New Bass Day: Spector Performer 4 DLX

[marnold]

Yes, you read that subject correctly. I posted in the Getting down to bassics thread that I had seen a Spector Performer 4 DLX on eBay for a screaming price. Normally the MSRP is $549, sale price is $399, this was going for $179. The seller is The Perfect Bass, a shop out of LA that is a sponsor for the TalkBass forums. I've wanted a Spector since the 80s, but didn't think I'd be able to afford one. Granted, this is their low-end made-in-China version, but still. Basically it's new old stock.

I left Sunday afternoon to go to a pastors' conference, but put this one in My eBay. I checked the site on my PDA right about the time the auction was about to end. I bid on it and got it! Here's a link to the auction. It's got a basswood body with figured maple top in a see-through red color that I've always loved. It's got two EMG-SSD soapbars. The contact at The Perfect Bass is going to call me tomorrow morning to get my info.

Yeah! I'm going to be a bass player again! There goes my Christmas money a couple months early!

 

[just strum]

Congrats - HNGD to you!!!

I guess that should be HNBD!!!

 

[Robert]

Congrats! Now we need to hear some screaming bass solos from the Pastor!
:bravo:

 

[Duff]

Score!

Marnold,

You will need a bass amp.

I suggest that you look at the new offering from Marshall that I got: the MB30 for 199 or the MB15 for less. They are incredible. Not advertizing for anyone.

The MB30 has a line out to the board or PA and would work prefect in church. You probably could just run it straight out. These are great amps and very portable. For less than two hundred.

The tone is incredible. Incredible versitality with two channels, clean and drive, manual compression with adjustable dial on the MB30, three voices with a level dial for the voices, boost, all sorts of neat things and they look GREAT with black amp covering and white caps on the knobs; looks awesome. Steel speaker grill for protection during portability and around children, careless people, accidents, etc.

Seriously dude, pastor, this is worth comparing and I think you will know what I mean. Plus if you get a five string later it will handle the low B; most small amps won't and probably a lot of the big ones. Just not designed for that low B wavelength.

Congrats on the bass. I know you have been wanting one. My inexpensive new Squire Affinity Jazz bass I bought sounds great and I picked up a really inexpensive used affinity P bass that sounds great but that I am going to hot rod.

I can feel the vibe of your excitement. Earth is not heaven but maybe this bass came from the road to heaven or is on the road to heaven or will get somebody else on the road to heaven. Sounds like more than coincidence. The hand of God may have reached in there dude . . . . .

Best wishes with the transaction and homecoming!

Duffy

 

[Katastrophe]

Congrats, Rev. Rawk! That is a beautiful bass.:AOK:

You do realize of course that we're gonna have to change your nickname to "Rev. Rumble.":AOK:

 

[bigoldron]

Yeah! I'm going to be a bass player again! There goes my Christmas money a couple months early!

In the words of another jolly fat man, "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!" Enjoy her Rev! :rockon:

 

[duhvoodooman]

Very nice, Matt! And what a price!! :AOK: :dude: :rockon:

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Very nice Matt! Congrats on the good score!

 

[marnold]

You do realize of course that we're gonna have to change your nickname to "Rev. Rumble.":AOK:

I've been called worse things

Just got off the phone with the guy from The Perfect Bass about it. Hopefully I'll have a tracking number later today!

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Wow, congrats!

Spectors are kinda "bassist's basses," if you know what I mean. Respected among bassists but not as well to guitarists as companies like Fender or Ric that do both guitars and basses.

 

[Algonquin]

You do realize of course that we're gonna have to change your nickname to "Rev. Rumble.":AOK:

I can see it now... Reverand Rumble has GAS!

Congrats Bass Master Paster :AOK:

 

[marnold]

Well, it got shipping out this afternoon. So fresh that FedEx doesn't even have a guesstimated delivery time. I figure Tuesday probably.

Wow, congrats!

