Ed Roman?

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Ed Roman?

Ed Frano (Roman) also started out selling fake Harley parts. He also made quite a few fake BC Rich Custom Shop models. He also tried to pass of a fake as being owned by George Harrison, and got caught red-handed on that one. Then there was the EB fiasco.

I designed and ordered my Jackson WarAngel in 2004 and received it in 2006. In 2009 IIRC someone sent me a link to Ed's site touting his new "Lobotomizer" model.

He was direct-linking my picture of my guitar to advertise his product. He had a couple of in-process pics of the one his shop was building (raw wood, etc), but was using my pic to show it as a finished product.

I called him and politely requested that he not use my body design, since Jackson was given exclusive rights to build it.

He replied "have your lawyer call my lawyer".

Ed Frano (Roman) was a doosh and I for one am glad he's dead. I only hope no one is carrying on his "tradition".

 

[aleclee]

Re: Ed Roman?

Someone on here had a great argument/website on what they thought of ER. Was it aleclee?

Yes, it was.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Ed Roman?

I designed and ordered my Jackson WarAngel in 2004 and received it in 2006. In 2009 IIRC someone sent me a link to Ed's site touting his new "Lobotomizer" model.

He was direct-linking my picture of my guitar to advertise his product. He had a couple of in-process pics of the one his shop was building (raw wood, etc), but was using my pic to show it as a finished product.

I called him and politely requested that he not use my body design, since Jackson was given exclusive rights to build it.

He replied "have your lawyer call my lawyer".

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/abstract/lobotomizer.htm

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Ed Roman?

I generally have a rule about speaking ill of the dead, but I am proud to honor Ed Roman's memory by making an exception in his case.

 

[BEACHBUM]

Re: Ed Roman?

I lived in Vegas from 1990-2005. The myth is that "Ed Romans" in Vegas was the largest single guitar store in the world. The reality is that (at least during the time I lived there) the store moved locations at least three times that I know of with each location displaying different approaches and results. The first incarnation in the early 90's was what I like to call the "Hallowed Halls" store. Medium sized, in a somewhat run down building, with a staff that was trained to put forth the image that "Ed Romans" was the exclusive supplier of guitars for the L.V. pro musicians. You had to make an appointment in advance to take a guided tour of the inner sanctum at the end of which you would be told which instrument you where going to be purchasing. Not advised, I mean told. I took the tour once. My tour guide dogged me around the various display rooms for about 10 minutes, pulled a guitar from the wall, informed me that the tour was over, and said "this is your guitar". When I told him that I didn't want it he promptly showed me to the door.

The second incarnation was the famous "biggest guitar store in the world" and I have no doubt that it was. No more appointment needed. Any old trash could just walk on in. The building was at least 1/2 the size of a typical supermarket with the walls and floor space loaded with guitars of every imaginable brand you could think of. The first time I visited there I thought, "is this guy insane"? There was just no way that even the Vegas guitar market could justify keeping that much inventory on hand. Evidently that was the case because in fairly short order that store shut down.

Last and cetainly least was the final "Ed Romans" I visited before I left Vegas. It was about the size of your local laundromat with no more than 25 low end beginner guitars in stock. I remember thinking, "so this is what happens to your business when you've finally taken a pee on the entire world".

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Ed Roman?

The first incarnation in the early 90's was what I like to call the "Hallowed Halls" store. Medium sized, in a somewhat run down store front, with a staff that was trained to put forth the image that "Ed Romans" was the exclusive supplier of guitars for the L.V. pro musicians. You had to make an appointment in advance to take a guided tour of the inner sanctum at the end of which you would be told which instrument you where going to be purchasing. Not advised, I mean told. I took the tour once. My tour guide dogged me around the various display rooms for about 10 minutes, pulled a guitar from the wall, informed me that the tour was over, and said "this is your guitar". I told him that I didn't want it and he showed me to the door.

What the hell kind of business model is that? I don't even know where to begin.

Last and cetainly least was the final "Ed Romans" I visited before I left Vegas. It was about the size of your local laundromat with no more than 25 low end beginner guitars in stock. I remember thinking, "so this is what happens to your business when you finally P-off the entire world".

[Insert nasty spiteful comment here.]

 

[jmh151]

Ed Roman?

From what I read up on, the huge Vegas showroom operation wasn't really his- he went into business with a few investors and they fronted the money with the intent of making it a museum tourist attraction. He was also trying to develop a TV show, pitching it as the guitar shop version of Pawn Stars- and if you've been to the Gold and Silver shop lately, it's more of a tourist attraction than the pawn shop you see on TV, and they're making more money off the Pawn Star Souveniers.

Well the TV show never panned out, they weren't making enough money on guitars or tourism, so his partners closed it up. He had to fight them for the right to use his own name on a business again.

 

[RorySquier]

Re: Ed Roman?

I probably discovered Ed's website around 2010 and I used to frequent there quite often. I was pretty amazed at the selection of guitars that he had. He did have quite the selection, compared to any other custom guitar builder. I've always had a feeling he made high quality guitars, even though they were fakes, like those LP conversions he did. But reading about some of his business practices are somewhat baffling. It seems like there was more going on than meets the eye. I've read his many rants on big corporate guitar makers. Guitar makers like Gibson themselves probably take short cuts in order to save on over-head costs. And Gibson has many lawyers to silence any critics. I think it goes all around, whether you are a big time corporation, or a successful custom guitar builder. If you're not doing honest business practice, it will come back to bite you.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Ed Roman?

