Sean

I found this on TB: "After the demise of Nanyo Boeki in the early noughties, The Bass Centre acquired the Bass Collection name and, with our own distribution company, House Music, already established as a dynamic guitar manufacturer, The Bass Centre secured access to the same Korean factory that produces the phenomenally successful Brian May Guitars range."

What do we know about the origins of the Bass Centre instruments? I can't find a photo of the back of the headstock or a country of origin mark. Where are they made? Is the final QA done in London? You know, like with Lakland and others making in Indonesia/Korea and doing final checks at HQ? The Neil Murray one looks like it could be lots of fun.

The perceptible differences between this Euro LX 5 (oiled) I have now and the NS5-XL (oiled) I used to have are: 1. Construction of the body wings. The US one had solid maple wings, the LX has Maple/Walnut/Alder sandwich wings. Not better/worse, just different. 2. Wood selection. The quilted maple on the NS5-XL was at the top end of the exquisite scale. It had OMG reactions from everyone. The aesthetic was a higher level. In practical, playability terms there's nothing in it. The Euro is lighter but I'm sure US ones vary from bass to bass. As far as build quality, I don't see a difference. The Euro 4 and Euro LX 4 I've got are what you'd expect from a custom built bass. At new prices of £2.6k-2.8k vs £6k-£7.2k you could buy 2 stunning new Euros and a monster second-hand rig for the price of 1 US. Again, we're into very subjective territory. To my mind, the USA ones are custom shop builds and come with all the superior woods and personalised options like pickup spacing, custom routing, unobtainium inlays, etc. Would I buy one? Yes, absolutely if it was used, the right price and "my vibe". Or my old 5 🙂

Are they the full NS body shape or are they "flat top". It's not evident in the pics (to my eyes).

As if by magic, one came up for sale here today.

The neck profile. I absolutely fly around on the Euro 4 necks. My hands are a size 9 glove but that profile is very comfortable to me. The Euro 5 is more of a handful but I used to play 3 x 1h sets in an evening on an NS5-XL without issue. Until you spend some time with one, you won't know. Those are just my Spector musings for this evening.

Hmmm. This needs investigation from me. I've never played (or even entertained the thought of) a bolt-on Spector but based on this I need to go and have a try. Have they been around long enough to be on the used market?

I'm in Glos, have 3 and you can come try mine if you're passing through.

Just get out there and play some. They're quirky, they aren't like other basses. I love Spectors. I love motorcycles and have 2 KTMs, they're like Spectors, they're Marmite. I never recommend them, I just tell people to go and have a go. They don't sound like anything else, they have a longer reach, they have a weird neck profile, they are a league away from Fenders, they will make you a better person and after the end of the world, Spectors and cockroaches will probably be the only functional things left. And they make epic self defence weapons.

@Bassassin Your wiki-like knowledge is needed here, sir.

This is all news to me. I suppose having been a subscriber for so long, I never gave it a second thought but it makes a lot of sense. It also means that as soon as you've sold something as a subscriber you can start to put the feelers out to counter that inevitable seller's remorse!

Well, I didn't know that before! 😀

On the scale she's 4.55kg. That's pretty light for such a weapon of a thing. I read that some of the new chambered ones are coming in under 4kg, but this is the lightest of around 5 or 6 of these that I've held or owned over the years.

I just bought a 20 year old bass for £1300 that is £2600-2800 new. I won't lose money if I lose my faculties and sell it, it's got serious vibe, it's defo not a fad bass. I wouldn't buy a new bass. I have in the past and I've still got one of them as it's "the one" (or one of the ones; it's tattooed on me, the tattoo won the tattooist a national prize back in the day...) but the point is, used basses are where it's at and there's so many of them that need rehoming. The moral of the story here is that your £1500 could get you something used that's really special, that's handbuilt and a level above anything new for that money.

I've been playing this all afternoon. it's rapidly becoming my GOAT. It's lighter than the NS5-XL I had, that was '05 too. @cetera' s recommendation of keeping the bridge DC is making sense. An hour or so ago, I switched to the Amber Euro4 with the LHZ-03 and it feels like a toy compared to this (in a good way obviously). This 5 has that acoustic resonance without being plugged in that people talk about. Through the "house rig" (MarkBass head plus BF TWO10 with an HX Stomp), it's just gorgeous and every note on every string and fret rings out. For those that don't like Spector, it's got a Spector neck profile, it's got a long reach and an overly hot preamp. It's an LHZ-03 and a 40P5 away from being a signature instrument to my taste 😆