Spectors are kinda "bassist's basses," if you know what I mean. Respected among bassists but not as well to guitarists as companies like Fender or Ric that do both guitars and basses.

Yep. Although Spector only relatively recently started making guitars. Spector basses were really popular in the late 80s. Ned Steinberger originally designed the body shape--thus the "NS" body. The company was sold to Kramer which owned it for about 5 years before going belly-up. Stuart Spector managed to win back the right to use his own name.

Even though I have nothing per se against the Jazz and Precision body styles, I'm really glad to have an NS. It is well known that my tastes in guitars can tend to be a little, erm, non-traditional. Some of the made-in-the-U.S. Spectors can be astronomically expensive. This one is low-end but has some high-end features.

 

[Spudman]

Bbbbbbuuuuutttttt....it's only got 4 straings.

Congrats. Looks like we might have NGD on the same day next week except I'm getting two.

 

[just strum]

Bbbbbbuuuuutttttt....it's only got 4 straings.

Maybe we should take up a collection so he can purchase the missing strings. And if donations flow in, we'll make it a 12 string.

 

[marnold]

Bbbbbbuuuuutttttt....it's only got 4 straings.

True, but if you'd weigh the strings, they weigh more than my six-string-set. I like to think of it as giving me a 33% less opportunity to suck. It does have 24 frets for all my Billy Sheehan tapping licks I actually thought about looking into a five-string but I think I'm a four-string guy. Six strings (on a bass) are right out. I'd need those Lee Press-On Finger Extensions just to play the thing, to say nothing of reinforcing my spine.

Congrats. Looks like we might have NGD on the same day next week except I'm getting two.

Oh sure, one-upsmanship (or is it one-UPS-manship).

The tracking info got updated. It's in Red Stick, LA, right now. They're saying it will be at my place on Monday! Huzzah! Guess who has Tuesday off! Guess who might be making a trip down to Green Bay to test some bass ampfs?

 

[Duff]

Amp

Those new Marshalls are in the MF catalog. No advertizing just sharing because I like mine so much.

The MB60 w EC83 tube is 499 sixty watts.

The MB150 has a fifteen inch speaker and is 599.

Quite pricey. My little MB30 is really a great amp with a back panel having a line out, effects send and return, and footswitch jacks. 199. Nice little amp.

I also have a Fender Rumble 100 that is a neat heavy amp with some great tone, but inexpensive.

Good luck,

Duffy

 

[KrisH]

Very sharp looking -- congratulations!

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Maybe we should take up a collection so he can purchase the missing strings. And if donations flow in, we'll make it a 12 string.

 

[marnold]

That's just crazy, Krash. Evidently he's been hanging around Rick Nielsen too long. That's a four-string bass with two octave strings for each fundamental string. It probably needs four truss rods. Here's more info on that crazy beast.

 

[KrisH]

Here's more info on that crazy beast.

Hey, I kinda LIKE the sound of those! Hmmmm . . . . . .

 

[marnold]

More good news for my approaching bass: I did a little googling on TalkBass and apparently my Digitech EX-7 and CF-7 will work with my bass with a little tweaking. Once I get the bass I hope to do a little recording using my CF-7's amp modeling. I would think that if I set the speed and depth to the lowest setting, there would be only a minimal effect on the tone. Seems that way with my guitar anyway.

*edit* After playing with the pedal for a bit I discovered that with the cabinet modeling on, the pedal will do its modeling even if the effect is bypassed. Instant poor-man's bass ampf! I love multitaskers.

 

[marnold]

Grr. According to FedEx, it is sitting in Green Bay, ready to be delivered on the next business day. Of course when I ordered my EX-7 that was shipped FedEx and for some reason was delivered on Saturday. Maybe there's hope. Of course, I've got a wedding to go to this afternoon (and, thankfully, not to perform) so maybe it's all for the best.

 

[marnold]

Well, the Fed Ex man just dropped it off. Faster than you can say "pics or it didn't happen" here are the pics!

