Who here has had PERSONAL experience with Ed Roman?

[PowerTube]

Yes, I know that Ron kicked him in the ass and I don't really care to rehash all of that, so can we please not let this thread degenerate into a flame war for either "team" or whatever? That would be greatly appreciated. I just want some honest opinions.

Do any of you actually own an Ed Roman brand (Quicksilver, LSR, Jet, etc....)? I have to say that they look pretty incredible on his site. I also have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with some of his rants. Also, who here has had personal experience in dealing with him and/or his company?

Please don't tell me that "Shredder Kid" over on Harmony Central knows a guy who knows a guy who has an uncle whose dentist's next door neighbor's dry cleaner got screwed over by him. I'm looking for first-hand dealings with him or his company, plus your opinion on the guitars he sells.

[Jacksons Shred]

Mainly the people here who got screwed (or almost got screwed), do have personal experience. If you do a search on him you'll see everyone's personal experience with the schmuck. The only good thing I read about him was this guy that was all butt crazy for him for making fake lefty guitars, or something similar. He was probably one of Ed's goons , or possibly the Hamburgler himself.

[jgcable]

When he owned East Coast Music Mall in Danbury, CT he was a really nice guy and had an incredible selection of guitars. He was one of the first stores that rented equipment. He also had a full stage set up in the store. It was awesome.

[Newc]

I was told by a long-standing fellow JCFer of good reputation that went to High School with him that Ed got his start (quote: "made his fortune") selling fake motorcycle parts (HD, I believe) way back when.

He has also been caught red-handed making fake BC Riches in the past (not his "Fabulous Fakes" line, but posing as a BCR Custom Shop) by people on the former BCR forum (late 90s, early 00s).

Then of course there's the WarAngel issue, where he adopted MY design into his available offerings and tried to justify it by saying basically "Jackson doesn't care about protecting one-offs, so they're public domain". I have a statement from someone at JCMI that this is indeed not the case.

That said, there's a couple of people on the Duncan forum that have a Quicksilver, but I personally wouldn't buy a pack of strings from Ed Roman.


Don't let the cosmetic appearances suck you in. Buy one of those blinged-out Schecters or something instead of an Ed Roman. I'm sure his shop can build a high-quality guitar, but if there's no ethics, why deal with the guy?

[straycat]

I went to his shop in Las Vegas several years ago he was very gracious.
Gave me a tour of the entire place.I told him I build guitars as a hobby and he said I have any parts you need just ask.
He had some very cool guitars hanging everywhere. He said grab one you like and take it to the amp room and give it a test drive.So I did.
Ended up getting a few OFR's and 2 Kramer Baretta bodies one black and one white.
He knocked 10% off on the bodies so it was a very good deal for me.

[Top Jimmy B]

I purchased two guitars from Ed back when he was in CT. Both were over the phone and he had to order one of them in for me(Black Pearl Y2KV). Each deal was smooth and painless. Whenever I emailed him for an update he replied quickly and abruptly, but he replied. I paid $1249 for the Y2KV and $1399 for the RGF Soloist - shipped.

Overall, both were good experiences and yes, I was aware of the horror stories at the time.

[surfreak]

I corresponded with him a while ago on some Steinberger parts I needed. He initially said he wouldn't sell these original Newburgh-era parts, because he needed them as spares or to possibly build "partsobergers".

In the end, and after some objectively fair negotiations, he did sell them to me, for a fair price, and he offered some very good advice on build, setup and maintenance of these parts.

This was in 2005, and I was fully aware of his reputation and the many horror stories.

Since I like to be upfront with the people I send my hard-earned money to, I did mention all these horror stories to him.
He didn't deny them, he didn't get angry, he didn't make excuses. I send him my payment, a week later I received my parts.

[j2379]

i dealt wth him back when he was in CT & owned ECMM. gave me the tour showed off alot of customs, got very angry & stand offish when i questioned the origins of a BCRich SG, that i was considering buying. it was NOT a factory made BCR. most of necks & bodies he sells are not factory originals but replicas. i dont know about now, but his guitars back in the ECMM days were very well made & to most people could be passed of as factory original guitars. just be aware alot of the one off customs & rare shredder guitars are not what he claims they are.

[SiriusAbbott]

while I have not bought ANY guitars from the man,I have had a fair amount of correspondence with him.
I know his reputation isnt the best,but his knowledge is admirable.

[beachjammer]

I have a friend that had two of his replica guitars. A 5150 clone and a Rhoads Polka Dot clone. I played both guitars but didn't care for the feel or build quality of either.

[Venomboy]

I played some of his guitars at NAMM 2 years ago. They weren't bad. Felt nice, good build quality.

I asked him if any of the Pasaye brothers that have built for BCR build his stuff. He said one of them builds wood prototypes and showed me one of them.

I also asked him if BC South builds his guitars. He got really quiet and wide-eyed and kept staring at my name badge. He asked where I was from. He then said "who ARE you?" I said, just a BCR fan from the Bay Area. I asked about BC South again and he said "never heard of them". Kinda strange answer from him since they've been around since the early 80's and built guitars for BCR since then, and continue to do so today. I though he was going to start screaming at me because he got this crazy look in his eye.

He did say BCR's prices were crazy considering "where they are built". Hmm...thought he never heard of BC South.

A few years ago he had some neck thru BCRs on his site that were stained and clearcoated but didn't have the controls drilled out. Some folks on the Moser forum pointed this out to Tim Keyes at BCR and Tim seemed surprised. A day or 2 later the guitars were gone from Ed's site. So maybe they were fakes, maybe factory seconds...it seemed like he was selling something he wasn't supposed to.

On ebay recently I have seen a few guitars that he built with R logos that were BCR copies. Some of them had certificates which said they were replicas of BCRs.

So he does build fakes, I just don't know if he is always up front about it.

When I picked up his guitars he went into instant salesman mode and starting raving about his guitars. Like I said, they were pretty nice, couldn't find any flaws.

He stank like body odor and a hint of pee. My wife had a disgusted look on her face the whole time and stepped away from him.

Years ago I called him asking him if he sold Jackson SL4's. He didn't know what they were. When I said they're neck thru imports he went crazy. FUCKIN JAP GUITARS??? I don't sell no FUCKNI JAP guitars. Goddamn piece of shit fuckin JAP guitars...you get the idea. He went nuts and was yelling. I was trying not to laugh.

A friend of mine works for a small builder on the East Coast. At NAMM several times he talked to Ed about business deals and even went on Ed's tour bus for some meetings. Said Ed was eating the entire time and had food all over him. He said Ed's bus got a flat on the way to NAMM and he made his wife fix the flat tire. He also said that Ed wanted to get a crazy deal from this builder. He wanted an exclusive line built for him for not much money. He said Ed is a shrewd businessman but he was honest the whole time...he just wanted more for less.

[Evol]

...and a hint of pee.

:ROTF::ROTF::ROTF::ROTF::ROTF:

Ewww!

[Sanctuary]

I loved the story on the BCR players forum about the kid who did some work on his website in return for a CS replica Chuck Stealth. He was a bit surprised when we pointed out the guitar was actually the import version but MODIFIED to look like a CS. Presented to him in a Jackson gig-bag from memory...haha!

[RacerX]

He then said "who ARE you?"

Funny, he asked me that exact question once. Or twice.

[nateb]

He is a twat. I have had personal experience with him in his store. He tried to say that the guitar (Koa Tacoma Acoustic) was mislabled and it was actually 500.00 more then it was. When it was pointed out that the rest of the tacomas of equal quality were the same price, he said they were all mislabled.

-Nate