Abstract Guitars & Basses

Rockingbird

STATE-OF-THE-ART HAND-CRAFTED GUITARS
If You Can Dream It,  Abstract Can Build It!

Abstract Guitars are the most custom radical guitars available from Ed Roman.
They are built entirely in the USA by many of the very talented builders
who were formerly with Jackson & BC Rich. 

 Click Here For A Complete List of Abstract Models

 
The Kingpin Guitar

Roman Abstract Extenda Vee

Mr. Roman,

Let me begin by thanking you for the outstanding service that you provide for those of us that still care about the music, not just pop culture images. It seems that you are one of the only people left in the guitar industry today that actually cares about quality and value. Not so long ago... I was one of the masses.

I too had been brainwashed into believing the pay more = get more lie. I would look at the $5,000.00 + Gibson's and Fenders online and say to myself... WOW! What an amazing guitar! Whoa whoa whoa... How much more wrong could I have been?  I realize now that, too often, the only difference in many guitars is the name that some hot shot executive that doesn't even play guitar has given it. Limited Edition, Signature Series, Vintage Reissue, etc.

But now that you have opened my eyes, I want recreations of these guitars made from the best tone woods, best hardware and electronics, and assembled by skilled hands of a master luthier such as yourself.  I know that this must be something that you deal with on a daily basis, but it is not addressed very much on your site. I understand that you have to be careful because of copyright laws, but will you really build ANYTHING via the Abstract brand?

I hate to push you, but if I were to ask you to build me an SG style or Tele style guitar or really any style for that matter (with some custom upgrades obviously),  would you build it to look exactly like that style guitar? There are too many guitar manufacturers out there that have models that look similar to one of the name brand mega-models but just do not live up to the original. They all just seem to look a little strange. I wouldn't pay a dime for a ugly looking copy guitar. I would have to know that I was getting exactly what I wanted before I could justify spending the pretty good size chunk of change that it would cost to order an Abstract.

I do apologize for rambling, but I have wanted to write you for several months now. What actually sparked this e-mail is your latest blog, "resale value".  I really love the vibe and mojo that  a 335 has, but I can not, with a sound mind, spend the ridiculous Gibson price for one and only get ridiculous Gibson quality. You have posted a picture of a guitar that you have labeled as a Mosrite 300. That is one absolutely gorgeous guitar, but upon some research into the model, I cannot find any pictures of another one that is on its level. Is this something you have began producing under your Mosrite brand? If it has become one of the production models, what would be the price of one similar to the one pictured in the blog?

Again, I apologize for being long winded and I hope to hear back from you. You are the Guitar King.

Thanks,

Greg Pruitt

You Can Buy  Ed Roman Necks at This Link

Our New Ultimate Singlecut In Development !!!
Solid Korina Construction
Quilted Maple  Wraparound Tops (call for info)
Cocobolo, Spalt,  Macassar Ebony, Flame, Birdseye Tops
Bubinga, Sapele, Sequoia, Cherry, Koa,  Lacewood Tops
Trem Or Non Trem Models
22 or 24 Fret Models,  1500 G necks &  Direct Coupling
Choice of Pickups, Bridge, Tuners, Inlays,
Parametric Equalizer Available, Like Turner Model One
Under 6 lbs some as light as 4 lbs
Ed Roman has 15 different singlecut models on the drawing board.
If We Can't Build It Better,  We Just Won't Build It At All !!!
 Also See The Maximus

 Revolutionary Solid Top Back & Sides
Slimline Acoustic No Heel Blues Deluxe
335 style guitar

Abstract Hellion Model

The New Druid for 2007
If you like this you will also like The Avanti for 2008

You Can Buy  Ed Roman Necks at This Link

Caligula Model
Contact Us

Quicksilver guitars recently celebrated the 10th full year of production, They were in development for more than 4 years before we started selling them.

The Quicksilver has enjoyed amazing popularity, we have sold over 2000 of them in a our first 10 years in business. That is a actually tremendous amount, when you take into account that no two of them were exactly the same. Every single one of them had it's own private build sheet.

Only about 100 of them were made that were not sold before we started it.

