Sounds like you're talking about Pedulla. My Roscoe fretless Century is killer. I'm curious how it compares to a Pedulla.
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Roscoe Club
- Thread starter JOME77
- Start date
Sounds like you're talking about Pedulla. My Roscoe fretless Century is killer. I'm curious how it compares to a Pedulla.
Since Atlanta Bass Gallery closed its doors, my chances of trying a Fodera became much harder, although I did pay for a Fodera in 2016! I paid a little over $5k for a Monarch 5’er from an online dealer. The bass was to ship that evening. Two days later I called them to inquire and the guy said they couldn’t find it and maybe the owner took it home from the warehouse. I quickly asked for and got my money back.
I still have GAS for one, but since their BSS is not within my playing sandbox, it will remain just GAS.
I still have GAS for one, but since their BSS is not within my playing sandbox, it will remain just GAS.
I owned a MV5. It was an okay bass! Changed the 19mm to 18mm bridge to make it a better player for me, and the pups. Sold it to fund another XYZ bass. Never looked back at that brand.
As it should! The album is a direct tribute to Joe Zawinul. Of course Scott Kinsey's sound is very informed by Joe. Scott said that he managed to befriend Joe and was able to work with him closely in the last decades of his life. That must have been amazing.
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Played a bit more with the modified Roscoe and I’m really impressed with the added versatility. The passive tone control really takes the edge off the sound of the Bart pre and transfers it to a really nice vintage tone (verses the modern of the typical Bart pre). I used the Bart trim pot to balance the output of the active & passive modes of the bass (did that with the EQ set flat).
I’m thinking now “why did I wait so long?”.
I may eventually still install a Nordstrand preamp in the bass though. The highs, mids and lows sound so nice with that pre in my Fender that I can’t help but imagine how it would sound with the Roscoe Bart’s!
Not now though. Just maybe eventually.
To be content is to be left behind!
Just a bit of an update ....
Well I'm still really liking the modified Bart preamp in my Roscoe but I'm still waiting on the:
Nordstrand 3B-4a 2-Pickup 4-Knob 3-Band Vol/Vol Stack - Tone P/P A/P - Mid P/P - Treb/Bass Stack.
Not so sure that I'll install it when it arrives but it's been on back order for around 2 months now (I originally ordered the 3B-4b model but then I realized that it didn't have the P/P Active/Passive function). Originally the Vol/Vol didn't appeal to me but I've used the same preamp in my P/J XYZ bass and really grown to like it.
Both model pre's are back ordered so changing my order didn't affect when I'd get it.
That’s the preamp I installed in my Roscoe Koa. Love it!! I’m having to deal with a stack chrome knobs from an old Sadowsky set for the Vol/Vol until my custom set for my Buckeye Burl are done. I’ll take the black stack knobs from it to have all matching black knobs on the Koa.
Yeah. I'm kind of thinking that I hear a bit more nice variances from mixes of the V/V verses the blend control. The blend seems to go quickly from one pickup soloed to both. Not a lot of variances in between (at least not to my old ears).
I ordered new sets of black stacked knobs. I also ordered a new electro-socket jack plate. I did this because I've already tried to remove the output jack from the plate and it's probably going to have to be destroyed to get it off (unless I purchase a wrench and grid it down thin enough to fit between the electro-socket plater and output jack body; which probably isn't going to happen).
I'm glad that Superman isn't working at Roscoe anymore!
I ran into a little trouble with the socket. The pins stick out to where they dig into the drilled hole and sorta makes it very hard to turn with fingers. If it’s the black plate that the socket screws into that’s hard to turn to get off you might try pushing it out from inside the cavity to where you can unscrew it.
Oh I took the entire jack and socket plate off (pushed it away from the body). The problem is that since I can't hold the jack nut, I tried to turn the socket plate while holding the jack assembly and the entire jack assembly just turns while the nut stays torqued. In the past I had to destroy a couple output jacks just to get to where I could loosen the jack nut.
This is only on Roscoe's made back in a certain time frame. Once we reported it to Gard he started having "Superman" not tighten the nut and electro-socket as tightly.
All this talk of other basses reminds me of my journey of my best bass search. This included basses like Lakland, MTD, Sadowsky, Dingwall, FBass, Drozd, Alembic, Elrick, etc. The Great Recession of 2008 forced me to sell these basses. And now that times are better, what bass did I acquire? Roscoe. Gives me chills when I play my LGs and Century fretless. Wish I had all of those back. But I’m good.
Anybody have a similar story? Or your own Roscoe story? Keep calm and play your Roscoe.
Anybody have a similar story? Or your own Roscoe story? Keep calm and play your Roscoe.
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Sounds familiar Gary. Not sure if mine was a search for the perfect bass or just a yearning for something new every month or so. During a span of 16 years I went through crazy numbers of boutique basses (most of the brands that you mention above) but always kept at least one Roscoe except for one small 3 month window (when I went on a weekend flurry of trading to end up with no Roscoe's and 2 Pedulla's that were promptly trade to Jim at ABG for a new Smith GN5 neck through). That was the light bulb moment, which I refer to as my "Solomon - Nothing new under the sun" moment.
I sold the Smith, commissioned a new Roscoe build, and finally settled down. After the dust settled I had owned over 30 different Roscoe's and I don't want to even count the numbers of the other boutique basses that came and went.
I guess that's why new builds and pretty basses just don't excite me much any more. Been there, done that, still have some of the t-shirts.
Just content with my one Roscoe and XYZ basses these days.
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I thought about selling my Koa Century 5 a couple times. Was having trouble “justifying” such an expensive bass, I could play a cheaper anything and be fine, that kind of thing. My wife said no way. I’m glad she did. I have bought back my fretless 5 and my wife bought me a Classic P for Christmas.
Times are hard, but hold on until doing something like selling a bass is the last option. There are almost always other ways.
Times are hard, but hold on until doing something like selling a bass is the last option. There are almost always other ways.
Yeah. I think selling a bass for emergency funds rarely equals more than a band-aid. It could maybe bring some short term relief but it does not remedy the root problem. And then when things do “get fixed”, replacing the bass almost always cost much more than what you sold it for.
Also, if things get really bad you will probably have a hard time selling your Roscoe anyway. So hang onto it!
Right! These boutique, one-of-a-kind, my best build ever bass are not sound investments.
They are if you keep them. I've had numerous people try to buy my SKB 3005, some more than once. Not for sale at any price. It took me two years to find and buy it. Thanks DCR!
Which brings up an interesting question. At what age point does the resale price of a bass/guitar stops declining and begins to increase and surpasses the original sale price?
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