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2020 Roscoe LG-3006 Custom Build

Brad Maestas

Brad Maestas

Tudo é Som
Gold Supporting Member
Nov 26, 2003
2,592
1,617
Petaluma, CA, USA
#1
Hello all,

I just wanted to share a bit of my experience building a custom bass with Keith Roscoe. I've owned one other Roscoe before, an SKB-3007 back around 2002. It had an Alder body, Maple burl top, and Cocobolo fingerboard and I loved the tone and feel of it. It could really reach down to the basement but I eventually found that 7 just wasn't for me.

For years I always had a six string in my stable but around 2004 I sold my main 6 (Fodera Edward) to fund the purchase of two Sadowsky NYCs, a Modern 5-24 PJ that I still own and a Modern 5-24 in red quilt. The Fodera was amazing but it weighed about 13 pounds and even as a fit person I would be in much discomfort after long two or three hour gigs. I was very glad to move to some lighter basses. The loss of the high C string didn't bother me too much. None of the groups I played with after that really needed it so I put off getting another six string for many years. Now I've been playing in some groups that are writing some very challenging music that would benefit from the six string so I started thinking of getting another one.

Jimmy Haslip has been a hero and then a mentor and friend of mine for many years. My first custom bass was a Tobias Signature 6 fretted that I ordered in large part due to his influence. It was no surprise then that when I started thinking about a six again, the idea of a Roscoe came up. I've always been smitten with Jimmy's main yellow quilted bass and that's sort of where I started with this one. It's not a straight copy of his specs but very much heavily influenced by his design choices that happen to coincide with my own.

Here are the specs:

Roscoe LG-3006 Custom
Exhibition Quilted Maple Top
Antique Yellow stain ala J. Haslip w/reverse slanted pickup routes
Mahogany body, transparent red
Extended cutaway for deeper access
Maple/Purpleheart/Maple neck, 34” scale length
19mm string spacing
Ebony fingerboard
Ivory nut
Black hardware, black decals
Full gloss finish
Bartolini pickups and 3-way EQ, push/pull mid
Passive push/pull vol pot (5 knob layout)

I reached out to Keith last month and he was immediately very gracious and giving of his time - even on the weekends! He took some pics of his stock and started showing me top blanks. I selected one but once he split and planed it it was not as stunning as we had thought. He sent me some more pics and I eventually picked this one.

IMG_1161.jpg


I was originally drawn by some of the very symmetrically-figured tops but this one stuck out for its incredible 3D quilt and for being a bit wild. Keith split and planed this one and said the figure showed through perfectly. We went over all the specs one more time and I gave him the all go. The build had officially begun!
 
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#4
There is nothing more exciting than having a build done by a builder who makes some of the best basses in the world. This will be a phenomenal bass when finished. I noticed you went with the new 5 knob configuration he's doing. I had it on both of my current builds and it makes a world of difference with the VTC and active passive option.
 
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#7
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#10
SteveC said:
I loved the days when we followed lots of builds all the time. I had 3 basses built for me and it was fun to follow them.
Click to expand...

Roscoe has come a long way. I had 2 Roscoe's built before the "Gard days" and although I asked for a pic or 2, the first time I saw any part of the bass was when UPS delivered them! Gard changed all that. He was awesome in the way he sent multiple pics of tops and finger board woods (for me to choose from) prior to starting the build(s). And he was great at leading you through the area's that helped assure that you ended up with a bass that matched what you were looking for in a bass (aesthetics and sound). And of course he always sent pics at every stage. So much fun.
Good to see that Keith and Rik are continuing in the tradition that Gard started. I'm not sure if some of the Roscoe newbie's know how many positive changes Gard brought to the Roscoe world. It's was certainly better in the Gard and post-Gard days than the pre-Gard days!;)
 
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#12
Bassworship1 said:
There is nothing more exciting than having a build done by a builder who makes some of the best basses in the world. This will be a phenomenal bass when finished. I noticed you went with the new 5 knob configuration he's doing. I had it on both of my current builds and it makes a world of difference with the VTC and active passive option.
Click to expand...
You're so right. It's exciting just to have a custom build in the first place but to have it be from one of the best of the best is really something special. I was glad to see the VTC as an option because I use it all the time on all my other basses. It seemed foolish not to have it on this one. I strongly considered the two-volume layout ala Jimmy but I'm so used to master and pan that I thought I'd probably be better off sticking with the same controls across all my basses.
 
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#13
JOME77 said:
Subscribed!
Beautiful choice of the top wood and the mahogany body will sound great!
Can’t wait to see this one progress!
Click to expand...
Thanks everyone! The body wood was one of the things I really took some time to ponder. I love Alder but I have it in quite a few of my basses so I was looking for something a little different. Cedar and Ash are usually pretty bright, which wasn't really the direction I wanted to go. In order to bring some more low-end response and balance out the brightness of the smaller body, Maple top and Ebony fingerboard, I chose Mahogany. I've only ever had one bass with a Mahogany body and I liked it a lot. It had a very smooth response with plenty of low end and a lush midrange. That bass had a Macassar Ebony top and jet black fingerboard and it was plenty warm (1989 Fodera Emperor 4).

