Roscoe Club

[JOME77]

Put nickel rounds back on. Liked the flats but missed the sustain. Nickel rounds are just part of the Roscoe sound for me I guess.

Still like flats on the P.

So I guess I’ve got a barely used set of Dunlop flats if someone wants to try them.

Yeah. Not surprised. Dunlop flats are more in the old school sound of flats (like Labella DTF’s with slight less tension).
EB Cobalt Flats and D’addario Chromes are the new generation of flats. Those sound great on fretted or fretless basses and actually sound more like really broke in round wounds than flats.
But I use DR Pure Blues nickel round wounds on my fretted Roscoe because they sound so good on it and I have the modern flats on my Fenders and Roscoe fretless.

 

[Skip Chucker]

SKB5 Standard ++
Flame maple top & matching headstock with a green burst finish
Swamp Ash body
BEM fretboard
Roscoe Bart pups and pre

Very cool!

Are you doing the maple/purpleheart/maple neck or the maple/maple/maple neck?

We should rename the Standard++ to the Flattop Custom. From what I can tell the only difference is the carved top.

 

[JOME77]

Very cool!

Are you doing the maple/purpleheart/maple neck or the maple/maple/maple neck?

We should rename the Standard++ to the Flattop Custom. From what I can tell the only difference is the carved top.

Or the Shane Signature Model!

Or maybe the Shane Master-built Model!

 

[bgartist]

Very cool!

Are you doing the maple/purpleheart/maple neck or the maple/maple/maple neck?

We should rename the Standard++ to the Flattop Custom. From what I can tell the only difference is the carved top.

There are a few subtle differences - non- carved body, hardware and neck construction. The standard necks don’t have the volute on back. But you can really get whatever you want for an upcharge. I asked to upgrade to Ultralite tuners on mine. Still waiting by the way…

 

[SteveC]

Yeah. Not surprised. Dunlop flats are more in the old school sound of flats (like Labella DTF’s with slight less tension).
EB Cobalt Flats and D’addario Chromes are the new generation of flats. Those sound great on fretted or fretless basses and actually sound more like really broke in round wounds than flats.
But I use DR Pure Blues nickel round wounds on my fretted Roscoe because they sound so good on it and I have the modern flats on my Fenders and Roscoe fretless.

I like them on my Classic P.

 

[Mighty Thumb]

Very cool!

Are you doing the maple/purpleheart/maple neck or the maple/maple/maple neck?

We should rename the Standard++ to the Flattop Custom. From what I can tell the only difference is the carved top.

I’m just doing the maple/maple/maple neck. Guess this one is almost all maple

 

[JOME77]

SKB5 Standard ++
Flame maple top & matching headstock with a green burst finish
Swamp Ash body
BEM fretboard
Roscoe Bart pups and pre

That should sound and look great! Keith uses more graphite reinforcement on the maple FB’s and the really contribute to the tone IMO. Really a great phat tone. That coupled with the ash body should really sound great.

 

[JOME77]

I like them on my Classic P.

Well yeah. I get that Steve. But that's what traditional flats sound well on (P-Basses). Modern flats sound great on modern sounding basses (with preamps). But that is just IMO and it sounds like you've made ups your mind to go back to nickel RW's (which sound great).

Not sure why I bother ..........

 

[Nightman]

You are doing a great job, Joe! You should be proud of yourself.
Oh, and when is that used Pope FlexCore preamp you mentioned, that sold, arriving and which bass are you putting it in?

 

[SteveC]

They sounded fine, just not how I prefer my “modern 5” to sound. If I had 2 of them…

 

[Chuck M]

My SKB 6 has a growly voice. I have Cobalt flat B and E and TI flat A,D,E and C. It sounds terrific with those strings.

Every time we discuss tone and are locked on one of the things that influence it....well...it seems we need to consider everything in the signal chain. I use Mesa Subway gear most of the time but do still use some Aguilar GS112's. The Subway heads can produce huge lows and cutting highs. I typically have them set somewhere in the middle of the sonic road and then my basses give me what I am looking for in tone.

I play some at my church (we have 4 bassists) and the sound man loves to run the bass through a sub woofer. We had some helpful discussions about that and now the bass sounds great in church but I am using my EMG equipped Gould ggi6 which is fairly bright and my Mesa D-800+. The high pass filter serves to tone down all those lows that the sound man loves. In other rooms I highly favor my Roscoe basses.

So, in the end, we each have to make our own discoveries on what works for us. It can be expensive but it is a lot of fun.

Console yourselves with the fact that an inexpensive set of strings for an upright is about $120 and they go all the way up to $600. The upright strings I favor run almost $300 a set when I can find them at a good discount but they last a very long time. I use Thomastic Infield Belcanto on my upright basses.

 

[MattLplaysBass]

Or the Shane Signature Model!

Or maybe the Shane Master-built Model!

Master grade was his thing

 

[staccatogrowl]

Although in my mind, Roscoe and "master built" are synonymous. No label needed. Just look at the bass : )

 

[JOME77]

Although in my mind, Roscoe and "master built" are synonymous. No label needed. Just look at the bass : )

View attachment 5235115

interesting Fritz.
I’ve seen and owned many Roscoes and never recall seeing that wording on a headstock. And that’s a bit of an odd SN too. What is that first digit?

 

[Nightman]

That looks like Klingonese for “Oops, I used the wrong finger!”.

 

[staccatogrowl]

interesting Fritz.
I’ve seen and owned many Roscoes and never recall seeing that wording on a headstock. And that’s a bit of an odd SN too. What is that first digit?

You'll have to ask Dr. Keith to interpret his RX, Joe. Otherwise, I've seen several Roscoes with the "Masterbuilt" designation, some recent, some older. Here's one from a JJ5 that sold about 4 years ago:

 

[Chuck M]

My SKB 6 has only the SN on the back of the headstock. It is lacking the little oval decal that usually is around the serial number. I asked Keith about it and he said they were out of the decals when my bass was completed.

I agree that all the Roscoe basses are masterbuilt. Mine certainly are.

 

[SteveC]

I don't need a stamp or sticker to tell me my Roscoes are "masterbuilt" either.

 

[Kevin Lampson]

So I got a “soon” response from Keith for my build, which I interpret as more than “two weeks”. At just over the 12 month point now, trying not to get my hopes up that I’ll see it before Christmas.

I'm almost at 22 months. I've gotten the "soon" a couple of times.

 

[Mighty Thumb]

22 months ?!?! That’s not encouraging. Sorry to hear yours is taking that long. Is there anything unusual about your build, like special pickups or preamp? Aside from the finish which is a little outside the box, my build is all standard electronics and hardware.