Roscoe clips Megathread (soon to be)!!!

[davesisk]

Hey folks:

I recently acquired a Roscoe LG-3005 w/Bart pups and preamp, spanish cedar body, spalted maple top, maple/purpleheart neck, cocobolo fretboard. Love it...tone, looks, weight and balance, etc.

I've put stainless steel strings on it (D'Addario BlueSteels) of a slightly lighter gauge than the stock strings, and I've adjusted the action such that it's crazy-low...I get a very controllable fretbuzz (mainly because the neck and fretwork are so friggin' impeccable! nice work, folks at Roscoe!), and I love the grittiness that brings to the tone, especially since the highs are just a bit muted on this bass in comparison to some others (like my Tobias Killer B-5 and Stingray5).

Here's some pics:






And here's a sound clip for your enjoyment. First half of the riff is slapped (mostly double-thumped with some double-pops at the end of each measure) and second half is fingerstyle. First pass has pan control in the center, 2nd pass is bridge solo'd, and 3rd pass is neck solo'd. All EQ was flat, no effects, direct injected...you are hearing only the bass itself and my hands. My playing is far from perfect, but my purpose was to "document" it's tone. Enjoy!

http://www.ipass.net/davesisk/music/...BridgeNeck.mp3

Dave

[DrMWP]

Very Cool, Sounds great!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nakedfish]

Sounding good!

I have a Spanish Cedar/Buckeye SKB-3006 - very similar tone.

[xkimsungminx]

Originally Posted by Joel B

Here are a couple of clips of my SKB with a Demeter pre, and Nordy pickups. I don't know if the wenge wedge neck and fretboard with the ash body made the difference, but in spite of what I hear people say about this combo, I really love the sound I get.

Here I am playing through the house ampeg svt pro (I can't remember which one, with ampeg 410 cab.

My daughter is recording with her little camera I think. It may have been her cell phone.

Anyway, even with all of the background(and sometimes foreground noise) you get some idea of it's sound.

I will be looking for some better quality stuff from actual groups I have played with. This was an impromptu jam after a church meeting I was at a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942D5GqNpXU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmFWLJeHa08

Nice! I like the sound you're getting too . So you have the Wenge Wedge Neck and a Wenge Fretboard?

[Joel B]

Yep, I can't say enough how worth it the wedge neck is.

As stable as the regular neck is, the wedge neck is even more so. It also has a good deal to add to the resonance of the over all tone.

The wenge fretboard with the wenge wedge neck is a very articualte combo. Brings a lot of useable highs to the palette.

But isn't so brittle that you can't controll it.

[Steve Clark]

I'd really like to hear some back to back clips of Nords vs. Barts. Love the Barts in my fretless SKB3006 but less so in the fretted if that makes any sense. Meaning the only thing lacking for me in the Bart/fretted is a slap tone. Other than that I do like it.

[fishdds]

Well, here is a link to some videos of our band at church. Simple stuff, warts and all, but the Roscoe comes through pretty well. I'm running direct out of my Aguilar AG500, and as far as I know, this is taken right off the board. (after a spliced intro video in each case, which is pretty cool the first couple of times you watch it ) Luckily once the loading gets far enough along, you can skip it. Each Sunday has several songs. Sometimes I'm playing and sometimes it's the other bass player.
http://www.westoverchurch.com/Experience/

[Tommy Slap]

I want sharing a little video clip of my band in South America were you can hear my century V fretless before I changed his Aguilar preamp for a Bartolini... The difference now is incredible... Aguilar just for fretted basses please!!!

www.supresencia.com

Blessings,

Tommy

Note: Pics of the bass used!!!

[rbolanos]

Originally Posted by fishdds

Well, here is a link to some videos of our band at church. Simple stuff, warts and all, but the Roscoe comes through pretty well. I'm running direct out of my Aguilar AG500, and as far as I know, this is taken right off the board. (after a spliced intro video in each case, which is pretty cool the first couple of times you watch it ) Luckily once the loading gets far enough along, you can skip it. Each Sunday has several songs. Sometimes I'm playing and sometimes it's the other bass player.
http://www.westoverchurch.com/Experience/

thanks for sharing those videos.
I am awaiting for my first roscoe to come sometime this week. its a swamp ash body with maple top and pau ferro board. so, it'll be very exciting to try it out.
wondering what wood combo you had on the roscoe
thanks
RB

[PlanetEarth]

Ok, I'll bite.. Somewhat recent hired-gun/studio session. Done with my SKB 3006 (flat) running through an Avalon tube pre in their outboard rack. Was actually my first working gig with the Roscoe; was so impressed with it I sold my Ken Smith that had been with me for 10+ years shortly after.

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/758850

[backseatbetty]

Very nice playing and sound!! Some hint of Meshell?

