and finally....

djero44 · #1 03-10-2011, 10:39 PM

.... I made the final payment on my new Roscoe today, it is being shipped my way! Wahooo!!

One black onyx Century Std. 5 is soon to be in my hands. After three months of gathering my dough, i'm ready to play it!

**Ryan L.** · #2 03-10-2011, 10:42 PM

Awesome! Congrats!

Darkstrike · #3 03-11-2011, 02:54 AM

Sweet! Congrats bro!

djero44 · #4 03-19-2011, 07:59 AM

Well, it is official, I am a true Roscoe head now. I have had my bass in hand for a number of days now and honestly it's bass heaven. This bass is the best playing and sounding bass i've ever owned (or played!), which is of course why I fell in love with it after about fifteen minutes of trying it out at a music store in Albuquerque.

Unfortunately the store did not send me my saddle wrench and truss rod wrench with my bass as they were supposed to. I do need to do a little setup adjustment. I'm sure the year drying out in New Mexico and now in Colorado has affected it a little bit. The treble side strings are very low and a little bit buzzy; mostly the G string with just a touch on the D. When sighting down the neck there is a little relief (maybe not quite enough?) and a high spot at about the 15th fret and it heads back down a little bit towards the body again. The buzz is small and I think i'll just bring that saddle up a touch to see what happens. The G string is very close to the pickup, I adjusted the pickup itself (since I didn't have a small enough hex wrench at home for the saddle), which proved a little difficult. It did not seem like it wanted to go down, but I got a little movement out of it, at least enough to balance out the string volume which is almost there now.

Oh yeah, as a side-note I was a bit leary of the 35" scale when I purchased the bass, having never owned one before. I don't even notice! It's pretty much a non issue, which is great. And the B is, confirming what I was informed by a fellow Roscoe lover here, the most playable i've experienced. Love it!

The bass is very well built, my only minor complaint is that lower quarter of the bridge is not seated fully on the body. How odd! I can see the screws going into the body if I sight it right, there is about a 1/32 gap there. I figure pulling off or loosening the strings and seeing if a little tightening of the screws will seat it down is in order. I would be concerned but for the fact it is already sounds so good. If it gains more tone from being fully coupled then that will be amazing!

I take it as a bit of a sign anyhow, although I find the bass gorgeous I would love to see it with a black bridge. Has anyone tried this on their Black Onyx finish basses? I bet it would look incredible.

So I love the curves, contours, incredibly playable neck and light weight so much. My only real concern is my fretless is a bit jealous at the moment. I'll make sure she gets some attention too though, don't worry. For now i'm just thankful and proud to be an owner of such an incredible instrument, and look forward to playing it a lot more. I've only used it at one rehearsal and won't be gigging it out any time soon due to personnel changes in bands, so i've got plenty of time to get to know it. Get to know it I will!

LilRay · #5 03-19-2011, 08:34 AM

Congrats djero!

God Bless, Ray

JOME77 · #6 03-19-2011, 10:30 AM

Congratulations!

I know that you're pumped! Of course a picture is required to make it official!

Denial · #7 03-19-2011, 10:45 AM

Congrats! What store did you get it at?

I just made the rounds of many stores in Denver/Ft Collins/CO Springs and didn't see much in the way of unique basses, and no Roscoes.

djero44 · #8 03-19-2011, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denial

Congrats! What store did you get it at?

I just made the rounds of many stores in Denver/Ft Collins/CO Springs and didn't see much in the way of unique basses, and no Roscoes.

I hear you, I haven't found much on the front range either. I remember back in the 90's there was a bass store on Broadway in Denver, but that was before I was a full time bass player. Anyhow, I ran into this bass in Albuquerque, NM, at Grandma's Music & Sound. I'm very glad I did!

VroomVroom · #9 03-19-2011, 11:52 AM

Congrats on the great bass!

Denver - First Bass, if I remember correctly. Very cool store, but man I'm getting old...I was there in '90.

Denial · #10 03-19-2011, 12:12 PM

Jerry,

Yes it was First Bass, on Broadway, closed around 2000.

Gard · #11 03-19-2011, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djero44

Well, it is official, I am a true Roscoe head now. I have had my bass in hand for a number of days now and honestly it's bass heaven. This bass is the best playing and sounding bass i've ever owned (or played!), which is of course why I fell in love with it after about fifteen minutes of trying it out at a music store in Albuquerque.

