Ed Roman: The FAKE Guitar King 

around 1500 LP standards were made 58 - 60 there are now only 30,000 of them left

I have the best Ed Roman story ever. When I was in the market for my first expensive guitar, I unknowingly went into a store he ran in Connecticut before he went on to his infamy. He personally talked me into a used ESP Horizon, that did end up being a great instrument, but nonetheless, he "agreed" to knock it down to 1000.00 with no receipt. Being a dumb 17 year-old, I agreed. When I got home, there ended up being an electrical problem. My father, who back in his heyday was not a person you would mess with, went with me to either return or exchange the guitar. Ed "pointed" out to me the no returns sign, that was about a 5x7 size in the middle of literally hundreds of celebrity photos. After arguing back and forth, with my father ready to rip his head off, he suggested we go outside to continue our conversation. Being a complete scumbag, he stepped back into the entryway of the store, locked the door behind us, and no lie, did the whole moose ears tongue wagging at us like a child. I will never forget that ridiculous experience. He was dirt through and through.

Spoke to him on the phone one time to ask if he had one of the 70’s era Ibanez Destroyers for sale. Said he had several but that they weren’t for sale because Ebay had driven the market down, and that he sold them regularly to insurance companies for $3,000. I found one a couple weeks later for $1000 and bought it. I called him back and told him I had a 70’s Ibanez Destroyer for sale. He asked how much, and I replied $2,000. He said he never heard of those guitars bringing that much. I told him that I spoke with him a few weeks earlier and he said he sold them regularly to insurance companies for $3,000, so I was giving him a chance to make a $1,000 profit. He didn’t know what to say. 😜

Years ago, I was in Vegas for a business convention and I had some time to kill so I took a cab to Ed Roman's guitar shop. I bought a bunch of parts and when I went to leave, he would not let me use his phone to call a cab. I asked then if he would call me a cab and he said no. I had to walk back to the strip in the middle of September. I will never forget that customer service lesson.

I called Ed and described what I wanted to do. He listened to the entire thing. At the end all he said was, "Can't do it." and hung up on me. 2 months later he was selling the guitar I described on his website.

In 2005, I visited Ed Roman's shop in Las Vegas, looking to buy a new guitar. I spotted a gorgeous SG on the wall, and asked a clerk if I could plug it into an amp and see how it played. Y'know, as you'd do, if you were thinking about buying a $1,200 guitar. He looked at me with a perfectly straight face and said, "Oh, no. We don't let customers touch our instruments. If you want to play it, you have to buy it first." Needless to say, I gtfo of there and never went back ...

Ed Roman died in 2011 and millions upon millions of guitars around the world gave a hail Mary and a sigh of relief.

The best Ed Roman story ever is ….he is gone…. And all guitarists lived happily ever after…. The end

"We are now going to hand-carve this body" but nothing could have ever prepared me for what was to follow lmfao

Another point with the Iommi BC RICH is that Iommi is left handed, and the SG's are all right handed... supposedly 3 went to Iommi but he cant even play them!

There was a guy on Reverb who listed his Travis Bean a few months back. He had purchased it from Ed Roman and was under the impression that it was a 100% original vintage piece when he bought it in the early 2000’s. He listed it believing it was original, but it ended up that the entire body was not original and had been an “improvement” by Roman’s shop. He had to knock the price down from $9k to $3k. I felt really bad for the guy.

Back in the 80s, a friend of mine had an original, rare, and moderately expensive Ibanez that he sent to Ed for a simple repair when he used to work out of New England, before the Las Vegas shop. Ed just outright kept this particular Ibanez and sent back a brand new, cheaper version of the same Ibanez model. When my friend called the shop, furious, Ed told him to "prove it" and take him to court. I wonder how many people Ed outright screwed over just by ripping them off. And just like this video shows, it's not like the guy couldn't do the work and didn't do good work, it's the fact that he was an outright crook! Before there was a mainstream online infrastructure with a digital trail of everything, Ed knew how to get away with this criminal business model. Shame...

