Ed Roman question

[skorb]

so what is the deal with this shop and the owner? I see overwhelmingly negative info. has he dealt dishonestly with people? I am planning on visiting the shop next month in LV just for the fuck of it, never been there before.

if this issue is out of bounds, somebody pls PM me instead of posting the background in public? thx.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: Ed Roman question

I know he build replicas and marks them as originals.

[Venomboy]

Re: Ed Roman question

Facts, or things I have experienced first hand:

He has lots of nice guitars on his site and in his shop.

He's a very shrewd businessman and fights hard to get low low prices from manufacturers and tries to get a lot of exclusive deals.

He gets upset at the drop of a hat and likes to shout and scream. I once called to ask him about the price of a Jackson SL4 and first he denied they existed. I told him it was a Japanese model and he starts to yell about "fuckin' Japs goddamn fuckin shit Jap guitars..."

RacerX from this site kicked him in the ass at NAMM a while back.

He has lots of BC Rich body blanks which he claims are real.

He was an asshole back in the day when BC Rich was a young company.

Stuff others have said:

Some of his guitars are made in Mexico by the same people who make Rico Jr guitars and the current custom shop BC Rich guitars.

He makes fake BC Rich guitars and tries to pass them off as real BC Rich guitars. I have seen one of his fake Bich's on ebay. He recently had 2 90% finished BCR archtops on his site; supposedly BCR only sends out 100% finished guitars to dealers. When one of BCR's custom shop people was told about the guitars, the guitars were no longer seen on his site, yet they are still in his shop.

I'm sure others can tell their stories. Controversy follows fat ass Ed Roman and I would not do business with him.

[pebber]

Re: Ed Roman question

I was in Las Vegas a few months back and made a trip to big Ed.. the thing I remember most was the walking distance from the Alexis Park where I was staying [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
http://www.jcfonline.com/ubbthreads/...&page=5#476025
Next time, I visit some other guitar places..

[Sanctuary]

Re: Ed Roman question

[ QUOTE ]

RacerX from this site kicked him in the ass at NAMM a while back.


[/ QUOTE ]

Please tell us the story. I'd love to hear [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Inearthed]

Re: Ed Roman question

A bandmate of mine was building up a custom guitar to his favored specs, the guy putting it together ordered a body off of ebay and had a "custom made in the USA" neck done by Ed Roman after checking out his site. The specifications given were "a neck like the Jacksons have on the soloists; thin and fast." The neck arrived and it was very thick (we're talking, almost baseball bat thick here!), it might as well have been the neck from a LP or an acoustic guitar. The frets were so poorly done that they were literally over the edges on either side of the neck so that when you ran your hands up the neck, your fingers would get caught and scratched by the frets. They sent it back demanding that it was put up to the specifications desired and they were able to get it back in a much better condition (fretwise) but if I remember correctly the neck was shaved down a bit since that thin jackson-style neck still wasn't done.

[Chrisb]

Re: Ed Roman question

I have never had any bad experience with Ed, I got an OFR from him (his prices are quite good on those, or were) but I found him to be an overwhelmingly abrupt and rude guy. Not mean, though I could see how that makes sense since he was very abrupt. My thing is with so many good guitar dealers out there like Matt, Lloyd, Matt (OSL) and Vwall, why would you bother. His "custom guitars" are overpriced to McNaught like levels and his general attitude seems to say that HE is doing YOU a favor by even speaking to you. Fuck that and fuck him. Not to mention all legitimate bad deals people here have mentioned. Its not worth the risk or hassle IMO.

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: Ed Roman question

Ed Roman is a piece of shit maggot...he needs to slither back into the sewer from which he oozed. 'nuff said

The coolest thing about Ron (RacerX) kicking Roman's ass was he did it with my name on his NAMM badge! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[mab8485]

Re: Ed Roman question

I definitely want to hear racerx's story [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Inearthed, you wouldnt happen to be from guitars101 would you? That story seemed familiar.

[surfdork]

Re: Ed Roman question

I visited his shop not even 2 weeks ago. It was a sunday afternoon, and he was there sitting on this couch up front. He really does not look well these days. Anyway, my bro who lives in Vegas knows all the music store guys, from GC to Cowtown guitars (a cool vintage shop for sure). He even knows Ed.

We walk in, Ed and my bro start talking...I start looking. A lot of body blanks and necks. A lot of Roman guitars, and lots of other cool stuff too. One of those Gibson "corvette" Les Pauls...a Joe Perry Boneyard LP...a couple really nice Jacksons (all 30 feet in the air so you can't touch 'em) and a few charvels. A retro star, a 25th, a new custom shop rig (h/s in quilted blue that was string thru) and a nifty little San Dimas pointy w/snakeskin graphic. Many charvel guys know about this guitar, and it's "not for sale" status.

Of course, the first thing I ask him is..."How much for the charvel?" (knowing it's not for sale) He responds that it's not for sale, because they use it to copy the neck profile for the J.Frog guitars he is now making. Says he has to keep it on hand to prove to people that the new ones he's making are better than the old ones...gotta have this one available to prove it. Then he claimed it was worth $2200...which is not so outta line I guess. I though it was high though...after all, the guitar is a one hum w/kahler. I did grab a new charvel catalog though...it was free. On my way out the door, I saw the neck plates he has in the parts display case, including at least one SD plate that looked virtually new, but had a 2000 range number.

Overall, worth the trip just to see the authentic guitars he has...including an early neck-through Jackson explorer that some nimrod has put a washburn wonderbar on. (oh, that's yours for 3k) I almost bought a shirt just for laughs, but decided my $20 was better spent elsewhere in Vegas.

[j2379]

Re: Ed Roman question

Ed has the money & connections to have almost anything made & does. Yes the BCR blanks he claims are old NOS from the buy out are not. BCR didnt make bodys in that order so the ones in the process of being build are a dead giveaway that they were not factory BCRs. There are many factory guitars that arrive in his shop that get taken into a back room, spec'd out, replicated & then the originals are put away, the replicas are sold. The 2 BCR archtops were in fact replicas of guitars BCR/HHI sent him in completed form. BCR/HHI made the excuse well maybe ed took all the hardware off & was goin to sell them as blanks or add his own hardware. that didnt fly since the blanks didnt have holes cut for some of the electronics proving that they were NOT the guitar sent to him by BCR but copys he made. if you want a factory made guitar dont buy from him. if you want an over priced replica of your favorite brads guitar, then he is the man to get fucked by.

[skorb]

Re: Ed Roman question

[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] wow, thanks for the info everyone.

I plan on visiting the shop just for the sake of looking, but that's it. I blew my wad on that Flying V anyhoo, so not even a remote chance of me doing any business with him.

[krimson]

Re: Ed Roman question

Make sure to stop by Cowtown Guitars. They have alot of cool vintage stuff. They mostly deal in vintage Fender and Gibson stuff, but the have a few others that they take in trade. www.cowtownguitars.com They are not to far from the strip either, two blocks from the strip. They are a block or two over from Sam Ash.

[j2379]

Re: Ed Roman question

damn that MAX looks way cool

[tmmsjm]

Re: Ed Roman question

There is a big article about Ed Roman in Music Trades this month. It was their top 200 retailer issue, and he was #1 in sales growth. I think it said he did $40M from the one store. But he said several times that the margin wasn't doing too good, and the lease was going to be up soon, so he might ditch the whole "superstore" concept. Sounds like [img]/images/graemlins/bs.gif[/img] to me.