Help Me Build My 2nd Dream Roscoe!

[sha975]

Now a day, not everyone is fortunate enough to custom build or afford a top notch instrument such as a Roscoe so I thought it would be nice if some of you guys could help me out with my 2nd build. This way and in a sort of Roscoe family way you guys live out the fantasy with me. For those who can afford a Roscoe I still want your input also. I really respect the opinion of my Roscoe family here on TB and would greatly appreciate the help. My style of music is Contemparary Gospel/Smooth Jazz. I love slap bass and finger style soloing or improv. Now you can help me choose all the woods and follow the progress as it gets put together one piece of wood at a time. Some things are already written in stone such as 6 string, 34" scale and 19mm string spacing. Everything else is open. Some of you may remember the bass I have now:


Century 6
34" maple/purp/maple neck
Spanish Cedar Body
Spalted Maple Top/Back
Cocobolo FB
19mm string spacing
Diamondwood nut
Bartonlin CB pups
Demeter pre-amp

What should I get next? Another Century or SKB? What wood combos? Starting Monday Gard will be posting a bunch of wood specimens for this cause. Again, your opinion will greatly be appreciated.

[LilRay]

Deon,

Hey man, Just thought to say hello and join the thread to see what y'all come up with.
Your Century is BEAUTIFUL!!!! It'll be a task topping that one, but I bet the guys (Gard & Crew) can get it done

At the GTG you were asking Gard what you'd need to "open up" your sound more, so are you looking for something completely different than your Century or similar with a "slight" flavor difference?

You have exquisite taste and massive skill. Hope this new Roscoe exceeds your wishes.

Hope your wife and little one are doing well. It was an utmost pleasure meeting you guys and I hope to see y'all soon.

Prayers and Blessings.

Signed "The New Guy" Still enjoying the new Roscoe like day one too brother!

God Bless, Ray

[CliffD]

I'd start with finding out what you want the bass to sound like first, then pick woods/pickups/pre that can help you get to that tone and spec it out from there. Voila!

[Darkstrike]

Hmmmm, you want 4, 5 or 6 strings?

For the slap aspect, I wanna suggest ash, maple board, wenge center neck, and Big Singles, with an Aguilar pre-amp...

For the fingerstyle improve/smooth jazz, I wanna suggest mahogany(or cedar), spalted purpleheart board, standard purpleheart center neck, and Roscoe Barts, with and Audere(or Bart) pre-amp...

As for topwoods, figured koa's getting a lot of love lately with good reason, and figured bubgina looks heavenly...

That probably don't help though, I'd take CliffD's advice.

[LilRay]

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Hmmmm, you want 4, 5 or 6 strings?

For the slap aspect, I wanna suggest ash, maple board, wenge center neck, and Big Singles, with an Aguilar pre-amp...

For the fingerstyle improve/smooth jazz, I wanna suggest mahogany(or cedar), spalted purpleheart board, standard purpleheart center neck, and Roscoe Barts, with and Audere(or Bart) pre-amp...

As for topwoods, figured koa's getting a lot of love lately with good reason, and figured bubgina looks heavenly...

That probably don't help though, I'd take CliffD's advice.

Bill, From conversations I was near, Deon is a Six string guy. IIRC to quote "I need the High C for solos" . He was asking Gard about "opening" his tone. I "eavesdropped" and learned a lot from Deon. The Century Sig that he has is MONSTER.

Looking forward to this one.



God Bless, Ray

[Darkstrike]

Cheers Ray!

[sha975]

Originally Posted by LilRay

Deon,

Hey man, Just thought to say hello and join the thread to see what y'all come up with.
Your Century is BEAUTIFUL!!!! It'll be a task topping that one, but I bet the guys (Gard & Crew) can get it done

At the GTG you were asking Gard what you'd need to "open up" your sound more, so are you looking for something completely different than your Century or similar with a "slight" flavor difference?

You have exquisite taste and massive skill. Hope this new Roscoe exceeds your wishes.

Hope your wife and little one are doing well. It was an utmost pleasure meeting you guys and I hope to see y'all soon.

Prayers and Blessings.

Signed "The New Guy" Still enjoying the new Roscoe like day one too brother!

God Bless, Ray

Ray,

thanks for all the compliments and yes the wife and little one is doing just fine. Your more than welcome to join this thread I'm looking forward to Gard posting wood so we can get started. As far as the Roscoe I have now being more open I think I've fixed that problem by switching the pre-amp for the Aguilar to the Demeter.

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Hmmmm, you want 4, 5 or 6 strings?

For the slap aspect, I wanna suggest ash, maple board, wenge center neck, and Big Singles, with an Aguilar pre-amp...

