diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/spec.py b/lib/spack/spack/spec.py
index e1fbb84423..3ba9c139a6 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/spec.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/spec.py
@@ -1998,4 +1998,4 @@ def __init__(self, provided, required):
 
 class SpackYAMLError(spack.error.SpackError):
     def __init__(self, msg, yaml_error):
-        super(SpackError, self).__init__(msg, str(yaml_error))
+        super(SpackYAMLError, self).__init__(msg, str(yaml_error))