Keith Roscoe Guitars

Builder

Overview

TuneYourSound.com proudly announces that it has been chosen as the retaler and distributor for the sale of Electric and Bass Guitars. We firmly believe that the work of Keith is one of the finest to be found. All instruments are hand-build to your specifications and will be unique. The whole product-line will available in our showroom (virtually and physical at our shop location in Luxembourg).

Keith Roscoe currently offers half a dozen different models. Those guitars are custom made, if you wish so, respecting your creativity and Keith always strives to be as flexible and receptive to your own personal ideas when it comes to designing the guitar of your dreams. Roscoe Guitars models being offered:

Roscoe Electric Guitar Series:

The LG-322

After a long process of design and development, Keith is now satisfied that these guitars are the culmination of his vision and commitment to build quality, ergonomic design, and flexible tonal options that make the LG-322 an Electric Guitar that will meet and exceed the expectations of the most discriminating Professional Guitarist.

Specifications are the following:

Custom - Chambered mahogany, swamp ash, alder, or Spanish cedar bodies; hand-carved exotic wood tops, 25.1” scale length graphite reinforced 3-piece (Spanish Cedar/Paduk/Spanish Cedar, 3-piece Maple, or optional 3-piece Wenge), 24 fret necks with matching front & back headstocks. A 25.5” scale, 22 fret version in development; a variety of available fingerboard wood options; both stop tailpiece and tremolo versions; Dual-humbucker pickups with 3-position switching and master volume and tone controls (custom pickup and wiring options available upon request); tuners and tremolo Bridge by Hipshot; stop tailpiece is the AVT-II by Tone Pro.

Here the first ones built for Summer NAMM 2013: NAMM1 and NAMM 3

Roscoe Bass Guitar Series:

The Century

This is the largest body bass built and is excellent for 4, 5, 6, and 7 string basses, exceptionally well balanced on a strap.

Specifications are the following:

Standard – Solid swamp ash body, “flat top” with arm and belly carve; 3-piece all quartersawn maple bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; maple, pau ferro, or fretless (lined or unlined) diamondwood fingerboard; Bartolini 3-band preamp with either Bartolini CB soapbar or Bartolini hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot B-style bridge and ultralight tuners in satin chrome; gigbag included, case optional. Plus version adds thin exotic wood top.

Custom – Swamp ash, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or alder body with various exotic hardwood tops (and available matching backs), “3D” carved top with belly carve; 3-piece all quartersawn maple/purpleheart/maple bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; various fretted and fretless fingerboards; Bartolini or Aguilar 3-band preamps with custom Bartolini soapbar or hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot A-style bridge and ultralight tuners, black finish standard, chrome or black-gold optional; case or gigbag option.

Signature – Swamp ash, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or alder body with various exotic harrwood tops (and available matching backs), “3D” carved top with belly carve; 5-piece all quartersawn maple/purpleheart/purpleheart/maple “Wedge” neck (the heel of the center lamination is wider than the headstock) or optional “Wenge Wedge” wenge/wenge/maple/wenge/wenge bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; various fretted and fretless fingerboards; Bartolini or Aguilar 3-band preamps with custom Bartolini soapbar or hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot A-style bridge and ultralight tuners, black finish standard, chrome or black-gold optional; case or gigbag option.

The SKB

This is a larger body bass built and is excellent for 4, 5, 6, and 7 string basses, with very good higher fret access.

Specifications are the following:

Standard – Solid swamp ash body, “flat top” with arm and belly carve; 3-piece all quartersawn maple bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; maple, pau ferro, or fretless (lined or unlined) diamondwood fingerboard; Bartolini 3-band preamp with either Bartolini CB soapbar or Bartolini hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot B-style bridge and ultralight tuners in satin chrome; gigbag included, case optional. Plus version adds thin exotic wood top.

Custom – Swamp ash, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or alder body with various exotic hardwood tops (and available matching backs), “3D” carved top with belly carve; 3-piece all quartersawn maple/purpleheart/maple bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; various fretted and fretless fingerboards; Bartolini or Aguilar 3-band preamps with custom Bartolini soapbar or hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot A-style bridge and ultralight tuners, black finish standard, chrome or black-gold optional; case or gigbag option.

