LeftyBassist.com

hey all

lately ive been on the hunt for a asian company thats still under the radar and low and behold ive found spear guitars i havent played one myself since their next to impossible to find in america and the only place ive found refuses to get back to me with left handed information but i digress one of my best friends lives in england and me and him have the exact same taste in basses and he tells me theyre amazing case in point the s series for roughly between $400-$800 you get neck through body, string through body, walnut mahagony bodys, 24 frets, 18 volt 3 band eq with active/ passive switch and mute switch all the reviews ive read have them losing but still holding their own against basses costing $2000 and best of all company policy they dont charge extra for left handed models if any one has anyway of getting their hands along PASS ALONG THE INFO!

http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2w.asp

I'd love some addtional info on some other Spear models too. I do have one of these Spear Flextools in a lefty. Anyone else have one? There was one store on the east coast that sold a few of these on ebay several months back, but I don't know if they're still available or not. If anyone's interested I could write up a brief review of it.

SPEAR FLEXTOOL
NECK CONSTRUCTION-- BOLT-ON
MACHINE HEAD-- SPEAR VINTAGE
NECK MATERIAL-- CANADIAN HARDMAPLE
F/B MATERIAL-- INDIAN ROSEWOOD
BODY MATERIAL-- ALDER
PICKUPS-- SPEAR JAZZ, PRECISION AND MM PICKUPS
H/W COLOR-- CR
TAIL-- SPEAR VINTAGE TAIL
CONTROLS-- 3V,1T, 1 MUTE SW
AVAILABLE COLORS-- JAMAICA GREEN, BK, 2T

http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/sig-p/flextool.asp

No shit!
I kinda like that! Even that burst

The green burst is a little different that's for sure (as if the three pickups aren't enough to get you noticed already )... but check out this link to a Korean store site, lots of pics:

http://www.guitarbox.co.kr/shop/shopdetail.html?brandcode=004001000015&search=&sort=order

Looks like if you lived in Korea you'd also have your choice of 2 tone vintage brown burst or black...I love that brown burst, but green was all I was able to get....

Talk about tone variety! I hope there's a switch on there that gives you every possible pickup combination, plus phase/out of phase... if nothing else, it will allow you to "own" at least three different basses at once...

AHA A! ive been looking at the flextool and the only problem i would see with it is that its passive (a musicman pickup on a passive instrument?) my eyes are set on the s series, how often do you find an 18 volt preamp on an instrument under 1,500? I grew up on home improvement and personally believe in tim allen's philosophy of more power

Ok, a quick review... well, the concept-- one instrument (tool) with the flexbility (flex) to cover the tonal characteristics of three different classic bass designs--is pretty ambitious for a passive bass. I will say that the flextool does a pretty capable job of providing you a viable option of leaving a couple other basses at home when you're trying to travel light. Each pickup has a very distinct tone and the individual volume controls for each pickup allow you to mix any infiniite variety of combinations.You can create some surprizingly rich variations as you adjust the blend and balance between them. The Jazz and Precision tones are very solid. The MM is probably the least appealing of the three pickups solo-ed, but it can do some interesting things in the blend with the other two. A true Stingray tone would require a preamp (although there's certainly no shortage of passive MM clones on the market). Per fivebass52's comment the bass could benefit from an enhanced passive wiring setup to provide more switching options (stock it's just 3 volumes, 1 tone, and a on/off mute mini toggle so you don't have to touch the knobs once you've got your settings dialed in). I'd say the stock pickups remind me of Mighty Mite stuff-- they sound halfway decent so I haven't gotten around to changing anything yet, but dropping in some duncans or barts could be a significant enhancement depending on your taste. Of course you could even add a preamp.

The bass is an excellent player. I love the neck profile and fretboard radius, very similar to a vintage 60's fender J, and the alder body is fairly light-- so for me the coolest thing about the flextool is that the basic body/ neck platform is really nice for the price, and the rest is easy to upgrade if, when, and however you choose. Should be a fun bass to experiment on .

BTW, the Cort Billy Cox Freedom bass is an active version of this concept with Mighty Mites, albeit in a different configuration, no MM pickup and NO LEFTY. I'm a huge fan of Billy and was lucky enough to have him sign this NAMM show demo bass for me at NAMM a few years back when his signature model was introduced (see pic). I just display it but I have played it a bit and talk about versatile! Man I wish cort had made it in a lefty!

thanks for the review where did you get yours if you dont mind my asking

Purchased it new off Ebay from an east coast dealer. I tried to do some back tracking to see if I could find the name of the store, but it's been quite awhile and unfortunately I haven't been able to find the name again. I'll keep looking.

Wow! I'd get one of those if I found one and customize it like crazy with better pickups and a preamp.

I'm actually really surprised they make a lefty model - and it's the version in the most unusual color, the green sunburst, as opposed to the classy black or SB.

I think if I got one, I would have to start a reggae band....

