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Is Aguilar making the pickups in house, and if not does anyone know who is doing them?
Aguilar does indeed wind their own pickups in-house. The 4-string version of the split coil J's is available now, and the 5-string version should be available within 3-4 weeks.
I was playing around and experimenting with new sounds from my Roscoe 6 with the Pope Flexcore preamp this morning and kind of developed this tune/jam. It's got a lot of dissonance tones in it but for some reason I liked the sound of it.
It's named after my grandsons new nickname "Popsicle Monkey Treat". He just woke up from a nap the other day a wanted everyone to call him that.
For some reason I think that the name fits the tune. .....go figure
At any rate I think that it demo's some nice tones available with the Pope Flexcore preamp so I thought that I'd post it.
I put a Pope in the Fodera I acquired and I haven't been able to gig with another slab bass since. I briefly had a Stambaugh with Aero/Popes, and to my ear, the Pope part is defo necessary. It's even better than the Demeter is.
Since it looks like it fits a Roscoe really well, I'm pulling my ad. I'm staying in the family!
I put a Pope in the Fodera I acquired and I haven't been able to gig with another slab bass since. I briefly had a Stambaugh with Aero/Popes, and to my ear, the Pope part is defo necessary. It's even better than the Demeter is.
Since it looks like it fits a Roscoe really well, I'm pulling my ad. I'm staying in the family!
vilkai,
IMO you'll love the Pope Flexcore in the Roscoe. It opens up so many great tonal options. And for the record, I've always loved the Demeter in a Roscoe and the Pope is all that and much more!
I also installed the active/passive switch yesterday. The passive tone control allows that function to work so well. Great for those players that like to sound a bit more old school sometimes.
And a picture of my fretted Roscoe LG-3006 with the Pope preamp FULLY installed.
It's configured with the hi mid switch and active/passive switch for now. I may eventually change out the A/P switch for the lo mid switch but the passive mode with the Pope passive tone control really sounds nice (Bart CB P/U's).
I'll see how much I use it down the road.
Well I think the installation is complete now. The Pope Flexcore is fully installed and I’ve tweaked it to fine tune it to my preferences. I can’t express how nice it was to be able to easily change the center frequencies of all 4 bands to zero in on MY preferences. It’s easily the most versatile on board preamp that I’ve found.
Here’s a list of things that I found while researching, installing and using the Pope Flexcore in the Roscoe:
• It’s highly configurable and is available in 3-4 EQ bands that will work with a standard 4 knob Roscoe layout
• If you don’t want to drill any extra holes for a switch (or switches) you can install jumpers to select your preference of bass, treble, hi mid & lo mid bands. Just install and move them around until you get the sound that you’re looking for.
• If you chose to drill a hole for a switch, do some up front prep work in selection of the location for the switch. If you choose to locate it between the mid and bass/treble control you’ll probably be able to benefit from the slightly deeper routing there so the threaded shaft of the switch will extend through the top enough to allow a washer and nut to be secured. Otherwise you’ll have to do some routing to install the switch.
• The Pope preamp has a great sounding passive mode with a nice passive tone control. This is a great feature and it works well with the Bart CB P/U’s. Unfortunately, if you have the Roscoe Bart P/U’s, the output will be so low (in the passive mode) that it’s not usable.
• The preamp advertises solder free installation but your will have to cut (and re-solder using heat shrink) the battery connector harness in order to get it routed into the separate battery compartment. Also be prepared to lengthen the battery harness because the harness supplied is too short to reach the separate battery compartment. I found some high quality battery connections at Radio Shack that had longer leads. I’d recommend that to limit the solder connections to one per wire.
• The Pope preamp comes with a high quality output jack wired up. I suggest that you make a small cut in the heat shrink sleeve that the Roscoe factory installs over the output jack and remove it and install it over the Pope preamp output jack. This will prevent the jack from shoring out to the shielding paint inside the jack hole/cavity. Of course you can always purchase a new large heat shrink sleeve but that size can be hard to find.
