Spector NS94

The rating is really for the NS-95 5 string but there was not a listing for that.
This is a 1990's version of the NS2002-5.
Was a crappy transparent amber color but with some browns and black I transformed this puppy into a beautiful tobacco sunburst color and clear coated it with House of Kolor Klear. Spector guys thought it rocked when I sent them a picture!
Bass was made in Korea.
Neck through with brass nut.
Two passive EMG-HZ pickups but has the EMG tone system which rocks the bottom line.

Awesome but what would you expect from a Spector!
I like the body style because it is easy to play. Only problem I have is there is a little noise when you pump up the treble but hey who wants highs on a bass???? I turn that puppy down and turm the bottom ALL THE WAY!!!

I bought this used so I re-set it up to my personal likes. Everything was tight though and it was probably fine the way it came.
The only thing I do not like it that the pickup screws go into the body and the screws have small heads and are easily stripped.
Had to get vise grips to get them out and then had a hard time finding good replacements. Good thing is that battery/electronic compartmant has screws with brass inlays! no stripping or enlarging problems there - a good move on the back side!

Everything is awesome. And it needs to be because I am a big guy and I like to play hard. I put straplocks on this but the original buttons were very solid.
This is my main bass now!

The people from Spector are awesome. PJ Rubal often answers my emails same day!

Been playing about 10 years and have had several basses, even had other Spectors and this is the best bass I've owned.

Would I trade it in or buy something else. Of course, if I could get a better Spector or a Warwick double buck I'd switch in a minute,lol. but for now this is as good as it gets for a 5-string!

the guy below got everything down except mine is acitve. with the emg preamp.

i play everything. it works great. for slapping this bass does it all!
way better than a MM in my opinion. It has great growl.
it also works for jazz or clasic rock or anything!!
no noise at all!
I like everything about it! the sound is unique but you can get familiar sound from it also

the finish is great!! mine is the amber burst! wow!!
i bought it used didn't have to mess with the setup to much.
Stays in tune very well!!
the nut did fall off, but just glue holds it on so no big deal!

this bass would stand up for live playing!
the hardware is good but not the best. going to replace the tuning keys.
the finish is great!!! should last for ever
the strap buttons are over sized so you don't have to worry about your strap falling off.
the rod stays inplace really well!

never dealt with them

i have only been playing for 10 months.
but i have owned 6 basses. and have played ALOT of basses. this sounds great! i own a hartke 2000 head a crate 410 and a fender 15.
it sounds great with this rig!
i have owned a fernandes tremor bass,a bass my dad built that is elling for $669. and I like this bass better.
if it were stolen i would try to buy a US spector!!

This is the Korean made budget version of the "classic" Spector model.Appearing under label SSD, this is still "real" Spector, replaced later by Spector NS-2000 series with a little bit modified
body style.

Hard maple body and neck, neck-thru construction.Very nicely contoured and curved body. Selection of wood makes this bass slightly heavy but the amazing contours make this fit so nicely to my body, I couldn`t care less about it! Black Stain high gloss finish, both on the body and in the neck. Two EMG-HZ pickups with a volume for each and shared bass and treble controls w/passive electronics. No extra shielding/covers in the control cavity but really quiet nevertheless.

Solid mass bridge recessed to the body. Rosewood fingerboard w/ 24 frets, pearl dot inlays,brass nut. Neck width about 1 9/16" at nut so slightly wider than a MM neck but plays as nicely.Lacquer binding on the sides of the fretboard so no protruding fret-ends!

Although I would`ve preferred one with active electrics, the price and feel of this beauty sold me. Two things kept me from giving a straight 10 in features. Firstly the tuners are not necessarily the best possible ones. The tuners gear ratio is too low for a quick precise tuning.Slight turn may well tune you past the point and you`ll have to loosen the string again.
Secondly, while the bridge in itself is relly sturdy and solid, it`s construction is kind of hard for intonation adjustments. Each saddle-piece lays on a solid bridge plate, suspended with two screws for the string height adjustment.But the only way to adjust the intonation (string lenght that is ;), is to loosen two screws holding all the saddle pieces together from the sides of the bridge plate.In other words, you`ll loosen two screws, one from the upper and the second from the lower side of the bridge plate.That`ll make all saddles loose and movable at the same time, so while just trying to adjust one piece, you may well move the others unintentionally.
Fortunately though, the intonation set-up is not required so often after all.
Replacing the tuners with more precise, "high-end" ones would make this a great set-up.

