The Jackson Pro Series Spectra
For the construction of this four-stringer
At the bass amplifier Nordstrand SB-4 Alnico single coils provide extremely powerful bass sounds with fine detail, while the active 3-band tone control with selectable center frequency for the mid control allows for precise tone adjustment. Last but not least, the
To begin with this bass looks awesome. The colours aren't that full at the lighter sand like edged but it is still beautiful. The main problem I had with it was that it arrived with faulty wiring. Yes, that's right. For some reason the battery was directly connected to the preamp, which meant was always in active mode and the battery would constantly be drained (empty in 2 days without playing it). Thankfully my father is an electrician, so we simply connected the battery to the passive/active switch and then to the preamp, and now it works as intented. But i have to admit I expected something better from a 900 euro bass.
The sound of that bass is simply great. Not much to say about it, those Nordstrand pickups are just sooo good.
The overall feel of that bass is great too. The weight, balance and the feel on the left hand are perfect. The fretboard is as thick as it should be and you have easy access to all 24 frets without any weird thump positions. I managed to get a medium action i would say without fret buzz (maybe medium/low) which is fine. The only thing that feels different, coming from a fender jazz and a ltd b-10, is that when you slap, the strings are further away from the body. To explain it better, when popping on my fender, my index finger would touch the pickguard and there would be just enough space for it to fit under the g-string for example. When doing the same thing on the Jackson, there is enough space for the whole finger to go under the strings and at first it would get stuck like a hook. Now that i have gotten more used to it, this barely happens, and i think this is because the bass in neck through and not bolt on.
Now that i have the bass for about 4 monthsi would give it a 8,5/10 (for the specific price range of course, and not taking into account the whole bad wiring incident)