How do I know that this is a legitimate KDH video and not an Ed Roman video?

this guy really was the gothic horror butcher for guitars.

When it comes to damaged Gibby's, "damaged" almost always = the neck and not the body. Either the headstock or neck is snapped but it's very rare a body is so damaged you can't repair it. Roman obviously knew that original necks were the key to reselling guitars and avoiding lawsuits. The dude spent so much energy creating these scams it makes you wonder what he could have done if he just focused all his effort and energy on making his own designs.

I'd read thru Eds site since the dialup days, and went on to be a small scale amp and guitar builder myself, and lots of repairs. My fave topic is addressed at the 10min mark - "where are they now?". In the 90s I remember the majority of vintage or used guitars in vintage classified sites or on ebay etc. had some sort of modification or repair mentioned in the ad, such things as- replaced pickups, jumbo refrets, locking or new tuners, swapped neck, new paintjob, different bridge, floyd rose with locking nut, coil split switches, stickers on the guitar, finish sanded off the neck, on and on. When last did you see an ad for a vintage strat with a floyd rose and humbuckers, or any mod I mention? Where are they now? Somehow every vintage item is now original specs, all parts present and working perfectly, shiny finish, no fretwear, original case, hang tags and oh you can get the original cardboard shipping box too.

I had one interaction with the man. Phoned in to buy a guitar and he was truly vile rude and vulgar. Blew up when I asked why shipping from Vegas to Colorado was $200 for a single guitar, and at this time normal shipping from either coast was around 30 dollars. Cussed me out and I just landed up hanging up on him, glad i never did business with him. Serious issues.

Here's my Ed Roman story. When I was 13, I came upon his website and fell in love with all the guitars. I became a fan and began emailing him, telling him how amazed I was at his collection and all that. I have to say, given his reputation, he was actually very nice to me. I even wrote a few of the articles about rock star guitars on his website (I won't say which ones, because half the info was wrong!). Eventually on a trip to Vegas at 15, I got to see his store just a few months before he closed it and went to selling guitars out of his house. It was pretty cool seeing so many awesome guitars on the wall. At that time I bought one of the many "brands" he owned, a Baker, and it served me well for 5 years before I grew out of it. When he did end up working out of his home, I visited twice and both times he had me in his office and reveled in telling me stories of the rock stars he met, and he seemed to be impressed with my own knowledge about various guitars, rock music and the like. Not to say he didn't have his shady business dealings, but he didn't have to give an annoying teen guitar nerd the time of day, but he did and was always very nice. He even let me play some of his super rare instruments, including an aluminum neck Axe bass that (he claimed) belonged to Gene Simmons. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it was fun times and like others have said, he was quite the character.

Fun Fact: In Connecticut where he opened his first store, he was known as Sluggo. Named after the comic strip character which he closely resembled.

Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in YEARS, I used to look this guy’s lore up in highschool during class and get lost down the rabbit hole that seemingly felt bottomless!

This is the kind of journalism I long for and enjoy. Keep up the good work.

Ed Roman is like Reverse Gibson “Don’t Play Authentic Play Ed Roman”

Ed's definition of a guitar is just the neck. Everything else is replaceable. A real Chop Shop mentality.

