Man I really like that. I will have me a JJ Roscoe built soon.
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Roscoe Club
- Thread starter JOME77
- Start date
Man I really like that. I will have me a JJ Roscoe built soon.
This current Bubinga bass was supposed to be a JJ configuration with Nordstrand NJ5 pickups and Preamp and Keith messed it up. He sent me pics almost 2 months into the build and had it already cut for the Soapbars. I decided to just go with this since I love the soaps anyways. It does seem as though Keith is having trouble with help and needs someone to help with the clerical and paperwork side of the business.
Bummer! I wondered why you didn't go with the JJ as originally planned.
I wondered that as well, but I think it’s hard to go wrong with what you’re getting. I’ve debated a “jazz” bass, but I’ve found I have kind of been there done that. I used to have all jazz type basses, but for the last decade or so it’s been soaps, and within the last year, a P bass. I don’t really miss that jazz sound. If I want it, I’ve got a cheap (but surprisingly god sounding and playing) G&L JB-2 that has my passive jazz tone covered. I used it at church one weekend, just to see how it was, and it sounded like a jazz bass. It’s a nice option to have but I don’t know that I’ll use it a lot. My son is actually using it to learn on. I got him the Hal Leonard book that Ed Friedland edited to get him started. That’s the best use for that bass.
- Sep 3, 2006
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If you ever get a chance to try the Aquilar active/passive PJ setup on a Roscoe Classic J, give it a go. I find it totally different than typical Jazz bass setups. One gets a wide range of tone choices with the active/passive. It took me several minutes of playing with the tone choices to find one that is “my sound”, but it was there sitting in the electronics waiting. The tonal choices are vast and not a typical Jazz bass sound, even though one can dial that in if they wish.
JJ style basses certainly aren't for everyone. I personally love them for what they are and the open inherent tonal spectrum you get with a JJ but I also like the more compressed complex sound of the Roscoe Barts too.
What is it about this Sadowsky that has you thinking hard?
I loved the build and playability of the Sadowsky and in now way was I saying the tone was bad. Honestly probably would like the Sadowsky preamp if it had a Mid control. I like more control over the mids.
I had a Sadowsky RV4 a long time ago. It was probably the best jazz bass ever. One of 2 basses in wish I had back. That and the Rob Allen Mouse 30 fretless. Sea foam green. Rosewood board. VTC. Got compliments from everyone.
A question for the gentlemen (and ladies, not sure if we have any on this thread) of fine acoustic taste:
What kind of IEMs do you guys like to use, or are there any that are complete garbage?
I've found myself a band, and we're all adults, which means we like to control volume (2 engineers and a pilot, go figure) and preserve our hearing, and control our own monitor mixes. The drummer has both a big acoustic as well as an electric kit. The guitarist/singer and the drummer both are into IEMs, but don't have a lot of varied experience with them. My fear is to lose the qualities that make a Roscoe a Roscoe because of the wrong IEMs...
What kind of IEMs do you guys like to use, or are there any that are complete garbage?
I've found myself a band, and we're all adults, which means we like to control volume (2 engineers and a pilot, go figure) and preserve our hearing, and control our own monitor mixes. The drummer has both a big acoustic as well as an electric kit. The guitarist/singer and the drummer both are into IEMs, but don't have a lot of varied experience with them. My fear is to lose the qualities that make a Roscoe a Roscoe because of the wrong IEMs...
Wired or wireless?
Wired - some kind of monitor interface like a Rolls 351.
Wireless - the sky is the limit, but I still like my Carvin which IMO sounds fine especially for the price. But trash the supplied earbuds.
Shure and Sennheiser also get good reviews but I have no experience.
Westone UM-Pro-30 earbuds for me. Coupled with the right earseals (two compositions and 5 sizes of each) works fine.
You can literally spend thousands on custom earbuds and seals.
Wired - some kind of monitor interface like a Rolls 351.
Wireless - the sky is the limit, but I still like my Carvin which IMO sounds fine especially for the price. But trash the supplied earbuds.
Shure and Sennheiser also get good reviews but I have no experience.
Westone UM-Pro-30 earbuds for me. Coupled with the right earseals (two compositions and 5 sizes of each) works fine.
You can literally spend thousands on custom earbuds and seals.
I had the Westone Um Pro 50 (5 driver and regular $700) and compared them to the KZ ZS10 (5 driver from China for $49). Honestly the cable upgrade they offer and using a good Foam tip I have a total of $79 anf they sound just as good. The cable is better than the Westone and the Seal is perfect. Bass is really good and the clarity for other instruments and vocals is as good as any I've used. I actually sold the Westone's and purchased 2 sets of these for a backup and pocketed the rest lol.
No varied experiences here, but I use custom Alclair wire IEM. My experience with the sound of my bass has only been with what the house sends back. I only play live gigs with no real skilled sound engineer running the main board and no studio recordings, so I’m not that particular about a certain bass sound quality.
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The IEM question is really one of several variables I think.
Starting with the IEM's themselves you need to ask yourself what type of sound profile you desire. I.E. flat and neutral or more scooped or bass hyped? Based on your answer to that question you will immediately narrow your field of options. I don't feel there is necessarily a wrong answer here. In theory, a more neutral sonic profile would give you a more accurate presentation of sound mix (including that of your bass). But, when in the moment playing live on stage, sometimes what matters more than accuracy is a sense of "feeling" your playing. That can lend itself to potentially selecting more of a bass hyped sonic presentation. Some have a wider sound stage which some like and some don't. Others will hype what is called the "separation" between frequencies (Lows, mids, and highs) with lower priced IEM's stereotypically suffering from little separation and blurring of frequencies. It is for this reason that even after using very expensive IEM's I now use the KZ ZS10 Pros due to their tendency to hype the bass a little but not over the top. They are a good balance of what I like with the benefit of not costing a lot.