After seeing the routing done I forgot how thick the tops are on the LGs! I've seen some of his other models with thinner caps but this one is quite thick. Very interested to hear the results of the wood combo!
 
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#14
JOME77 said:
Roscoe has come a long way. I had 2 Roscoe's built before the "Gard days" and although I asked for a pic or 2, the first time I saw any part of the bass was when UPS delivered them! Gard changed all that. He was awesome in the way he sent multiple pics of tops and finger board woods (for me to choose from) prior to starting the build(s). And he was great at leading you through the area's that helped assure that you ended up with a bass that matched what you were looking for in a bass (aesthetics and sound). And of course he always sent pics at every stage. So much fun.
Good to see that Keith and Rik are continuing in the tradition that Gard started. I'm not sure if some of the Roscoe newbie's know how many positive changes Gard brought to the Roscoe world. It's was certainly better in the Gard and post-Gard days than the pre-Gard days!;)
Click to expand...
That's very cool. I didn't know how that all progressed. Keith said he'd be sending some pictures along the way so I didn't really bother him about the frequency and have just been waiting patiently. Now that I've received some I'm tempted to ask him to take more but I don't want to slow down the build! :smug:
 
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#15
Brad Maestas said:
After seeing the routing done I forgot how thick the tops are on the LGs! I've seen some of his other models with thinner caps but this one is quite thick.
Click to expand...

Yeah. That's one of the features (the carved tops) that initially drew me to Roscoe's. The carved tops create such an elegant instrument. Not to mention the sonic/resonant affect that you can create blending a thick top wood (with different resonant characteristics) with a different body wood. Truly a work of art!
 
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#16
JOME77 said:
Roscoe has come a long way. I had 2 Roscoe's built before the "Gard days" and although I asked for a pic or 2, the first time I saw any part of the bass was when UPS delivered them! Gard changed all that. He was awesome in the way he sent multiple pics of tops and finger board woods (for me to choose from) prior to starting the build(s). And he was great at leading you through the area's that helped assure that you ended up with a bass that matched what you were looking for in a bass (aesthetics and sound). And of course he always sent pics at every stage. So much fun.
Good to see that Keith and Rik are continuing in the tradition that Gard started. I'm not sure if some of the Roscoe newbie's know how many positive changes Gard brought to the Roscoe world. It's was certainly better in the Gard and post-Gard days than the pre-Gard days!;)
Click to expand...

I didn’t have any customs built in the pre-Gard days, but I owned a couple pre-Gard Roscoes, which led up to a couple Gard-era off the shelf Roscoes, which then led to the custom orders I did through Gard. He definitely made the entire process a lot of fun, and his help in getting exactly the bass that I wanted each time was absolutely awesome. I won’t lie, we did have a couple screw-ups along the way (a couple specs on a couple basses I ordered were wrong, but he made it more than right with me in the end).

I miss the days of the Roscoe Forum here, where we got to follow countless build threads.
 
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#17
JOME77 said:
Roscoe has come a long way. I had 2 Roscoe's built before the "Gard days" and although I asked for a pic or 2, the first time I saw any part of the bass was when UPS delivered them! Gard changed all that. He was awesome in the way he sent multiple pics of tops and finger board woods (for me to choose from) prior to starting the build(s). And he was great at leading you through the area's that helped assure that you ended up with a bass that matched what you were looking for in a bass (aesthetics and sound). And of course he always sent pics at every stage. So much fun.
Good to see that Keith and Rik are continuing in the tradition that Gard started. I'm not sure if some of the Roscoe newbie's know how many positive changes Gard brought to the Roscoe world. It's was certainly better in the Gard and post-Gard days than the pre-Gard days!;)
Click to expand...

Being able to follow along with your build develops a good relationship with the customer. It's a little extra work, but I'm sure it goes a long way to maintaining, and really growing, a dedicated customer (or fan!) base.
 
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#19
widjajar said:
oh yeah thats going to be one great bass! love jimmy's playing. I think he's been playing roscoe bass for more than a decade or two ?? Great tone!
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yes, Jimmy has been such an inspiration to me from my very earliest days playing bass. I heard the first few notes of 'Live Wires' and my life was changed. My summer camp and eventual university jazz professor was close with Bob Mintzer and Vince Mendoza so they would come do guest concerts and masterclasses and eventually we got to do some festival gigs with Vince and the Yellowjackets which is when I actually got to meet Jimmy. We hit it off and kept in touch and whenever he was in the Midwest we'd try to meet for a lesson. When I moved to NYC in 2004 we were able to meet with more regularity and we've kept in touch ever since. He just gets better and better.

I do remember the general period when he got his first Roscoe built. He was very happy with it and so was everyone else that had the pleasure of hearing it! That was not long after I first met him.
 
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