Okay here's my Ed Roman story. I'm in Aus and I did a trade deal with Guitar Center LA...my Ibanez Crystal Planet for a Jem DNA and some cash (I already had a dna and wanted another; they were really hard to find at the time; triple that for a well swirled one like this). Promptly paid my deposit to GC and shipped the guitar. Once it had been delivered I rang GC to confirm it had arrived safely and was informed they had accidentally sold the Jem. You can imagine how happy I was...to add insult to injury they then lowballed me on the Crystal Planet and would not pay to ship it back. After calling many stores I ended up speaking to Ed who offered me a great price and though there was enough rumblings in the forums (even back then) to make me concerned after talking to Ed a few times I ended up sending to him. So now I'm waiting for the money to arrive in my account...waiting, still waiting, it's now a couple of weeks so I ring and he says he posted a cheque, you should have it soon...waiting, waiting, a few weeks later I call again this time after some research he says so sorry it actually didn't get posted he'll send it. Couple more weeks go by and I was now getting worried and angry. I rang Ed again and gave it to him over the phone, he took it well and promised me he had it sent when we last spoke (I did say that's not the first time I heard that)...I was skeptical and thinking this was about to be a police matter. Then the unthinkable...the cheque arrived and not only did it not bounce in the over two months it took to arrive the Aussie dollar crashed hard and I cashed in...turned out to be more than what I paid for it. Ed then nearly sucked me into a franchise and I went back and forth with him (ex amount of dollars for so many guitars and ongoing) but I ended up pulling the pin, think I really dodged a bullet and now I look at this video and wonder how many of those guitars I would have purchased would've been fakes that I would have then distributed. I wonder if/how many others like me he managed to hook and how many fakes he managed to sell through them.

KDH: mentions all the brands I'm in the secondhand market for. Me: nervous sweating intensifies

Was in his shop in 2005, total uncanny valley...being pretty versed with brands and styles, all the guitars looked close but eerily wrong. A true legend of dodgy shite.

Being a professional cabinetmaker and semi pro luthier, I remember spending hours looking and reading thru his website way back when. Many of his ideas I thought made sense regarding the technological advances of guitar design and some I use to this day. But what really floored me and in part still does was his Colour Gallery of the different transparent finishes on figured woods: I used those photos as a reference and target of what to try to achieve. This was before the time of YT and now everybody is demoing finishing techniques like sand-back on figured maple. Back then you had to “read-thru” the finish and try to deduce the finish recipe on your own…uggghhh!

Thank you so much for confirming that Ed Roman was either clinically insane or the most unscrupulous businessman in the music industry ever. Used to love his old site and yes the contradictions were stupefying. But I kept going back because of the variety and he did inform eg the ghost building thing .

is it possible that Trogly's fake Snakepit Les Paul is an Ed Roman guitar???

No tale was too tall for Ed Roman to tell 😄 Dude was the Saul Goodman of the guitar world

Roman was known as a slippery fish for decades. "A skidmark in the shorts of the guitar industry."

I bought my first bass from Ed when he lived in New Milford Connecticut. He had a bunch of guitars in his house on Candlewood lake and was transitioning from motorcycles to guitars. It was rumored that he was using stolen parts on his custom bikes.He and I remained friends with him over the years he lived in Connecticut. He built a huge house on the lake made entirely of urethane foam molded onto balloons. It looked like a giant toilet. Very appropriate. I got used to his abrasive personality. When he died I felt bad for his longtime girlfriend because he didn't have a will.

I live in Las Vegas, and I used to dream about going to Ed's store after discovering the website. I'm glad I didn't now. After learning more about guitars, I realized there was just too many red flags. I figured he would have had to hire an entire factory overseas in order to fulfill what his website promised. I didn't know he died.

I’ve visited Ed Romans guitar shop in Las Vegas when he was still alive. About 1/4 of his inventory just plain looked sketchy. There was all kinds of parts under the counter and on the wall behind the counter and they were all unfinished. Nobody has that many different brands of factory blanks. He wanted ridiculous money for them too.

This just makes me happy to have never wasted my money on any vintage instruments.

All we can hope is no more Ed Roman's pop back up in the industry. What he did to guitars and his business practices were nothing more than criminal.

Geez, those guitar destuction video is a guitarist snuff movie. I need to hug my guitars now.

Best video you’ve ever done. I remember reading his site back in the day and getting the feeling he was an egomaniac. But as I knew very little about guitars at the time I could have easily been taken in. The sad thing is the number of fakes he has put out there in the secondhand and vintage market now.