Full size version

Full size version

Full size version

The lighting isn't the best at this time of day, but it's close enough for government work. There are a couple very minor finish issues, but nothing worth quibbling about. I checked to make sure all the electronics worked. It's pretty well set up except that the intonation is a bit off. That's easy to fix. It seems fun to play, although I didn't want to play it too loud through my AD30VT. The neck pickup might be a tad muddy, but the bridge as a real Jazz-bass-like growl to it, except with a bit more oompf. The pickups seem a bit high, but nothing a screwdriver can't fix.

I'm going to take off the control plate and see how the wiring looks. None of the pots were scratchy or anything so I don't anticipate problems.

*Update* the wiring looks good. The pots are small Alphas. Unfortunately the ground solder covers the value of the pots. Since the EMG-SSD pickups are humbucking, my guess is that they are 500K.

 

[warren0728]

that is a great looking bass there rev! congrats.... :beer: ancake:

ww

 

[marnold]

Turns out I didn't need an intonation adjustment after all. Someone had lowered the saddles on the A, D, and G strings, apparently not realizing (or caring) that such an adjustment would affect the intonation. Raising the saddles back up not only got the intonation right but also fixed the little bit a fret buzz I had.

 

[Duff]

Cool bass

That humbucking tone should be something like my Schector with the two EMG Hz pups with active electronics and neck thru body. It has beautiful round full tone with endless sustain without a pedal into my Fender Rumble 100, a mediocre amp, but great for me.

My new Squire Affinity Jazz bass also sounds incredibly smooth and round and has great sustain when played thru my Marshall. Have yet to plug that one into the Fender.

Tonight I'm playing my J bass and my Epiphone 1966, Sound of Rock, Gibson SG copy guitar and my first really good guitar, a Epiphone Les Paul Standard with birdseye maple top in deep wine finish with "hot rodded" Seymour Duncan pickups in it. The LP neck pup sound way more distinct and less muddy than the neck pup in the SG copy; but the stock neck pup in the SG has a great smooth tone, if not the distinctness of the SD "Jazz" neck pup that comes in the hot rodded set.

Both are great sounding guitars and sound different from each other but they both have very outstanding quality sound and craftsmanship. The LP comes from the "EE" plant and the SG comes from the "UC" plant. Both good plants I suspect. The SG is an Epiphone Custom Shop guitar, which is probably more than just a notation on the back of the headstock; although I have heard that is all it is. I doubt it though. It sounded better than five other SG epi's I compared it with when I picked it out for its feel and tone and sound. Tone and sound being way superior to the other four and that made the decision easier, plus I like the pickguard that goes all the way under the pups like on a strat rather than the teardrop pick guard and the pup rings. The SG is Cherry with excellent transparency and a high gloss finish and set neck. Awesome guitar.

I'm sure you will have some fun w that new bass, I know I am and I have heard it will make you a better guitar player.

I noticed that after setting the bass down and picking up the guitar that playing the guitar is a breeze, light and fast. I think the expansion into bass territory compliments the development of musical skill and the ear very well.

Duffy

 

[marnold]

OK, here's a quick pickup test. I think I'm going to have to raise the bridge pickup to keep its volume more consistent with the neck. You'll get the basic tonal differences. I played the main riff from Black Sabbath's "NIB" three times in each file. The first time is neck only, the second is neck and bridge, the third is bridge only. The first file is me playing with my fingers (plucking right over the neck pickup) the second is with a pick (plucking in between the neck pickup and the neck itself).

I'm having a bit of trouble with my fingers for obvious reasons. Instead of plucking up on the string, I sometimes slap is down on the fretboard. That sound has its uses, but not all the time. I'm also struggling to get a consistent volume.

These were recorded using the line out on my AD30VT using my Blackface settings.

NIB with my fingers
NIB with a pick

I think the bridge sounds better with my fingers and the neck sounds better with a pick.

