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Roscoe Beck V
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
Someone made a good point that the RBV is currently out of production which makes it more difficult to find one if you find you really need one after you sell yours. They say they are going to bring it back, but you know how that can go. I'm keeping mine!
Someone made a good point that the RBV is currently out of production which makes it more difficult to find one if you find you really need one after you sell yours. They say they are going to bring it back, but you know how that can go. I'm keeping mine!
That is a beautiful pic!
I sure hope Fender puts these basses back into production. IMHO, it has the best passive system I know of on any bass. From what I hear, the Peavey T-40 is pretty awesome too, but I have never owned one of those.
Checking in to see if you still dig it Doc. I've had mine for almost ten years and still really dig it. Before I got my Valenti P-V, it did my five string P-work. I think they are killer basses, and for active work I just put a Sadowsky out-board pre in the chain.
I still dig it. It is a passive Fender with features normally found in boutique copies like full 19mm spacing, and it sounds great too. I think I will always like it. Remember, liking and keeping are too different things, but I intend to keep it. I've been saying it for a while, but life is forcing me to be less of a gear hog.
Someone made a good point that the RBV is currently out of production which makes it more difficult to find one if you find you really need one after you sell yours. They say they are going to bring it back, but you know how that can go. I'm keeping mine!
I've bought two of them used at GC, both in new condition. The first was a green one, which I have since sold to a friend. The second one was at the Peoria, Arizona store. It's Sunburst with a tort guard. They had it on the wall for $1K, so I offered them $700 and they bit. Probably because some pinhead had strung the E string with the string coming off the top of the winds on the peg, and it wouldn't sit firmly in the nut. As a result, it sounded like hell. I bought it on a forgiveness basis, then took it back to the hotel and restrung the E, it it worked great. It still had pieces of the peel-oof plastic on the pickguard. I eventually restrung it with TI Powerbass strings, and it just rules. Oh, you want a pic? No prob.
LilRay
Commercial User
- Dec 27, 2007
- 4,166
- 39
- Disclosures
- Owner: Cockeyed Cow Custom Leathercraft
OK Munji,
You and Cheese are Killin' me with the pics. Great looking bass. I don't know if I want to try and find one used or have Valenti make me a replica.
God Bless, Ray
You and Cheese are Killin' me with the pics. Great looking bass. I don't know if I want to try and find one used or have Valenti make me a replica.
God Bless, Ray
I've got a nice red RBV that I really like. I had Mike Lull do some setup work on it and it plays great now.
I do notice, however, that the sound is nowhere near as warm as my '69 Jazz, no matter how I mess with the settings. It could be that I'm not using the right strings - I've got some nickel roundwounds on it that Mike sold me - I think he gets 'em from Ernie Ball. I'm going to try some Ken Smith Compressors and see if that helps.
I do notice, however, that the sound is nowhere near as warm as my '69 Jazz, no matter how I mess with the settings. It could be that I'm not using the right strings - I've got some nickel roundwounds on it that Mike sold me - I think he gets 'em from Ernie Ball. I'm going to try some Ken Smith Compressors and see if that helps.
I've come pretty close to trading or selling my RBV since last posting, but I have pretty much decided to actually save for another bass instead taking the easy way and swapping for one.
Last week, I found that this bass can do a very good job nailing that chunky, P-bass slap tone from the 1970s too. Lately, I have been on a bit of a Stuart Zender kick, and I was playing along with Emergency on Planet Earth and Mr. Moon. I'm pretty sure Zender is slapping a Streamer with the P-pup soloed on those tracks. I got a very nice approximation by soloing the neck pickup while in series with tone knob turned down to 2 or 3. It really thumped like a P-bass being played by Ronald LaPread of the Commodores or Robin Duhe of Maze.
At least it had that tone. I can't claim to bring it the way those two cats did back in the day.
Last week, I found that this bass can do a very good job nailing that chunky, P-bass slap tone from the 1970s too. Lately, I have been on a bit of a Stuart Zender kick, and I was playing along with Emergency on Planet Earth and Mr. Moon. I'm pretty sure Zender is slapping a Streamer with the P-pup soloed on those tracks. I got a very nice approximation by soloing the neck pickup while in series with tone knob turned down to 2 or 3. It really thumped like a P-bass being played by Ronald LaPread of the Commodores or Robin Duhe of Maze.
At least it had that tone. I can't claim to bring it the way those two cats did back in the day.
I went to a Jeffrey Osbourne outdoor concert last night and the bassist was playing an RBV, This was the very first time I have ever seen one played in that setting and it KILLED!!!! He thumped and popped his way through the funky stuff with reckless abandon keeping the audience on their toes! Definately my kinda bassist playing my kinda bass!!! Btw Reuben Stoddard was also there as well as Teena Marie (tore the place down!!!!). Stoddards bassist used a Marcus V jazz that also killed!!! I don't know where guy's get this Fender V's have a bad B string, both above basses stood out and made Teena's bassist's bass (boutique coffee table nice looking bass) sounding less desirable in the funk then both Fender fives before him. He was also playing with twice the amplification as the previous two Fender user's using Two GK 4x10's and two GK 1x15's. The other basses came through the mains better!