For the fingerstyle improve/smooth jazz, I wanna suggest mahogany(or cedar), spalted purpleheart board, standard purpleheart center neck, and Roscoe Barts, with and Audere(or Bart) pre-amp...

As for topwoods, figured koa's getting a lot of love lately with good reason, and figured bubgina looks heavenly...


That probably don't help though, I'd take CliffD's advice.

Darkstrike,

thanks for all the help already. As far as strings go and as lilray has stated I only play 6 string.

Originally Posted by LilRay

Bill, From conversations I was near, Deon is a Six string guy. IIRC to quote "I need the High C for solos" . He was asking Gard about "opening" his tone. I "eavesdropped" and learned a lot from Deon. The Century Sig that he has is MONSTER.

Looking forward to this one.



God Bless, Ray

yes your a good listener lilray I only play 6 strings because that high "C" sounds sooooo sweet!

[sha975]

Originally Posted by CliffD

I'd start with finding out what you want the bass to sound like first, then pick woods/pickups/pre that can help you get to that tone and spec it out from there. Voila!

CliffD,

I love slap and I love soloing/ improv so I guess I want a sound in between. Overall, I want a very versatile bass that covers it all. I'm so far not to impressed with the bart/bart system after comparing it with Gard's and Joe's axes my basses sounded compressed and dark. I'm totally open to anything cost is no limit so I'm going all out matching wood covers knobs and all.

[Darkstrike]

Originally Posted by sha975

Darkstrike,

thanks for all the help already. As far as strings go and as lilray has stated I only play 6 string.

Glad to be of service, and I don't blame you on the 6er deal, they are real fun to play with!

Originally Posted by sha975

CliffD,

I love slap and I love soloing/ improv so I guess I want a sound in between. Overall, I want a very versatile bass that covers it all. I'm so far not to impressed with the bart/bart system after comparing it with Gard's and Joe's axes my basses sounded compressed and dark. I'm totally open to anything cost is no limit so I'm going all out matching wood covers knobs and all.

Hmm, maybe Big Singles, and the Audere, that would cover huge ground, get the bright single coil snap for the slap bass, and piles of eq in the Audere 4 band, to fatten things for the smoother play.

[sha975]

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

Glad to be of service, and I don't blame you on the 6er deal, they are real fun to play with!


Hmm, maybe Big Singles, and the Audere, that would cover huge ground, get the bright single coil snap for the slap bass, and piles of eq in the Audere 4 band, to fatten things for the smoother play.

Now from my experience with the Audere pre-amp, it tends to be really flat sounding with not much boast or cut at all. I did however, purchase a used Roscoe one time that had a Audere pre in it thinking I was going to have to change it when it arrived but it sounded great. Overall I'ver tried 4 different Roscoes with the Audere pre-amp in it and 3 out of 4 sounded flat with no reponse. I'm not the only one that feels that way either, a good frind of mine Jome77 (Joe) I believe has the same opinion. Maybe he can way in on the topic. I believe he just switch that pre out for a demeter also. I'm wondering if it was the Bart pickups making it sound that way. You know not all pre-amps match up with every pickups. The combo I tried when it sounded good was the Nord dual coils. Your thoughts???

[JOME77]

Cool!

I just love help Roscoe brothers spend money on beautiful Roscoe's!

Based on providing an alternative to your existing Roscoe, which after adding the Roscoe Demeter is almost identical to the spec's of my killer 5 sting fretted (mine has burl maple top, yours has spalted top and back), here's my recommended spec's Deon:

3006 SKB
Alder body
Top and back - figured Koa walnut (oil finish)
Wenge Finger board std. neck construction
34" scale 19mm string spacing
Bart CB's in 70's J bass locations
Pope preamp!!! (beg Gard! I'm dying to hear one in a Roscoe)

[Darkstrike]

Originally Posted by sha975

Now from my experience with the Audere pre-amp, it tends to be really flat sounding with not much boast or cut at all. I did however, purchase a used Roscoe one time that had a Audere pre in it thinking I was going to have to change it when it arrived but it sounded great. Overall I'ver tried 4 different Roscoes with the Audere pre-amp in it and 3 out of 4 sounded flat with no reponse. I'm not the only one that feels that way either, a good frind of mine Jome77 (Joe) I believe has the same opinion. Maybe he can way in on the topic. I believe he just switch that pre out for a demeter also. I'm wondering if it was the Bart pickups making it sound that way. You know not all pre-amps match up with every pickups. The combo I tried when it sounded good was the Nord dual coils. Your thoughts???

