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BGRA: Fender Roscoe Beck V
| Manufacturer |
Fender |
Model |
Roscoe Beck V |
| Reviewer |
Tom Eisenmenger |
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| Experience |
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Item owned |
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| Review Date |
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Price paid |
$840 quoted (I traded even a Rick 4003s/5) |
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Neck Type | maple, single piece bolt-on |
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Fingerboard | pao ferro, fretted |
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Body Type | alder |
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Finish | shoreline gold |
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Pickup(s) | 2 Fender special Jazz passive |
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Controls | volume, tone w/pullout neck pu volume cut, 3-position |
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This bass has an incredible range of tone: certainly the most flexible passive bass I've
ever played. You have a master volume, master tone (with pull-out neck pu
volume cut), 3-position pu switch, and two pickup micro-switches (one for
each pickup). These micro-switches let you choose whether the pickup should
be in serial humbucker, single-coil, or passive humbucker configuration and
you have this control over each pickup individually! If you want the neck
pu to be in serial humbucker mode but the bridge pu to be single-coil, so be
it! I had read on TBL a suggestion that one play without plugging in at
first -- I did and was amazed at its nice strong sound. The special double-j
pickups are monstrous and sound great! The B is nice and tight, especially
for a 34" scale bass. It was fitted with tapered end strings which might
account some for this. I tried the bass through a SWR Workingmans 15 (same
as my personal amp).
The Roscoe Beck is very comfortable to play. Nice wide neck with 19mm string spacing --
great for my big hands. I bought my first 5-string 4 months prior to this purchase -- a
Rick 4003s/5 (I'm very partial to Ricks, my other bass is an azureglo '77
Rick 4001). Big mistake, not because of its tone but because RIC just
adapts the 4-string neck with a 5-string nut and bridge, making a very
narrow string spacing (on the order of 11mm or so!) that's virtually
impossible to play fingerstyle. After struggling for 4 months I decided it
wasn't for me so I traded it in on the RB (even trade, I might add!). This
bass was much lighter than the Music Man and Warwick I also tried, but a
little heavier than the new-style G&L L2500 (more on that later). The bass
was well-set when I bought it so I haven't had to adjust the Gotoh bridge
yet, but I can tell you a few things about it. You can string the bass
either from the bridge or through the body (it was set up from the bridge).
String height can be individually adjusted (being a Rick owner I consider
this a luxury ). The tuners are great -- Hipshot ultralights, I believe.
This is also a well-balanced bass; my Rick 5 was somewhat neck-heavy.
(3) Very reasonably priced. I had been quoted prices of $840 to $960 street
when hunting one of these suckers down. You can't beat that with a stick!
I'll point out two other things here: first, this is a USA-built Fender (oh
by Jingo!) and they're extremely hard to come by (future collector status?).
Prior to buying the Rick, I had inquired about the Roscoe Beck at every
Fender dealer within a two-hour drive. Nobody had it, although one dealer
(where I eventually bought it) said they had one on order. That was
October. First week of March I got the call that it was in, would I like to
try it? Of course!
I'll also mention that I tried a new G&L L2500 with the 3+2 headstock
arrangement -- also very nice. I had to A/B with the Roscoe Beck for a
while before making a decision. The G&L was even lighter than the Fender
and had slightly narrower string spacing (about 17mm, I'd guess) so it was
very comfortable for me. You could switch between active and passive
electronics -- another plus (I'm not a big fan of active electronics). A
great bass, but not quite as nice as the Roscoe Beck overall so I chose the
Fender.
Since we all know that nothing is perfect, I will air my one beef now: the
bass comes with a strap, cord, and tweed case. The cord is of a very nice
gauge, but the strap is short and flimsy and the case, though well-built,
has the most gawd-awful orange furry interior I've ever seen! My kids
recoiled in horror when I first opened the case for them to see Daddy's new
toy... Still, a small price to pay for such an excellent instrument!
One other beef, and this one's directed towards Fender: The manual was
too general for an instrument with such non-conventional controls, although
a single xeroxed sheet did identify the controls there was no
description of how to operate said controls; also, there was no
warranty card of any sort to send in to the F-boys (you'd think
they'd want to keep some kind of records there...).
If you've found one on a rack, try it out! If you like it, buy it! You
will not be disappointed and it won't hang on that rack for long, I can
assure you!
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| construction |
 | (95%) |
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| playability |
| (95%) |
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| appearance |
| (100%) |
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| sound |
| (100%) |
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| value |
| (100%) |
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| overall |
| (99%) |
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