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Best Neck Thru Body 200 Models
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Ed Roman's Flagship Model |
Best Headless Guitars |
Best Mid Price Handmade - World's Most Versatile Guitar |
Best Ever Surf Guitar - Established 1952 |
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Best All Solid Wood Slimline |
Best In Upper Price Range |
Best Strat Clone |
Best New Guitar On The Market |
Best Modern Vintage Guitar |
Best Custom Scale Guitar |
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Replications of Famous Guitars |
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Ed Roman World Best Custom Shop |
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Quicksilver for Mark Gronlund
Our Most Popular & Versatile Guitar
If you see nothing else on this
website, Check out these guitars!
Quicksilver Guitars
Pride Is A Sin Unless You Are A Craftsman

Ed Roman's 2009 Slimline Acoustic
Guitars
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Neck Thru Body USA Made Version
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High Quality Custom Made
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Details Road Cases
A Word From Ed Roman
Recently I was speaking to a new customer who was considering buying
a hand made guitar from a smaller builder. He was impressed with the ones I
have listed on my page. He
indicated to me that he had been surfing the net
for some time looking for a builder that could produce what he was looking
for. He was trying to buy direct because he thought he could get a better
price. I can't blame anyone for looking for a good deal, that's human
nature.
He named about 15 other custom builders that were not listed on my site.
He
told me that he was considering those also. I said to him that at one
time or another I had purchased each and every one of the brand names he
listed. I went on to tell him that they all had failed
my criteria for fit & finish.
My criteria is fairly strict, I am a stickler for fit and finish. I
don't care how good a guitar looks in a picture, if it doesn't look good
from 3 feet, I reject them. There are many small builders who have some
pretty good designs, they just fail in the final execution of the product.
I have seen some guitars with beautiful wood, with inlay work and glue ups
that are not even mildly acceptable. I have seen some guitars that play well
but the paint work is horrible. I have seen guitars where the paint is
flawless but there are obvious flaws in the workmanship. In short it is rare
that the whole package is perfect. I can remember when I was first starting,
I had some problems myself.
I occasionally get stuck with
some of these mediocre guitars. If and when that happens I generally will
sell them cheaply on a closeout. (Call me - I have some right now
at below my cost) All the guitars listed in the links above are absolute top quality
and bear my seal of approval. I have personally tested these and many others
that you don't see listed. I guarantee your satisfaction or you may return
the guitar (see terms). In fact I will buy at least one of almost any new
brand of guitar that comes out. For every time I have been happy, I have
been disappointed at least five times. Occasionally, I will still get a
guitar from one of my top builders that may have a cosmetic problem. These
are available at an extremely good deal. Remember that a good deal on
a bad guitar is not a really good deal at all.
I can afford to do this. Many consumers simply can't afford to take a
chance. Because, if I don't like the product I will either redo it and
wholesale it out or just plain dump it out at cost. In several cases I have
been unable to sell the guitars at all. Some people have expressed some
dismay that I am not carrying certain lines of supposedly "handmade" guitars.
The several usually in question are actually not handmade at all. In fact they aren't even made by the people whose
names appear on the headstock.
There are several large CNC companies out there: NC
Solutions, Warmoth, All Parts, WD Enterprises, Wildwood Banjo ,
Hill Guitars, Z&G
Machine, Gidwani to name a few. These companies will make decent quality
necks and bodies for anyone who has several thousand dollars to order a
dozen bodies and necks.
Companies like Lak-Land, Sadowsky, Zeta, have
everything outsourced either in the Orient or usually by Wildwood company in
the Northwestern USA. These parts are shipped to
Chicago & New York where they are assembled and sold as supposedly hand made. The
last I heard Pat Wilkins in California was doing most of their paint work.
Most of these subcontractor companies are quite good and sometimes I
use a couple of them myself. However I don't use them for any of our
handmade one of a kind custom pieces. I have a problem with companies
who charge high money for supposedly hand made pieces when in reality they
are not handmade at all.
There is absolutely nothing illegal in
what they do. In fact I have used some of these same companies to make
bodies for several of my lower cost and kit guitars.
There is also nothing illegal about pricing an
instrument at three times its value just so that some poor sap will think
it's hand made. In fact I would not bother exposing these companies if
they sold their instruments at what I consider to be fair market value.
Ed Roman
Left Handed Pink
V Twin Model
Built in my shop 2005
Formerly Known As The
3DV Which Means Three Dimensional Vee
This guitar is totally quilted, front back & all 16 sides

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Centurion Guitar For Chris Curtis
Ed Roman's Flagship Top of the Line Model
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