 

[marnold]

One quick pickup height adjustment later, I think I've got the volume thing sorted out. I recorded some new clips, this time playing John McVie's excellent riff from the middle of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain." Beyond that, all the procedures are the same as outlined in my previous post.

The Chain with my fingers
The Chain with a pick

Contrary to what I would have guessed, I'm thinking it sounds better with a pick right now. Either way, I've got to stop playing for a bit. My little fingers hurt.

 

[marnold]

Here's a more in-depth review of this bass. The Performer series was made for Spector in China from 2004-2006. I believe this one is from 2005. The body is three-piece basswood with a very thin flame maple veneer on top to add some interest (the maple top is what makes it a "DLX"). The cherry red finish is translucent and very sexy IMO. The body is basically the Spector NS shape. I say "basically" because it is flat with a tummy cut unlike the more typical curved/carved NS body. I'm sure this was done to cut costs. There are two passive EMG-SSD (Stuart Spector Design) humbuckers, each with its own tone and volume controls. The bridge is unique to the Performer series. It seems like it has more mass than a typical MIM bridge, but it is somewhat harder to adjust intonation.

The maple neck has a black matte finish and is held firmly in place by five bolts and has the distinctive Spector headstock. The size of the neck is similar to a Precision bass neck (1.645" width at the nut and 2.065" at the 12th fret). The machine heads have the look I prefer and seem to do their job adequately. The rosewood fingerboard has 24 frets and is surprisingly flat for a bass: 16" radius. The fret wire is somewhat smaller than I anticipated. I would call it vintage sized. I don't know what the nut material is but I would guess it's plastic, although it might be graphite. It seems to be cut well and there is no binding.

As I mentioned before it needed a little tweaking when I got it but there was nothing major. I'm letting it rest before I decide if it needs a slight trussrod tweak. The bass is well-balanced on my lap. I haven't tried it with a strap yet. My fingers are figuring out how to navigate the 34" scale neck which of course looks massive next to my 25.5" scale guitars.

Fit and finish are far nicer on this bass than on my Floyd Rose guitar. There are a couple very minor finish dings that came from it staying in the store for several years. The neck fits perfectly in the pockets and notes resonate throughout. The frets could probably use a bit of polishing, but there is absolutely no fret sprout at all. The pickups are fine, nothing spectacular but nothing that I have any great desire to replace. The neck almost has a Precision feel to it while the bridge as a Jazz-on-steroids feel. I lowered the neck and raised the bridge to match their output better and to allow for easier playing. The pots, as mentioned before, are small Alphas and seem to be soldered neatly.

I've been playing a bunch of low-end basses lately, figuring that's what I was going to end up with. This Spector beats them all by a long shot. It should, since it was originally selling for $399. It's a steal and a half at $179. I would even say that I liked it better than the MIMs that I played. The Spector has that sweet NS body shape that is both traditional and non-traditional at the same time. While the EMG-SSD pickups are just OK, they are better than what I heard on low-end Ibanezes, Deans, Peaveys, etc.

Long and short: I'm very pleased with my purchase. I'll be even more pleased when I can swing a bass ampf so I can crank this puppy and shake the windows.

 

[marnold]

From a playing standpoint I'm having a very hard time playing with my first two fingers. The main problem is the lack of flesh on the "tip" of my index finger. Nothing I can do about that. My skills with a pick have improved dramatically. I saved a couple of Fender Extra Heavy picks--the only bass gear I saved. However, I'd prefer to use my fingers. I'm trying to teach myself to play with my pinkie since it's the only intact finger on that hand besides my thumb. When supported with my ring finger I can even do some pseudo-alternate-picking. That keeps my thumb free for slapping or in "claw" formation for playing octaves, etc. It'll probably be awhile before I can teach my pinkie to do any popping, but I'm used to using it for hybrid picking already on guitar so some of the mental gymnastics have already been figured out.