I like what he did with those lp conversion. The removal of neck with the axe was a bit drastic but the end result looked awesome. The neck joint looks ten fold better.

 

[TheLivingDead]

Re: Ed Roman?

I like what he did with those lp conversion. The removal of neck with the axe was a bit drastic but the end result looked awesome. The neck joint looks ten fold better.

Holy crap I forgot about that vid. :lmao:

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: Ed Roman?

When I can go to his website and see Kramer guitars that are clearly fakes advertised as vintage then you are a POS IMO. Why any person would buy a rare vintage guitar from the self proclaimed master of counterfeiting is beyond me. Fake Kramer's, Fake BC Rich's, and even video's of him pulling the necks off of Gibson's to make his own Custom Shop Gibson's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdChXIO0WtM Just absolutely sick.

The guitar world is a better place with him gone.

This man was a genius for the what he did. If I was going to buy a LP these are features I would want only thing that puts me off is still the location of the vol and tone knobs.

 

[B2D]

Re: Ed Roman?

Could be a lack of desire to admit that forming the JS or ibby radius S body profile, carved as it is on all sides to form a (), is a pain in the arse without special equipment for doing just that? Or from figuring the cost would be prohibitive for a one-off order, especially compared to the guitar's MSRP?

That would've been a nicer answer than what he gave me.

But it would've been in contradiction with his "we can do anything, no job too wild" mantra he seemed to tout very highly in his custom shop and his business of making reproduction guitars, so I suppose that to tell some kid that making an Ibanez repro was beneath him sat better with his pride.

 

[jmh151]

Ed Roman?

That would've been a nicer answer than what he gave me.

But it would've been in contradiction with his "we can do anything, no job too wild" mantra he seemed to tout very highly in his custom shop and his business of making reproduction guitars, so I suppose that to tell some kid that making an Ibanez repro was beneath him sat better with his pride.

Not really... He would make anything, for a price.

In NYC I just had my EBMM Axis refretted...I specifically wanted it to modern Wolfgang specs- compound radius, stainless fret wire. Well stainless isn't too popular with repairmen, they say they will do anything, but if its something they don't like or is too challenging, they'll charge an exhorbitant rate to make it cost prohibitive to the consumer to have it done. This isn't just Ed Roman, there's a lot of repairmen like that

 

[B2D]

Re: Ed Roman?

Not really... He would make anything, for a price.

In NYC I just had my EBMM Axis refretted...I specifically wanted it to modern Wolfgang specs- compound radius, stainless fret wire. Well stainless isn't too popular with repairmen, they say they will do anything, but if its something they don't like or is too challenging, they'll charge an exhorbitant rate to make it cost prohibitive to the consumer to have it done. This isn't just Ed Roman, there's a lot of repairmen like that

A local guy that I've known for a while, whom I trust very much, told me that it's not that SS wire is more difficult to work with per se, it's that it very hard on the tools that are used and wears them down pretty badly in the course of one job.

I had a guy on here (he requested to remain anonymous) offer to refret my main guitar, a Music Man, in exchange for a guitar that I had that he wanted, and I agreed to the trade. I love playing SS frets and after almost three years they have no visible wear and they feel amazing on that guitar. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[jmh151]

Ed Roman?

A local guy that I've known for a while, whom I trust very much, told me that it's not that SS wire is more difficult to work with per se, it's that it very hard on the tools that are used and wears them down pretty badly in the course of one job.

I had a guy on here (he requested to remain anonymous) offer to refret my main guitar, a Music Man, in exchange for a guitar that I had that he wanted, and I agreed to the trade. I love playing SS frets and after almost three years they have no visible wear and they feel amazing on that guitar. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm curious how much the tools were, I would've bought the luthier replacements, but he was quoting me a $400 up charge to use stainless

 

[B2D]

Re: Ed Roman?

I'm curious how much the tools were, I would've bought the luthier replacements, but he was quoting me a $400 up charge to use stainless

Yeah IIRC that's about what most repairmen have quoted me if/when I price-shop a job.

For a job on my Strat, one of them just told me it would be way more cost-effective to order a Warmoth neck with SS frets built into it. That way I'd get the exact neck and frets I wanted custom-built instead of the fret replacement alone.

 

[superpete]

Re: Ed Roman?

i know most people dislike him, and I never had any dealings with him, but there was always something at least entertaining about ed roman. about twelve years ago my roommate and i would go to his website, oogle the guitars and laugh at his insane rants for hours. i would never give the guy my money, but i always enjoyed his insanity.

 

[LReese]

Re: Ed Roman?

Yeah IIRC that's about what most repairmen have quoted me if/when I price-shop a job.

For a job on my Strat, one of them just told me it would be way more cost-effective to order a Warmoth neck with SS frets built into it. That way I'd get the exact neck and frets I wanted custom-built instead of the fret replacement alone.

Hmm - not sure when you got that news but Stainless and EVO are more commonplace these days. I got a refret done last year with EVO with a $50 up charge.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Ed Roman?

A local guy that I've known for a while, whom I trust very much, told me that it's not that SS wire is more difficult to work with per se, it's that it very hard on the tools that are used and wears them down pretty badly in the course of one job.

When pinto79 did the fret dress on my Warmoth with SS frets he said the exact same thing.

 

[B2D]

Re: Ed Roman?

Hmm - not sure when you got that news but Stainless and EVO are more commonplace these days. I got a refret done last year with EVO with a $50 up charge.

What's EVO?

Aside from Steve Vai's main Jem, that's an acronym I'm unfamiliar with.