Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Roscoe Club
- Thread starter JOME77
- Start date
I was looking at that one as well on Reverb. Still waiting on a trade or sell for my Roscoe 6, but also contiplating a Lakland 55-14 or 55-94. No doubt this is a beautiful Roscoe PJ
I really should send mine in after this weekends gigs. I have a couple weeks until the next gig and can "get by" with my 4 string for church and practicing. Just can't decide if I want to do the coil tap thing. When I'm sitting by myself I think yeah, it'd be cool to be able to switch to single coil or series or whatever. But when I'm playing live, in the heat of the moment between tunes, usually a pan to neck or bridge gives me what I need. 
Last edited:
I really should send mine in after this weekends gigs. I have a couple weeks until the next gig and can "get by" with my 4 string for church and practicing. Just can't decide if I want to do the coil tap thing. When I'm sitting by myself I think yeah, it'd be cool to be able to switch to single coil or series or whatever. But when I'm playing live, in the heat of the moment between tunes, usually a pan to neck or bridge gives me what I need.
For me..... sometimes too many options are just... too many options
I'm kind of leaning this way. Everyone says even a great bass benefits from a Plek but I don't know if I want to mess with a good thing. And, it's expensive to ship them. $130 to ship, $150 for the Plek, almost $300 to "fix" a bass that plays and sounds great? Maybe I'll put that towards a purchase of a fretless or something instead.
Last edited:
I owned 4 Roscoes with 3 of them being plek'd and 1 not. All played and sounded amazing but honestly I couldn't tell any difference in the 1 that wasn't plek'd against the 3 that was as far as pllayability and setup. Now that doesn't mean every bass is like that but probably just a testament to how good Roscoe's build their basses pre Plek machine. To me after seeing that I don't know that a Plek was worth the money for me.
Chef
In Memoriam
A) I have a tracking number for my first roscoe. As there are so many wood option about which I have no understanding, I chose a pretty plain one. We’ll see if we’ll be friends, but it’s about time I tried one. They’re outside my normal “that’s not a Fender-thing” comfort level.
2: plekking. I’ve read that frets are hardened metal; and that plekking can remove a fair amount of the hardened exterior, leaving softer frets that can wear faster. And, that it’s an automated process that can produce good results, quickly and repeatedly. I think it can be beneficial for basses that haven’t been built by attentive craftspeople working at a high level. I also think that since I’ve owned Sadowsky, Valenti, Nordy, Alleva, etc, I haven’t had a bass that needed such; and I’d still rather have a good tech tweak a fret or two than have a machine tweak them all. YMMV
2: plekking. I’ve read that frets are hardened metal; and that plekking can remove a fair amount of the hardened exterior, leaving softer frets that can wear faster. And, that it’s an automated process that can produce good results, quickly and repeatedly. I think it can be beneficial for basses that haven’t been built by attentive craftspeople working at a high level. I also think that since I’ve owned Sadowsky, Valenti, Nordy, Alleva, etc, I haven’t had a bass that needed such; and I’d still rather have a good tech tweak a fret or two than have a machine tweak them all. YMMV
The Fender sounds nice but I actually like the warmer sound of the the Roscoe. I think that you find that it’ll cut through a live mix really nicely. Great looking sunburst finish to. The maple finger board looks really nice with the SB finish.
Looking forward to hearing your review after you spend some time with it. Beautiful Bass!
I really should send mine in after this weekends gigs. I have a couple weeks until the next gig and can "get by" with my 4 string for church and practicing. Just can't decide if I want to do the coil tap thing. When I'm sitting by myself I think yeah, it'd be cool to be able to switch to single coil or series or whatever. But when I'm playing live, in the heat of the moment between tunes, usually a pan to neck or bridge gives me what I need.
Keith also did setup and found some interesting things that were out of whack including the input jack and some neck issues which he caught. Worth it to me bc this was an older Roscoe that he could tweak with some of the newer techniques.
I played a lot of "Fender-esque" instruments before I tried a Roscoe. Needless to say I am a fan.
I think I'll skip the Plek job for now. Money is tight and I love the bass the way it is so...
Yeah, mine is pre Plek but still only 5 years old so I think they had it down when they were building it. Last of the neck heel/pocket being done the way mine is, etc. Most everyone who plays it thinks it's one of the nicest playing/sounding basses they have tried - for a "modern" style bass. Playing mine may have even pushed at least one guy I know over the edge so to speak.
I fixed the original post. May go back and fix your quote as well....the power of a moderator....Well, you got me!?!
That's interesting. I found the Plek didn't make a big difference on my fretted Roscoe which JOME77 has now (my headless was Plek'd as part of the build.)
Where the Plek really had a noticeable impact was on my fretless. But it did remove some cool figuring in the diamondwood.
Chef
In Memoriam
As proof I don’t know everything;
I didn’t know plekking was a thing for fretless. It does seem to make more sense on that to me
I didn’t know plekking was a thing for fretless. It does seem to make more sense on that to me
Bottom line, a Plek is just a scientific precise way to obtain a great fret leveling job. If the bass already has a great leveling job you won’t notice any change. Also, a Plek doesn’t remove anymore fret material than is required (just like a good manual fret leveling job).
On the subject of Plek, I sure wish those Plek guys Visa (that attended the NAMM show) would run out so they’d get back to Germany so they could help Keith mill down my old fingerboard (so he can install a new one!)
Last edited:
So, are you saying Roscoe out sources their work to Germany? Interesting! Somehow I was under the impression Roscoe did all of the work in Greensboro.
I had my Warmoth fretless neck pleked. There was some unevenness on the fingerboard and it was causing a sitar-like effect at the 12th fret (especially noticeable on the g string). The pleking fixed it!
I believe that they usually do most of their std Plek’s but when they do things like mill down a finger board they sometimes have the guys at Plek HQ’s log onto the machine and do some of the programming.
