Question on Spectrum ST Bass

Hi All,

I picked up this Spectrum ST Bass this morning from a car boot sale (Trash and Treasure sale to some of you) for £15. It has a bit of damage (as you will see in the photos) which are all stuff that I can fix, but I am a little puzzled as to it having a white/cream body with a black neck? Would this have been turned out of the factory with this colouring or would you say that the body and neck were from two different Spectrums? The serial number on the back of the headstock is 5011152 and it does say Made In Japan on the neck plate. I may add that I have a Spectrum series II bass that I restored which is very good but this one seems to be of a better overall build quality.

Nope; that's exactly like my minty one; white body/blackneck & headstock!

£15 would seem pretty reasonable - I just paid £40 for an APII Urchin that has been snapped in two!!

Thanks for the swift reply John, mystery solved.

Would I be right in assuming that by the serial number it was made in 1985?

Yep, as far as I know, anyway!!

They're a great wee bass; I recorded with one in preference to a P-bass about 10 years ago...

I have to say that this black neck and white body thing must be very much a Japanese idea, but it may have shed some light on another guitar that I picked up some while ago which puzzled me. Again from a car boot sale, it was a Les Paul copy with the paint having badly sanded off the body and neck (originally black paint), but I noticed that the binding around the body was white and on the sides of the neck it was black. The neck plate says made in Japan on it and I suspect it to be a Hondo (pretty sure really) and although it does look as though the neck and body are meant to be together, the difference in binding colour has always had me scratching my head. Maybe another Matsumoku product?

£15.00, what a bargain.

Interesting, I've never seen a Spectrum with chrome tuners, yet they have the W on them.

Warrn wrote:Interesting, I've never seen a Spectrum with chrome tuners, yet they have the W on them.

If not chrome, what are they normally?

They're usually black. I had thought all Spectrums had black tuners, I know mine does. It could just be that I'm not familiar with the ST though.

So what's the difference between a Spectrum and an ST? In fact, what does the ST stand for?

umpdv5000 wrote:So what's the difference between a Spectrum and an ST? In fact, what does the ST stand for?

Yours is the lowest spec Spectrum ST Bass model with chrome tuners and "Glide Trak" chrome bridge. Higher spec Spectrum basses had black tuners and a black magnacast bridge etc.....check out the catalogue here

Maybe ST stands for standard, DX Deluxe and GT errrrr Gin & Tonic??

Make mine a double!!

bowenjaybee wrote:...Maybe ST stands for standard, DX Deluxe and GT errrrr Gin & Tonic??

It's a good question though. In the Spectrum guitar line the 'T' denotes a tremolo bridge. No idea what it means on the bass.

Barry wrote: It's a good question though. In the Spectrum guitar line the 'T' denotes a tremolo bridge. No idea what it means on the bass.

I guess that would be another question for Tom Presley.