Indeed, I agree, some don't mate well, and of course, that all changes depending on what you're after tonally.

I will say, I don't use a pile of boost or cut, so it never made any difference to me weather a pre had a lot of roll off, or on.

Only thing about the DC's, is they are said to be very close to the CB's in your current Roscoe, which would be against what you're after, so it seems to me.

I was assuming the Audere would work with the Big Singles well, because they're basically overwound J pickups, in soapbar shells, and the Audere is very popular with J pickups.

[ubone]

Your wood choices of your current build are excellent choices for your next bass, and to get the sound your looking for you may want to talk to Gard about using some Bart Jazz pups with the Bart pre.

[sha975]

Originally Posted by JOME77

Cool!

I just love help Roscoe brothers spend money on beautiful Roscoe's!

Based on providing an alternative to your existing Roscoe, which after adding the Roscoe Demeter is almost identical to the spec's of my killer 5 sting fretted (mine has burl maple top, yours has spalted top and back), here's my recommended spec's Deon:

3006 SKB
Alder body
Top and back - figured Koa walnut (oil finish)
Wenge Finger board std. neck construction
34" scale 19mm string spacing
Bart CB's in 70's J bass locations
Pope preamp!!! (beg Gard! I'm dying to hear one in a Roscoe)

Joe,

didn't know that Mike pope sold a in bass pre-amp, infact I just came from their site and didn't see one. I only see the external pre-amps. Ya got a item number or pic of one? Also what would the pickups being in a "70's jazz," location do for my sound?

[sha975]

Originally Posted by ubone

Your wood choices of your current build are excellent choices for your next bass, and to get the sound your looking for you may want to talk to Gard about using some Bart Jazz pups with the Bart pre.

Thanks for the advice but since I'm ordering a totally different axe I'd rather it look differently infact be totally different not just sound different.

[JOME77]

Originally Posted by sha975

Joe,

didn't know that Mike pope sold a in bass pre-amp, infact I just came from their site and didn't see one. I only see the external pre-amps. Ya got a item number or pic of one? Also what would the pickups being in a "70's jazz," location do for my sound?

Deon,
They use them in Fodera's and F-Clef basses. Here's a link on one that was sold on TB. Maybe they only make them for Bass builders....Great opportunity for Keith to try one in one of his basses!

FODERA ON BOARD MIKE POPE PRE AMP

[Darkstrike]

Originally Posted by JOME77

Deon,
They use them in Fodera's and F-Clef basses. Here's a link on one that was sold on TB. Maybe they only make them for Bass builders....Great opportunity for Keith to try one in one of his basses!

FODERA ON BOARD MIKE POPE PRE AMP

I'm sure they sell them direct too, Greg had one in his old Warwick, before he swapped it for an Audere, I remember the thread, worth asking him about it, its not the same one thats in Foderas, but slightly different, and he'll work with you to custom make it to suit too, I know one Tber also has one in a Stambaugh.

[sha975]

Originally Posted by JOME77

Deon,
They use them in Fodera's and F-Clef basses. Here's a link on one that was sold on TB. Maybe they only make them for Bass builders....Great opportunity for Keith to try one in one of his basses!

FODERA ON BOARD MIKE POPE PRE AMP

Joe,

What would the "70's" position do for my sound that the normal position wouldn't?

[Darkstrike]

Originally Posted by sha975

Joe,

What would the "70's" position do for my sound that the normal position wouldn't?

The pickups being slightly further apart gives you a little more mids than a normal Jazz, when both are on, IIRC.

[LilRay]

Deon,

Check out Roscoe #5929

Features
Model: Century Signature VI ($4895)
Top: Koa (+$1000)
Body: Swamp Ash
Finish: Natural
Preamp: Audere (+$225) w/ custom coil tap switch (+$75))
Pickups: Nordstrand DCs in matching Bird's Eye Maple covers (supplied by customer)
Neck: Wenge Wedge **THIN PROFILE** (+$100)
String Spacing: Standard
Fingerboard: Bid's Eye Maple, Fretted (+$175)
12th Fret Inlay: Koa (+$50)
Nut: Diamondwood (+$75)
Hardware: Black
Case: Hardshell (+$200)
Retail Price
Total Retail Price = $6795

Specs and Picture taken from Rocket Music.

If you can get a recreation of this one, It just may be what you're looking for.

It totally contrasts your current Century Sig in every aspect. Get it with your 19mm spacing and 34" scale.

Greg has a sound clip of it at his website, www.rocketmusic.net. If you need to find it, It's http://=http://www.rocketmusic.net/c...ction&key=3123 Here

Let me know what you think.



God Bless, Ray