was used, but you couldn't tell. Owners of these instruments tend to really take care of them... Knowing what I know now though- and understanding a bit more about what's out there, I can tell you I wouldn't hesitate to pay 1800 for this bass- they go for about 2 grand on the street. Worth it all the way- a 3 thousand dollar Warwick to me sounds the same (maybe nominally better to the point where it's almost unnoticeable) and it looks worse IMO- again, the flamed natural maple is stunning- I get so many compliments- I wish I played as good as the bass looked and was built.... LAUGHS!
I don't think it's possible to beat this type of package especially for the price you pay. Adaptable, dynamic, from subtle to explosive and everything in between, at a price that you really could NOT complain about. The only issues I've found with the Spector Euro's are:
1) There's no battery door- but to be honest, I don't care-my electronics are 18volt now anyway, so I'd need to take the hatch off either way.
2) The ReBob body looks way cheaper sitting next to a "real" Euro4 - Its also lighter (which you may think is a good thing) but I don't like the balance of the ReBop- the bass is neck heavy- then you pick up the real-deal Euro4- and although its heavier, it SHINES out when you play it- it sustains better and is much better balanced. Again, you'd pay anywhere's from 500-750 for a used ReBop 4, about a grand+ new. You can get a used but like-new Euro4 for probably 1250 or so and it's worth every last penny- it is 10 times the instrument the reBop is, and trust me, although I've downplayed it a bit in this review, the ReBop is REALLY a great little bass- even with the passive EMG's it has, it's got an active Aguilar pre-amp and has WAY better output than a Fender P or J... I like the fenders- but the Spector is just in a class of its own. Don't even bother comparing a lesser bass like an Ibanez or Non USA Fender either- while there's plenty of good Ibanez out there (I have one myself and like it alot) with the Spector, you're really in a whole different world. This bass is SERIOUS!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
nick1326
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Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 232
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Music, Motorcycles, Drumming, Surfing, the finest cigars and living life to its fullest...
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