Just seeing his business practice, I can tell this guy was in the motorcycle/automotive business. Typically, with rebuilt cars, or modified bikes, it doesn't matter what you do to it as long as the vin number is intact. If you got a junked-out Harley, you could modify and rebuild it however you want, but registering it requires a Vin number. More nefariously, people will get wrecked cars, poorly rebuild them or "fix them", and as long as the vin and credentials are in check, you can sell it and scam someone. Seems like Ed took that practice to the guitar world.

Wow this brings up memories (not Ed direct but Ed related) One of my bf's close friend is a guitar collector that comes from old money. He was a teen in the late 70's / 80's era. He used to go to Vegas all the time (his pops was a pal of Trump's) would bring guitars to troll Ed's shop for kicks, and he had to be on top of his game as Ed's could "BS better than running of the Bulls Espana." . He said what wasn't talked about much in the industry was that Ed Roman and his team was known for making vintage fakes and copies and were good enough to pass expert review. Ed's shop was one of originators of "relic-ing". There was a story of Roman had made 60's era Gibson / Fender vintage fakes and took it to a guitar show with the top 4 vintage dealers at that time and they couldn't tell the diff between roman vintage fakes and the real vintage guitars roman copied from. Ed said if he could fake and fool them, in the future with new techniques, materials etc, it would be impossible for experts to tell a fake so the vintage guitar market would hide that fact. He also said you could easily get Ed to fly off his handle by taking about how Heritage and PRS revoked him as dealer (building fake copies) or really great guitar players don't mind the "New PRS heel" . Ed had raged against Asian guitars but Ed ranted in the shop, "Those Japanese (Ed used a derogatory WW 2 term that I'm not using) copy better than me. They got all the 50's and 60's Gibson / Fender etc specs because back them the record keeping was looser and the companies used what stock and parts they had, and thats all they do is copy this year or that year, day in and day out. And they're good at it. And those Japanese copy of American guitars, I get them, and that's how we get the specs for the years." He got Ed's Mosrite copies / fakes and said it felt and the pick ups sounded like a real Mosrite. I remember he had this old PC (pentium II lol) with a sony triniton monitor, that held all his websites, and showed the ed roman site as he told us stories . . . but when we showed him the net archives he was stoked. He said Ed kinda of wasted his talent. If Ed went legit and focused, and instead of being a used car sales man but a guitar brand, he Ed could have been like PRS but for pointy 80's guitars as he said even as the 90's came on Ed was still stuck in the 80's. Fun times.

Ed Roman was the rage on TGP and Harmony Central 20 years ago. Guys swore by his copies and customs. Quite a few horror stories as I remember from some customers.

I think that the most egregious part of his "restorations" & customizations is that he turned one legit guitar into one guitar into one guitar of questionable provenance while with a bit more patience he could have turned it into two guitars of questionable provenance.

This really reminds me of what we see in the "classic car" industry nowadays. Building around the car parts with Vin numbers and claiming its an "Original" car.

I loved the counterfeit BC Rich guitars of Ed's. I wanted a Warslinger to replace the BC Rich NJ series Warslinger I had in the late late 80s. I described it to 3 different people in his shop and on the 3rd guy I told them money wasn't a problem. I was looking for one of the very few USA Gunslingers. I got on the phone with the man Ed himself. He did the whole yeah yeah I know about those models very rare yeah. Then he offered to build me one out of genuine BC Rich USA parts. He was above reasonable on the price which was what a USA Warslinger went for brand new. A Warlinger is a Gunslinger, but with a Warlock body instead of the ST style. They are rare in both the USA and NJ series. I went for it. He sent me a plywood BC Rich Platinum series body mated to what probably was the neck that it came with and an obvious reshaping of the reverse 6 in line pointy headstock from the ugly Platinum style. It had an origional Floyd Rose on it and an actual EMG 81 humbucker. He went ahead and painted it solid red and black binding on the body. It took 6 months to get to me. It sucked. Sucked bad. Really bad. I got hosed and he wouldn't honor anything he claimed on his website. He's a snake oil salesman with a silver tongue.

