Quicksilver guitars?

[Cron]

Hey, I saw some info on quicksilver guitars on
http://www.edromanguitars.com/guitar/home_qsg.htm

These instruments are absolutely beautiful and the majority of them have maple capped korina bodies. The only come with 24 fret necks and have some kind of neck pickup mounted directly to the neck design.

These guitars go against most of the statements and opinions of guitar design i've heard. They claim that pickups mounted directly to wood sounds better (i've spoken to 3 guitar builders who says it makes no difference)...

and that they prefer 24 fret necks (everyone I've ever spoken to said that 22 fret necks sound better than 24 frets).

...and they love ebony as a fretboard wood (they say most companies don't use it because ebony cracks etc when frets are put in with a machine)

On the page there is explanations for all this stuff. Check it out... tell me what you guys think.

I'm dying to hear what they sound like.
Anyone ever tried one or even heard of it?

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

Hey Cron!

Unfortunately you picked the wrong forum to ask this question b/c most peope here are Ed Roman bashers not fans. That said there is a quicksilver forum at yahoo.

I have bought a guitar from him and think he knows his stuff. I love the look of the quicksilver kinda a PRS but not. If you read up on them he took most of the design from the PRS classic. As far as what you have heard from builders I think alot of it is a matter of preference.

I hate the neck pup on 21 and 22 fret guitars. They sound muddy. Ed gives the explanation why (some of us like myself) aren't happy with the sound. It's b/c the pup is on the 24th fret harmonic. My buddies 24 fret jackson and my 24 fret godin both have a cleaner sounding neck pup than my Heritage 150 (LP) my tele, my strat, my 330, and of course my old LP custom LP.

The pups being mounted to the body arguement. I think what Ed thinks. (and I wondered about before I found his site) Why isolate pups that are potted? When the pup is indirectly mounted and isolated the passive amplification is almost all lost through the 4 or 2 small screws. I don't think anyone will deny the original reason they isolated pups was to control feedback, but we as guitar players are so conservative in design we don't want anything different.

Ebony board? I love em! I only regret my current guitar lineup doesn't have them. :smack: He explains why most companies don't use ebony and it makes sense. The cost is higher, the wood is more brittle, this is undeniable (to my knowledge) The one good thing I can say about my old LP was the ebony board was beautiful, snappy and silky feeling. (the board not the frets yuck)

Hope some of this is useful.

Luke

 

[danglybanger]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

ebony boards are a matter of taste, I like them. One shouldn't call tehm bad because they crack easily when you work with them, they just require skilled craftsmanship.
Many higher end guitars have ebony boards.

The neck humbucker is a matter of taste also. The 24th fret harmonic thing only matters when you're doing open strings, there are many positions where you can fret any guitar and have harmonics over the pickup, no matter where teh pickup is, so that doesn't matter that much. moving the pickup closer to the bridge would make it less bassy and brighter, but bassy and muddier is what a lot of people ask of a neck pickup.

Whatever Ed Roman's design philosophies are, they do seem to be well built guitars.
dan

 

[Mkf411]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I always get a kick out of this site http://edroman.aleclee.com/main.html

Take a look before you buy from that guy. Also search Harmony-central.com for his name for more horror stories.

I was in the Vegas shop once and it was like being at the library. It was silent. Every single guitar (100's of them) had a "do not touch sign" on it. No one asked if they could help me or even talked to me during my 20 minutes int the store. What a weird vibe.

 

[Grandor]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I always get a kick out of this site http://edroman.aleclee.com/main.html

Take a look before you buy from that guy. Also search Harmony-central.com for his name for more horror stories.

Yeah i like that site too! funny as.

I reckon direct mounted pickups sound better. Alot more sustain and resonance.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I always get a kick out of this site http://edroman.aleclee.com/main.html

Thanks! I like it too.

I created that site back in the days of the old PRS Forum 'cause every few weeks, someone new would come along and ask "What's the deal with Ed Roman". Rather than answer that question over and over again, I figured I'd capture the lowdown on a web page where we could just refer folks.

That said, Luke Duke isn't the only person I know of who's a satisfied customer. It's not like everyone who's ever done business with the guy feels like he got screwed. That said, do you want to risk doing business who's left so many customers feeling like they got the shaft? There are so many great dealers and builders, it doesn't seem worth it to me to take the chance.

My $0.02, IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

 

[chcjunior]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I got to play a couple Quicksilvers while out in Vegas. Definitely nice guitars and I really liked the design. However, IMO they're way overpriced. They emphasize the fact that they're "hand built".....but the Quicksilver is no better than the Hardtail I own.

As well, the customer service there left ALOT to be desired. Nothing quite like being made to me feel like an intruder when you're looking to spend money.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I'm glad we have someone here who has actually played one because I am curious myself. They have a pretty blue one oooooohhh

My buddy went to Vagas 2 months ago for an engineering convention. While there he checked out the store and talked to a salesman about a feiten equipped guitar. He told him they had sold all of the feiten accoustics. Ed happened to be walking by and told the salesman to go grab his that he had brought up there a few days ago for whatever reason and let my buddy play it. After retrieving it and letting my buddy get his hands on it (and become amazed as well) Ed walked back up behind him and said "that's not my guitar" he then went and looked at it from the front and said "yeah I guess it is, just shows I never look at it from the back. So my buddy had a good experience at the store and will eventually be doing business with Ed for a custom built piece. I thnk it's all just a matter of timing. Roman must have Male PMS. :laugh2:

Luke

 

[FretFire]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

After retrieving it and letting my buddy get his hands on it (and become amazed as well) Ed walked back up behind him and said "that's not my guitar" he then went and looked at it from the front and said "yeah I guess it is, just shows I never look at it from the back."

