molan Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) I currently have a pair of NS5XL's and after taking them to a recent gig I realised I had £6K worth (insurance valuation for new replacements) of instruments sitting on a pub stage just waiting to be stolen. So I've kinda decided one of them has to go & be replaced by a lower value Euro Spector 5 as my back up bass - thanks Phil I can't really justify three Spector 5's & I have the Euro & a Ken Smith heading my way soon so it looks like the redwood one is probably the most likely candidate to sell as it's the one I'm least likely to gig with. It's a tough call though and I don't desperately need to sell to fund the incoming basses so I thought I'd see if there's anyone out there really interested in owning one of these limited edition water cured redwood beauties. I'm in this for £2K so that's my 'firm' price for it. This has been up for sale here on BC once before so there's a fair bit of history kicking around. Simple summary is that it was originally sold, not all that long ago, for £3,200 and lists at around the $4,500 mark in the USA (which would take it up to well over £3K in the UK). Compared to the previous listing it now doesn't have a hard case but I do have the signed certificate of authenticity to prove it's one of the limited run of 24. Here's some sales 'guff': [i]The Spector Limited Edition Redwood Burl NS-5XL is crafted with 75-to-100 year-old, water-cured redwood burl. The burl rests on a platform of Spector's legendary hand-selected, premium exotic woods: maple for the neck and black walnut for the body wings. Water-cured redwood is harvested from the stumps of redwood trees cut down 75-100 years ago that fell into streams. These trunks were submerged in water the entire time, which washed all the resins out of the wood and replaced them with dissolved minerals. This natural mineral enrichment process is what gives the wood its unique color and density. This natural water curing is very similar to the method that has been used for curing violin woods in Europe for hundreds of years. The Spector NS-5XL 5 string bass guitar is constructed with 3-ply maple neck-thru construction with graphite stiffening rods and a heavy-duty truss rod. It has a 35" scale rosewood fretboard with Spector's abalone crown inlays, dual USA EMG-40DC humbuckers and Spector's Tone Pump pre-amp.[/i] Those of you who know your Spectors will know that it plays like a dream, super low action & very easy to zip around the fretboard. Personally I love the sound of Spectors and it's absolutely become my #1 gigging bass sound. It's in damn near 'as new' condition, I can't see a single mark on it anywhere! I have had some tentative dealing around my asking price & it's possible that this may still come off, so apologies in advance if I list this & then have to remove it quickly. I'm not really looking for trades but if anyone has a 5 string of a similar value then let me know, I could always be swayed by something like a nice NYC Sadowsky as I still miss my old 4 stringer Anyway, enough prattling, here's some pics: Edited August 17, 2009 by molan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_the_bassist Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 ....pretty :wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Lovely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Horse Murphy Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 It's even nicer in the flesh. Well, wood......you know what I mean It sounds amazing too and is immaculate (as is all Barrie's gear) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 [quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='535518' date='Jul 8 2009, 10:59 AM']It's even nicer in the flesh. Well, wood......you know what I mean It sounds amazing too and is immaculate (as is all Barrie's gear)[/quote] Cheers Nick I forgot to mention the quality of the tone from this particular bass. It's definiteyl more refined than one of the, more common, maple topped Spectors. Hard to explain really but I'd say it's more 'focussed' and 'tighter'. Anything played towards the bottom end of the board through a quality amp at decent volume growls like a MoFo too I'm no slapper but I have heard someone who can play slap really well on this & it sounded great as well. Although Spectors do have an essential 'core' tone I think they respond really well to individual playing dynamics &styles and this gives a far greater variation of tone that some other basses which, seemingly, have a lot more onboard tonal flexibility. This one genuinely is only up for grabs as I have another that's more what I want for gigging Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 [quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='535518' date='Jul 8 2009, 10:59 AM']It's even nicer in the flesh. Well, wood......you know what I mean It sounds amazing too and is immaculate (as is all Barrie's gear)[/quote] The Fender Jazz is much nicer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I've had the chance the play this beautiful bass and was delighted with what I heard, a beautifully clean Hi-Fi tone with character, almost similar to that of my MTD. It also looks brilliant in the flesh and plays so smoothly, and the weight is surprisingly light. And of course, Barrie is most definitely one of the nicest people you could possibly hope to meet and really does look after all of his gear. I can't recommend him enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 That really is nice...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyLightyear Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Gorgeous Barrie, although for what its worth I think you're keeping the right one! Good luck with the sale! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Sex wee time! :wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickSpector Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Omg I need some tissues. That is stunning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickSpector Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 [quote name='molan' post='535311' date='Jul 7 2009, 11:52 PM']I currently have a pair of NS5XL's and after taking them to a recent gig I realised I had £6K worth (insurance valuation for new replacements) of instruments sitting on a pub stage just waiting to be stolen. So I've kinda decided one of them has to go & be replaced by a lower value Euro Spector 5 as my back up bass - thanks Phil I can't really justify three Spector 5's & I have the Euro & a Ken Smith heading my way soon so it looks like the redwood one is probably the most likely candidate to sell as it's the one I'm least likely to gig with. It's a tough call though and I don't desperately need to sell to fund the incoming basses so I thought I'd see if there's anyone out there really interested in owning one of these limited edition water cured redwood beauties. I'm in this for £2K so that's my 'firm' price for it. This has been up for sale here on BC once before so there's a fair bit of history kicking around. Simple summary is that it was originally sold, not all that long ago, for £3,200 and lists at around the $4,500 mark in the USA (which would take it up to well over £3K in the UK). Compared to the previous listing it now doesn't have a