As many of my old time customers know, Quicksilver's always came with a choice of a bolt In neck or a set neck for the same price. Our main competitor effectively charged $400.00 more if you wanted a set neck.

In 2006 Ed decided to start offering the successful Quicksilver body shape under the Abstract & Centurion brand names. The Abstract brand features neck thru body construction & the Centurion brand features a deep set neck tenon that extends down below the bridge of the guitar.

  BLUEBURST IS ONE OF OUR MOST POPULAR COLORS

Abstract Guitars is the Brainchild of Ed Roman (The Guitar King)

Ed is shown here playing an original USA made 1966 Epiphone Riviera. Through one of the first Marshall amps ever imported in the USA.  (Turned up to 11 of course.) 
Wearing blue & yellow paisley bellbottoms & a pink, blue, & orange shirt. (It was so bright, you couldn't look directly at him.) His boots we are told were bright shiny silver patent leather. (He Still Has Them)

Ed Roman "Hot Ice" Danbury Elks Hall Circa 1966 BC

Chiefly remembered for streaking naked on his Harley down Main St. Danbury Ct. during the winter snowstorm of 1967.

Ed may have started the whole streaking craze !!!!
Streaking happened in the early 70's !!!

This picture is in black & white because color cameras hadn't been invented yet.  Hell color hadn't been invented yet !!!!

How is Ed playing an electric guitar?  (Electricity hadn't been invented yet.)

Ed Custom built Harley Davidson Choppers during the late 60's & made the initial money that propelled him to the music business in 1975. His small chain of 5 motorcycle chopper shops throughout Connecticut & Massachusetts, were among the first Custom Chopper shops on the planet. Ed was building bikes years before Arlen Ness, Dave Perowitz, & all of the famous builders like OCC today.

Ed's stores were called different names, There was Chickenlips Choppers, in Bridgeport, Custom Cycle Shop, in West Springfield Mass The Other Horse in New Haven, Cycledelic Choppers in Greenwich and of course the Original SMC Choppers in Norwalk.  Today going on 40 years later, two of these locations are still open. They are both very large Harley Davidson Dealers.

Ed's main manufacturing plant SMC/Acu-weld, located in Palmer Mass. grew to an enormous 70.000 square feet. In 1972 Ed employed over 100 people who manufactured a complete line of high quality chrome plated motorcycle accessories.

Ed built bikes for Hollywood movies, famous rockstars of the era and many hard core riders.  Some of Ed's fabulous bikes were featured in magazines like Life & the Saturday Evening Post. Today his business still lives on in Newburgh, New York under the name "V Twin Cycles" Owner Ted Doering has built the business into a gargantuan operation. Ed Roman still holds the record for the longest bike ever registered in the State of Connecticut.

SMC was named after the Savages Motorcycle Club from Connecticut of which Ed was a charter member in the 60's.

Ed played in numerous bands, Hot Ice, Red-Beard & The Pirates, and most notably Taboo. Taboo was a tri state area band that played colleges, army bases, nightclubs to medium sized venues & toilet bowls all over the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut Area.

He started the music & guitar business as a hobby, because the band needed 12 microphones. Ed made up a letterhead & wrote to Shure telling them he was a dealer. He was able to convince them into thinking he had a music store. The band ended up getting the 12 SM 57 mic's  for approximately $50.00 each.

In 1975 a local music dealer buddy of Ed's needed a loan, Ed loaned him approximately $15.000.00, The dealer gave Ed about 50 old Gibson & Fender guitars as collateral for the money.  Ed held the guitars for almost 2 years, finally when the dealer could not pay back the money, Ed began selling off the guitars. The rest is history.  (Ed wishes he had never sold that inventory. Today the value would have exceeded A Million Dollars)

Ed was the first mailorder pro audio & guitar business in the USA, He was also one of the first music dealers to carry, Light shows, pyrotechnic supplies, rack mount studio gear, PA systems and one of the first Otari, Tascam & Fostex dealers in the USA.  Within one year of opening Ed's store was known up and down the East Coast. There were no other stores in the same league.

