all the greatest builders work in Lego

i'm gonna go grab some popcorn for this thread.
shouldn't take long

If you've listened to a band with a guitar player in it in the last 20 years....Ed changed your life.

May the indicator light on a Fender Deluxe reverb shine perpetually on him.

lots of people think the guy was a douchebag.

i have to say his site was awesome.

Doug Irwin still lives?

Too bad about Cripes.

Didn't Eddie get the parts for Frankenstein from Ed?

SnakeMan: We're honoring people who make guitars with the title "great builder"? It's a freaking guitar. Leave that title for real builders.

Don't knock instrument making. It still amazes me the amount of skill it takes to make a good instrument.

That being said, I do wish they used "luthier" or "crafter" being the accepted terms and all. Builder just seems... cold.

Builders are they? Not makers or luthiers? Call me when you get a skill.

Barton Fink: lots of people think the guy was a douchebag.

i have to say his site was awesome.

In some circles it was cool to hate on him.
I talked to him a couple of times and he was abrupt and borderline rude, but, no more than your average really good mechanic.
Don't waste his time and he was fine.

RIP Ed.

A real dick. The guitar he shipped me (a Kramer) was ok, but there was hardly any padding in the box, and no paperwork. For an extra $5 he was kind enough provide me with a (used) pick.

The guy's business practices were infamous in the industry, up to and including forgery of collectable instruments. His products tended to look better than they played, by all accounts. I read some of his assorted rantings. Mostly heaping piles of self-serving nonsense. No great loss.

The guy's business practices were infamous in the industry, up to and including forgery of collectable instruments.

Not picking a fight but can you cite this? The forgery bit.
Yeah, we all heard stories, but I think a lot of people in this industry tightened up their game because of him. Personally didnt like a lot of the product I've seen but the guitar under your tree for your kid is likely better because Ed decided to gadfly bad guitars.

Anybody who helps Mosrite survive under any circumstances gets my thumbs up

(part time vintage guitar dealer)

I found his website in the mid nineties and was amazed at his love of the electric guitar.

At the time, his site included hundreds of pages of photos and explanations as to why the Les Paul wasn't worth purchasing new, why the Firebird was the only Gibson worth the money they had the gall to over-charge, why Fender didn't need to exist any longer (already more Telecasters and Stratocasters than there were fingers to play them) and how Paul Reed Smith threw away quality in the name of cash through mass production - and their long heels are bad.

Detailed photos of drool-worthy in stock David McNaught's and Baker's were common and explanations of the different tonal qualities of mahogany, maple and bass wood were worth the visit. I lusted after a Steinberger with a Transtrem because of Ed Roman. And Buzz Feiten tuning - can't forget that.

The move to Vegas included a new site design that focused on the in store stock changed the mood and quality of the site and I hadn't been back in years.

Ed Roman was a cool guy with an opinion and a shiatload of amazing guitars.

May he rest in peace.

It's kind of too bad, because Ed was one of the last real innovative luthiers out there. He made some guitars that had were part of some great music, and clearly loved the electric guitar.

I gotta say though, he proved alot to me. The creative mind that drives a luthier and the creative mind that drives a musician are sometimes very different. On an artistic level, the two are fundamentally different. I checked out Ed's website when i was thinking about building a guitar, and found his "rants" page to be obnoxious as all hell. He ranted on and on about how shait Gibson and Fender were, but praised guitars like B.C. Rich (which in my opinion are total garbage.) He seemed to strive for a perfection in the instrument, which i'm not totally convinced is a good thing. I love my Gibson Les Paul Studio (1996, for those curious) and did boatloads of research before deciding on it. I love everything about it, even it's imperfections.

Consider the Stratocaster; In many ways, the Strat is far from a perfect instrument. But put it in the hands of a real artist like Jeff Beck, and you'll hear some of the most aesthetic and beautiful music ever, and it's mostly sounds that he couldn't make with any other instrument. Now, who am I going to pay more attention too when they are talking about guitars, Ed or Jeff Beck? Exactly.

By all accounts, his business practices were crap as well. You could not play his already made instruments in the store plugged in, and if you made an order there were no returns. Makes me wonder if he really believed in the product he was making.

At the end of the day, I wasn't really a fan of him or his guitars. (Overpriced, ugly, and made for too specific a market for me.) But the guy was an innovator, and you don't see that too much these days.

Like most others, I thought he was opinionated as Hell and for the most part, wrong. I do agree a lot of Gibsons are waaaaay overpriced for what they are (a good, but mass-produced guitar) but his criticism of Gibson & Fender and glorification of some of the other questionable guitars were borderline nuts.

I've played guitar for 30-some years now, (a working guitar player for about 22) and I don't have any brand loyalty, but I know a good guitar when I play one, and Gibson & Fender both make some very good instruments. There are others that offer much more bang for the buck, though. For instance, some of the new Asian-made guitars are surprisingly excellent when set up properly, and they're dirt cheap. But you have to cherry pick the good ones.

