Didn't you know? Fender is trying to restrict their endorsers to bass players who suck.
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Roscoe Beck IV Discontinued?
- Thread starter dogbert
- Start date
Didn't you know? Fender is trying to restrict their endorsers to bass players who suck.
This is a development that stinks out loud! I briefly owned an RBIV that was a great bass, and have an RBV that is even greater still...
the roscoe beck bass was one of the few fenders to cop the G&L sound. too bad it is gone. how do you think the brad houser bass by reverd would compare?
the roscoe, the tony franklin, pino and the urge II were always on my gas list
i was in austin recently, they are selling his old trace cabs at a music store there.
i thought they were going to remake the hoppus with the p pick up reversed, guess it never happened.
the roscoe, the tony franklin, pino and the urge II were always on my gas list
i was in austin recently, they are selling his old trace cabs at a music store there.
i thought they were going to remake the hoppus with the p pick up reversed, guess it never happened.
Didn't you know? Fender is trying to restrict their endorsers to bass players who suck.
Like Steve Bailey?
Isnt he like the fieldy of fretless? every time he gets mentioned someone says something about his poor intonation.
I'm essentially turning my Skyline 5501 into a Beck using Nordstrand DC's. Nordstrand would be a good fit for him they already make a great pickup for the job.
KO
Or, you know, Geddy Lee, Victor Bailey, Reggie Hamilton, Marcus Miller...
Fender has done signature basses overwhelmingly with players who are admired by other bassists. They do one or two aimed at 15 year-olds and it's all "Fender sucks!" and so on. When I picked up bass I had no idea about Jaco or Jamerson or whoever, and I'd bet the same goes for most of the rest of you. Fender is a business, they are marketing, get over it.
I was wrong to say that "fender's restricting their endorsers etc." I was just making a crack on Dirnt.
I certainly do understand that it's marketing. But what's surprising is Fender's ability to create such a good bass, and then undercut it on the marketing end (which they're usually so good at.)
I think Fender produces some great instruments, but their decision to cut good instruments from their line after (what I believe to be) minimal advertising seems counterproductive.
Fender has not had great luck selling anything other than Ps or Js. I don't know if it's because they don't promote them or if it's partly consumer expectations. Going back to the bass that started this thread, the wiring on the RBIVs and RBVs made them exceptionally versatile for passive instruments - but I'd imagine that it was lost on a lot of players - not every bassist is a Talkbass-fueled gear-head (like me
). Instead of trying to figure out why they'd want this thing with a Precision body but sort of Jazz-looking dual coil pickups and some weird switches, they probably went for the familiar - either J or P. I don't know if any amount of advertising could have changed that.
Commreman
Faith, Family, Fitness, and Frets
Roscoe Beck should take the excellent design of this bass (if he can, contractually) immediately to Lakland. There is a hole in their lineup where the DJ series used to live, and Lakland has great success with those names that might not be recognizable outside of the hard core bass community (Joe Osborn, Duck Dunn, etc.)
The only thing that I would ask is that he doesn't succumb to Lakland's mandate that the fiver have a 35" scale!
The only thing that I would ask is that he doesn't succumb to Lakland's mandate that the fiver have a 35" scale!
LilRay
Commercial User
- Dec 27, 2007
- 4,166
- 39
- Disclosures
- Owner: Cockeyed Cow Custom Leathercraft
He may prefer 35" scale. If I were him and "redesigning" MY signature model, I'd choose whichever played best to me.
Roscoe has enough of a rep that he could go with just about anyone. The Fender contract may have been more about "mass production" than the best playing bass to Roscoe.
God Bless, Ray
It's an absolute shame that the Stu Hamm Urge II and the Roscoe Beck IV are no longer in production. The two most unique and probably diverse Fender basses they had are now gone. :scowl:
I've got my share of P-basses but felt the need for a "J" bass too. I like things that are a little different so I bought a Rosco Beck V to satisfy my jazz desire. Boy, did I get lucky! The RBV does that jazz thing but oh, so much more. I bought a RBIV to go with it and I'm glad that I have mine now that they are gone! I really think they might just be the best sounding basses that Fender has recently made!
Fender made a bad move as far as i am concerned, the becks are the best fenders i have played in my 25 yrs of playing bass,and i agree about the geddy lee bass also, the neck is not stable enough.
My favorite bass is my PJ Sadowsky and the only other basses I own are two Roscoe becks cause they are the only bass from fender that came close. It is a shame that fender is discontinuing the Roscoe Beck but hey now all our basses are rare collectibles
Thanks, kglas4bass. I was just about to write that Stevens is the place to get a bass as close as possible to the RB. He built Roscoe's original 6-string, on which the 5 was modeled. The only problem is that a Stevens bass will set you back a bit more than Fender's RB.
