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Roscoe Club

#5,381
Well I went ahead and did it.

20160325_085655.jpg

Installed Aguilar DCB pickups to the Bart preamp. (I said I wasnt going to rip the guts out of this bass.) The Barts sounded fine at home with headphones out of a Zoom B3. Playing live was a different story. Same old Bart sound that I am not a fan of and never will be. Plenty of people like them but I do not.

I have changed pickups in basses numerous times, too many times to count actually and this is the biggest fundamental change I have ever experienced! Completely transformed the sound of this instrument. I love it! Sounds great with the Bart preamp as well. The highs are so smooth and the low end is so much cleaner and usable. Before the PU change, I had to watch using too much boost of the various frequencies.

I ordered a Mike Pope Flexcore preamp at the same time and waiting for it to arrive. I don't know, will see whats up but I can't imagine it sounding better than this.
 
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#5,382
Gard said:
There is no "right" way to set that gain control on our Bart 3-band preamp - just the "right way for your situation". We send it out where Dave describes, not quite to "12 o'clock", but that's just a "suggested" level, you can certainly adjust it up or down to fit your needs - keeping in mind that all the way "off" is literally OFF, and all the way "up" is going to overdrive the input of almost any preamp you plug into. :)
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This is true. I typically use it to approximately match the output of my other basses so I don't have to change the input sensitivity of my pre or amp (when I change basses in a set).
 
#5,383
Sorry for my post disparaging the Roscoe/Bart pickups above. A bit too much. Nothing wrong with them, just not my sound. I apologize to the many who do like these.

With that I have some questions, somewhat obscure. I have the Aguilars installed with the Bartolini preamp as I described above and will be adding the 4 way Mike Pope Flexcore. Anyone use this combination or just the Flexcore preamp in a Roscoe? Wondering what EQ settings would be the best via the Flexcore jumpers?

Does anyone know the EQ centers of the roscoe Bart preamp I have now? I am guessing 40-50hz for the bass, 5k for the highs, and 400/800 via mid switch? These sound pretty good with these PU's so thinking this would be a good starting point.
 
#5,384
vlad335 said:
Sorry for my post disparaging the Roscoe/Bart pickups above. A bit too much. Nothing wrong with them, just not my sound. I apologize to the many who do like these.

With that I have some questions, somewhat obscure. I have the Aguilars installed with the Bartolini preamp as I described above and will be adding the 4 way Mike Pope Flexcore. Anyone use this combination or just the Flexcore preamp in a Roscoe? Wondering what EQ settings would be the best via the Flexcore jumpers?

Does anyone know the EQ centers of the roscoe Bart preamp I have now? I am guessing 40-50hz for the bass, 5k for the highs, and 400/800 via mid switch? These sound pretty good with these PU's so thinking this would be a good starting point.
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JOME77 should be along shortly.
 
#5,386
I used to have the Pope with Nordstrand dual coils but, didn't really like it. My bass is very mid-y already and the Pope just made it more honky. I ended up with Aggie DCB's and an OBP-3 and that tamed it much more. If I add any eq it will just be a pinch of bass.
 
#5,387
vlad335 said:
Actually I PM'ed him as well as CrashClint regarding this subject. Very informative replies from both but they couldn't remember the specific frequencies. Understandable for basses they no longer own. I sometimes forget what the controls are on basses I have here. :)
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Actually I thought that you asked about the center freq's of the Pope preamp (which is configurable). I believe that the Bart preamp is:

3-band EQ (+/-15dB@30Hz, +/-13dB@250Hz or 800Hz, and +/-18dB@10kHz).
 
#5,388
JoelFT said:
I used to have the Pope with Nordstrand dual coils but, didn't really like it. My bass is very mid-y already and the Pope just made it more honky. I ended up with Aggie DCB's and an OBP-3 and that tamed it much more. If I add any eq it will just be a pinch of bass.
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Oh my. Not good to hear. Actually I was told the complete opposite about the OBP-3. "Don't install it unless you like a lot of mids." Go figure. What kind of woods are we talking about with your bass?