Unfortunately the store did not send me my saddle wrench and truss rod wrench with my bass as they were supposed to. I do need to do a little setup adjustment. I'm sure the year drying out in New Mexico and now in Colorado has affected it a little bit. The treble side strings are very low and a little bit buzzy; mostly the G string with just a touch on the D. When sighting down the neck there is a little relief (maybe not quite enough?) and a high spot at about the 15th fret and it heads back down a little bit towards the body again. The buzz is small and I think i'll just bring that saddle up a touch to see what happens. The G string is very close to the pickup, I adjusted the pickup itself (since I didn't have a small enough hex wrench at home for the saddle), which proved a little difficult. It did not seem like it wanted to go down, but I got a little movement out of it, at least enough to balance out the string volume which is almost there now.

Oh yeah, as a side-note I was a bit leary of the 35" scale when I purchased the bass, having never owned one before. I don't even notice! It's pretty much a non issue, which is great. And the B is, confirming what I was informed by a fellow Roscoe lover here, the most playable i've experienced. Love it!

The bass is very well built, my only minor complaint is that lower quarter of the bridge is not seated fully on the body. How odd! I can see the screws going into the body if I sight it right, there is about a 1/32 gap there. I figure pulling off or loosening the strings and seeing if a little tightening of the screws will seat it down is in order. I would be concerned but for the fact it is already sounds so good. If it gains more tone from being fully coupled then that will be amazing!

I take it as a bit of a sign anyhow, although I find the bass gorgeous I would love to see it with a black bridge. Has anyone tried this on their Black Onyx finish basses? I bet it would look incredible.

So I love the curves, contours, incredibly playable neck and light weight so much. My only real concern is my fretless is a bit jealous at the moment. I'll make sure she gets some attention too though, don't worry. For now i'm just thankful and proud to be an owner of such an incredible instrument, and look forward to playing it a lot more. I've only used it at one rehearsal and won't be gigging it out any time soon due to personnel changes in bands, so i've got plenty of time to get to know it. Get to know it I will!

I don't know why you didn't get the tools, there should have been an envelope in the upper pocket of the gigbag with a letter and both the trussrod and saddle adjustment tools. If you need us to send you the tools, just e-mail me at the shop (info@roscoeguitars.com), and I'll mail a set out to you right away!

On the bridge, it should not be "pulled up" at all. It is possible that because of the way we finish these that there was an area that the grain of the swamp ash left a small gap that you could see light through, but the bridge should be snug against the body. If it isn't please send me a photo of the area, so we can try to figure out what is going on there!

Thanks!

**Bipslapper** · #12 03-19-2011, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denial

Jerry,

Yes it was First Bass, on Broadway, closed around 2000.

Ah, First Bass; I made the trek there too, back when my wife's cousin got married in Colorado Springs, circa 1996. Went to Boulder one day and stopped by the store en route from the south. Small place on the outskirts of town. Played my first Tobias bass there and some nice Warwicks. Didn't know they closed up shop.

djero44 · #13 03-19-2011, 04:51 PM

Hi Gard, thanks for the reply on the bridge situation. It is kind of odd, but i'm guessing there is something under there, perhaps grain like you mentioned, that is keeping it from seating down properly. I do not have a camera around at the moment, but I will borrow my daughters tomorrow when I take her back to her dorm and see if I can get a shot that shows it. I'm sure it won't be anything hard to fix.

I spent a couple of winters building an acoustic cutaway guitar with a local luthier back in, oh, 2003-04 and since have had a much finer eye for this kind of stuff. I'm sure a lot of people might not have noticed this small detail. Even still, the only reason I would have mentioned 'pulled up' is i'd be surprised if it left your shop the way it is. In fact i'm surprised I didn't see it the first time I checked out the bass! Not that it would have mattered much, I was smitten from the first few notes, and this is a situation easily addressed.

Anyhow, thanks again for the response. I did get the letter of authentication and it said the tools should be included, but they were not there. I will send an e-mail over if you would like to send me that a pair, that would be awesome.

Daniel B.

**nostatic** · #14 03-20-2011, 03:50 PM

congrats - for the life of me i don't get why these aren't more popular. Sound great, play great, look great, and US-built. People pay more for off-shored instruments. Go figure...