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A Little Roscoe Fun

FWIW I have no experience with Roscoe basses other than looking at them so hard on the Rocket Music site that I think I may have pulled a retina! ;). Given their reputation I don't doubt the standard LG's pickup configuration sounds great (I've only heard a few SKB's online).

I'm basing my opinion on a couple Warwick Dolphin 5's I owned which had reverse slant neck pickup and "relatively" balanced B. Also on all the Jazz 5's I've owned/played I usually roll the neck p/u off quite a bit to tighten up the B and E. From those experiences when I look at the standard LG slant it seems wrong. No doubt there's more to it than that.

Again I have no personal experience with the standard LG's and I'm sure they sound great. Hope I can try one out soon and see for myself. They are absolutely beautiful instruments and I'm very intrigued.

That said if you feel you need to prove it you're welcome to ship your LG to Iowa. It would be a horrible burden but I could find it in my heart and gig it for a few weeks to see that you are correct. I'll polish it up before I return it and make sure I clean off any peanut butter and jelly fingerprints my kids put on it.
:hiding::help:

lol

Not too sure about the peanut butter and jelly finger prints! My current LG has an oil finish and it might penetrate the wood!
I'd actually be interested in hearing the reverse slant on a LG with similar woods as mine. It may be a noticable difference in sound.
I do suspect though that if there was a noticable improvement in sound, Keith would have made a change long ago.
 
lol

Not too sure about the peanut butter and jelly finger prints! My current LG has an oil finish and it might penetrate the wood!
I'd actually be interested in hearing the reverse slant on a LG with similar woods as mine. It may be a noticable difference in sound.
I do suspect though that if there was a noticable improvement in sound, Keith would have made a change long ago.

Oh don't worry, the peanut butter is organic and contains plenty of (peanut) oil... it will be fine.:)

In all seriousness I need to quit looking at these Roscoe threads, they are giving me terrible G.A.S.. Just got done paying off this years bass gear and will have my PA equipment paid off shortly..... Just in time for my son to start braces so he can look like this guy in a few years -» :D
 
Never really thought about this much before becoming a Roscoe owner, but seeing Jimmy Haslip's new Roscoe on the Roscoe Facebook page (nice!), the 'standard' Haslip slant IS actually a reverse slant, given the way he strings the bass. This makes total sense for someone who spends a lot of time in the upper register, to fatten the C, G, and D string.

Strange that the Roscoe 'standard' slant is technically the opposite of that for those who don't play their bass 'upside down'. Strange to me, although I do remember Gard or someone posting that the logic of the 'opposite of the Haslip slant' was to possibly fatten up the low end of the small bodied LG bass.

Anyway, reverse slant all the way would be my call for anyone considering a Roscoe with slant pickups.:)
 
Yeah, the usual LG slant LOOKS like Jimmy's setup, but the reverse slant is the one that actually SOUNDS like Jimmy's setup. The whole left-handed & strung-upside-down thing getting converted to right-handed & strung-conventionally takes a bit of logical hoop jumping... but you got it right, Ken! LOL :)

At the end of the day, though, the effect is subtle. I wouldn't, for example, feel the need to sell a Roscoe just 'cause the pickups slant one way or the other. If you like it the way it is, then it's good. :)
 
Yeah, the usual LG slant LOOKS like Jimmy's setup, but the reverse slant is the one that actually SOUNDS like Jimmy's setup. The whole left-handed & strung-upside-down thing getting converted to right-handed & strung-conventionally takes a bit of logical hoop jumping... but you got it right, Ken! LOL :)

At the end of the day, though, the effect is subtle. I wouldn't, for example, feel the need to sell a Roscoe just 'cause the pickups slant one way or the other. If you like it the way it is, then it's good. :)

Yes, definitely a minor issue, just wanted to get it straight in my head:)
 
Now that everything has been settled, can I hear a recording of this bass? :bassist:

3005.jpg
 
I've seen that one before and it sounds great.

+1 Sounds like a Roscoe with Barts:p

Per Greg, pretty minor impact I would guess with the slants. The 'non reverse/standard slant' (i.e., moving the top of the pickup toward the neck) would again make no sense to me unless you liked the way it looks (the last thing I would want to do myself is slightly widen the low end). So, straight would be my first choice, with the reverse slant being my second choice (if you can fatten up the D and G by moving the bottom of the pickup a bit toward the neck, with minimal impact on the lower strings, that would be a slight but good thing IMO).

However, my guess is all these options would make a very subtle difference, and is more of an aesthetic choice for the most part. The reverse slant does make logical sense (i.e., it would slighty move the tonal balance in the right direction IMO), given the inherent voicing and pickup position on these basses though. I do like the look of the reverse slant on the small body for sure.
 
My LG3000 has the standard slanted pickups. This bass sounds absolutely wonderful and I wish I could find a 5 and 6 string version that sounds just like it.

I agree that the reverse slant probably doesn't do much and that straight pickups would probably be my choice in a 5 or 6 string version. After looking at my bass, I would leave the bass side of the pickups where they are and pivot the treble side toward the neck (which is what Ken is saying).
 
It sure does!

+1 I could see where a 35" scale C string, especially with the Roscoe Bart stock pickup placement, could use any help it could get to fatten it up a bit. The reverse slant makes much sense for that spec for sure. Of course, the standard 'slant' would work against that and would IMO not be a particularly good thing.
 
i like it. but why the mismatched hardware? shiny tuners/knobs and a satin bridge. looks odd to me.

The knobs and bridge have always been mismatched like that, but the tuners used to be satin. They changed to the shiny tuners a few months back.

If that's going to be an issue for your order, we should get together w/ Gard to see what can be done. A shiny bridge to match is probably the answer, and worst case that's just a $50-ish aftermarket sort of thing that I can get installed and setup for you if Roscoe won't do it for whatever reason. We can PM about that more if you like...