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Roscoe Club

#3,703
Hey roscoe heads
Need a little help deciding on a fb choice....
I'm soon to order a skb3005 with
quilt maple top,
Spanish cedar body
Maple/purpleheart neck
Gold black hardware
Faded blue jean finish
I was thinking about a coco bolo or maybe a sap wood wenge fretboard (if available) ..
On electronics I'm still undecided thinking maybe roscoe barts with aguilar obp3.

I play progressive rock and blues to funk and gospel and r&b so I'm looking for something versatile. I need something that can have that in your face aggressiveness when needed; but also something that can sound velvety smooth and fat. What do you guys think on this set up? Should I be going in a different direction? Any advice,experience, in site is much appreciated.
 
#3,704
Errico7000 said:
Hey roscoe heads
Need a little help deciding on a fb choice....
I'm soon to order a skb3005 with
quilt maple top,
Spanish cedar body
Maple/purpleheart neck
Gold black hardware
Faded blue jean finish
I was thinking about a coco bolo or maybe a sap wood wenge fretboard (if available) ..
On electronics I'm still undecided thinking maybe roscoe barts with aguilar obp3.

I play progressive rock and blues to funk and gospel and r&b so I'm looking for something versatile. I need something that can have that in your face aggressiveness when needed; but also something that can sound velvety smooth and fat. What do you guys think on this set up? Should I be going in a different direction? Any advice,experience, in site is much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I'd go with the Roscoe Barts and Bart pre. With Aguilar pre's, I really miss having that gain control.
 
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#3,705
This topic has been discussed elsewhere but I don't recall it being mentioned here.
It's time for my pre-BassBootCamp Roscoe freshening which includes new batteries for the preamp.
Do the "Energizer LA522 9V Industrial Lithium Battery" fit the Roscoe battery box? I've heard they are a tight fit in some applications.
 
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#3,706
+1 on the Roscoe Barts and Bart pre (over the Aguliar OBP-3). IMO though you're not going to get an aggressive sound with the Spanish Cedar body. I love the smooth tone that they have but IMO a mahogany body would suit your stated musical styles better.
On the subject of finger board wood, I'd go with whatever you think looks good. The Roscoe finger board is fairly thin and IMO doesn't greatly affect the tone. Of course I could be wrong .........,
 
#3,708
Gard said:
You do know that we're going to be AT the BassBootCamp this year?
Click to expand...
I did not.
Didn't see you on the EXPO vendor's list - just posted an update in one of the BBC threads with that.
Will you be there on your own, or under Bass Specialties umbrella ?
I want to have all the fiddling (like new strings and batteries) done before I even start packing...
But if you'd be in a position to verify (or possibly tweak...) my setup I wouldn't say no.
I expect to be there pretty early Friday.

I'd like my polos in XL, please ;-)
 
#3,709
We just confirmed yesterday, so they probably haven't had time to get the site updated to include us just yet. We will have a full booth there, with between 10-12 instruments (no NEW items, but a couple of my personal basses, and the cream of the "Baltimore Collection" - which trust me, will be better than anything we'd build for a trade show :cool: ). I'll be happy to spend some time tweaking your setups if I can.

We should be there sometime late Friday afternoon or early evening, so we will definitely want to start arranging a "Roscoehead hang" for Friday night sometime. :hyper:

I'm going to be working on some swag for this as soon as all the stupid weather stuff we're fighting stops, and polos are on the very top of my list! :D
 
#3,710
Gard said:
We should be there sometime late Friday afternoon or early evening, so we will definitely want to start arranging a "Roscoehead hang" for Friday night sometime.
Click to expand...
If last year's schedule is any guide, there may be some kind of activity after the 'meet & greet' buffet and before the Night Owl sessions that started at 11 pm.
They haven't posted a 2015 schedule I could find, so I donno, and I doubt they'll have specifics on exactly _what_ the Night Owl classes will be this far out. I attended one last year and it was probably the session where I learned the most. So I donno what kind of schedule juggling will be needed but if there's to be a Gathering of the RoscoeHeads I am definitely in.
 