The two EMG-HZ humbuckers are adequate, pure sounding pickups. Tone controls yield sounds from (slightly) muddy rumbling lows to a biting clang. There`s not so much difference between the sounds of the two humbuckers. At certain settings you get the same sound out of both ("the overlapping zone") but basically the neck-pu is bassier and the bridge-pu treblier :) Overall the tone seems to have a little bit lower mid honk into it. Not absolutely punchy heavy bottom (at least through my system), more of a smooth performer.
The electrics are really quiet, no extraneous hum or anything. Strangely enough this seems to be as quiet as the good active-ones are, so no problems while recording this bass straight to board.
I don`t know about noise when using amps though; I always record thru Tube MP/Spirit SX/VF-1 to my VS-880 and haven`t had any problems there.

The NS-94`s with active electrics have a EMG BTS-system installed and that would be a easy upgrade here. Ultimately one could go for a BTC-system and CS35-humbuckers although that would be a costly upgrade.
Neck-through construction enchances the sustain greatly, you really can feel this baby to vibrate on and on.

As I bought this baby used, this will unlikely be the case with new ones, nevertheless;
This bass` set up was totally screwed! It`s action was over 4/16" and neck relief 2/16" !! Two frets were risen quite a lot and there`s several under which one can slide a side of a paper.
As I brought the action down, I lost the adjustment reserve from the saddle pieces.They were simply resting flat against the bridge-plate. I filed from under the saddle-pieces to get a "custom-fit" action and adjusted the neck rod several times until I got the neck to a really nice relief. While I got very good playing feel this way, the fret buzzes grew out of hand. There were no clean notes above 12th fret and the D-string was lost totally, buzzing all through the neck
and playing only same one note above 12th!!

I contacted the customer support about this and got great tips and help. It was obvious that this needed a fret job to be done. While a professional repair would`ve been the easiest route, I decided to take a educational trip through some profs. I collected every single bit of instruction and tips I could get, bought some files and did the job myself. All this simply because I have so many instruments to play and take care of...Now I`m much more prepared to do any maintenance to these instruments myself while saving a lot of cash :)

After the set-up and fret levelling job, I actually realised for the first time how amazingly this bass plays and feels! One can set a really low action and almost straight neck relief to this baby and it plays just simply, purely superb! Easy to fret, fast to play and especially good on slapping & popping, but manages all playing styles with comfort.

The high gloss finish was really clean albeit this being a used bass. Apart from little marks on the lacquer due to playing (obviously the former owner used a pick, resting his thumb occasionally on the bass-pu), there were not any extra signs of wear or bad finish. Manufacturers usually paint their slightly "uglier" grade woods to solid colors, leaving the finer see-thru finishes to those beautifull quilts. Usually these solid color finishes are also found in the
cheaper range of instruments, but Spector has finely quilted woods and finishes also in this series! I would love to have a see-thru finish on this bass of mine too, but for the bas(s)ic playing this is fine enough. Maybe when upgrading the tuners, I will change to golden
ones and change the pots also. Striking black and gold, hmmm that`s a thought ;)

I have owned this bass just for three months now, so way too early to say anything about this really. But being used and all, I can still give a straight 10 here, as of now. Nothings been broken, everything functions OK. This bass feels really solid so even though I`ve always
considered neck-throughs a little sensitive (no broken necks, please!), I`ve felt secure to bash away with it with no worries at all.

Is there any chance to give 11 or 12 here? ;)
I contacted the Spector customer support several times, asking overall information and specific set-up instructions. Responses were
instant, well informed and usefull.Spector really cares about their customers, no matter if you are a budget-starter or what.I am most definitely sold to Spector-brand by this fact alone, not to mention their great instruments!

I own a lot of different instruments and have contacted many manufacturers along the years.Some seem not to reply at all. Some blabber nonsense and even that with a delay. Spector is one of the few who will support you all the way. Couldn`t be more satisfied with this!!

Setting aside the fact that I had to do severe maintenance/ adjustments to make this beauty to play good, I couldn`t be happier with this. The price vs. feel/playability-ratio is absurd!
You could easily spend many times as much to get a same kind of a instrument. Before purchasing this bass I went through a severe check-out routine. I checked and played every possible bass I could get my hands on. One`s I tested were: several vintage and custom Fenders (both P & J-basses), several Ibanezes, one MM Stingray, Danelectros, Rickenbackers, Yamahas etc.

Of all of them, The MM Stingray was a solid one albeit just a little bit too small neck on the nut (same for Fender Jazz). Fender P-deluxe was also a good one but once again the neck just didn`t fit to my hands (being guitarist for 20 years may have something to do with this obsession of mine ;). Others just didn`t catch me, felt odd. Strangely enough I had a chance to test one Spector too before this one, but it also didn`t feel right. The looks really got my attention
and it felt great to hold around but something was missing...From long years of playing guitar I knew it may has been just the case of wrong set-up for me but anyways, even the price wasn`t right. (I was looking for a cheap basic bass, after all.)

Anyways, then I got this one pretty cheaply and haven`t regretted a bit. Yes, I would replace this one if something happened to it. But only with CR-4 (European made Spectors), when I`d have
enough money. I`ve pretty much found my bass-label here!!