Roscoe Club

[SteveC]

You'll adjust to the spacing. I think it's really comfortable. Besides, the B string you get on a Roscoe - and the fantastic feel of the neck in general - is worth a little "getting used to it" time. I am amazed how light they are as well. My 5 is well under 8 pounds and my 6 is just under 9. Can't say enough good things. Sometimes I wonder if I should be playing some type of passive 4 string jazz or something, but then I play my Roscoes and I get over it.

My 5 has Bart soaps and my 6 has Bart jazz pups. Both have the Bartolini preamp. I fine rolling to the neck pup on my 5 gives me a "p-ish" sort of sound. My 6 string sounds like a killer jazz. Been rolling my treble off quit a bit lately, too. That helps when I want a not so modern tone. I would still like to someday get a Roscoe Classic 4 string jazz though - just for fun.

 

[Dave Siff]

OK, now they've really done it!

 

[Active Reasoner]

Unbelievable deal on this early Roscoe 7 String Bass up for sale on EBay. The starting bid is $900. The owner had series/parallel switches installed. This beauty is located in Hinesville, Georgia.

 

[warrplayer]

View attachment 1146966 Unbelievable deal on this early Roscoe 7 String Bass up for sale on EBay. The starting bid is $900. The owner had series/parallel switches installed. This beauty is located in Hinesville, Georgia.

Reserve not met. NO way to tell if it is a deal or not yet.

 

[Active Reasoner]

Reserve not met. NO way to tell if it is a deal or not yet.

Sure, only time will tell. But he started the auction at $900, which tells me he's realistic about getting rid of it. Sad to say I've seen a nicer Roscoe 7 than this go for about $1500. And he says it's just been sittin' in the case. I think someone could get lucky.

 

[steelin4u]

Who is this 'he' that is lining ebay's pockets when he could try to sell it here?

 

[mmbongo]

Sure, only time will tell. But he started the auction at $900, which tells me he's realistic about getting rid of it. Sad to say I've seen a nicer Roscoe 7 than this go for about $1500. And he says it's just been sittin' in the case. I think someone could get lucky.

Looks a lot like the one you play in your YouTube videos! You should totally buy that one and have a killer pairing!

 

[Active Reasoner]

Looks a lot like the one you play in your YouTube videos! You should totally buy that one and have a killer pairing!

Thanks, I'm always tempted because used Roscoe 7's are usually priced so low, and it seems the price is continuing to drop. But I already have 3 Roscoe 7's with Spanish Cedar, Ash, and Mahogany, so I've got all the different tones I want. Roscoe 7's are so rare that when I see one come up for sale somewhere other than TB I'll usually post it here for the Roscoe Heads. Here's my 3 again...

 

[CrashClint]

Looking at the headstock, are there inserts where the strings go through? Looking at the picture it seems the strings are in direct contact with the headstock wood.

Hey all... I'm looking for one of you who has switched over to a 5 string, not going back to 4's and might be interested in trading in your Roscoe 4 for a complete custom that is VERY special.
Interested in something around $3k, maybe a 3004 custom or even a less expensive Standard-Plus w/Jazz config?

Last year I started a build with a very reputable builder out of Italy and now 16 months later, I don't play 5ers anymore and am not going back, nor do I want to incur the cost of Importing and Customs, etc...
(I just took delivery in May and can't do the 5 strings anymore, old hands and all.)

Whatcha got? Here's a quick shot of my MüB 3000 ÜJ-5 "Hawk"

34" scale; 24 frets.
Eye-popping buckeye burl top.
Chambered Limba body.
Maple/padauk neck.
Ebony board. Custom "Talon" inlays
Bartolini pups and 3 band preamp with mid switch.
Black hardware.
Plus the usual bunch of cool custom bits.

It was a $3500 build. Here's some info from the builder:

The wood:

The Buckeye burl top is really one of a kind. A very high grade set with all sorts of beautiful defects:
knots, bark inclusions, even what looks like little worm tunnels (you can see them around the bridge/tuners area).
They are filled with transparent resin to keep them visible.
I have done my best to keep intact all the bark inclusions inside the larger voids. The gap between the bark and the void walls are also filled with resin and if you look carefully you
can see the inside.
The largest void is in the area between the two p-ups. It has been filled with tiny pieces of bark, burl and sawdust arranged to simulate fossilized
wood. Buckeye is the most challenging burl to work with but it can very gratifying too.

The body is black Limba, a beautiful wood from Africa. Even though it is quite light and made lighter by deep contours all around the profile, the body
is chambered. This way I make sure that, weigh distribution is correct and the bass gentle on your left shoulder and neck.

