Who doesnt love a good Ed Roman story

I might be the only guy with a 'good' Ed Roman story. This was waaaaaaaaaay back when he had a shop on the East Coast. I had him re-do my '72 Les Paul Custom. (I was/still am the original owner) I had butchered it up myself when I was a teenager who thought he know how to customize guitars.

This started around '75. Of the many things I did... Stripped the paint like Mick Ronson. Then, added a 3rd Humbucker ('a la Frampton). Put a MXR Phase 90 inside the control cavity. Grovers, Repainted it about 3-4 times. It was pretty fk'd up. So, I can't remember how I found Ed, must have been an East Coast connection of some sort. But, I sent it to him and had him 'Re-top' the guitar with a Spalted Maple top. Yeah, he cut the old top completely off and put a new top on it. Re-bound it, Re-fretted it, Pretty much everything except electronics. I at least did that right.

He did an amazing job. It looks and plays great. Under 10 lbs. I had Josh Gravelin make me some custom wound, Gold screw Zebra's for it (Thanks Josh) It's actually a killer axe now and I could never sell it as it was the first quality guitar my dad (RIP) bought me new. 

So, even though 'ol Ed was quite the 'piece-of-work', he did right by me, waaaaaaaay back in the 80's.

72LPC.jpgGrav1.jpg.088ad4b7a3f09895678d0ec0f7361413.jpg1956509434_TrussCover.jpg.a5f919b7c39cbff8e1c5de7759dd9a9b.jpg

 
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santellavision said:
I might be the only guy with a 'good' Ed Roman story. This was waaaaaaaaaay back when he had a shop on the East Coast. I had him re-do my '72 Les Paul Custom. (I was/still am the original owner) I had butchered it up myself when I was a teenager who thought he know how to customize guitars.

This started around '75. Of the many thing things I did... Stripped the paint like Mick Ronson. Then, added a 3rd Humbucker ('a la Frampton). Put a MXR Phase 90 inside the control cavity. Grovers, Repainted it about 3-4 times. It was pretty fk'd up. So, I can't remember how I found Ed, must have been an East Coast connection of some sort. But, I sent it to him and had him 'Re-top' the guitar with a Spalted Maple top. Yeah, he cut the old top completely off and put a new top on it. Re-bound it, Re-fretted it, Pretty much everything except electronics. I at least did that right.

He did an amazing job. It looks and plays great. Under 10 lbs. I had Josh Gravelin make me some custom wound, Gold screw Zebra's for it (Thanks Josh) It's actually a killer axe now and I could never sell it as it was the first quality guitar my dad (RIP) bought me new. 

So, even though 'ol Ed was quite the 'piece-of-work', he did right by me, waaaaaaaay back in the 80's.
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See, this is what I don't understand. He did great honest work like this for people who wanted it, but then decided he wanted to I guess make MORE money. I guess it's more cost effective to just replace the entire body than retop it?

Some of those stories though, like replacing HALF the body of a vintage flying V? Really? There wasn't a real way to make an invisible repair, or he just didn't want to take any chances? Such a strange guy, and so hard to figure out what is true, and what is not.

 
It seems to me that his ability to do (or have someone do, to his order) good work is what makes the fake issue so vexing.  From what is said, his counterfeit work is hard to spot.

 
mrjamiam said:
It seems to me that his ability to do (or have someone do, to his order) good work is what makes the fake issue so vexing.  From what is said, his counterfeit work is hard to spot.
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Yeah. Make me wonder what the usual "guitar tech" guy they have on the videos is up to these days, if he was the one doing the actual work, and not just someone they stuck in the videos.

 
Didn't his business allegedly market bogus "Surfrite" guitars (big wood ovals made with Mosrite parts)?  The legit Surfrites weren't Mosrites, BTW

 
StillKickinMusic said:
Hey guys,

I put together a serial number page with around 30 manufacturers, aiming to be a one stop serial resource. I think it's better organized than the Ed Roman site. Take a look. I wrote the Hamer section specifically after getting instruction from guys on this forum. Please use as you see fit, bookmark it, etc. thanks

https://www.stillkickinmusic.com/blogs/still-kickin-blog/the-serial-bowl
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Looks good - the only thing I'd note is that in addition to the Johnny Ramone Special, there may be a couple other artist guitars that have odd characters or something else in lieu of the standard/regular serials.  I can think of a couple others, like Nielsen's "Beatles" Special, which has the date "5-21-80" instead of a sequential serial number, and his "Coffee Table" Standard, as well as the first few Sunburst prototypes from 1977.

 
Thanks for building out the serial number tool!  I started playing guitar in the late 70s and early 80s and live about 45 minutes from the old East Coast Music Mall.  
 

we would drive down there every couple of months and just stare at all the awesome guitars.  I was just a dumb kid back then but we all knew Ed Roman wasn’t a reputable guy…..

The serial number tool made me realize I have one of the last 50 Hamers ever made.   It’s a very cool Talledega with tourtes (sp).  Best playing and sounding guitar I have.  

 
Mike Lull, a fairly famous guitar and bass builder from seattle area who I was friends with since about 1979 and I had a conversation about Ed. Mike had much to say about Ed and how Ed thought it was funny how he could make parts guitars for a couple hundred bucks and sell them for 1k or more and rip people off. Mike did NOT like Ed. 

 
I met Ed in 76/77 when he was playing in a local band, and went to a few parties at his dome house in New Fairfield CT. He was a piece of work, from his pointy shoes to his pimped out Vette. He took up with Joanne, a real nice girl who’s husband was also in the band. His ads were all over I95 a radio station in Danbury. One of the oddest people I’ve ever met.
 
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