With all the lawsuits in the guitar world how did Ed Roman not get sued ? It’s mind blowing

Ed Roman is infamous. My friend spoke with him when he was alive and he was held up to his reputation of just not giving a single fuck.

I met Ed a few times over the years. What he was doing was such an open secret in the guitar community(pre-Internet) that we always used to say that to deal with Ed you had to have more money than brains. He was a character & was patently full of shit most of the time, but he was far from the only one doing such things in the 80's & 90's before the vintage craze kicked off. I mean, 'original' Max Les Pauls are going for $40,000 or more & I'm sure Kris Derrig Les Pauls would be more than that if anyone could find them. Several people tried passing those off as real 58/59 LPs when the vintage guitars were at their peak. Some Mom & Pop shops would make you a Fender in any color you wanted & then just stick a Fender neck on it. Yes, Ed was 100% taking advantage of both customers AND guitar companies. It was just in an era where the resources to educate consumers or to catch him in the act really didn't exist yet. I always found it odd how he couldn't keep from showing off what he'd done when the Internet rolled around but then again, self-awareness was never Ed's strong suit.

That type of scam is called "The Ship of Thesus." Boyd Coddington (of the Show American Hotrod) was convicted of using the same type of scam on Hotrods. He used old cars so he could get their titles, but basically he'd make a RestoMod, and 99% of the car would be a new car, and the frame would be the old donor car.

i remember his website from back in the day. now, in a humorous spirit, i've found out why the language used was so loud - he was a harley enthusiast!

I was in the market for a PRS many many years ago and called Ed and had a conversation with him. I actually had no idea who the guy was. Still don't care who he is (was). I found him to be abrasive and, somewhat, insulting to be honest. He really talked bad about PRS guitars. He actually told me that I know nothing about guitars if I'm even considering buying one. I was like, "What a d$%k!" However, he did point me in the direction of some other brands and I, ultimately, ordered a David Thomas McNaught based on his suggestion and it's BY FAR, the best guitar I've ever played. So, Ed was an A-hole but he definitely pointed me in the right direction.

I've never even heard of this dude before, what an amazing story. Subscribed.

I used to hang out on the Vintage Kramer forums, and this guy was constantly ridiculed there! I think they had a thread about him that lasted for years. They HATED him with a passion.

I remember calling Roman put for his fake George Lynch models back in the day. Oh did he get pissed! I own a real custom Lynch Kamikaze lll that I got from Drum City Guotrs on Colorado back in 98. So I was always looking for Lynch guitars neck in the dual up days of the internet. I found his website and spent days looking at his J Frog copies. Thanks for doing this KDH, I always knew I was right about him being a fraud.

Please make an episode about Scott Grove 🙏

I remember when Ed Roman allegedly died . I don't remember a wake or funeral , just a memorial service in the distant future . I wondered if he went into witness protection program . I assumed he did business with people shadier then himself .🎸⬅️an original Ed Roman

The fact that this man included an only fools and horses joke into this video has raised my respect tenfold. Of all the places I thought I’d hear one it was not here lol

This is so odd, like the pure admission while pretending it's fine. "simple for some unscrupulous person to remove the green paint" straight into "I would normally remove it"

Ed Roman was a shady businessman and a master bullshitter who bought into his own hype. I’m sure the guitars he made were of high quality but I feel like he crossed several ethical lines in his career that gave him his notoriety

Absolutely brilliant! I love how much research you've done and your analytical, logical and humorous tongue-in-cheek breakdown of all the things you cover in your videos. Respect!. I know it takes a lot of effort to produce the kind of videos you do. Your level of output is outstanding

Ed Roman was a maverick guitar guy. He started out in the Danbury CT area. And that is where I first met him. He and his former partners went their separate ways. But it was a great place to buy and talk Guitar.

