Gman said:
Personally I didn't like the Spector 'TonePump' circuit...waaaaay too
brash and in yer face. The tiniest adjustment goes a long way, which
might seem like a good thing but in reality, it ends up kind of being
unuseable...
...imagine one minute you've got a nice modern pick sound - then your
singer slightly bumps your controls and it's suddenly like the most
hideous Ricky spitting nails!
I really wanted to like the Spector but I just couldn't get a decent sound
out of it, everything sounded weird...just un-unatural. Even my wife
thought it sounded bad.
.............
`
+1 about how tricky it can be to use the TonePump.
I find your "imagine" scenario far fetched, but the fact remains that the
TonePump is a beast to use ... but it's also a beast to hear, and so I've
come to love it. How beastly is it ? I play the Diva Dinner Duo 3 times a
week. No drums to smother me, so I gotta have a sound that sounds
right when heard very clearly for a dinner dining room. Well, I've got a
zillion basses, and the TonePump Spector is absolutely, very difinitely,
hands down, the
most difficult ax to tame for dinner hours.
I have Roto balck nylons on it, and it's still explosively touchy. But it's
a 5-string, and since I've tried twice now to love a Warwick 5-string ...
and failed mizrazably both times, and since this Spector [NSJH5] is one
of the most comfy 5-strings I've EVER played, it is MY "Warwick" 5'er.
Not all Spectors have the TonePump. Some have Aguilar. But when
somebody warns you that the TonePump is extreme, don't just write
that off as exageration. It really IS abnormally ill.
#%&#%&#&%#&@%##%&#@&#&%@#&@#&%&@%&#&%#&%@&#
I could swap out the pre-amp .... but since I have enuf other 5's to play
if necessary, why undo something special, just to play dinner ? I just
bring it every now and then for kicks. Dinner is really 4-string territory
anywayz. But I didn't really need TWO of these, so I sold the other one
to a friend. He was gonna buy a Schector but when he tried the Tone
Pump beastie, it was love at first note. I've played with his band and a
TonePump Spector is PERFECT when there's a heavy groove from the
KB, 2 or 3 horns blazing, and the kick drum amped like it's playing the
Collesium [beats me why they do that .... ].
Oh yeah, one thing about the TonePump and what people will tell you
about it. for all I said about believing. not doubting, no exageration ....
there will be a few reports from players who don't know that these are
BOOST ONLY. My friend didn't realize it, til it occurrred to me after he'd
played it for a week that I hadn't told him and he hadn't figgered it out.
I knew from his comments about it being really hard to dial in that he
thought that flat was at the centers of the dials.
It's a 2-band EQ, so the more you boost either or both, the more you
will be also scooping the mids. So ... if you expect that flat EQ is at the
centers of the dials, you're also gonna think that it's a very scooped
contour. But if you realize that flat EQ is at zero for both knobs, then
there's no crazy mid scoop going on.
`
