Advise needed regarding tone woods

bassmahn · #1 05-02-2008, 12:54 PM

Greetings all,
I had the opportunity to finally play an SKB when I was in Philly for work (I reside in Minnesota)
I think that I have decided that I am much more comfortable with the SKB body than the LG.
My question is the choice of tonewoods.... I have decided that I am going to go with a flamed or striped myrtle top, and I am leaning on ash for the body, but I am looking for input on the neck. I currently play a warwick with the ovangkol neck and wenge fb, but I am not sure that I want to go the same route with the roscoe....
right now I am leaning on maple/purpleheart/maple with a pau ferro fb.
I have been researching tonewoods for quite some time, and to be honest, the more I read the more it confuses me.
I simply do not know how the verbage applies to the sound in my head.

This may be a strange question to ask, but there are a lot of people on this board that has more experience than I do in this matter....
Is it possible for anyone here to give me wood recommendations based on the music that I play? I need something that cuts and has some definate growl when I dig into it, but something that can also be mellow if I choose to be.

Any and all info/input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading this!

http://www.myspace.com/gracepointmusic

CactusmanDoug · #2 05-02-2008, 02:53 PM

Hey Bassmahn,

I can relate to your situation. Many great bass players that frequent this forum will give you solid, competent recommendations, however the only REAL advice anyone can give you is to send you to a dealer that has some various Roscoes on the wall you can plug in and take a listen.

I live in Tucson where there is nothing that resembles a bass store and had to go on other people's advice (of which I am very thankful) and fortunately I am well pleased with the results.

You, however are blessed with the covenience of having Planet Bass in your town where they have an awesome variety readily available.

Here is the link to their Roscoe page.

http://www.planetbass.com/basses_roscoe.htm

Enjoy your shopping,

Doug

bassmahn · #3 05-02-2008, 03:02 PM

Hey Doug, thanks a lot for the info.
It's been a couple of years since I have been to planet bass, I will have to contact him to see if I can check some of those out.

CactusmanDoug · #4 05-02-2008, 03:23 PM

You got it Bassmahn,

From the looks of his web page, he has quite a variety of woods with different pre amp and pickup configurations that should give a very wide overview of what a Roscoe can sound like with the different variations.

Let me know which one you buy because I have a feeling there's going to be one of those 5 basses that will have that special "voice" you are looking for.

All the best,

Doug

Gard · #5 05-02-2008, 04:17 PM

Late to the party, and can't elaborate at length (time to go home for the weekend!)...

..definitely get over to Planet Bass and check out what is there, that will help answer some questions. From there, if there is anything specific we can help you with, please feel free to PM, e-mail, or call me at the shop (all pertinent info for contact is on our website!).

Have a great weekend everyone!