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Roscoe Club

I have played fretless for a lot of years. My first really good one was a Pedulla Buzz and I have had several through the years. I also had a Zon Sonus at one time that was 35" scale and had humbuckers. It was a great fretless bass but had some issues with the fingerboard and Joe Zon wanted quite a lot to correct it. I had bought it used but thought (and still think) a graphite neck bass should not have issues like that and I think Zon should have corrected it at no charge. So I sold that Zon and stayed with my Pedulla Buzz basses until I got my Roscoe Century fretless 6.

That was it for me. It is the most wonderful playing and sounding fretless I have ever had my hands on. It does everything perfectly and If I could have only one electric bass that would be the one.
 
Actually, my black straps have a different strap lock on them than what fits the B/B, and I was too not wanting to start switching strap locks. The straps that do fit are my brown ones and my wife said I could not take it out of the house looking like that!! :laugh:
 
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Actually, my black straps have a different strap lock on them than what fits the B/B, and I was too not wanting to start switching strap locks. The straps that do fit are my brown ones and my wife said I could not take it out of the house looking like that!! :laugh:

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:
Sounds to me that your wife has turned your strap into an accessory! Next she’ll be telling you what strings to use!:help::help:
 
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Ok just had my new SKB set up and new strings put on. DR Hi Beams , from past experience with these I need to wait a couple weeks before determining if I need to put nickels like DaAdarios on. I’ve found HI Beams actually sound better after a few weeks it’s the only make and model I’ve known to be like this. Anyone play a string type you recommend on these wonderful basses? Anyway here are a couple more pics. Box Elder over Swamp Ash.
 

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Ok just had my new SKB set up and new strings put on. DR Hi Beams , from past experience with these I need to wait a couple weeks before determining if I need to put nickels like DaAdarios on. I’ve found HI Beams actually sound better after a few weeks it’s the only make and model I’ve known to be like this. Anyone play a string type you recommend on these wonderful basses? Anyway here are a couple more pics. Box Elder over Swamp Ash.

Classy looking Roscoe!
I'm a D'addario XL Nickel kind of guy. I've tried them all but for some reason end right back using the D'addario's. To me it's as much the feels as the sound.
You'll hear about as many suggestions on this thread as there are choices. Give the Hi Beams a try and if they don't do it for you continue your search.
Congrats on the Roscoe!
 
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I have gone back to D’Addario nickel 170’s (45-130) after being a long time Hi Beam user. The guy who builds them uses them so....

I do seem to like them better. It’s only been a few days and one gig but I like the 130 B string for sure.
 
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Classy looking Roscoe!
I'm a D'addario XL Nickel kind of guy. I've tried them all but for some reason end right back using the D'addario's. To me it's as much the feels as the sound.
You'll hear about as many suggestions on this thread as there are choices. Give the Hi Beams a try and if they don't do it for you continue your search.
Congrats on the Roscoe!

+1
 
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Alright I got the new Nordstrand pre installed and things are much better. Really looking forward to getting the Roscoe out on the gigging scene!

What pickups are you using with the Nordie Preamp? I just received my first bass with a Nordie 3 band with Vintage tone control and I really like it. One of the cleanest sounding preamps I've used to date.
 
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What pickups are you using with the Nordie Preamp? I just received my first bass with a Nordie 3 band with Vintage tone control and I really like it. One of the cleanest sounding preamps I've used to date.
It's the Aguilar 5P-60 and 5J-HC that it came with. The Aguilar pre was voiced too dark for me and I wanted a cut/boost instead of boost only. I love the Nordy pickup in my Fender and might swap them out too in the future.
 
Yes to all the above. I ordered a used Alesis Nano Compressor from Reverb. It got really good reviews for use with a bass.
Hopefully it'll work out. Worse case is I'm out $50 until I sell it.

View attachment 2934517

The Alesis compressor arrived this weekend and I got a chance to play around with it. It's a really great unit. It can be as subtle or extreme as you want. I ran it with the Threshold just high enough to even out my right hand playing and it really worked great. Just to refresh everyone's memory, the reason that I wanted one was because the action on the fretless is so low that any variation on how hard I plucked the string is audible. I was able to record a couple things with one take and all of the notes sounded evenly balanced. Bottom line, you really couldn't tell that I had an effect on. It just totally evened up my playing.
I haven't had time to try out how it sounded with slap style but I suspect that it'll work great with that too.
The great thing is that with the "Bypass" switch I can take it out of the circuit with the push of a button and with the "Output" control set properly my sound/level is unchanged.
Cool little box!

Now back on topic ........... the white epoxy lines are the way to go with a lined fretless!:)
 
I sent my fretless Roscoe to Keith. Other than adding those 3-way switches he is going to examine the aluminum lines to see if they are seated properly, which I want them to be but those epoxy lines seems to be better.
 
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