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Roscoe Beck basses

TheGreatSealof

TheGreatSealof

Nov 15, 2010
699
563
Deptford, NJ
#1
I started learning bass in 2010 and purchased The Ultimate Beginners Series book published by Alfred Music. It came with a dvd that followed the book with lessons led by three pros, one of which is Roscoe Beck. In the dvd, he displays his basses. A four string and a five string signature models. Both have a five position switch similar to a Strat switch. What I noticed is that the pups appeared to be jazz pups with in line configurations. Meaning the neck and bridge pups appear to be paired jazz pups.

My questions are, (1) anyone have these basses and do you recommend? (2) do the pup configurations produce superior sound, tone, etc.?

(3) I have an opportunity to purchase a fiver. Should I go for it?

I have played the bass and it sounds great but the price is $850.00. I am not sure of the manufacture date.
 
#2
1. Owned once, highly recommend
2. Many great tones from versatile electronics
3. Go for it
IMO this is the best 5'er Fender made. My issue was weight ,a little to heavy for me but if I had an opportunity I'd re-purchase in a second.
 
#3
Jamarvic said:
1. Owned once, highly recommend
2. Many great tones from versatile electronics
3. Go for it
IMO this is the best 5'er Fender made. My issue was weight ,a little to heavy for me but if I had an opportunity I'd re-purchase in a second.
Click to expand...

Have owned one fiver and two fours over the years. These are GREAT axes. Personally I don't like having a blade selector as compared with separate volume knobs for each pickup, and the fivers can be kind of heavy. But the basic design parameters are thoughtful and good, the workmanship rivals Fender Custom Shop work (or so my tech has said), and there are a lot of good sounds to be had. For $850 you'd be getting a pro-quality axe. IF you feel like you need a preamp down the pike, buy a Sadowsky outboard (usually around $150 used) and rock on, but the pickups and coil taps provide a lot of great tones. Assuming no physical issues with your particular specimen (and the bridges on the fives are very finicky - you might want to check to make sure all bridge adjustments work), if you dig the sound and the ergonomics, it sound real good to me!

If I still played fretted four-string, I'd still have the RB4 that was the last fretted 4 that I gave up.

Best of luck as your playing develops! And a Yo! to South Jersey...I recall a strip of R&B clubs on one street in Deptford, back in the day, IIRC...
 
#4
An RB V for $850 is more than fair if the bass is in good condition. I've seen a few sell on the $1200 range.

It isn't a 5 position switch, it's a three way for neck pickup/both/bridge. There are also two mini toggles for each pickup to switch between series, parallel and single coil. Also, pulling up on the tone knob gives a setting where the bridge pickup is full up and the neck pickup rolled off slightly I believe.

Great basses. About as versatile as it gets for a passive bass.
 
#6
Jared Lash said:
An RB V for $850 is more than fair if the bass is in good condition. I've seen a few sell on the $1200 range.

It isn't a 5 position switch, it's a three way for neck pickup/both/bridge. There are also two mini toggles for each pickup to switch between series, parallel and single coil. Also, pulling up on the tone knob gives a setting where the bridge pickup is full up and the neck pickup rolled off slightly I believe.

Great basses. About as versatile as it gets for a passive bass.
Click to expand...

I forgot about the pull-up on the volume knob.
I got mine for $700.00 new GC blow-out :eek:
 
#11
TheGreatSealof said:
I started learning bass in 2010 and purchased The Ultimate Beginners Series book published by Alfred Music. It came with a dvd that followed the book with lessons led by three pros, one of which is Roscoe Beck. In the dvd, he displays his basses. A four string and a five string signature models. Both have a five position switch similar to a Strat switch. What I noticed is that the pups appeared to be jazz pups with in line configurations. Meaning the neck and bridge pups appear to be paired jazz pups.

My questions are, (1) anyone have these basses and do you recommend? (2) do the pup configurations produce superior sound, tone, etc.?

(3) I have an opportunity to purchase a fiver. Should I go for it?

I have played the bass and it sounds great but the price is $850.00. I am not sure of the manufacture date.
Click to expand...

$850 is an amazing price for that bass. I've been playing my Roscoe Beck 5 string since about 1999, and it's one of the most fantastic instruments I've had the pleasure to play.

If you want more info about the bass and the control configurations, you can check out [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].
 
#17
Get it! But THEN take some time to REALLY get to know the controls. I almost sold mine right after I got it because the controls left me a little bit overwhelmed. However, once I REALLY got to know this bass, it became my number one bass over night. I rarely play another bass at all. In fact, I'll go so far as to tell you that if you DON'T but it at that price, PM me and maybe I'll buy it from the seller. (What color is it BTW?) I'm serious.

If you do buy it, ENJOY. Come back and ask questions or feel free to PM me if you get buried in knobs and switches.
 
#19
Joebone said:
Have owned one fiver and two fours over the years. These are GREAT axes. Personally I don't like having a blade selector as compared with separate volume knobs for each pickup, and the fivers can be kind of heavy. But the basic design parameters are thoughtful and good, the workmanship rivals Fender Custom Shop work (or so my tech has said), and there are a lot of good sounds to be had. For $850 you'd be getting a pro-quality axe. IF you feel like you need a preamp down the pike, buy a Sadowsky outboard (usually around $150 used) and rock on, but the pickups and coil taps provide a lot of great tones. Assuming no physical issues with your particular specimen (and the bridges on the fives are very finicky - you might want to check to make sure all bridge adjustments work), if you dig the sound and the ergonomics, it sound real good to me!

If I still played fretted four-string, I'd still have the RB4 that was the last fretted 4 that I gave up.

Best of luck as your playing develops! And a Yo! to South Jersey...I recall a strip of R&B clubs on one street in Deptford, back in the day, IIRC...
Click to expand...

Hee....Hee...no more clubs, sad to say. Thanks to all for the amazing feedback. Tomorrow may be a new bass day.
 

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