I used to work in a morgue and this video caused more trauma in the first few minutes than that ever did.

Crazy timing, I just randomly went back and read through some of Ed's old "rants" on his site earlier this week. The guy was definitely a whacko, but he ended up being right about some things. One that caught my attention was his story about manufacturers building in the collector value to the purchase price

I was always amazed by Ed Roman's audacity. On the one hand, he'd condemn what he called "fake guitar makers," but on the other hand, he built so many fakes himself that he could've easily been crowned "the king of fake guitar makers!" I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who ever spent far more for their "Ed Roman fake" than it was actually worth! I guess P.T. Barnum was right when he said, "There's a sucker born every minute!"

I always thought it was crazy how he got his hands on everything rare and unique and he always had a guitar for someone.

As sketchy as his ethics were with regard to guitar building, his store was even worse back in the day. The whole “I swapped out bodies on vintage necks” BS he stated on the website would not be mentioned at all in the store if you were considering a purchase. As far as they were concerned, you were paying top dollar for an all-original guitar, even with gaudy non-original paint job. The kind of nonsense that went on there went well beyond what you’d see at a seedy used car lot, needless to say. The worst part was that the sales crew there had tremendous attitudes going on when they tried to sell you product, too. The one and only time I went there was with my dad in the early 2000’s- they literally told him he had no clue as to what he was talking about regarding vintage guitars (despite the fact he’s done repairs on a great many of them back in the 70s) when he called them out on their chicanery and threatened to have us thrown out. We ended up getting the REAL story on Roman’s outfit from other retailers in town who were well-aware of his game. The quality of his stuff was spotty at best, too- some were actually kinda decent, while most were just outright unplayable junk. I’m talking stuff BELOW the quality of what would be churned out in China. But they still had the audacity to want a ton of cash for their stuff, though…

If you cut a 58 in half does that leave you with a 29?

Just now found your channel , I really enjoyed watching the story of ed Roman . Looking forward to watching alot more of your videos .

I knew ed through a family member. even went to his wedding. didn't really know anything about him other than that he was very nice to me and showed me some cool stuff. I was just a kid at the time

I remember surfing his website in the 90s and it was utterly massive - organizations such as the CIA didn’t have a database that big. It seemed like he was coming up with new webpages every other day so there was always something to look at. But I also remember the harmony central guitar forum always had people who had run-ins with him. Same with people who were regulars at the gear page. Everyone who actually tried to buy some thing from him had some crazy horror story. The few that managed to get on his good side ended up with playable instruments but one wonders how real they actually were.

I've been playing guitar long enough to remember Ed and his website. Always got bad vibes from the guy but wow this is just next level. As someone with a fascination and respect for nearly all types of guitars, seeing what this guy was doing to instruments hurts.

A great, illuminating video. Great info and delivery. I did not know any of this before.

I remember browsing the website back in the day and there was always something odd about it.Thanks for sharing that bit of guitar history!

this guy is like if Matilda's farther was a guitar salesmen instead of a car salesman

It appears to be the ideal crooked scenario.... a legitimate, successful dealer with multiple brands under one roof giving him access to manufacturer intel.... with a custom shop producing fakes from real templates and serial numbers. Even if the original manufacturers got wind of what he was doing, you can guess the reaction - too inept or greedy to give a shit as the guy was shipping units and inflating prices for them. Thanks for the insight and your take on it. We all know these sleaze bags exist but they rarely get outed. I remember a case in Leeds a few years ago coming to light - similar but not on the same scale, a used guitar dealer producing fakes, swapping necks and headstocks, ageing then promoting them as vintage with a history. Scum.

I still remember him trying to rip me off on some Steinberger parts. He was a really unpleasant and unethical guy. I remember our discussions ending with him telling me to sue him, and then getting a check in the mail from him after I had my lawyer contact him about pre-litigation resolutions, as one typically does before proceeding to actual legal action.