Depending on which band I'm working with, I play an American Strat, Japanese Fender Strat, '92 Gibson Les Paul Studio, '76 modded Gibson Marauder... and a cheap $200 Xaviere chinese Tele copy that plays better and sounds more "Tele-ish" that most actual Teles.

And speaking of cheap guitars, several years ago our band shared the bill with a reputable indie country artist, and his guitar player was this little sawed-off Iranian dude, just spanking the living Hell out of this little hardtail Strat. This guy was really good. We got to taking about guitars between shows & turns out he had many expensive and some very collectable vintage guitars at his home in Austin, Texas. Then he showed me the guitar he was playing that night... It was a $99 Squier Bullet Strat. He handed it off to me and it played like a dream. Turns out it was his main gigging guitar. I've played those cheap little Bullet Strats before and the ones I played were all garbage with rubbery necks & sloppy fretwork. But this one was a great little guitar. Go figure.

Not one of you assholes have gotten near a real instrument, I assume. Not a guadagnini, a galiano, a guarneri del gesu, an ernst heinrich roth or even an instrument from his school.

I've seen two strads in my life and they're unappreciable. They are what they sound like to proles.

RIP Sausage king of Chicago



But seriously, we discussed the guy as a website several time on a guitar forum I use to frequent years ago. I can't remember what caused it, but after seeing the link edromanguitars.com , it finally occurred to me that it did not say EDRO-MAN guitars.


CSB?

Phil Moskowitz: Not one of you assholes have gotten near a real instrument, I assume. Not a guadagnini, a galiano, a guarneri del gesu, an ernst heinrich roth or even an instrument from his school.

I've seen two strads in my life and they're unappreciable. They are what they sound like to proles.

To the best of my knowledge, those instrument makers don't make electric guitars, so I don't see how that connects at all. Besides, none of those would probably be able to produce the blues, jazz, or rock sound i'm usually looking for.

Unless i'm being trolled here, that's a big possibility.

KaisertheCoyote: Phil Moskowitz: Not one of you assholes have gotten near a real instrument, I assume. Not a guadagnini, a galiano, a guarneri del gesu, an ernst heinrich roth or even an instrument from his school.

I've seen two strads in my life and they're unappreciable. They are what they sound like to proles.

To the best of my knowledge, those instrument makers don't make electric guitars, so I don't see how that connects at all. Besides, none of those would probably be able to produce the blues, jazz, or rock sound i'm usually looking for.

Unless i'm being trolled here, that's a big possibility.

You're being trolled.
Yea, verily, the troll is mighty in this one.
He's (maybe) a guitar hipster snob, a quick google search would suggest he's grabbing maker's names more or less at random.

Classical/spanish/whatever you want to call them guitars are a special case. Organists would never savage pianists because they dont play a "real" instrument. Well...that and they have class.

last aquisition was a pre-Gibson Epiphone.

part of the problem: The guy's business practices were infamous in the industry, up to and including forgery of collectable instruments.

Not picking a fight but can you cite this? The forgery bit.
Yeah, we all heard stories, but I think a lot of people in this industry tightened up their game because of him. Personally didnt like a lot of the product I've seen but the guitar under your tree for your kid is likely better because Ed decided to gadfly bad guitars.

Anybody who helps Mosrite survive under any circumstances gets my thumbs up

(part time vintage guitar dealer)

Here's one:
http://forums.ernieball.com/music-man-guitars/14260-ed-roman-apologiz e s-ernie-ball-music-man-petrucci.html

There's also this:
http://www.mosrite.us/en/article.php?id=47

And this:
http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/42081-more-ed-roman-crap/pag e __hl__roman__fromsearch__1

If I wanted to spend a bit more time poking about, I'm sure I'd find more...

part of the problem: KaisertheCoyote: Phil Moskowitz: Not one of you assholes have gotten near a real instrument, I assume. Not a guadagnini, a galiano, a guarneri del gesu, an ernst heinrich roth or even an instrument from his school.

I've seen two strads in my life and they're unappreciable. They are what they sound like to proles.

To the best of my knowledge, those instrument makers don't make electric guitars, so I don't see how that connects at all. Besides, none of those would probably be able to produce the blues, jazz, or rock sound i'm usually looking for.

Unless i'm being trolled here, that's a big possibility.

You're being trolled.
Yea, verily, the troll is mighty in this one.
He's (maybe) a guitar hipster snob, a quick google search would suggest he's grabbing maker's names more or less at random.

Classical/spanish/whatever you want to call them guitars are a special case. Organists would never savage pianists because they dont play a "real" instrument. Well...that and they have class.

last aquisition was a pre-Gibson Epiphone.

I figured it was a troll. Not a bad effort either, but it looks like most of those luthiers make violins, which is what gave him away.

Actually, I don't know many classical guitar players who disparage electric players. I like playing both, even though I know very little classical music. I played one for a bit that was made in Mexico, it was a quality instrument.

Pre-Gibson Epiphones are pretty great. I looked at one, but found the Studio which was exactly what I wanted down to the color of the guitar.

He was a cheat and a thief and a liar.

Good riddance.