hard case but I do have the signed certificate of authenticity to prove it's one of the limited run of 24. Here's some sales 'guff': [i]The Spector Limited Edition Redwood Burl NS-5XL is crafted with 75-to-100 year-old, water-cured redwood burl. The burl rests on a platform of Spector's legendary hand-selected, premium exotic woods: maple for the neck and black walnut for the body wings. Water-cured redwood is harvested from the stumps of redwood trees cut down 75-100 years ago that fell into streams. These trunks were submerged in water the entire time, which washed all the resins out of the wood and replaced them with dissolved minerals. This natural mineral enrichment process is what gives the wood its unique color and density. This natural water curing is very similar to the method that has been used for curing violin woods in Europe for hundreds of years. The Spector NS-5XL 5 string bass guitar is constructed with 3-ply maple neck-thru construction with graphite stiffening rods and a heavy-duty truss rod. It has a 35" scale rosewood fretboard with Spector's abalone crown inlays, dual USA EMG-40DC humbuckers and Spector's Tone Pump pre-amp.[/i] Those of you who know your Spectors will know that it plays like a dream, super low action & very easy to zip around the fretboard. Personally I love the sound of Spectors and it's absolutely become my #1 gigging bass sound. It's in damn near 'as new' condition, I can't see a single mark on it anywhere! I have had some tentative dealing around my asking price & it's possible that this may still come off, so apologies in advance if I list this & then have to remove it quickly. I'm not really looking for trades but if anyone has a 5 string of a similar value then let me know, I could always be swayed by something like a nice NYC Sadowsky as I still miss my old 4 stringer Anyway, enough prattling, here's some pics:[/quote] Infact, after reading that, you CAN justify all those Spectors. A man can never have too many Spectors.....ever. Best basses in the world! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) [quote name='NickSpector' post='536051' date='Jul 8 2009, 10:18 PM']Infact, after reading that, you CAN justify all those Spectors. A man can never have too many Spectors.....ever. Best basses in the world![/quote] I'm sat here playing it right now thinking pretty much the same thing Just picked up tickets for Chrisette Michele (boy am I gonna be popular in the morning when my ever sufferin' finds out) and playing along to some of her stuff. Roll the treble right off & the Spector sounds lovely on this sort of slow R&B groove stuff - All I Ever Think About is You is spinning right now Edited July 8, 2009 by molan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stockholm Syndrome Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Oooooh....this I'd like....very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 [quote name='Stockholm Syndrome' post='536290' date='Jul 9 2009, 11:05 AM']Oooooh....this I'd like....very much.[/quote] Shipping to Stockholm no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stockholm Syndrome Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Yeah....gotta change my nickname...registered here when I lived (quite miserably) in Stockholm. Now I'm back on the right side of the country (west coast). Aaaaaaanyhow, any soundclips/youtube vids? Typical artist other than Mike Kroeger who uses such a bass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 [quote name='Stockholm Syndrome' post='536871' date='Jul 9 2009, 11:16 PM']Yeah....gotta change my nickname...registered here when I lived (quite miserably) in Stockholm. Now I'm back on the right side of the country (west coast). Aaaaaaanyhow, any soundclips/youtube vids? Typical artist other than Mike Kroeger who uses such a bass? [/quote] There's lots of stuff on YouTube - it's way more versatile than a lot of people think. Here's some jazzier stuff from Andy Irvine, both slow groovier in places & some faster syncopated stuff. A clutch of different people at NAMM '06 You really can get all sorts of sound from one of these it's not just some sort of heavy rock or slap bass only instrument. In fact probably one of the most 'heard' Spector players must be Gary Tallent from Bruce's E-Street band (although he uses a bolt-on rather than a neck through). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manders Johnson Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I just sold my NS-5XL to a mate for very similar reasons. I know I did the right thing but it still hurts a lot! Good luck with the sale, I've actually played this particular bass and it's incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickSpector Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 [quote name='molan' post='536921' date='Jul 10 2009, 12:24 AM']There's lots of stuff on YouTube - it's way more versatile than a lot of people think. Here's some jazzier stuff from Andy Irvine, both slow groovier in places & some faster syncopated stuff. A clutch of different people at NAMM '06 You really can get all sorts of sound from one of these it's not just some sort of heavy rock or slap bass only instrument. In fact probably one of the most 'heard' Spector players must be Gary Tallent from Bruce's E-Street band (although he uses a bolt-on rather than a neck through).[/quote] Spectors really are versatile basses. They can go from thunderous slap tones, through grinding grunge/metal tones, right into jazzy fingerstyle tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Born 2B Mild Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Bump for one of the best basses to be found on sale in this wonderful community. Being sold by one of the best 'chatters' too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 [quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='537408' date='Jul 10 2009, 06:39 PM']Bump for one of the best basses to be found on sale in this wonderful community. Being sold by one of the best 'chatters' too. [/quote] Cheers Phil - looks like I could be living in a 3 Spector bass household soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Had some interest & a couple of possible trade options. I would be prepared to take something that's relatively easy to sell on at a future date as a PX if that helped anyone at all? E.G. US Fenders, Stingrays, Rickys etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 Well, it's been quite close to going a few times but it's still here. I keep playing it &, if it wasn't for a Smith that arrived this week to distract my attention I think this would definitely be staying! Still open to offers on a straight sale or trades if anyone's interested for a little longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stockholm Syndrome Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Oy! Any news about this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted August 14, 2009 Author Share Posted August 14, 2009 [quote name='Stockholm Syndrome' post='568116' date='Aug 13 2009, 04:13 PM']Oy! Any news about this? [/quote] It's still sitting in my little 'music room' Had some interest but nothing came of any of it so I guess I'm keeping it for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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