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#3,711
Errico7000 said:
Hey roscoe heads
Need a little help deciding on a fb choice....
I'm soon to order a skb3005 with
quilt maple top,
Spanish cedar body
Maple/purpleheart neck
Gold black hardware
Faded blue jean finish
I was thinking about a coco bolo or maybe a sap wood wenge fretboard (if available) ..
On electronics I'm still undecided thinking maybe roscoe barts with aguilar obp3.

I play progressive rock and blues to funk and gospel and r&b so I'm looking for something versatile. I need something that can have that in your face aggressiveness when needed; but also something that can sound velvety smooth and fat. What do you guys think on this set up? Should I be going in a different direction? Any advice,experience, in site is much appreciated.
Click to expand...


I would rethink that body wood. And definitely not wenge fb if you're going for versatile. Alder or mahogany for the body wood, maple for the fingerboard. IMO, YMMV, ETC
 
#3,712
Hey Errico, sorry I got distracted a bit - I'd listen to what Pacman said - for the tone you want, you may want to go a bit "edgier/punchier" than Spanish cedar will be. I'd probably go swamp ash myself, but there's definitely validity to his recommendations. Cedar is nice, but I find it "polite".

On fingerboards, I love wenge, but it will definitely not be the most "flexible" sounding choice, it tends to be VERY mid-strong. Maple is good if you want a lighter colored wood, if you want something a bit darker, I'd recommend pau ferro (which is NOT a rosewood, and is actually a bit brighter than rosewood, but not quite as snappy as maple). Cocobolo is a lot like ebony to my ear, without any of the downsides (ebony is NOT the most stable of woods, IMO, IME, BBQ).

On electronics, I'd tend to getting the stock Bart/Bart setup, unless you have played with a few of the other options, or have a STRONG bias toward something else. There are a number of very good options that will retrofit the P4 shell pickup rout, and any number of excellent preamp options that will fit easily into the control cavity, should you find you don't care for the Bart/Bart setup. The reason I suggest this is that when we look at the sheer numbers, we sell about 70% of every bass with that setup - there's gotta be a reason....

Lastly, can I talk you out of spending the $100 on gold-black hardware? Please? ;) (I just think you're building a classy looking bass, and the b-g hardware is like spinner rims on a Porsche to my eyes....)


Pacman said:
I would rethink that body wood. And definitely not wenge fb if you're going for versatile. Alder or mahogany for the body wood, maple for the fingerboard. IMO, YMMV, ETC
Click to expand...
 
#3,714
Gard,
Yeah the black gold hardware is a 100 bucks that I should probably put towards a higher grade top. Maybe AAA OR AAAA maple top. I've been talking to Brandt and he told me that you'll don't really send out pics of tops unless there exhibition.... do you think you could post some examples of the quality difference in these grades?
 
#3,715
Great stuff guys. There are two skb3005's at my local shop. Have not played yet. Both Mahogany bodied w/ Maple caps. One with a Roseboard the other Purpleheart. What can I expect tone wise? My other two basses are Ash. One with Maple the other Rosewood. Familar with those combos as well as Alder and Rosewood. I'm not crazy about the look of Purpleheart on this particular Maple cap but...Any insight from you good folk would be appreciated. Oh and both with Bart on Bart..
 
#3,717
markob said:
Great stuff guys. There are two skb3005's at my local shop. Have not played yet. Both Mahogany bodied w/ Maple caps. One with a Roseboard the other Purpleheart. What can I expect tone wise? My other two basses are Ash. One with Maple the other Rosewood. Familar with those combos as well as Alder and Rosewood. I'm not crazy about the look of Purpleheart on this particular Maple cap but...Any insight from you good folk would be appreciated. Oh and both with Bart on Bart..
Click to expand...


Mahogany is my favorite body wood. You can expect a much 'deeper' bottom end that your ash basses. Mahogany/maple is my favorite combination, and that bass gets played 91.3% of the time.
 
#3,719
Yeah, I would think (and Gardreaux can correct me if need be) that mahog/rosewood would have a darker front of the note. I really like mahog/maple because I feel like the maple gives great definition to the note. The mahogany gives this fabulous depth. I am constantly complimented on the tone.
 

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