It's been on the bench this morning to steam out a couple of "soft dents" and to put more Monty's Instrument Food on it. I've left the saddles in this tilted up configuration. I've never seen them set up like that before but the action and intonation only needed a couple of small tweaks, so I went with it. It's an instrument that has been used for 20 years but it's been looked after nicely. There are a couple of spots that need a little colour rubbing in from where hands/forearms have put wear on it (advice welcome on products to use) The "forearm wing" area has a slightly ribbed texture that follows the flame grain pattern, mainly above the bridge pickup, which must be down to sweat/skin reacting with the softer parts of the wood grain over 20 years. It's very slight and only perceptible by touch. These are techy-geek observations rather than whinges, instrument patina can be fascinating to understand. This was a bargain in anyone's book. It has real history, feel and vibe in a way that my virgin (never-played case queen) 2018 Euro LX 4 just hasn't; that bass is effectively NOS (new old stock).

I promised photos but the weather has been amazing and I've been out riding and coaching all weekend on what I recently realised is probably the motorcycle equivalent of a Spector. More on that soon but I'm at home tomorrow so will be taking some photos of my Spector collection. It's not going to take me as long as certain members I could mention @cetera but from little acorns, eh? Update: It’s raining here and not very photogenicky in the garden this morning. I’ll wait for the sun to come out.

I've been missing my NS5-XL and I found this Euro. It's a peach. I love an oiled Spector and this 20 year old example is really nice. I'll do some better pictures over the weekend to show the amazing figuring on the maple neck. It's light too. I'll weigh it tomorrow. I restrung it 40-60-80-105-145 and it is like death from the sky through the 400+ and the Barefaced cabs. Perfect. It's scheduled for a refit with an LHZ-03 and new EMG 40P5 + 40J pickups 😇

I was asked skeptic but I love my SRMS805. It's 33.5-35.5. It felt a little bit long initially but not much of a reach and now I'm used to it. It's less of a reach than my 35" Spector but that's mainly down to that NS body shape and the upper horn. It took all of 5 minutes to b get used to the SRMS805. I think you need to play before you commit but I'd heartily recommend having a go on one. An alternative is a 145 B string. I swear by them.

If you apply a QA auditor's "iceberg logic" and critical thinking to this (it's a manufacturing quality control methodology), if you see something like that, that isn't in spec, out of spec or just "wrong-looking", it triggers a methodical, drill-down into root cause but it also triggers an investigation into what else might be out of spec and why. Those that have a nose for this and those that can't unsee it have what it takes to become top level QA people. Me? It's an MM. I'm in shiney Jim Royle territory but I must say I was surprised. I dare someone to go and raise this on the Ernie Ball Bass forum 🤔

Today's job was to fit one of those two LHZ-03 preamps that arrived yesterday into the 2018 Euro LX4 Zebrano. The cavity was as it left the factory. untouched. It's the adjustable TonePump. The pickups are EMGs however they don't have the quckfit or "flying" leads, so it's a bigger soldering exercise to install the LHZ than with the other connectors. It's a bit fiddly and you need to know how to joint wires, but the instructions are amongst the best I've seen and the whole product is beautifully engineered. This is the second one I've done, the first was a month or so back to replace a Mk1 non-adjustable TP. This was exactly the same installation. In answer to the question on where the other one that arrived yesterday is going, you'll have to wait a while but hopefully it'll be worth while as it'll be part of a full electrics swap out in a Euro LX5 that is going to lose its non-adjustable TP, 40DC soapbars and get a 40P5 and a 40J. The LHZ-03 has been very much like a good airfryer for me; once you've had one, you can't live without one. Now I need to find out what to do with old TonePumps and whether there's a market for them. If anyone needs any help putting in an LHZ, I'm more than happy to help.

Yesterday my '21 G&L Tribute JB1 sold (at last!). Lovely positive feedback too. Let's have a look at the numbers. I got £220. The buyer paid ~£244 with shipping, fees etc. Packed to withstand Armageddon (new box and bubblewrap) and shipped same day on a 24h, so he'll get it today. Condition was 8/10 probably 8.5. Copper lined cavities, upgraded wiring and pots and set up to Fender Jazz specs with a set of unplayed Elixirs installed new Nov 2024. Baxshop has these new and shipped for £535. My buyer paid 46% of new. That's below our guide of 50-65% discussed earlier however, this is a G&L and they are big depreciation basses. I paid £295 used a couple of years ago from Basschat. With packaging costs at ~£20, I lost ~£100. Looking at what's on the market, the weak brand value of G&L and the fact that things are slow at the moment, I'm happy to see it gone. It creates wall space. There was a glorious red CLF Research USA L1000 that went for £840 last week. That's really cheap for what it is but it's only worth what someone will pay. It's about 41% of new. G&L are a bit like Yamaha, big depreciation for those that buy new but incredible, highest quality bargains for those looking to buy used and hang on to.