What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

[aleclee]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

I think that Ed Roman is not someone with whom I'd want to do business. I've spent a lot of time talking to a guy who used to build one of his "exclusive" brands but decided that ER wasn't all that and a bag of chips. There are a lot of luthiers who went down that path. Note that Ed doesn't have any exclusive deals with builders whose brands he doesn't own.

I'm not saying the guy has no principles but I think it's interesting that a guy who's slammed Asian imports so vehemently now carries

• Aria
• Dillion
• ESP
• Hohner
• Ibanez
• Line 6 Variax
• OLP
• Samick
• Silvertone

Though there are many great guitars coming out of Japanese and Korean factories, a number of the brands mentioned above are pretty mediocre and definitely not "world class guitars".

Ed's general pattern of behavior is to slam brands for which he cannot get a dealership. He's not a PRS dealer anymore (ever hear the rumors about why?) so newer ones are junk. He now slams McNaught and has done so with other luthiers who terminated their exclusive dealership agreements with him.

I think that he sells some nice guitars that are way overpriced. BTW, I've heard from a number of reputable sourced that Quicksilver bodies and necks are carved by CNCs. Ed actually farms out most of the work and the guitar building that's done is his shop is more accurately described as "assembly". If, as he says, CNC-carved guitars should be in the sub-1000 range (not that I agree with that statement), the Quicksilver is one of the more overpriced guitars of our time.

Though some of the guitars (e.g., Pearlcaster) seem to be nice enough guitars, I wouldn't personally take the risk of doing business with the guy. There are too many good builders out there to chance being yet another person he's screwed over.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

Really???? I must see it.

That was Ron (Racer X) of the Jackson/Charvel forum. He didn´t beat him up per se, but DID give him a kick in the ass (enough to definitely be felt, but not enough to hurt).

Damn, that was a hoot when that happened, the whole JCF was havin´ a freakin´ party

 

[joelap]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

Zerb, can you find that video and link to it?

 

[rspst14]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

I agree...to a certain extent he knows what he's talking about when it comes to guitars. But he also twists the truth and propagates false information if it serves his cause. PRS is the main competitor of his Quicksilver guitars, hence, he makes it a point to slam PRS anytime he can. Selling cheap guitars doesn't make him as much money as selling expensive guitars, so he tries to coax people into buying the more expensive models. Stainless steel frets are more difficult to install, and once installed properly, a customer will likely never need a refret or even a fret dressing. That makes the building process tougher for his luthiers, and he'd lose out on $200 per refret and $100 per dressing if all his customers requested stainless steel frets. So he badmouths them and makes up stories about them being horribly bright.

Bottom line, with Ed Roman, as with any salesman, you always have to keep in the back of your mind that their job is to convince you to buy something. More times than not, they will say whatever it takes to get you to walk out of the store with something.

Ryan

 

[Xeromus]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

I agree...to a certain extent he knows what he's talking about when it comes to guitars. But he also twists the truth and propagates false information if it serves his cause. PRS is the main competitor of his Quicksilver guitars, hence, he makes it a point to slam PRS anytime he can. Selling cheap guitars doesn't make him as much money as selling expensive guitars, so he tries to coax people into buying the more expensive models. Stainless steel frets are more difficult to install, and once installed properly, a customer will likely never need a refret or even a fret dressing. That makes the building process tougher for his luthiers, and he'd lose out on $200 per refret and $100 per dressing if all his customers requested stainless steel frets. So he badmouths them and makes up stories about them being horribly bright.

Bottom line, with Ed Roman, as with any salesman, you always have to keep in the back of your mind that their job is to convince you to buy something. More times than not, they will say whatever it takes to get you to walk out of the store with something.

Ryan

Stainless steel frets are the cat's meow. The only reason they aren't historically on instruments is it adds to production costs in time and materials. They are quite superior to nickel/silver. The difference in brightness is negligible and a bunch of crap saying it makes a guitar overly bright.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

I've worked with Ed for many years and I know him quite well.

He's a business man who has carved out a niche for himself in this industry. What sets him apart is his website, his store, and his opinionated "in yer face" reputation. Is he a crook? No way. He couldn't stay in business all these years if he was. Think about it.

He seems to generate a lot of negative attention. Maybe that's part of his plan, I honestly don't know. Some people say, "bad press is better than no press." The fact is, the guy does quite well for himself.

As for someone beating him up at NAMM, that's the first I've heard of this. But given that Ed has health problems and has to walk with a cane, someone would have to be a real a$$ to make the claim, "I kicked Ed Roman's butt." Jeez.

Finally, I've had my run-ins with Ed. We have a customer-supplier relationship and that doesn't mean we agree on everything all the time. But when we've had our disputes, I've always found him fair; and there's never been a problem that we couldn't work out with both sides going away feeling good about the deal.

Maybe Ed isn't your cup o' tea. But FWIW, he's settled on a formula that works for him and his customers.

 

[Vincent]

Re: What do you think of Ed Roman and his guitars?

Just my 2 cents:

Evan - you're the VP of the Seymour Duncan conglomerate... Of course Ed Roman will bow and scrape and be willing to do business the 'right way', simply because of your influence and if you like, corporate clout (size). So whilst Ed is quite happy ripping off 'mom and dad' guitar enthusiasts, he wouldn't dare piss off anyone his own size, or larger as the case may be.

My opinion is that there is never any smoke without a fire. Considering that we're looking at countless reports of fraudulent activity and bad publicity, maybe there is just a tad of truth behind the whole 'crook' allegation.

As for me, I don't have anything to lose by not doing business with him, and I'm going to heed the warnings and stay away!!! :>