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King Koa - Now With Nordy's!

Awesome top Greg!
"King Chilean Laurel Burl" .... It even sounds like royalty!

That would just kill oiled.

Owning both the "King Koa" and the "King Chilean Laurel" you would be assured the Presidency of the Roscoehead clan!

Sorry Clint! You might be impeached! :D
 
Queen Laurel is my favorite so far! 10 Rocket Music Points to Todd!

It feels a little strange, though. I don't know why I usually think of my basses as dudes, but I do... I mean, cars, boats, etc. are usually "she's", why wouldn't basses be the same way?

And I'm pretty sure me and Jerry doing anything like Todd's gutter mind came up with would be the textbook definition of "NOT hot". Deduct 10 Rocket Music Points from Todd. :D
 
Place an order? Heck, you could just grab one off the wall. After all the Roscoes that you've got to try out, you should be able to decide pretty quickly as to what combination of wood and electronics gets you the tone your after. At least one would think.
 
If this whole Barden vs. Bart thing has taught me anything, it's that the usual assumptions are not hard and fast. Some Ash basses thump down low, some don't. Wenge in the neck usuallys adds thump down low and tightens the low end up (but not on mine). If I could change just one thing on King Koa at this point, it would be a Spanish Cedar back instead of Ash... but I don't know... there's no guarantees with any of this.

I still think there's an electronic package out there that can de-gank the King. Something should be able to round/smooth out the bottom end...

I was chatting with a lady bass player in the store today, and we were going over some of the Roscoes. We got to talking about the King, and I told her my new favorite word (gank). She didn't get it until I plugged in, and then she was like "yeah, that's the perfect word for it". She compared the tone to a singer who'd smoked too many cigarettes. And I say, yep, good analogy. Buttery & smooth is not what's going on down low...
 
Queen Laurel is my favorite so far! 10 Rocket Music Points to Todd!

yesss!

And I'm pretty sure me and Jerry doing anything like Todd's gutter mind came up with would be the textbook definition of "NOT hot". Deduct 10 Rocket Music Points from Todd. :D

noooooooo!

Damn me and my fertile free-association metaphors...
 
So true on woods. Seems to apply more so as you add more of 'em...or at least more layers. My local store has (I think) five ash-bodied, maple-topped Roscoes in stock right now. All with Bart electronics. I can't remember the fingerboards on all of 'em, but still....each one of those basses sounds very unique. Same store currently has three ash/maple Mike Lull Jazz basses...and they sound eerily similar to one another.
 
If this whole Barden vs. Bart thing has taught me anything, it's that the usual assumptions are not hard and fast. Some Ash basses thump down low, some don't. Wenge in the neck usuallys adds thump down low and tightens the low end up (but not on mine). If I could change just one thing on King Koa at this point, it would be a Spanish Cedar back instead of Ash... but I don't know... there's no guarantees with any of this.
.

This is why a buddy bass player of mine pretty much refuses to order a bass. His last one was a Ken Lawrence about 10 or so years ago - awesome bass but it didn't end up speaking to him like he thought it was going to. So he basically won't buy a bass until he can play it first. Of course he's also somewhat in budget mode so he mostly only buys used anyway. He's done a few distance purchases but with used you can flip it if you don't dig it. A custom order, with a few exceptions, is yours, depreciation and all :D
 
still think there's an electronic package out there that can de-gank the King. Something should be able to round/smooth out the bottom end...
I still think a passive tone could do the trick.

Or, what about a John East pre-amp? Though, most of his have boost only bass controls, that could be an issue...

I was chatting with a lady bass player in the store today, and we were going over some of the Roscoes. We got to talking about the King, and I told her my new favorite word (gank). She didn't get it until I plugged in, and then she was like "yeah, that's the perfect word for it". She compared the tone to a singer who'd smoked too many cigarettes. And I say, yep, good analogy. Buttery & smooth is not what's going on down low...

I'm growing to dislike that word, more and more, mainly because of it always being used in such a bad context, the moment you hear it, you instantly think overly harsh tone, but it has a time and place, if my basses were incapable of it, I'd not be a happy camper.

Of course, every time I hear it, it's from someone trying to avoid it, those who aim for it usually have other words, heh. :D
 
I totally hear you, Bill....I honestly do believe the word means different things to different folks. Sonically I think of it as an ugly, harsh, thin sound in the upper mids (800hz - 1khz, maybe, as a total guess?), with the further consequence that it can't be dialed out via EQ without also taking some good qualities with it.

The converse of that is, for example, what I think of in trying to find a slap tone on my current Roscoe sixer. I can make it cut, but in order to do so, I have to dial in a bunch of ugliness that I'd rather leave inside that paper bag. :ninja:
 
Agreed on both counts, thats about exactly what I think of when I hear gank "ugly, harsh, thin sound in the upper mids".

On the other side, I often boost my upper mids on my Roscoe to get "snarl". Hahahahaha!


As for the eq-ing, thats the number one reason I prefer my basses to sound great when set flat, just using the eq as spice, since overdoing it in one area wrecks the sound in another.
 
Ka-ching, Bill. I suspect many of us are on that same page. I love everything flat - bass, amp, and if anything, the tweeter control is usually dialed down on the cab. If I have to fiddle, the instrument or piece of gear tends to go pretty quickly. I'm happy to EQ to the gig environment, but doing so by default just doesn't work for me.

Of course...I say that to say this. Recently I've found that biasing the bridge pickup, and then compensating with some 250hz low-mid love...makes me feel all giddy and tingly. :) Ain't easy bein' me.
 
Greg, have you considered this?
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That certainly looks interesting! I still have a Mike Pope preamp sitting here in a box somewhere... I had it in my former Warwick Thumb for a while. It didn't work with the Thumb, but it might just be the special sauce for King Koa...

I'm gonna try a different set of strings today. Mark suggested Nickel LoRiders, and I think I have a set of those in stock...

Failing that, I'll go dig up that box and try the Pope...
 
Ahhhhhhh - after getting more than a little aggravated with myself, I asked myself what's missing? A$$ is the short answer. What cab has the biggest a$$ in the store? Berg AE-212. So I ran my rig into one just to see what happens, and lo and behold: there's my warm and buttery!

Sigh... here we go again...
 

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