Then you have the fit of the IEM's. Custom molded or not. Size and weight of the earpieces. How well they seal. And IMHO not as important, but how they look.
Then you have the question of the source audio. The mix being fed to you ultimately determines what you hear and whether you like what you hear or not. In some scenarios, musicians don't have control of each individual "signal" in the mix. I.E. drums, guitar, vocals, keys, etc. In other scenarios, musicians have their own Aviom or Livemix interface allowing for independent control of each channel (or signal). Going even another step further, sometimes musicians have access to independent channels for multiple signals from the same instrument. I.E. separate channels for each of drum toms, kick drum, snare drum, etc. Or a channel for low keys and a channel for high keys. Or maybe a live presence microphone(s). In other words, to what degree do you have control? The Aviom or Livemix also allows for EQ modification and things like reverb and stereo or balanced mix. At the end of the day, the source audio (and what you include, or more importantly, exclude) is going to have a big impact on how you interpret what you are hearing. I've been in scenarios where what was fed to me sounded like crap and it didn't matter what IEM's I was using, I wasn't going to be happy.
Finally, the sensitivity of your ears. How do you hear frequencies? What is important to you in what you want to hear? This sort of brings us back to the top — different IEM's cater to different sonic stages.
Starting with the IEM's themselves you need to ask yourself what type of sound profile you desire. I.E. flat and neutral or more scooped or bass hyped? Based on your answer to that question you will immediately narrow your field of options. I don't feel there is necessarily a wrong answer here. In theory, a more neutral sonic profile would give you a more accurate presentation of sound mix (including that of your bass). But, when in the moment playing live on stage, sometimes what matters more than accuracy is a sense of "feeling" your playing. That can lend itself to potentially selecting more of a bass hyped sonic presentation. Some have a wider sound stage which some like and some don't. Others will hype what is called the "separation" between frequencies (Lows, mids, and highs) with lower priced IEM's stereotypically suffering from little separation and blurring of frequencies. It is for this reason that even after using very expensive IEM's I now use the KZ ZS10 Pros due to their tendency to hype the bass a little but not over the top. They are a good balance of what I like with the benefit of not costing a lot.
Then you have the fit of the IEM's. Custom molded or not. Size and weight of the earpieces. How well they seal. And IMHO not as important, but how they look.
Then you have the question of the source audio. The mix being fed to you ultimately determines what you hear and whether you like what you hear or not. In some scenarios, musicians don't have control of each individual "signal" in the mix. I.E. drums, guitar, vocals, keys, etc. In other scenarios, musicians have their own Aviom or Livemix interface allowing for independent control of each channel (or signal). Going even another step further, sometimes musicians have access to independent channels for multiple signals from the same instrument. I.E. separate channels for each of drum toms, kick drum, snare drum, etc. Or a channel for low keys and a channel for high keys. Or maybe a live presence microphone(s). In other words, to what degree do you have control? The Aviom or Livemix also allows for EQ modification and things like reverb and stereo or balanced mix. At the end of the day, the source audio (and what you include, or more importantly, exclude) is going to have a big impact on how you interpret what you are hearing. I've been in scenarios where what was fed to me sounded like crap and it didn't matter what IEM's I was using, I wasn't going to be happy.
Finally, the sensitivity of your ears. How do you hear frequencies? What is important to you in what you want to hear? This sort of brings us back to the top — different IEM's cater to different sonic stages.
I'm glad they work for you.
Someone suggested the KZ ZS5 and I couldn't EQ any decent sound to my ears.
The fact that one of the eartips came loose and got stuck in my ear until I could get home to tweezers didn't help my overall impression ;-)
Those had some issues but aren’t close to ZS10’s. No one set will work for everyone unless you get custom molds and spend major bucks.
I had been IEM curious for a while so started with a pair of CCA C12 in ears and Comply foam tips driven from a Behringer Powerplay P1 I picked up from Reverb for about $35. We use a Yamaha TF 3 at rehearsal so I built two channel monitor sends for everybody. I’ve got the drummer on on an electric kit and both him and the guitar player on the exact same IEMs and headphone amps. With Monitor Mix on our phones each of us can do our own stereo monitor mix. Being able to pan instruments makes a huge difference to me. The wired stuff is a little bulky, but works great. I didn’t want to have a big investment just to try it out, but now that I’ve used it enough to know that I like it, if we get back in a halfway regular gig situation I’ll invest in a stereo wireless Tx/Rx. The CCAs themselves sound way better than I expected. Though I’m sure they’re not as good as the stuff that’s 15x more expensive. The foam ear tips make a huge difference.
Yeah, I get the intricacies, believe it or not I have a degree in sound design (albeit from 2005) so I understand the mix.
I've had 3 pairs of custom ear pieces molded to my ear to suppose this beast- Invalid Link Removed
So I understand fit and function.
And both give me experience to know that I need to be able to hear what I need to hear- Managing 4 radios and the various tone and messages the airplane gives you will do that. So will a hardass director who tells you that they like the atmosphere but didn't really hear enough of the impacts in the fight scene in "Our Country's Good".
I'm just looking for a XYZ are good for the money, or PQS are not worth it and break, or these are nice but they only work with this and that makes it tough...
OK she is cut for my long awaited JJ 6. My last Roscoe fretless 6 was my one that got away. Sigh. LOL
I use 64 Audio with 4 drivers custom molds and Aviom 16 channel mixer. Drums are 2 channels (L&R), Keyboards 2 channels (L&R), Loop (Hate em) 2 channels (L&R). guitars(3), bass and click get one channel each. Lead vocal 1 channel, BAcking vocals mixed on one channel.
I go straight to the board via wireless.
I go straight to the board via wireless.