Signature – Swamp ash, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or alder body with various exotic harrwood tops (and available matching backs), “3D” carved top with belly carve; 5-piece all quartersawn maple/purpleheart/purpleheart/maple “Wedge” neck (the heel of the center lamination is wider than the headstock) or optional “Wenge Wedge” wenge/wenge/maple/wenge/wenge bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; various fretted and fretless fingerboards; Bartolini or Aguilar 3-band preamps with custom Bartolini soapbar or hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot A-style bridge and ultralight tuners, black finish standard, chrome or black-gold optional; case or gigbag option.

The LG

This is the smallest well balanced body, excellent for 4 and 5 string basses, with angled pickups.

Specifications are the following:

Standard – Solid swamp ash body, “flat top” with arm and belly carve; 3-piece all quartersawn maple bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; maple, pau ferro, or fretless (lined or unlined) diamondwood fingerboard; Bartolini 3-band preamp with either Bartolini CB soapbar or Bartolini hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot B-style bridge and ultralight tuners in satin chrome; gigbag included, case optional. Plus version adds thin exotic wood top.

Custom – Swamp ash, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or alder body with various exotic hardwood tops (and available matching backs), “3D” carved top with belly carve; 3-piece all quartersawn maple/purpleheart/maple bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; various fretted and fretless fingerboards; Bartolini or Aguilar 3-band preamps with custom Bartolini soapbar or hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot A-style bridge and ultralight tuners, black finish standard, chrome or black-gold optional; case or gigbag option.

Signature – Swamp ash, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or alder body with various exotic harrwood tops (and available matching backs), “3D” carved top with belly carve; 5-piece all quartersawn maple/purpleheart/purpleheart/maple “Wedge” neck (the heel of the center lamination is wider than the headstock) or optional “Wenge Wedge” wenge/wenge/maple/wenge/wenge bolt-on neck with single-action trussrod and dual graphite rod reinforcement; various fretted and fretless fingerboards; Bartolini or Aguilar 3-band preamps with custom Bartolini soapbar or hum-free J-style pickups; Hipshot A-style bridge and ultralight tuners, black finish standard, chrome or black-gold optional; case or gigbag option.

If you need some guidance to choose your bass, we can recommend the following article from Rob Beck. It is a detailed, updated and comprehensive guide on how to choose a bass guitar - 12 factors to consider according to science. It is more than 7,000 words and packed with practical tips and advice. You can find it here: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/bass-guitar/

The Builder

Keith Roscoe, "THE HOME OF TONE" for Electric and Bass Guitars

Keith Roscoe is another famous guitar builder from North Carolina. His mission is to build the best electric guitars and basses possible, using the best avail-able materials and the best craftsmanship possible. As with nearly all our builders Keith was first a musician. He began playing guitar at age 11 and rapidly moved on to join different bands playing bass and lead guitar, before attending Berklee College of Music. In 1971, he left school and set up a shop in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he repaired and restored used guitars for the next 20 years. As often happens, all that repair work led Keith to begin thinking of building his own instruments. In 1983, he opened up a completely separate shop to concentrate on building guitars. At some moment in time he decided to join both businesses and to shift to mainly building guitars. Exploring different body styles, and experimenting with different wood combinations, electronics, and hardware, the Roscoe Guitars Company produced some innovative guitars for a number of clients. Many of these collector’s items sported custom air brushed graphics, and some over the top finishes that were popular back in the days. All these early tone monsters were born of Keith's imagination, and then hand-built by him.

Occasionally he built also bass guitars and at the end, bass orders began to outweigh guitar orders, so much so that by 2000 Roscoe stopped building guitars altogether and focused just on basses. 3 Years ago he started to think again building guitars based on his long lasting experience and came up with a brand new line of electric guitars which have little in common with the 90‘s guitars he built. The guitars as well as the basses sport beautiful contours and graphite-reinforced necks. Especially the reinforced neck construction gives his guitars and basses a higher resonance frequency, so less chance for dead spots or boom tones, and it makes the neck generally more reliable. At the end this generates instruments which can be relied upon and which are easy to be maintained.

Even if Keith has now a well-trained team around him, he is present in the production, where he works to ensure his basses retain continuity in design and feel.

If you need some guidance to choose your bass, we can recommend the following article from Rob Beck. It is a detailed, updated and comprehensive guide on how to choose a bass guitar - 12 factors to consider according to science. It is more than 7,000 words and packed with practical tips and advice. You can find it here: https://beginnerguitarhq.com/bass-guitar/

Videos

As we have visited Keith in his shop in Greensboro, NC, we were able to produce some video material so that you can get an insight into Keith's work. We hope you enjoy watching this and that this inspires you to try out one of his creations.