Hoping this wont become an expensive, chasing my tail exercise. (Should receive the Pope soon to see whats up.) I recently had something like this happen with my Ibanez BTB. Replaced the cheapo import Barts for Nordy Big Splits and the bass sounded great. Later, added a Nordstrand preamp replacing the stock Ibanez Pre and Meh, it lost something. Sure, it is clear and not as noisy but dry and less lively, more clinical sounding.
 
#5,389
JOME77 said:
Actually I thought that you asked about the center freq's of the Pope preamp (which is configurable). I believe that the Bart preamp is:

3-band EQ (+/-15dB@30Hz, +/-13dB@250Hz or 800Hz, and +/-18dB@10kHz).
Click to expand...

Yes I did ask about the Pope center freq's with a Roscoe. Just recently wondered about the Bart frequencies as they are pretty usable right now with the DCB's and wanted to mimic them on the Pope. 30hz and 10K? Interesting.

Thanks for the info!
 
#5,390
I will be able to speak about both the Pope/Roscoe Bart and Pope/DCB combinations in a couple months.

For frequencies on the Flexcore I'd probably start with the jumpers set for 46 Hz bass and 6k treble. If you like the 10k treble you can go that way but personally I find the lower setting more usable. Mids are very personal, and I can't speak for it with the Roscoe pickup positions but in a P/J I had it in I preferred the 330 Hz low mids and 1.8k high mids.
 
#5,391
Jeff Moote said:
I will be able to speak about both the Pope/Roscoe Bart and Pope/DCB combinations in a couple months.

For frequencies on the Flexcore I'd probably start with the jumpers set for 46 Hz bass and 6k treble. If you like the 10k treble you can go that way but personally I find the lower setting more usable. Mids are very personal, and I can't speak for it with the Roscoe pickup positions but in a P/J I had it in I preferred the 330 Hz low mids and 1.8k high mids.
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Thanks for the info. I was surprised at first to hear the Bart pre treble was 10k but it makes sense now. With the Aggie PU's, if this control is boosted a bit it adds a nice subtle crispness to fingerstyle while not effecting the fundamental. Pretty cool actually and I have heard nothing like it. However, I will definitely experiment with both treble settings. ( Hope they are not a PIA to change once installed.)

The bass and mid settings you mentioned sound good. Will definitely start there. Don't like the 800hz setting on the Bart preamp at all though so 1.8 it is.

Can't wait to try this preamp! Going to be so cool playing with 2 midrange points. Mike Pope if you are reading, send me a shipping confirmation! :)

Sorry. Now back to your regularly scheduled Roscoe thread. Post some pics of your basses! I could look at these instruments all day!
 
#5,395
vlad335 said:
Can't wait to try this preamp! Going to be so cool playing with 2 midrange points. Mike Pope if you are reading, send me a shipping confirmation! :)

Sorry. Now back to your regularly scheduled Roscoe thread. Post some pics of your basses! I could look at these instruments all day!
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I'm pretty sure you'll love the Pope, it's the best pre-amp I've ever had in a bass! (Mind you, I've got a 4-band with passive tone as well!) To me, they sound a little bit like the OBP-3, but more subtle and better control over tone-shaping. And far more "alive" and "open" than the Bart NTMB pre-amps! The pre-amp sounds a bit bland at home, or in the studio, but once you are playing at gig volumes, it all comes alive!

Cheers,

EG
 
#5,400
Hey all, I'm planning on going back to a 6 string after about 5 yrs of playing 4 with my blues band and groove stuff. Played a Modulus Q6 almost exclusively for 15 years when doing more jazz/fusion. I'm looking at some Roscoes for sale here on TB. I've read lots of positives about them. Is there anything I should consider as far as styles and models? It will be for jazz and fusion (Patitucci, Tom Kennedy, etc) and also church and gospel. I was thinking about going lower budget like ibanez but these look to be a much better instrument for not much more (used anyway)
 
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