Spector NS Dimension 5 Review

Spectacular, Beautiful Instrument with Lots of Tonal Options

I've had my Spector NS Dimension 5-string bass for about a month now, and I cannot begin to tell you how sweet this thing looks and sounds, and how amazing it feels in your hands. The range of tonal possibilities makes this a real Swiss Army knife of basses. Whether you play rock, metal, pop, gospel, jazz, country, bluegrass, or anything in between, or a mix of several styles, finding… read more a great sound that fits the style is a breeze.I play a lot of church music, and depending on the set I'm playing, I often down tune to take advantage of the lowest notes. I am easily able to tune down to Ab or even G standard without loosing clarity in the lowest notes or dealing with very flabby strings. This thing really excels in that area.As for comfort, the curved body and slimmer neck make it very comfortable to play for long periods of time. However my one and only complaint with this bass out of the box is the it does have a noticeable bit of neck drop. It turns out that the tuner machines, while perfectly adequate and reliable, are quite heavy. Fortunately, I discovered that the Gotoh GB350 Resolite Tuners are a drop-in replacement for them, so I ordered a set and put them on. They made all the difference in the world (they are the same tuners Spector uses on many of their $3k+ instruments). I really struggled not giving this bass 5-stars, but after making a simple $ upgrade it is truly a 5-star piece.

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The One Bass to Rule Them All

I bought this beast of a bass because I was looking for The One Ring To Rule Them All. I found it. The tonal options are just ridiculous, in the best way possible. Not only does it have the largest palette of options available of any instrument I own (thanks to the Fishman electronics), but every single option in the sound palette makes my tone sound GODLY. In most every other… read more instrument I own, I find that a good percentage of the bass/treble/pickup-selector pot options are pretty useless as anything other than minor tweaks. With the Fishmans, you can roll any of the pots all the way to either extreme and still end up with a tone that screams, "Play me!!!" This, in my opinion, is pretty unusual. I've got access to another very recent multiscale bass with Aguilar pickups that I had to put significant effort into configuring for tone -- both on the instrument's electronics and the amp itself -- to get a sound that remotely resembled what I wanted, and even then, it was kinda "Meh." In contrast, I would probably have to spend as much time trying to find a BAD tone on the Spector/Fishman setup, and I'm fairly convinced at this point that there isn't one. I play a lot of different musical styles, from metal to jazz to blues to funk, and I can get the exact tone I want in a split second without even thinking about it, at this point. Same goes with the fretboard. It was weird for about 2 minutes, but after having it a couple weeks, I really don't think about it any more. I thought I'd be needing to look at the fretboard a lot, but no, the luminescent side-inlays are enough. The hard angles on the early frets are very nice for bar chords, by the way. Your wrist will appreciate it. Nothing to say about the rest of this beautiful beast. It's a Spector. You get what you expect from Spector. Which happens to be greatness, by the way. Greatness is what you get. So I won't review that. I will say that's a beautiful chunk of wood, though. Too bad they don't have a lighter matte clearcoat that doesn't look like candy coating. That's my only beef. The glossy coating. Not my taste.

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