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Roscoe Club

#24,143
Mighty Thumb said:
:thumbsup: Too funny!
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Great minds think alike. Or Joe was just lucky. :D

Bass Club Chicago had this “faux neck through” years ago (12, to be exact). I remember Modulus used to do it as well. It is a cool look, especially if it goes all the way through the body…

 
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#24,144
MattLplaysBass said:
Great minds think alike. Or Joe was just lucky. :D

Bass Club Chicago had this “faux neck through” years ago (12, to be exact). I remember Modulus used to do it as well. It is a cool look, especially if it goes all the way through the body…

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:roflmao:

All jokes aside, I remember that bass Matt (and a couple more like it). Keith has always been so creative in his use of top woods. The way he utilizes shims and taped edges to create separation (transition) from the top to the body wood is so creative. I remember back in 1995 when I saw my first Roscoe in the flesh at Rhythm City in Atlanta Ga. I had never seen crazy over the top exotic tops on instruments like that. And they had 5-6 Roscoes hanging on the wall. Keith told me later that Rhythm City was his first big dealer. Nothing compared to the bar that Greg would eventually set at Rocket Music but still a real nice selection.
 
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#24,145
JOME77 said:
:roflmao:

All jokes aside, I remember that bass Matt (and a couple more like it). Keith has always been so creative in his use of top woods. The way he utilizes shims and taped edges to create separation (transition) from the top to the body wood is so creative. I remember back in 1995 when I saw my first Roscoe in the flesh at Rhythm City in Atlanta Ga. I had never seen crazy over the top exotic tops on instruments like that. And they had 5-6 Roscoes hanging on the wall. Keith told me later that Rhythm City was his first big dealer. Nothing compared to the bar that Greg would eventually set at Rocket Music but still a real nice selection.
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I show fans the beautiful line between the top and body that’s is mostly for my enjoyment as unless you are looking down playing you can’t see it. It appears like two strips of maple that shine like gold with a dark strip between.

About neck through, faux neck through and bolt on, I’m perfectly happy that my bass neck is bolt on. Form follows function. With Keith beauty is complementary to the function. Not to bring up any debate. My experience was owning a hi end neck through. It was great. Recorded three albums and performed live with it for years. When I tried the Roscoe the difference was incredible. That difference can’t be attributed to neck attachment specifically. What I do know is complete bass to complete bass the Roscoe is 1000% more responsive. “Run what you brung.”:)
 
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#24,146
chadds said:
I show fans the beautiful line between the top and body that’s is mostly for my enjoyment as unless you are looking down playing you can’t see it. It appears like two strips of maple that shine like gold with a dark strip between.

About neck through, faux neck through and bolt on, I’m perfectly happy that my bass neck is bolt on. Form follows function. With Keith beauty is complementary to the function. Not to bring up any debate. My experience was owning a hi end neck through. It was great. Recorded three albums and performed live with it for years. When I tried the Roscoe the difference was incredible. That difference can’t be attributed to neck attachment specifically. What I do know is complete bass to complete bass the Roscoe is 1000% more responsive. “Run what you brung.”:)
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+1
I’m convinced it has everything to do with the Roscoe neck construction. I suspect that the way he uses graphite to reinforcement the neck is the key. All of the Roscoe basses that I’ve owned with maple fingerboards seem to sound a bit phater. Gard mentioned years ago that when Keith builds a neck with a maple fingerboard he uses more graphite. The graphite coupled with the 3 piece design, the headstock angle and the manner that he installs the truss rod equals the magic sauce.:)
 
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#24,147
I own only two neck thru basses....Yamaha TRB 1006 and a Cort A5PLUSCAOP singlecut 5. Both are good basses and play nice but they are nowhere near the Roscoe, Gould and Modulus bolt on basses I own. I have owned Ken Smith neck thru basses and they were nice (unfortunately Ken is not nice) but the 35" scale that Keith uses is way more important than having neck thru construction IMO.

Bolt on basses are usually punchy sounding. I don't know why that is but it seems to hold true. Neck thru basses usually have less of a tendency to have dead or hot spots on the neck and again I don't know why but that is my experience. I have owned about 12-15 Roscoe basses and only one had a dead spot and that was an SKB fretless 5. I think it had a Swamp Ash body with a flame Maple top and it had the dead spot in the same place that most Fender basses have it.....the C-D area on the G string. I discussed it with Gard and He told me there was nothing that could be done about it. In retrospect, I should have made a point of asking Keith about it and think he would have had a way to correct it.
 
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#24,149
dedpool1052 said:
Don't forget the threaded brass inserts epoxied into the neck, and use of machine screws.

Very tight neck-to-body coupling.
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Oh yeah. That too!:thumbsup:
I remember when I bought my first Roscoe back in 1995. It was used and it had the infamous large gap on both sides of the neck that Bass Player identified in the famous "Bass Shoot out". In spite of that (and a few other construction issues) the Roscoe still was noted as one of the best sounding and playing boutique basses in that price range of the shoot out. I can attest that the gap on both sides of the neck (1/16"-3/32") didn't negatively affect the sound (or sustain) of the bass at all. I'm sure because of the incredible bonding of the body and neck because of the brass inserts and machine screws (not epoxied in; I've had to replace a few and they are just threaded in). The picture I posted doesn't show the gap really well but when I sent it to Keith to change out the 2 band Bart to a 3 band Bart (and 9VDC compartment to a 19VDC compartment) he noted (apologetically) that it was probably one of the widest gaps he had seen.:)

IMG-5146.JPG
 
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#24,152
My dealer said he had luck contacting him through FB messenger 2 weeks ago. We got a detailed reply, but waiting still for more info since then.

I think they’re just slammed with so many orders and running on a skeleton crew. Keith only references himself and Kyle as the builders, I think they only have one other guy on electronics and odd jobs. But that’s just me speculating. I don’t have any social media accounts to try and reach out myself, glad my dealer does :p
 

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