I guess a little over two years ago before my M/C accident a fellow TBer acquired a Roscoe LG2005. When he traded for the bass, he knew it had a broken truss rod and it was very obvious it had been abused. He carried the bass to Keith and Keith tried to remove the truss rod, but back when this bass was built the truss rods were epoxied in place. The TBer brought the bass by my house I looked at it and knowing the issues I offered him a deal which he accepted, I just couldn't bare the thought of this bass being Frankensteined with a Jazz neck.
I called Keith and got the lowdown on the LG2005. The fingerboard on the bass is Brazilian Rosewood/Sapwood, even though back when this bass was built there was no extra charge for Brazilian Rosewood, well in today's market that wood is on the endangered species list so the fingerboard is an $1100 upgrade.
I talked to Keith about the neck and he said let's put a new neck on the bass, but I kept thinking about that beautiful Rosewood fingerboard and what it would cost today. I really had to give this some thought.
Fast forward to a month ago, I took the bass to Hanson and Crawford Luthiers, these guys do so some of the best instrument repair on the East Coast. They tried heating the neck and truss rod but couldn't get it to budge. We discussed routing up the back of the neck, chipping out the truss rod and putting a new one in then replacing the routed out area with Rosewood. Their thoughts were the chance of saving the fingerboard would be slim to none and they were not sure if they could maintain the structural stability of the neck. They offered to build an exact replica of the neck less the gorgeous Brazilian Rosewood/Sapwood fingerboard and in its place install a piece of Bolivian Rosewood or what ever wood I wanted.
After some thought, it just wouldn't be a Roscoe if someone besides Keith and crew built the neck. So, I talked to the Gardfather and promised him Joe's next grandchild to have the repairs done.
When I drive down to pickup my new CS Plus (No Brown Truck Ride for it) I am going to drop off my LG2005 to have a new neck built and have the Wilkinson bridge replaced with a Hipshot bridge.
This is not the type of repair I would advise the average person have done due to the cost factor but call me crazy, a Roscoe is a terrible thing to waste.
Oh, if you ever meet Mrs. Crash, you know absolutely nothing and you have never heard of me or the LG2005.
The specs on this bass are:
Neck: Maple/Purpleheart/Maple/Purpleheart/Maple (Purpleheart pin stripes)
Body: Ash
Top: Exhibition Quilt Maple
Electronics: Passive Volume/Volume/Tone
Pickups: EMG Active Soapbars
Tuners: Gotoh
Bridge: Wilkenson (Hipshot TBA)
Fingerboard: Rosewood/Sapwood (Something with Sapwood? TBA)
This tone on this LG2005 is so unique and very smooth sounding, extremely punchy with no harshness of mids at all. With the passive tone control you can barely tell the EMG pickups are active, it is like someone blended the tone of a passive "P" and "J" bass together.
I suck at recording so when the repairs have been completed I will have to get someone else to record the bass or you can hear it live at the next Greensboro GTG. Below are a few pictures. Maybe Gard will post pictures as the repairs move along.
