E027

[Jeff Moote]

Those that read the Rocket Music forum know I recently received an amazing Century Standard 5J Plus: Another crazy Bubinga top from Roscoe...

Since I was in the area I took the opportunity to pick it up in person, and to check out the Roscoe shop and hang out with Gard and Greg for a couple hours. If the basses were not already great enough, these guys (plus Keith and the rest of the crew at the shop) really convinced me that I want to keep doing business with them.

While I was there, I got to look through the woodpile and pick out some really nice pieces for a fretless I had in mind. The order has now been placed, and here's what I have in the works:

Century Standard 4J Plus
Quilted maple top (1 piece)
Alder body
Natural Oil finish
Bartolini JJ pickups
Bartolini 3-band preamp
3-piece Maple neck
Fretless Diamondwood fingerboard (black w/face dots)
Graphite nut
Black hardware

Though I love the Bartolini J pickups in my fretted bass, for the vibe I am going for in this bass something a little more vintage-y and less round is called for, so I am planning to swap in Nordstrand NJ4SVs and a Nordstrand preamp upon arrival. I'm not 100% set on those, and still have some other ideas floating around my head (Frailins and passive V/V/T/T - who knows!) - I have this figured out, at least for now: see my later post on the electronics.

In any case here is a photo of the top for now:

[Gard]

This is gonna be one SMOKIN' bass, no matter what electronics/pickups it eventually ends up with. Really looking forward to it getting done!

[Darkstrike]

Good stuff!

[Jeff Moote]

Disclaimer: those who just come here for the pretty pictures can ignore my drivel below. Others who like obsessing over bass minutia, read on

A bit of background on what I am after with this bass. When Roscoe started offering J-pickups I was definitely interested, because while I love the Roscoe soapbar sound I also like J-basses, but could never get past the ergonomics. There are so many boutique J style basses that are all amazing in quality, looks and sound but I pick them up and it just doesn't work. The balance, neck profile, upper register access all kill it for me and I'm immediately not interested.

Now we can get the best of both worlds - Roscoe ergonomics with the J sound. It still bums me out a bit that I can't have the traditional look in a bass I want to play, but I find consolation in the numerous players I get to see playing theirs.

I satisfied my fretted J needs in the bubinga CS5+, and next up was my desire for a bass that can really do the Jaco thing. I have a Rob Allen MB-2 that I love, and it'll even do burpy "electric" type tones, but it's still not a J-bass.

I considered doing more than 4 strings, and doing a fancier model but I ultimately settled on the fact that 34" scale and an all maple neck were going to be part of hitting the tone I'm after. I know it'll still be more Roscoe than Fender (not a bad thing!), but I want to keep some degree of authenticity.

In that direction, I considered going really classic with a Standard, alder body with sunburst finish. Ultimately my taste for amazing woods like the top we selected won and I decided to go with the CS4+ which also allows me to do black hardware

[Darkstrike]

Sounds like a recipe for success.

[JOME77]

Cool Jeff! Sounds like a killer fretless. My Warmoth fretless is alder and it does have a nice tone. I just wish that it had the Diamondwood finger board (although the ebony sounds pretty nice).

I am a bit surprised with the face dots. Not your typical look on an unlined fretless but if that's your thing ..... (of course it is in line with the traditional Jaco "yank the frets out" look.

[Jeff Moote]

I should clarify what I mean by face dots: much like F-bass does with some of their fretlesses, there are small dots at every position where the line would be placed on the bass side for the first octave and the treble side for the second octave.

Gard sent me an example:

[DAMON]

I'm looking forward to this one...

[Jeff Moote]

I've got the electronics figured out, at least as far as what I'll start with:

I grabbed a pair of Frailin split coil pickups from the classifieds, and will be installing an Aguilar OBP-1 preamp.

I'll set it up with 2 volume knobs, passive tone and bass boost with the preamp's treble boost on an internal trimpot accessed via the hole in the control plate and active/passive switching via a push/pull bass or tone knob.

I think that is a nice balance between the vintage-y sound of a standard V/V/T setup with the additional flexibility to add the muscle of the OBP when needed. It's simple to wire up, anyway, so I'll give it a shot.

I'll keep the stock Bartolini stuff around until I'm sure I'm happy with it, anyway

[JOME77]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

I should clarify what I mean by face dots: much like F-bass does with some of their fretlesses, there are small dots at every position where the line would be placed on the bass side for the first octave and the treble side for the second octave.

Gard sent me an example:

Just saw this ...... Now I understand.

Cool idea! Great points of reference without making it look fretted from a distance.

[Jeff Moote]

This one ought to be getting close to the front of the build queue. I am really excited to see how it turns out

[JOME77]

Hey Jeff!

What's the status of this one? I would have thought that it would have been completed and delivered by now!

Did I miss it's arrival

[Jeff Moote]

I think it was originally scheduled to, but things are a bit behind. Gard can correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gard]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

I think it was originally scheduled to, but things are a bit behind. Gard can correct me if I'm wrong.

Things are about to start happening pretty fast now...sorry for the delay, Jeff.



It'll be well worth the wait!

[Jeff Moote]

I am sure it will be, so no worries on the delay. I'm obviously anticipating this one, but I find I've been able to exercise a surprising amount of patience

[Gard]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

I am sure it will be, so no worries on the delay. I'm obviously anticipating this one, but I find I've been able to exercise a surprising amount of patience

FYI, the neck is already in the "ready to final shape" stage, which is always the biggest part of the wait - the body will get glued up either later this week or early next, then start moving forward right away!

Thanks for your patience!

[Jeff Moote]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

In that direction, I considered going really classic with a Standard, alder body with sunburst finish. Ultimately my taste for amazing woods like the top we selected won and I decided to go with the CS4+ which also allows me to do black hardware

Change of plans, or rather change back to the original plan: this bass just became a Standard with tobacco burst finish on an alder body, and the top in the original post became a new order for... something else! I'll start a new thread for that once everything is official on that next week

Switching to a standard model means no black hardware of course, but that too can be dealt with!

Really this is all just a plan so the folks at Roscoe don't have to feel bad about the delivery time on this one. Now it's all my fault

[SteveC]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

Switching to a standard model means no black hardware of course, but that too can be dealt with!

I've said it before, I'll say it again...black hardware should be standard on Standard/Plus basses. Raise the price $75 and be done. No one will complain and everyone knows black hardware sounds better. :-)

[Jeff Moote]

It's ok - I actually really like chrome, especially on certain basses. DamienLangkamer's SKB for example looks great with it: http://youtu.be/xQe1LVrvdWQ

I have some ideas for this one, but I'll wait until it gets here to share

[SteveC]

Oh yeah, it does work on some basses, and black doesn't. I used to be a chrome guy but have gone black.