Speaking of which, the neck is a 5 piece laminate: maple with wenge stringers.
The 24 fret Gabon ebony board is graced by mother of pearl Hawk Talon inlays.
The headstock sports a matching buckeye plate. Under the zero fret and up until middle of the first fret runs an ebony laminate
which provides extra stiffness and a rather unique look.

Lastly, perhaps the most defining element of your bass, in my opinion, is the large bark insert
at the tip of the upper horn. (Actually that’s made of a few pieces of bark, arranged to
achieve a natural look).

It’s a very unique detail, something you don’t see very often


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Please let me know if I need to move this post to the Classifieds. I posted here because I can see most of you appreciate good work and I'm only looking for another Roscoe.
Thanks,
Hawk

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[SteveC]

Not sure what's going on with my face but it's a nice pic of the bass. First gig with the new cover band. Art festival downtown. We held a crowd for most of our set so we are pretty happy.
Hers a band shot...

Monitors were for the other acts. We're all DI/IEM and it worked great. We brought our board - rack Presonus - so we could have our IEM's and ran a left and right mix out to the supplied FOH. Worked great. I love a clean stage.

 

[mwbonsall]

Cool gig, nice band, beautiful Roscoe, great bass face!!

Thanks for sharing, Steve.

Mark

 

[Sweet Willie]

Looking at the headstock, are there inserts where the strings go through? Looking at the picture it seems the strings are in direct contact with the headstock wood.

Maybe your eyes are being tricked by the cloth thread windings at the end of the strings that make it look like the metal disappears directly into the headstock wood? The strings attach to the tuners per usual it appears.

 

[CrashClint]

My Roscoe Classic Custom in action.

 

[ClassicJazz]

Recorded earlier this year when we opened for Tab Benoit at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton. My SKB live in action! Playing through a GK Fusion 800 head on a Ampeg 8x10 cabinet.

 

[Lowendtech]

Recorded earlier this year when we opened for Tab Benoit at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton. My SKB live in action! Playing through a GK Fusion 800 head on a Ampeg 8x10 cabinet.

Very cool.

 

[CrashClint]

Hmm, Black Block inlay.

Classic Custom 5JJ Serial #0042c Poplar body, Seafoam Green finish, Honey Badger 5J Split (hum-cancelling) pickups, Passive VVT controls, Black/White/Black 3-ply pickguard, Maple fingerboard with black blocks & binding

__________________________________________________________________________________​

Classic 5JJ Serial #0013c Swamp Ash body, Medium distress Aztec Gold finiish, Aguilar 5J-HC pickups, Passive VVT controls, Tortoiseshell pickguard, Pau Ferro fingerboard

This bass will be in stock at our Chicago, IL retailer, Chicago Music Exchange

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[xhawk5]

Owners or previous owners of the Century Standard 4. Have you tried any other preamp/pickup configuration than the stock Aguilar? If so, what was it and how'd it fare?
I'm not a huge fan of Aguilar, (I like em but don't love em), and I'd like to try a Darkglass Tone Capsule with Bartolini pickups (P/J).
Any thoughts?

 

[JLY]

Lusting over the Aztec Gold JJ5!

 

[flyingfinbar]

I'm not a Roscoe owner, but I had the chance to play a friend's Standard six string, spalted maple top, through a Markbass rig, recently.

Now, granted, I'm a passive bass/old school amp type dude, but this thing was pretty spectacular. The notes, for lack of a better term, were piano-like in their clarity and focus. The mid presence was tremendous, and the neck was sublime. The relatively flat radius threw me off, and I was paralyzed by all the knobs, but I'll be damned if it wasn't a special piece of kit!

I'd like to get my hands on a fretless 5...what I heard and felt in that bass was begging to be loosed from the metal confines of fret-dom.

 

[JLY]

I'm not a Roscoe owner, but I had the chance to play a friend's Standard six string, spalted maple top, through a Markbass rig, recently.

Now, granted, I'm a passive bass/old school amp type dude, but this thing was pretty spectacular. The notes, for lack of a better term, were piano-like in their clarity and focus. The mid presence was tremendous, and the neck was sublime. The relatively flat radius threw me off, and I was paralyzed by all the knobs, but I'll be damned if it wasn't a special piece of kit!

I'd like to get my hands on a fretless 5...what I heard and felt in that bass was begging to be loosed from the metal confines of fret-dom.

Their 5 string fretless is wonderful
Try one- you won't be disappointed!