Roscoe Beck 5 vs American Deluxe 5 or FMT V?

[bassartist]

Which is best for slap tone? I have a 4 string Am. Deluxe which has a great slap tone but need it in a 5. But I'm torn between the RB5 and the American Deluxe 5 or the FMT V.

[musicfiend]

Seems like you are into the fender basses, if I were seriously looking at fender five strings I'f probably look at the marcus miller signature 5 string. apparently he spent a lot of time in the design process with a guy from fender; and, come on, that thing just LOOKS funky.

 

If I were still looking at fender 5's though, i'd be looking at sadowsky's, lull's, and laklands (as well?).

[bassartist]

Just hadn't seen the Marcus Miller 5 in my area. Would love to have a Sadowsky, Lull or Lakeland, just don't want to part with that much cash though.

[musicfiend]

Well, the skyline and the metro are two viable options. I would not be suprised if a metro and skyline competed with a fender 5. Mike lull, as I understand has prices that are more reasonable than lakland or sadowky.

[tucker71]

I always read these "this or that" threads very closely when it involves Fender Basses.

 

For many many years, I have been wondering about the ACTUAL differences in Fender Basses. Mainly because they have about 100 different models.

 

Take any Fender Jazz Bass with a Badass bridge. Now add two US Jazz pickups. Is it now a Geddy Lee? How does it differ (sonically)?

 

I mean, are the differences in the "Time Machine Series" and the "Custom Classic Series" really noticable? Are they solely cosmetic?

 

I always end up asking this one question:

if you closed your eyes and LISTENED...how obvious would those differences really be?

 

I guess that's why it's so hard for me to part with several THOUSAND dollars for a vintage instrument when all the reviews for the new Mike Dirnt Pbass claim that it's one of the best basses out there AND IT'S ONLY 800 BUCKS!

[musicfiend]

Well, recently I had the pleasure of playing a 65 pbass (sunburst/rosewood)....man, there is a difference. I'm telling you, this bass sang like no other bass I have ever held. I was playing that baby for a couple of hourse in the hollywood gc vintage room's loft area. It played like butter too, low action, singing sustain, a nice sweet treble respopnse and tight low bass. And THAT NECK, man, somebody cured it just right.

 

In many areas I FULLY disagree with the values upheld in the vintage market. But I think that the said bass was worth every penny. Now, if only I had every penny!

[Nicklab]

Even though I am a big advocate of the Roscoe Beck 5 string, I think the Marcus Miller 5 might be much better suited to the task. The slap technique is such a big part of Marcus's sound that the bass has to be well suited to slapping.

 

As for other, all around uses, I'd still go with the Roscoe Beck. I love mine.

[musicfiend]

The marcus bass has wide string spacing at the bridge for slapability I beleive. You can find a lot of info on his website, there is a section dedicated to the fivestring. The deal with that bass is that it started from the ground up. The four string version was pretty much a copy of marcus' bass. The five string ,however, had many new refinements and design aspects: the designed a new preamp (or preamp frequency nominals), they tested for a nice bridge, the messed with fingerboard radius and string spacing, etc.

[wraub]

My neighbor swears by his Roscoe Beck. In fact, he recently bought a second one.

 

Peace,

 

wraub