Al Krow

Hey that's a huge thumbs up for the TonePump! Is yours the same as the one I posted in the pic? Mine was in a "new old stock" bass with an est. late 2016 build, based on the serial no. I'm guessing you've been through a fair few basses over the course of 15+ years - be interested to hear from you a bit more about what makes you rate the TonePump so highly compared to the rest?

You're quite right that prices are typically set by supply and demand. But that surely equally applies to a £5k NS2? i.e. Spector are only making as many as they can sell for the asking price - so clearly there is sufficient demand out there and folk consider it to have sufficient value to fork out. Something is only "worth" what people are willing to pay for it. And that's a complicated mixture of a lot of things. Gold has no true intrinsic value. I think we've established that you don't think the additional cache of USA made and certain higher end woods / components justifies the extra for an NS2. A lot of folk feel exactly the same about a Czech made Skoda vs a German made Volkswagon. But a lot of folk disagree about that too! Both cars will get you from A to B in comfort and safety (although tbf one has a rep for cheating diesel emissions). In your shoes I would simply enjoy a wonderful Euro LX (it's hardly a budget bass is it?) and not fret about the fact that other folk are happy to spend extra and put additional value on having an NS2; at the end of the day that's their call and if it brings them joy so be it.

Sadly adjusting the TonePump down to 50% didn't get rid of the noise I was getting from having my Smooth-hound transmitter plugged into the Spector jack - seemed to be an interference / earthing issue, as the S/H noise disappeared when I clasped the transmitter in my hand. Any easy fix for this?

Finally got around to adjusting the TonePump in my EuroLX5 - have set it to 50%. The TonePump setting seems to particularly impact the bass EQ output and overall volume - I'll need to read back through the earlier posts to see if that chimes with what other folk have been saying; but my bass EQ knob is much more fully usable with the TonePump at 50% rather than being limited to 1/10 (!!) when the TonePump was maxed. With the TonePump set at NIL, the overall volume was very low and as the bass EQ knob was dialled up, there was virtually no increase in the bass freq. volume just an increasing cut of the mids. Here's what the TonePump looks like in case you're interested, as I don't think anyone else has posted a pic yet:

There have been some excellent responses on this thread which I think have dealt with the question, and the debate is indeed as @julfam said: You gotta remember though, a fundamental point about what something is "worth" is not what it can do or deliver but what price a willing buyer and willing seller agree on. You could spend £2M on a "used" classic car or alternatively £30,000 to get an excellent new car. Is the classic car "worth" £1,970,000 more? Well clearly to many folk in that market, it is! Is a premier league footballer "worth" 10,000 times more than an ITU nurse?

Really liking the thinking here, but by the time you've got this set up would it not make more sense to have simply got a capable multifx, with the added benefits of parallel routing, EQ, limiter, pitch shifting etc for less money and smaller overall footprint?

Sounds like a noticeable upgrade over your 2i2 Gen 1! Where, in particular, are you finding the differences? My 6i6 is also Gen 1 ...hmmm!

I'm going to take the 5th on that one 😁 This one's for you, Dave.

Ahh the Bangles, great songwriters, great band!

Here you go. Changing the EQ does what you would expect in terms of cut / boosting particular frequencies, but in terms of core tone I found it pretty subtle and certainly nothing that has me reaching for my credit card! Be interested to hear from any BB1200 / 1200S owners if this comes close to emulating their bass tone?

Gotcha. And hence the need for additional ADAT inputs on your ID14.

+1 ^^ And so well put together visually, as well. Just epic!

Be interested to hear if folk think the Claret is worth the extra?

That's an excellent post, thanks @Kiwi The only point that I do have to disagree with you (big time!) is that EMG pups are sterile but you also mention lack of coil splits in the next sentence. I wonder if the more current range EMGs have dealt with your concerns? I have EMG 40TW (or 40CS-TW) in my Euro LX5 and they deliver a fantastic punchy tone pretty much in the sweet spot between two of my other goto basses. I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds with the Spector, which takes elements of the harmonic richness of my Yammy alnicos and the meaty growl of my Ibby SR's Nord big singles. However, picking up on your split coil point, the EMG 40TW are indeed split coil pups and provide the option of both a single coil and a humbucker. The single-coil mode is their JCS pickup built with ceramic magnets and steel pole pieces. The humbucker mode is their ceramic steel (‘CS’) dual-coil for a big, aggressive sound with a pronounced mid-range. A push/pull volume pot allows me to switch. A combination I really like is clarity of a J neck pup blended with the fatness of the CS bridge humbucker which seems to nail it for me.

!ydaerla hguone 😁