Rockman Bass

I never change the settings on my rockman. It gets plugged in and off we go.

my stage setup is a H H mosfet v800 running into a ampeg 8x10 for high end and a QSC 1500watt amp running into 2 2x15 EV cabinets. Ashley preamp and crossover. My 1977 BC Rich Koa Eagle has had all of it's insides removed and replaced with two EMG active replacement pickups. the guitar only has an on and off toggle switch on it. All of this gear is useless without my rockman. It has evolved my technique and sound and I can't play without it, literally! The hiss is a bit noisy and I've hade complaints from the front end guys at times but when they try to take it out of the line, they put it right back in. Wicked big rock sound if you gjot the power.

Unfortunately, I bought the first one in Canada and its been repaired all over the country. It can no longer be repaired and I need to find another one now. Considering what I put it through, it held up very well but I wish I bought another four or five of them back then and had them now.

no such thing

Hard Rock - great match
playing since 1968
i would have to find the same product. cant survive without it
one thing I love about it is that if your doing support gigs or such or you have to work with different front end guys all the time, as long as they keep your channel flat all they have to do is crank up the rockman sound. they cant get the dreaded bass clicking string sound. the high frequency clipper and compressor are the best features

The Bass Rockman is very easy to use, and very versatile for practicing with headphones and as a mini pre-amp. The compressor and clip switches are a bit tricky to use if you are using all of the inputs.

I use my Bass Rockman with a Rickenbacker 4003 bass and a Trace Elliot combo amp. The Bass Rockman eliminates a lot of the treble 'clicking' that Ricks are known for, and gives it a smooth, hard driven sound with just enough chorus to make it all distinct. It is the first in a line of effects I use, which includes EQ, Chorus, and Digital Delay.

The Bass Rockman is remarkably tough, and has followed me from San Francisco to Kansas City without ever breaking down. The 'Rockadaptor' for it requires special care in handling, however. You must have it (or you'll spend a fortune in AA batteries), but do not put excessive stretch stress on it or it will not work.

The unit is not made anymore. When it breaks, I'll give it an honorable funeral and move on to something else.

The Bass Rockman is a wonderful unit. The only weakness it has is that it is noisy (hissy and static-like), particularly if you are running it through a large sound system. It produces a wonderfully clean sound for my Rickenbacker, but sounds terrible with other basses I've tried it with (Peavey, Ibanez, Jackson).

the settings are self-explanatory, although there are enough options that you'll want to mess around a bit.

See below...I use the bass rockman for distortion only and for that it's killler--definately a 10+. But these units are fairly cheaply made and vary greatly from one to the next in sound quality, so if you're planning on using it as a preamp or something, be prepared for noise. If it's getting a little dull, a cleaning may help. Also, they tend to be noisy effects, especially with the treble boosted.

I've used my bass rockman on gigs without a backup for years now without a problem, but like I said, I just use it for distortion. In general, these units need to be taken care of. Since mine lives in a rackmount, it doesn't get handled much, but they're all plastic and the soldering can be hit or miss, so treat it nicely!

Forget it. Best to go with a local techs who know what they're doing. Scholz is out of business, and Dunlop -- who owns the bass rockman -- doesn't make it anymore. I once called them to ask a bunch of questions and when I asked for a schematic the guy got all defensive thinking I was going to steal a trade secret and start building them myself or something. Go figure.

I originally got my bass rockman in the late 80s as a headphone amp. I quickly discovered that the distortion setting was unlike any other bass distortion I'd ever heard. It's not "natural" or "tubey" in the way a fulltone or Tech21 is, but is the BEST sounding bass distortion I've ever heard. It's basically an overdrive circuit with compression and EQ after the overdrive. It's also got a chorus on it, so the harmonics just sing. Plus, it's got cabinet emulation, so when you're going through a DI, it will retain a nice full sound and the soundguy will love you. Anyway, a few years later I found a "Four" Rockmount, which is a rackmount adaptor for rockman units. I bought it, sold the guitar rockman that came with it, and added it to my live setup. The Four rackmount has a 1/4" input in the back, and you can use a footswitch to bypass the unit altogether. So now my rockman sits in there, in bypass, until I want to kick in the distortion. One stomp on the footswitch and the world changes -- the bass guitar sounds like a bass guitar: the notes are articulate, the chords will rip through you (though it like 5ths and 9th a LOT better than 3rds), and if you set the FOUR unit to boost a little, you get a nice boost in the bass and mids. Absolutely the best bass distortion EVER. The only hitch is that you need the Four unit or something like it to use it like I do, and the distortion is so radical that it doesn't respond much to the differences between basses -- except that you can get nice whammy effects with a fretless if your intonation is on. This is a one of a kind sound, and in today's inflated vintage market, probably hard to come by at a fair price. I've occasionally seen used Rockmans and Rackmounts online at ugbm.com, but it's hit or miss. If you play rock bass and you want bone crushing distortion, and you see one of these units, check it out and BUY IT if it's in good shape. You'll be glad you did.