All good info there. Maybe Mike will make a few changes with the battery leads. It would be nice to have the option for longer leads when you have a separate battery box and perhaps some connectors that would allow the passing of the wires through to the box and then reconnecting without a need to solder.
1) Large heatshrink to eliminate shorting issues when installed in a tunnel.
2) An extra wire harness for the battery with, say, 8" long leads? There would only have to be 2 wires there, as the middle red and black are just connected together, and don't actually HAVE to run to the board. I do it because it's neater that way. I don't want to change the battery clips I use, because they are TIGHT and they just don't wear out. I'll look into ways to handle that.
1) Large heatshrink to eliminate shorting issues when installed in a tunnel.
2) An extra wire harness for the battery with, say, 8" long leads? There would only have to be 2 wires there, as the middle red and black are just connected together, and don't actually HAVE to run to the board. I do it because it's neater that way. I don't want to change the battery clips I use, because they are TIGHT and they just don't wear out. I'll look into ways to handle that.
Awesome Mike! These changes would most likely help in the installation of any bass with a separate battery compartment and side output jack.
Not to get off subject but do you remember what the model name is for those CB pickups Joe? I'm having a hard time finding the 4 screw CBs at bestbassgear.com. I'm wanting to order the pickups and the Pope pre together. This will be the forth swap since I bought my Roscoe and always change back to stock Barts. Love the Roscoe Bart setup but I'm always looking for better!
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Praise & Worship# 624
A life serving God is a life well served!
1) Large heatshrink to eliminate shorting issues when installed in a tunnel.
2) An extra wire harness for the battery with, say, 8" long leads? .
These would definitely be nice additions to the Pope. I always keep a couple packs of the 9V battery clips laying around from Radio Shack as it always seems I am messing with different preamps either on my basses or someone's else. The Pope Flexcore is definitely a keeper and has caused me to stop tinkering with my Roscoe, and this coming from someone who thought the Roscoe/Demeter combo could never be beat.
I found my heat shrink at Harbor Freight, but the only problem was I had to purchase a kit with 3 other sizes I probably will never use.
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Isaiah 38:20 - Pretty sure King David would have played a Roscoe.
If you're not rocking a Roscoe - You're just not rocking!
Not to get off subject but do you remember what the model name is for those CB pickups Joe? I'm having a hard time finding the 4 screw CBs at bestbassgear.com. I'm wanting to order the pickups and the Pope pre together. This will be the forth swap since I bought my Roscoe and always change back to stock Barts. Love the Roscoe Bart setup but I'm always looking for better!
Wes,
These came from Roscoe. Give Gard a call and I bet he can fix you up.
And I believe that the while the 6 string Bart CB's come with 4 screws, the 5 string CB's come with 3 screws.
Wes,
These came from Roscoe. Give Gard a call and I bet he can fix you up.
And I believe that the while the 6 string Bart CB's come with 4 screws, the 5 string CB's come with 3 screws.
Great thanks! I have a LG 5 string. No wonder I can't find the 4 screw model.
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Praise & Worship# 624
A life serving God is a life well served!
Great thanks! I have a LG 5 string. No wonder I can't find the 4 screw model.
Wes,
You're going to love the sound of the Bart CB's with the Pope Flexcore preamp. IMO it works perfect with the natural voicing of a Roscoe. I'm not sure what your Roscoe body wood is but it can take the aggressive sound of ash and send it totally over the top or pull it back and smooth it out nicely. Lots of variation in the boost and cut of all freq's.
The Roscoe 5 strings use 6er pickups, so surely a 6er set would do the job.
Not necessarily. You have to account for exactly where the splits are on the quad coils, and the CB 6 will not work with the 5 string for....top secret reasons...
The Pope Flexcore is definitely a keeper and has caused me to stop tinkering with my Roscoe, and this coming from someone who thought the Roscoe/Demeter combo could never be beat. 