I wish I could have seen that show! I agree 100% aboout Fender B strings. The only Fender I ever played with a bad B was a Mexican Jazz, that I don't think was set up very well. Ever other Fender V I have ever played had either a good or great b string.
The concert was FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The concert was FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just hope something like that turns up in St. Louis.
Doc I had A Metro MS5 and while it was a great bass, I still wouldn't put it heads and shoulders over the RB5, in hindsight had I got the Metro with the alder body and rosewood neck,I'd proably still would own it,but I ain't loosing any sleep over it.Seriously, thanks alot Ray.
I've come pretty close to trading or selling my RBV since last posting, but I have pretty much decided to actually save for another bass instead taking the easy way and swapping for one.
Last week, I found that this bass can do a very good job nailing that chunky, P-bass slap tone from the 1970s too. Lately, I have been on a bit of a Stuart Zender kick, and I was playing along with Emergency on Planet Earth and Mr. Moon. I'm pretty sure Zender is slapping a Streamer with the P-pup soloed on those tracks. I got a very nice approximation by soloing the neck pickup while in series with tone knob turned down to 2 or 3. It really thumped like a P-bass being played by Ronald LaPread of the Commodores or Robin Duhe of Maze.
At least it had that tone. I can't claim to bring it the way those two cats did back in the day.
It really does do a great P-bass mimic, a nice Billy Bass Nelson vibe on 'Standing On Shakey Ground'.
About ten years ago Sinbad had a series of old school funk concerts on HBO, and so many of the bassist were just killing on Fender Vs.
I have nothing but praise for the RBV. I just dealt one, my main bass for the last six years. I got to the place where it felt heavier than I wanted. Replaced it with an all-passive American Standard Jazz 5 that just knocked my socks off out of the blue, and noticeably lighter. But the Roscoe Beck 5 was a beauty as well as a force.
I had to replace the original bridge with a Badass V, because the B-string saddle assembly failed --saddle or something broke. I welcomed it, actually. The stock bridge on it is far too busy; never liked it. The Badass V turned my RB5 into a snarling bruiser of a bass. Only problem with the new bridge is that it is not a direct replacement (if you wanted to maintain the through-body stringing), so if you really look carefully, you see about 1/4 or where the original bridge was, even though the footprint was identical in size, also a tiny impression of the word 'Gotoh' in the paint (not pictured). But it was totally worth the small cosmetic minus.
The Roscoe Beck has tones for every era. You can play nearly any kind of music with it and maintain credibility, 40's jump blues up to smooth jazz. But it really excels in greasy stuff. And I finally got it to the perfect tweak point, where the action was perfect and never changed.
It was always a compromise, however, because what I really wanted was an all-passive 5-string Precision. The RBV just happened to be the best of very few all-passive fivers. I grew to love it, but I wanted the more traditional Fender look, which the RBV has only some of.
I finally found that passive Precision 5, hanging in a GC, but it didn't knock me out. Out of curiosity, I tried the passive Jazz next to it and just had to have it. My one-bass rule stipulates that two basses is too many, so the RB5's days were numbered after that. It was easy to sell, and I didn't lose a dime. Incidentally, that same passive Precision 5 still hangs in that same GC, almost a year later.
The Roscoe Beck 5 is an awesome bass. You will groove people silly with it, including yourself.
I had to replace the original bridge with a Badass V, because the B-string saddle assembly failed --saddle or something broke. I welcomed it, actually. The stock bridge on it is far too busy; never liked it. The Badass V turned my RB5 into a snarling bruiser of a bass. Only problem with the new bridge is that it is not a direct replacement (if you wanted to maintain the through-body stringing), so if you really look carefully, you see about 1/4 or where the original bridge was, even though the footprint was identical in size, also a tiny impression of the word 'Gotoh' in the paint (not pictured). But it was totally worth the small cosmetic minus.
The Roscoe Beck has tones for every era. You can play nearly any kind of music with it and maintain credibility, 40's jump blues up to smooth jazz. But it really excels in greasy stuff. And I finally got it to the perfect tweak point, where the action was perfect and never changed.
It was always a compromise, however, because what I really wanted was an all-passive 5-string Precision. The RBV just happened to be the best of very few all-passive fivers. I grew to love it, but I wanted the more traditional Fender look, which the RBV has only some of.
I finally found that passive Precision 5, hanging in a GC, but it didn't knock me out. Out of curiosity, I tried the passive Jazz next to it and just had to have it. My one-bass rule stipulates that two basses is too many, so the RB5's days were numbered after that. It was easy to sell, and I didn't lose a dime. Incidentally, that same passive Precision 5 still hangs in that same GC, almost a year later.
The Roscoe Beck 5 is an awesome bass. You will groove people silly with it, including yourself.
