Roscoe Club

[mwbonsall]

The old bass looks good. I am still tempted to do something to mine. I love the neck of this bass, so when I think of getting another bass to fulfill some "tone quest" all I think of is will I like the neck?
I'd have to replace the pickups. I think it would be great to be able to have a toggle for each pup to switch between normal humbucker and hum cancelling single coil. Is that doable? Even though the placement isn't exactly correct for a true "jazz" bass, I think the tonal options would be great. maybe add an active/passive toggle as well? Seems that would give me the best of all worlds but retain my Roscoe feel and familiarity.

So those in the know, I would need to:

get different pickups (no routing necessary?) but could keep my preamp?
get 2 mini toggles installed for each pup for switching from humbucker to single coil - hum cancelling
an active passive toggle - or is that not a big deal? I tend to like active basses so maybe not.

I would ask Keith what would work before you experiment, just to be sure.

Mark

 

[SteveC]

For sure. I don’t know. I’m stil not sure I should mess with it. I know lots of people have swapped preamps and pickups in their Roscoes and love the results, but part of me thinks leave well enough alone.

Maybe I’ll send Keith a note saying what I’m thinking about and see what he thinks and if it would be easy enough to do and how much it may cost. By the time I get new electronics, labor for routing and wiring, Pleking since it’s there, shipping, I may be able to just by a “back up” jazz 5.

 

[SteveC]

I sent Keith and Rik an email to see what they thought, cost, etc.

 

[The Deep]

Hi guys,

If anyone here has a Roscoe Beck IV bridge lying around they’d like to sell I’d appreciate a pm.

Thank you much!

 

[SteveC]

Hi guys,

If anyone here has a Roscoe Beck IV bridge lying around they’d like to sell I’d appreciate a pm.

Thank you much!

I think you have the wrong Roscoe thread.

 

[JOME77]

Steve-

It's absolutely doable, and I think you'd be super happy. Your first step is to measure your pickups to figure out what size you've got in there now. Bartolini may make a custom shape for Roscoe, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that they are probably the Bart P2 size. Invalid Link Removed

Roscoe Bart's and CB's are P4's

 

[Lonnybass]

Roscoe Bart's and CB's are P4's

Original post updated for the official record.

Interesting that they are P4s - this is what I used on my 6 string bass.

Does Roscoe use P4s on 5-string basses because of the angled pickup configuration?

 

[Bassworship1]

The Roscoe Bart's are the absolute best Bartolini pickups I've ever played. I've owned roughly 15-16 different basses with the USA Barts and these are by far the best. Just something about them for the style of music I play.

 

[Jeff Moote]

Original post updated for the official record.

Interesting that they are P4s - this is what I used on my 6 string bass.

Does Roscoe use P4s on 5-string basses because of the angled pickup configuration?

Not sure about the why, but they do indeed use a P4 cover on almost all 5 strings (and 6s) and if you buy an aftermarket P4 quad coil it will have a very weak response on the A string due to the gap in magnets there. The Roscoe Barts are custom pickups with 5 string magnet layout in a P4 shell.

 

[mwbonsall]

Not sure about the why, but they do indeed use a P4 cover on almost all 5 strings (and 6s) and if you buy an aftermarket P4 quad coil it will have a very weak response on the A string due to the gap in magnets there. The Roscoe Barts are custom pickups with 5y string magnet layout in a P4 shell.

You nailed it Jeff. I think the reason for the P4 on the 5's is the look. When I see other 5 string basses the smaller pickups look a little goofy compared to how the Roscoe looks.

Mark

 

[Jeff Moote]

It certainly does look balanced with the Roscoe body shapes, and aside from some limitations or requirements when considering aftermarket pickups it's really not an issue.

 

[CrashClint]

Not sure about the why, but they do indeed use a P4 cover on almost all 5 strings (and 6s) and if you buy an aftermarket P4 quad coil it will have a very weak response on the A string due to the gap in magnets there. The Roscoe Barts are custom pickups with 5 string magnet layout in a P4 shell.

I thought Keith was using the bar magnet P4 pickups so he could use the exact same pickups in both the 5 and 6 string basses so he didn't have to keep 3 different pickups in stock?

