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Roscoe Club

#2,322
JohnnyR said:
Each neck will "feel" different.

Like Jon said, they are not made on a CNC machine, they are hand made. Tooling and jigs are used but there can be some variation. I'd imagine tolerances in areas of the neck that affect set-up and playability are held very tight. On the order of a few thousandths. Other areas that are not critical to the set-up maybe not so tight but, from what I've seen personally, not anything you can detect with your eye.

Don't confuse the feel with movement. I've had several and have never had a neck move. Neck pockets are tight, and the laminations of quartersawn woods don't allow it.

I've not run into a Roscoe neck that wasn't great, but they can "feel" different.
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Don't misunderstand me; We can detect tiny variations in surface finish and so each neck will always feel slightly different to each person, but there should be a consistent formula to how the necks are made so that across the spectrum they're consistently a "Roscoe". Pacman's comment indicated that there were wide variations on the necks he's had, which would seem odd unless they were all custom orders for specific neck thickness/contour.
 
#2,323
overbybr said:
Don't misunderstand me; We can detect tiny variations in surface finish and so each neck will always feel slightly different to each person, but there should be a consistent formula to how the necks are made so that across the spectrum they're consistently a "Roscoe". Pacman's comment indicated that there were wide variations on the necks he's had, which would seem odd unless they were all custom orders for specific neck thickness/contour.
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At least we agree on something! :D
 
#2,325
the yeti said:
Of the small sample I've played (maybe 20), variation and all they still felt undeniably like a Roscoe (to me).
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The variations are ever so slight and the different woods can cause a different feel. On my Century V I had the neck re-profiled at Roscoe when I had the Abalone "R" installed and it is noticeably thinner compared to other necks. The only other Roscoe neck which felt better is the one I have that someone broke the truss rod on the old LG2005. The profile on this neck is amazing and the easiest neck I have ever played.

I have a local luthier who is going to see if he can route the back of the neck and remove the old truss rod and install a new one. I need to find out from Keith what size Truss Rod is in the bass so the route can be tried. If it works, I may need an Alder LG body built for the neck. :p
 
#2,326
When I ordered "The Hoppah" (SKB 3005 JJ), I called Gard and asked him to make my neck as thin as possible and Tony was able to make it happen. They can't make it too thin, but with the 2 graphite reinforcement rods, they can get it fairly low.

I don't have "Banana Hands".
 
#2,327
Bipslapper said:
When I ordered "The Hoppah" (SKB 3005 JJ), I called Gard and asked him to make my neck as thin as possible and Tony was able to make it happen. They can't make it too thin, but with the 2 graphite reinforcement rods, they can get it fairly low.

I don't have "Banana Hands".
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You know everyone one is going to want this option now.
 
#2,335
AndyW83 said:
Just got mine via UPS this morning and it was worth every minute of the wait!
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I've had mine for a little over a week now, and I agree. there were a few delays that pushed it back, but in the end it was worth it. I've got my CS+5 pretty dialed in right now and (I know this gets said a lot) it practically plays itself. I ended up shimming the neck to get the action where I like it. now other Roscoe-heads, please don't take that as any kind of slam against Roscoe's work, because the bass is extremely well built, but I just prefer to have the strings running as close to parallel with the fretboard as possible. the neck was dead straight but I dialed in a bit of relief and dropped the action. it's sitting around 1-1.2mm on the B-string. this bass plays very cleanly and effortlessly. it's nice to have a bass that doesn't want to fight me. I'm on a bit of a quest to find the right strings for this bass, but for now the light gauge (40-55-70-95-130) balanced tension D'addarios are working just fine for me. I took a gamble as I've never played, let alone seen a Roscoe in person and have never owned a bass with bartolini electronics or a 5'er with spacing any wider than 17mm. the wider spacing is definitely noticeable, but the neck profile is fairly slim, round and comfortable. the bartolini electronics are a tad darker than I'm used to, as i had been playing a 5'er with EMGHZs run full passive, which are fairly bright. my ears are becoming more acclimated to the tone of the bart system and I'm learning how to use the preamp to dial in the sound i desire. overall I'm quite pleased with it and can see why people like these basses so much. I think I'd like another Roscoe to go along with it. either a CS4 or CS5 with bart PJ pickups. apologies for the long-winded post.
 
#2,338
modder5s4s said:
Does Roscoe basses offer a fretted 6 string that has 19mm spacing at the bridge? I have a SKB 6 fretless that is 18.3mm at the bridge and I think it's great for a fretless but I'm interested in a wider spacing for a fretted version. Is this even an option?
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Yep, I had one and it was killer. No idea why, but that was the best playing Roscoe 6 I ever picked up. I think the neck was a little flatter front to back to make up for the width top to bottom.. Played SO good.
 
#2,340
Here's a few quick + dirty shots of my Century Standard 5. This bass is killin'!
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