Ed's CT shop was right down the road for me, so I went there for a lot of gear. At one point my band mate and I were in the market for amps, so he went on a scouting trip to see what they had. Without checking with me he bought a pair of Gallien Kruger solid state amps, one head for him and a combo 2x12 for me. They both sounded like A$$, but mine also developed an appetite for speakers blowing 2 pair within a month. I called the company to check on warrantee service, but they explained that the serial # tracked to a pre production amp that was not supposed to be sold (presumably given to Ed by the company just to check out). When I tried to bring it back to Ed he saw me in the parking lot with the amp, locked the front door and claimed they were having a closed door sale and that I couldn't come in. I waited a couple of days, then started scoping out the store to see what days Ed was not in. I went on one of those days, talked to my favorite sales person and ended up getting full credit against a Boogie super 60 that still belongs to one of the guitarists from that band. I also found out later that Ed regularly sold gear that companies would give him to test that was still in design, and the companies stopped sharing when they got calls from customers who ended up with the gear after it blew up. He really was something...

I grew up in the town in CT where Ed got his start. He had a music store on our main street called East Coast Sounds. Then he moved to a larger location called East Coast Music Mall. (You have some pictures of that place in your video) He was always known as a sleazebag and his employees for the most were the same. I avoided that place like the plague and bought my gear from local mom and pops instead. I never found out why he eventually moved and went to Vegas. It seems his reputation got even worse after the move.... and I didn't think that was possible.

I was around in this time in the industry. I would take anything Ed said with a pinch of salt. Divide those numbers by 10 or 20.

You're a gem! Well done on gathering and getting this information out.

The idea of "increasing the money making potential" on a vintage LP burst made me snort my drink all over my screen. What a glorious line of BS.

Off topic: Can you PLEASE get some new glasses? They are sooo crooked it distracts me in every video. Thanks for keeping up the great quality of videos, exposing the bullshit of the guitar industry (been here since the Chappers video)

Back when Ed was still in Connecticut he wanted to purchase my 1977 BC Rich Eagle but I wouldn’t sell it to him because he wanted to modify it from original. So glad I didn’t do business with him.

I spoke with Ed a few times over the phone when he was still in his Conn. shop pre-Vegas. I always found him to be very straightforward about what he was selling and what he had done to "modify" a guitar. Yes he could be abrasive and short at times but to be honest I found it somewhat refreshing. He pretty much spelled out what he liked or didn't like about certain brands etc. and why he did his remakes the way he did. I didn't agree with all of it but with Ed I don't really think he cared. I knew what I was buying and agreed with it or I wouldn't have made the deal. Almost all of what he did was an improvement on the original in my opinion. The cheaply made Les Paul Studio (awful quality guitars) he was "carving" in the video was a "licensed" Chibson that Gibson sold as American anyway. Why do you think it took Gibson so long to get a handle on those DHGate/TradeTang Counterfeits? They were coming from the very factories in the Far East they used to make many of their own cheaper products. Slash's counterfeit was celebrated while others were ridiculed. It's all in your perspective I guess.

Everybody puts too much into what's on the top of the headstock if the guitar sounds good and plays good it's a good guitar

I imagine this guy was basically the guidebook to many of today's scammers and crooks. I'm all up for modifying your gear however you see fit, but if you try to resell it and try to scam people, I believe you might be entitled to a karate kid kick.

He got caught retopping OLP Axis guitars and selling them as “genuine” MusicMan Axis guitars

I've heard of him doing this to everything from squiers and epiphones to vintage gibsons and rickenbackers and even alembics. I wonder exactly how many priceless instruments this man has ruined.