Cornelius

[Shiveringbass]

Planetearth, great playing and great growling tone.

[PlanetEarth]

Thanks all!! I love that growl!! Now that's it's been with me for a bit I've (in my opinion) sweetened up the tone a bit having found those sweet spots over time. Was a little awkward at first going from an old passive smith bass to a very active Roscoe. For me analogous to power steering vs. not. But I have come to appreciate not having to dig so hard for a tone which ultimately opened up a lot more options for me...

Me'Shell for sure Cornelius, though I wouldn't call it a hint as much as I would a full blown sample/tribute.. (which is just a nice way to say "yeah, I copped a little chunk of one of her licks") LOL!! Love Her!!!! In terms of just outright raw, gut, in the pocket groove/feel.... mmmm something about her soul just reaches out to me for sure.

It's kind of funny, I ended up with the Roscoe completely by chance. I needed to pick up a 6 quickly for a gig and all in one day of landing the gig, went to the music store, had nothing particular in mind, but the Roscoe was the only high-end 6 in the store. Guy pulled it off the rack, plugged it into a little Bergantino all flat, I played all of 30 seconds and was sold... Typically the color, and fingerboard wood on a normal day would not have been something I'd ever of considered, hind sight being 20/20, it's all good, I can get used to Blue and maple. Plus, I dont' want to look at it anyway, I just want to hear it... Been a love affair ever since.

[backseatbetty]

Still good to know we are in the presence of keepers of the funk!
I'm on the fence about buying a Roscoe. I'm very much in love with my Celinders but there is a definite appeal in the growl produced by the bridge pu in a Roscoe. Can you tell me a bit more about your experience?

Cornelius

[PlanetEarth]

I can't really make any kind of comparison to the "Celinders". I've never laid my hands on one, people who have seem to love them. They seems very expensive for what at first sight appears to be a j or p bass replica but that's a completely ignorant statement because again I've never touched or heard one first person and know very little about them in general. So ultimately I've no valid opinion.

As I said with the Roscoe, I was sold immediately and shortly after retired my Smith of 10+ years. I'd have to say the Roscoe is pretty diverse in tone, whatcha hear on that clip is flat with a slight roll toward the rear p/u (short of whatever the producers ended up doing to it in post production... I dunno), finger style back toward the bridge. I can tell ya every session I've done with it the producers and engineers are instantly in love with it and we always end up going to "tape" flat across the board. I don't think from what I end up hearing in the end they do much to it in post in terms of tone shaping. Probably just a little ducking here and there to try to keep some openness in the orchestration of the final product with respect to crossover frequencies.

So personally my benchmark is this with any instrument: You pick it up and if it sounds good acoustically, i.e. the general tone an resonance is there throughout the instrument it's only gonna get better from there. I definitely got that vibe with the Roscoe. I think the vibration I can feel through the instrument is not as substantial as some of the neck-through basses I've played (thus my motivation for another thread here) but there does not seem to be any compromise in tone as a result. Was just a little different vibe for me than I was used to at first but quickly became a non issue. Subsequent to that, the onboard pre's and p/u's are in my opinion nothing short of amazing. Tons of tone, don't even need an outboard pre and just adds to the tone variations already available in just the raw interaction and inflection.

Specific to the growl, it's definitely there. From a personal taste it's my favorite sort of tone so given the chance I will gravitate there. As such I manage to find that one way or another regardless of the instrument. Having said that, it's ever present in the Roscoe without effort if ya want it. If I do have an outboard pre (typically in the studio they run me through one), again we leave it totally flat but drive the input reasonably hard to really work the tubes. I find this adds a sort of ambiance to it without coloring the tone, if that makes any sense.

So, that's my $0.02 for whatever it's worth... But, I've gotta ask, what's gotcha on the fence about a Roscoe? Have you played one yet?

[backseatbetty]

What me got interested is the discussions here over at Talkbass mostly between MTD-owners and Roscoe-owners. There are some similarities constructionwise and both are using Barts, to some extent. Nonetheless both parties seem to be very outspoken in there preferences. Personally I find the slap-tone of a MTD to die for. On the other hand the fingertone of the Roscoes like I heard on Youtube ( Jimmy Haslip, Jeffrey Carswell) and in the review by Ed Friedland have a very strong appeal. What I want is the growl associated with the back pickup. The Roscoe seems to deliver. That and comments about the construction and the playability got me thinking. That and there is a company now over in Britain ( Bass Direct) that are importing these fine instruments so they are easy to get a hold of now. There's you answer. BTW thanks for taking the time to explain,

regards,

Cornelius

[PlanetEarth]

You got it, hoped it helped... Tone is so personal... So I guess it boils down to: yeah, the Roscoe plays great and has tons of tone variations to boot.... Good luck!!