 

[Jeff Moote]

I thought Keith was using the bar magnet P4 pickups so he could use the exact same pickups in both the 5 and 6 string basses so he didn't have to keep 3 different pickups in stock?

As far as I know that's not the case as being quad coils one of them would have a dead spot if he did that. I think for the CBs which are dual coils it may be true that he only has the one pickup to keep in inventory, as well as with the Aguilar DCBs.

 

[Bassworship1]

Question about the Quad coils Bart’s in Roscoe Custom basses. Are they the same kind you can get from Bestbassgear for over $300? I’m thinking of doing a custom build soon and would love to get that tone in my bass.

 

[Lonnybass]

Question about the Quad coils Bart’s in Roscoe Custom basses. Are they the same kind you can get from Bestbassgear for over $300? I’m thinking of doing a custom build soon and would love to get that tone in my bass.

I had actually inquired to Gard about this awhile back. Evidently they use both the traditional Bartolini CBC pickup (same as BestBassGear), and their own proprietary Roscoe-fied version with a slightly different winding. Unfortunately, I can't speak to what they use in that particular model though. Hope this is helpful at least a little bit.

 

[CrashClint]

Question about the Quad coils Bart’s in Roscoe Custom basses. Are they the same kind you can get from Bestbassgear for over $300? I’m thinking of doing a custom build soon and would love to get that tone in my bass.

The custom basses get the Roscoe Bart pickups and the Standards get off the shelf Classic Bart pickups like BBG sells. Now that being said there are a lot of customs out there that have had Classic Barts installed after they left Roscoe or have been ordered with classics but standards do not come with Roscoe Barts.

 

[Lonnybass]

The custom basses get the Roscoe Bart pickups and the Standards get off the shelf Classic Bart pickups like BBG sells. Now that being said there are a lot of customs out there that have had Classic Barts installed after they left Roscoe or have been ordered with classics but standards do not come with Roscoe Barts.

Clint, any insight on the tonal difference between the standard CBC and the Roscoe Bart’s? Curious to get your thoughts.

 

[CrashClint]

Clint, any insight on the tonal difference between the standard CBC and the Roscoe Bart’s? Curious to get your thoughts.

The Roscoe Barts are more compressed. If Classic Barts had a tonal range of 1-10 the Roscoe Barts would be 2.5-7.5. I don’t like the Roscoe Barts as much when I am playing in my room but in a live setting they seem to sit nicely and distinctly and cut nicely through the keys.

 

[JOME77]

The Roscoe Barts are more compressed. If Classic Barts had a tonal range of 1-10 the Roscoe Barts would be 2.5-7.5. I don’t like the Roscoe Barts as much when I am playing in my room but in a live setting they seem to sit nicely and distinctly and cut nicely through the keys.

Clint,
Not so sure about your 2.5-7.5 tonal range but I certainly agree that the Roscoe Bart's are more compressed sounding than the CB's. Tonally I think the Roscoe Bart's sound great. I do go through periods of life where I think that CB's sound better but lately I've gone 180 degrees back the other way in thinking that the Roscoe Bart's sound better. ESPECIALLY in a fretless!

..... maybe I'm just more deaf now!

 

[CrashClint]

Clint,
Not so sure about your 2.5-7.5 tonal range but I certainly agree that the Roscoe Bart's are more compressed sounding than the CB's. Tonally I think the Roscoe Bart's sound great. I do go through periods of life where I think that CB's sound better but lately I've gone 180 degrees back the other way in thinking that the Roscoe Bart's sound better. ESPECIALLY in a fretless!

..... maybe I'm just more deaf now!

Well, maybe more 1.5-8.5 . I played my SKB3005 (Roscoe Bart pickups & Bart pre) at church today for the first time in about a year. During practice I walked off the stage to listen to how it sounded. So much more grit than my Roscoe Classic Custom JJ. My Classic sits right in the mix so full and smooth and it blends so nicely. My SKB is a different animal, it was just cutting right over the keys and drums, the mids had a slight nice bark. SKB, Spanish Cedar body, Buckeye Burl top, Maple/Purpleheart neck and Ebony fingerboard. Settings, Treble at 12, Mid at 12 and Bass between 1-2.