Ah, so he just never plays his guitars. The collection at his house must have the "do not touch" signs as well :laugh2:.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

Probably! :laugh2:

Really though almost all of the stores (besides GC) that I've been to have ask for assistance or do not touch signs. Can't blame folks for wanting to keep guitars pristine.

Luke

 

[Mkf411]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

Thanks! I like it too.

I created that site back in the days of the old PRS Forum 'cause every few weeks, someone new would come along and ask "What's the deal with Ed Roman". Rather than answer that question over and over again, I figured I'd capture the lowdown on a web page where we could just refer folks.

That said, Luke Duke isn't the only person I know of who's a satisfied customer. It's not like everyone who's ever done business with the guy feels like he got screwed. That said, do you want to risk doing business who's left so many customers feeling like they got the shaft? There are so many great dealers and builders, it doesn't worth it to me to take the chance.

My $0.02, IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

I always wondered who created that site. It's a classic. When I first got into gear-lust, I found Ed Roman's site and the guy really sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Then I found out about Harmony-central.com and decided to do a search on him. I'm glad I did. There are plenty of other Vendors that don't have reviews from people who feel screwed. I don't want to have to wait for someone to be in a good mood for me to get good service. People seem to think he's a shyster, that's good enough for me.

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

If you're going to spend that much money on a guitar I think I'd prefer doing so with someone who has a better reputation both as a person and as a businessman than Ed Roman.

He's suspect....

 

[KoreanGuitarMan]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I always get a kick out of this site http://edroman.aleclee.com/main.html

Take a look before you buy from that guy. Also search Harmony-central.com for his name for more horror stories.

I was in the Vegas shop once and it was like being at the library. It was silent. Every single guitar (100's of them) had a "do not touch sign" on it. No one asked if they could help me or even talked to me during my 20 minutes int the store. What a weird vibe.

About that website: Ed does bash Gibson and Fender for their large heels. He's always saying that Fender and Gibson have done too little as far as design improvements in 50 years.

The section with the letter about the "heel from hell" is believable. I think you'd need a longer tenon to offset that loss in material at the heel. Otherwise it would end up sounding a little thin.

No offense, aleclee, but I think your website is as biased (though you never said it wasn't) towards PRS as Ed's is against PRS. That hand work you show from your factory tour is all stuff which Ed never claimed was done by machine in the first place.

Ed is a jerk. He couldn't care less about you if you're spending $1200 on a used whatever. If you're buying a $5000 Jet or Jaros, he'll treat you like Jesus. He is a business man, and he knows it's not the cheaper lines that keep him in business.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

No offense, aleclee, but I think your website is as biased (though you never said it wasn't) towards PRS as Ed's is against PRS. That hand work you show from your factory tour is all stuff which Ed never claimed was done by machine in the first place.

I'll admit a certain bias ...

but

• Ed said that older PRS guitars were "handmade" (I use quotes 'cause I don't particularly agree with the use of the term in this context).
• Ed also said something to the effect that guitars built using CNCs should be cheaper because of reduced labor costs.

It's not like rough carving is a labor-intensive task, especially when a duplicarver was used in the first place. We're not talking about the difference between a CNC and a chisel, after all. I just put those pix up to remind folks that there's a lot of stuff that can't efficiently be done with CNCs and that, rough carving aside, PRS guitars are about as "handmade" as ever--not that PRS's as we know them were ever really made with hand tools.

 

[KoreanGuitarMan]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I'll admit a certain bias ...

but

• Ed said that older PRS guitars were "handmade" (I use quotes 'cause I don't particularly agree with the use of the term in this context).
• Ed also said something to the effect that guitars built using CNCs should be cheaper because of reduced labor costs.

It's not like rough carving is a labor-intensive task, especially when a duplicarver was used in the first place. We're not talking about the difference between a CNC and a chisel, after all. I just put those pix up to remind folks that there's a lot of stuff that can't efficiently be done with CNCs and that, rough carving aside, PRS guitars are about as "handmade" as ever--not that PRS's as we know them were ever really made with hand tools.

Well, apparently "hand-made" is a relative term.

I used to have a $100 Hohner acoustic that was "hand-made" in the USA! It burned quicker than cardboard in my fire pit.

 

[joelap]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I like some of Ed Roman's colors... that blue burst is nice looking.

I'll admit, the tops really appeal to me. I would consider buying one.

I have no personal experience with the guy, so I'm not gunna jump the gun and assume he's a sheister.

 

[joelap]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

But the lightning bolt inlays HAVE to go!

I'd REALLY like to know what paints he uses for that blue burst pattern... IMO it's absolutely stunning! so is the carribean burst... anyone know where I could buy paint to do this??? It's absolutely phenominal!

I like it more than my flame maple schecter!

 

[Mkf411]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

I like some of Ed Roman's colors... that blue burst is nice looking.

I'll admit, the tops really appeal to me. I would consider buying one.

I have no personal experience with the guy, so I'm not gunna jump the gun and assume he's a sheister.

Befor sending your deposit, read the info on the link in earlier post. Do a search of his name on Harmony- Central.com

If one of those stories are true, I don't need pesonal experience to stay far away.

 

[Seraphial]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

But the lightning bolt inlays HAVE to go!

Oh, and the logo! How in god's name did he come up with that and think "oh...that's pretty".

 

[joelap]

Re: Quicksilver guitars?

Befor sending your deposit, read the info on the link in earlier post. Do a search of his name on Harmony- Central.com

If one of those stories are true, I don't need pesonal experience to stay far away.

Doesn't really matter, because at this stage in my life, I couldn't afford one if I wanted to. And if I ever could afford that, I'd just have Blueline build me a custom one anyways.

Anyone know how he gets the carribean burst / blue burst dye colors???