Dude this channel is amazing. Love these deep dives haha. I’m a bit older so I was a young teen around the time I found the website and would just look at pictures of guitars because it was cool to see so many different guitars. I would just ignore the rants. I will give it up to Ed I remember his site was the first time I ever heard about Sheldon Dingwall way back before the Nolly collab brought them to the forefront. He would say amazing things about his brand.

I just serviced a 1978 BC Rich Bich doubleneck for someone, now you got me paranoid that it might be fake haha great video!

As someone who is deep into vintage ESPs and B.C. Richs this is really interesting. I find it really important to not understate how important Neal Moser is for that company. Neal essentially was and at this point is THE master builder at BCR with Bernie. Also something for people who are now getting onto the death metal hypetrain that's causing especially Ironbirds to get sought after: PLATINUM MODELS ARE NEVER!!!!! WORTH WHAT THEY ARE GETTING LISTED AT ON REVERB RN!!!!!!!!!!!. Do not get fooled. The platinum series vintage guitars are spottable by A. The bendmaster tremolo which is in itself a horrible Floyd rose copy that will cost you at least hundreds of bucks if it's not in perfect condition (mine literally snapped in half) and B. If you ever see one with a chip take a good look at the spot where it chipped. The platinum series guitars were made out of plywood. Yes you read this right: there are people on reverb RN that list plywood guitars for 1400€ and more. Do not get fooled by this also you can not date these guitars because of the way BCR kept serial numbers but that's a complete clusterfuck even for the US made models. That beeing said even the platinum Ironbirds are insanely nice guitars once you eliminate the issues with the trem and change the pickups.

I used to shop from (and chat with) Ed Roman all the time when I was a kid and first started playing guitar - in fact, Ed sold me my 2nd-4th guitars. He was a real character!

Ed roman Sr. was notoriously known as a sleazeball. He bought the patent rights of George Lynch’s kamikaze guitars once esp let them lapse, and then threatened litigation against George himself when he started Scary guitars. By that time Ed had passed, and George was able to make a deal with the Roman family.

Love seeing the KDH notification!!

Great video. He had some other tricks up his sleeve. He would take a post 94 PRS with the larger heel and shave them down to look like pre 94 guitars. About a year ago, I saw a 95 with the large PRS logo and short heel. Definitely a Roman job. He would also be the largest exhibitor at the Westchester guitar show. He would rent about 10 strippers to walk the guitars around the hall to draw people into his booth. Real sleaze ball. He was also very connected. At the same show, he also had the guitarist from Blue Oyster Cult, Richie Scarlett and the guitarist from Rat Race Quire do a killer jam session. It was cool.

If I remember correctly, Phil McKnight has an Ed Roman story, how he wouldn’t let anyone play the Steve Vai Jem guitar on the wall, reasoning that it was “unplayed” and the owner should be the first to play it. Phil didn’t buy it. What a trip! 😂

I remember reading the articles (rants) etc on his website back in the day. I actually bought my first guitar (a japanese made Fender "E" series lefty strat) based on one of the articles he wrote comparing them favorably to US made Fenders. I still have that guitar today.

This is similar to the Canadian "Fakai"story. Again from the early Internet days. I very nearly bought one of the gorgeous "Tangerine" Fakais. It's still a matter of debate over which factory in Korea actually made them.

So glad you made this video! I used to love Ed Roman's site as a teenager. I realize now that a lot of my biases about buying guitars come from the information I'd absorbed from that website. In a sense i feel like he was selling his own stuff by using half-truths about how many of the big brand guitars were giving people inferior products for overinflated prices. He seemed to have a big vendetta against Gibson in particular! Again, thanks for putting this up brother! Peak content as always =)

I used to read his website back in the day! This video got me hooked on your channel. Been watching a lot. Keep it up, good sir!

I loved cruising Ed Roman's website. It was a free-form, ever-changing, fiction story that Ed invented and transmogrified regularly to support his latest outlandish claims. It was a constant laugh-fest good for at least an hour's entertainment whenever I stopped by to see the latest creations in his imaginary guitar world.