Well, good news/ bad news- I was able to track down tht east coast dealer I originally bought the bass from. The bad news is... apparently the dealer is no longer in business- both the phone numbers are disconnected, website gone .... anyway, below is the marketing hype from the original listing, for your entertainment- I guess when they said "act fast" they weren't kidding!

If you want one you may have to go ahead and deal with an overseas distributor in the UK.



GUITAR RELICS OF NEW YORK INC. IS PROUD TO BE THE FIRST ONLINE AUTHORISED DEALER OF THE ALREADY LEGENDARY SPEAR GUITAR LINE. MADE IN KOREA,SPEAR GUITARS HAVE ALREADY ACHIEVED WORLD WIDE ACCLAIM AND CELEBARTED NOTORIETY IN EUROPE AND JAPAN AS THE HANDS DOWN AWARD WINNING BEST GUITAR FOR THE MONEY SPENT IN EVERY CATEGORY UNDER 1000.00 USD!! THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE GUITARS!! GUITAR RELICS OF NY INC. IS PROUD TO BE THE FIRST U.S. AUTHORIZED DEALER.WE HAVE EVERY MODEL AND COLOR IN STOCK. CHECK THE REVIEWS ON THE NET AND ACT FAST!THESE GUITARS WILL BE SOLD OUT FAST!!CALL US AT GUITAR RELICS OF NY INC.AT 516 942 0252 OR 516 932 4600 FOR FURTHER INQUIRIES.

found some info... a dealer through amazon.com is selling spears both guitars and basses they are simply called the instrument store ive called them up to find out if they carry left handed models and they do!!.....but when i asked which ones they said they would take down my number and get back to me but after a 4 months of calling them back and emaling them i keep getting the same response "Yes we do carry them but i dont know which models let me go look that up and ill get back to you" someone else can try i pretty much give up with them

passing on some news, called up the instrument store through amazon and got the number for the u.s distributor turns out spear is quietly going out of business and the distrubutor is tring to sell out the rest of its stock due to spear now upping mrrp since they were taking a hit at selling their basses for less then then they were making off of them (with shipping and all that) and he made me a deal since, the only leftys they have left are the s-series, four string, string through neck through active 18 volt, i dont have the scratch but thought ill let people know...bass with case $290 plus shipping and handling from what ive heard theyre well worth the deal hope someone jumps on it since i cant (one manly tear rolls down my cheek)

Is that $290 price through the Instrument Store on Amazon or directly through the distributor? If it's the distributor, do you have the contact info?

the distributor but if you call up the instrument store they'll be happy to give it to you, its amazingly hard to get a person on the phone but once you do theyre beyond helpful, when i origianally called them about it not only did they give me the number for the distrubutor but they called ahead to tell them i was calling and already told them what i was looking for, ive since lost the number but again call the instrument store ask for the number and when you call ask for erwin, friendly helpful guy and gets right down to buisness

ps erwin is who you should ask for when calling the distributer

Amazon listing's gone now.

(631) 489-9000 thats the number for the instrument store, ive tried to be proactive and call them up to get the distributors number again but all ive been getting is the answering machine, hopefully someone on the forum will have some luck it would be a shame for such a good opprotunity to go to waste

OK, reviving the Spear thread.... I've been interested in experimenting with a single cut bass for awhile, but didn't want to commit to spending a fortune to do so. And based on my experience with my Spear Flextool, I had also been very keen on getting my hands on a a Spear neck thru ever since last year when the U.S. distribution evaporated. Apparently the Spear brand has found a U.S. distributor (All Music Inc. in Plainview NY) and they are taking a shot at offering at least some of the Spear line. So after several weeks of contemplating and reading as much available content as I could find on the web, I decided about a month ago to go ahead and pull the trigger on a brand new Spear S-2. The S-2 features Spear's "Claymore" single cut neck thru construction body shape combining mahogany back with a flamed maple top. 34" scale. 1 11/16" nut. 9 lbs. Electronics include 2 Spear EMG style humbuckers with 18v active 3 band EQ, stacked volume/passive tone, mute switch and active/passive switch. Gotoh style tuners and string-thru-body bridge. Slim jazz type neck, shallow modern C profile and fret board coated with what Spear calls synthetic Ebony. Once got it set up the action was is very, very low and fast and the frets well finished. The extended single-cut body shape is so ergonomically balanced sitting or standing that once you find your playing angle the neck stays where you put it and you can concentrate fully on playing vs. holding the neck. The passive tone sounds good, but the surprise for me is that the 18V 3 band active EQ is very impressive and responsive, delivering usable, hi-fi tone with good headroom across the full spectrum. I been able to dial in just about every active tone I could want. Granted, there are a few small things here and there that reveal its Asian factory produced vs. handmade boutique origins, but the overall fit and finish I would rate at least 8.5 out of 10. All this for $489 shipped? Frankly I'm amazed. I would easily see this bass in the $800 range, and even at that price it would still be THE best deal out there for an "affordable" single cut neck thru bass, especially in a lefty!

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