[Capt Rosebuddy]

I did a quick search and found Ed Roman's shop only once, so I felt satisfied I was safe starting a new thread.

A friend told me about Mr Roman's shop out in LAS, in addition to replicating lots of iconic instruments, he makes Bean replicas. The website says they will do "any Travis Bean Style custom guitar."
The Bean's have never really been my thing, but I'm sure there's some dudes out there who would be interested. My question would be, where is the price point on a TB500? I was watching a TB1000
on ebay, the auction closed at $3400, so to make any economic sense I'm thinking the 500 knock off would have to come in pretty reasonable.

[Jon S.]

Ed Roman himself died in Dec. 2011. The feedback over the years on Roman's work and 'tude is diverse, to put it mildly. I've read and heard enough horror stories to stay far away from any new builder using his name (e.g., a couple of people on TGP who attended the last few Winter NAMMs before he died posted how Roman was always accompanied by a bodyguard because how many people in the industry might have wanted to wring his neck). We ourselves crossed paths at Summer NAMM 2004 and the National Guitar Workshop c. 2005 or so (Roman was hanging with special guest presenter Leslie West) but I never spoke with him. This all being said, I know people who bought Quicksilvers and other of his guitars who dig them. Do your research.

[TI4-1009]

+1. No direct experience, but that's what I've heard too.

[williamsaut]

Ed Roman was the owner of East Coast Music Mall here in Danbury Ct. I remember him renting out sound equipment out of the back of a Lafayette store on Main St. around 1977. He was quite a character. We used to go over to see Richie Scarlet at the Brier Patch bar attached to a bowling alley in Carmel NY. Sticky Floors covered with broken glass and Richie all sweaty with his big hair and half shirt. He worked in Ed's store for many years. Ed built a concrete dome bubble mansion thing on the side of the mountain overlooking Candlewood Lake. Everybody hated it. One night I was drinking at the Dear Park Cafe in Katonah NY after getting off work, the door opened, I look down and all I saw was a pair of snake skin cowboy boots. I look up and there's Ed with a couple of girls on his arm. This was around 1987. Shortly before he sold the store and went to Los Vegas, he bought the name rights and all the stock of BC Rich. His opinions about what makes a quality guitar and suspicions of mass counterfeiting of vintage instruments are a pretty interesting read. I never saw him with a guitar in his hand and don't know how much of a player he was. I don't think he was a luthier.

[gr8fullfred]

I met Ed Roman several times during the years that he owned the East Coast Music Mall, probably in the early to mid 90s. My friend had a huge summer party or Blast as they called it, and my friend was a musician, and he has lots of musician friends, including Mark Hitt, Jimmy Heslin (owner of the Axe shop in Poughkeepsie NY), a guy named Vinnie from the Vanilla Fudge, and Ed Roman. My friend was friends with Heslin and Hitt and Hitt worked for Ed Roman at the East Coast Music Mall. This led to my friend getting a very nice guitar made by Ed Roman, it was and still is a neck thru SG like guitar. The guitar is very nice, my buddy loves it, plays it as his main axe, it is a nice guitar, cost about $3000, but it is a custom made neck thru guitar,it is nice.

I think that I did see Ed Roman play guitar at my friends "blast", not totally sure, but he was there.

I was in Vegas years later and visited the Big first store out there that he had. He later moved to a smaller store I think.
There are apparently many stories out there about him and many others in the industry hate him, I have no personal knowledge about any of that, but do not doubt it either.

[Mr.Burns]

I didn't have any personal experience with Ed Roman or his guitars, but they look nice, at least. I read some on his website and he seemed to have a few good ideas, and a few not so good as well. Just seems like he was more of a small business owner and not so much a luthier, towards the end. I would bet that if a person had ordered a custom guitar during that period in his lifetime, Ed was not going to be the sole craftsman, maybe not even the main one. I would also bet the current builders are faithful to Ed's principles, which is more than can be said about the folks making stuff under Leo Fender's name these days.