Customers came from everywhere to see all the cool guitars that were not available any where else. It was not uncommon for bands to take week long road trips to go to Ed's shop for the latest & coolest gear. Stores like Sam Ash & Guitar Center carried, marching band equipment & sheet music none of them even attended the AES shows where all the pro audio gear was sold.

Ed was one of the first ever dealers if not the very first to address the DJ & Karaoke markets. Ed installed huge custom made sound systems & light shows in 70's style discos & churches up and down the East Coast and many in the Bahamas & Virgin Islands. Some of systems sold in excess of $500.000.00 !!!

During the 80's Ed had a sound company called Goliath Productions, Ed did sound for Beatlemania, 38 Special, Michael Bolton, Jethro Tull, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, Orleans, Herman's Hermits, Buddy Miles & Countless other medium sized acts, Ed's sound system was used at over 6 Nuclear Submarine launchings. Ed did sound for various politicians including Presidents Carter & Reagan.

On Keyboards, Ed was the first Sequential Circuits dealer, The first Emulator & Synergy dealer, Ed had all the cool analog keyboards ARP, Moog, Oberheim, (Casio, Korg, Roland & Yamaha weren't even available yet)

Ed was one of the very first BC Rich, Dean, Hamer, Alembic, Veillette Citron, SD Curlee dealers. He was the second ever Mesa Boogie dealer.  Ed was the first dealer to address boutique brands of high end custom guitars he still leads the industry in that area.

Ed opened the first ever music superstore, Eastcoast Music Mall opened in 1982 over a full year before Guitar Center opened their Hollywood flagship store. The East Coast Music Mall was the first ever music store to have a full performance stage complete with full lighting trusses, computerized light show spotlights, Overkill sound system, pyrotechnics. and complete dressing room facilities "Blue Oyster Cult" played there on opening night in 1982.  Today 28 years later Ed is still working closely with BOC.

Bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Leslie West's Mountain, Deep Purple, Ratrace Choir & George Lynch, Tony McAlpine, Vinnie Moore & others all played on the in store stage for the week long grand opening party.
Ed & his crew ran the store from 9.00 AM to midnight 7 days in a row for the spectacular grand opening!!! Remember this was the 80's people didn't sleep much in the 80's ha ha.

Ed's then famous Eastcoast Music Mall was also a factory outlet for the nearby Steinberger factory. Ed handled much of the artist relations, dealer distribution & produced many prototypes and custom guitars for Steinberger in the early 90's. 

In the early 90's Ed took a 2 year vacation to finish building an experimental home & recording studio. Before coming back full time to Eastcoast Music Mall,  Ed worked for Gibson as Artist Relations, & sales training for the Steinberger division. This was before Gibson got deeply involved with Steinberger. This was when Steinberger was a high quality totally USA made guitar, It wasn't till years later that Gibson decided to do imported products.

In the 90's Ed purchased The entire inventory of the ailing BC Rich company. Ed produced USA made Neck Through Body BC Rich guitars for a period of 5 years under his own name. Then Bernie Rico Sr. offered Ed the entire company but the catch was Ed would have had to import low cost Chinese models. Ed made a poor financial business decision by refusing Bernie's offer.  Ed wanted no part of bringing in cheap Bronze Series and Platinum Series BC Rich knockoffs. Today the company that is doing this is experiencing great financial success with their low cost imported product.

In 1999 Ed still had hundreds of original USA made BC Rich neck through body blanks many of which were original California product. Ed continued on until 2004 producing hand built custom made BC Rich guitars for many loyal customers.  There were many people who objected to him building these and it created quite a controversy. Most of the dissenters had no idea what actually transpired, They simply saw it as an interloper trying to cash in on another brand name.  ( Today that company is known Abstract Guitars)

Ed also acquired the entire contents of the Steinberger factory in Newburgh NY. Today Ed is the only game in town if you need parts for an old Steinberger. Ed started building LSR Guitars which evolved from the original Steinberger concept. As usual Ed took it to the extreme and offers 30 different models as of 2004.

Ed partnered up with Bud Prager a legend in the music management business, Bud Prager managed Cream,  Mountain, Foreigner, Styx, Bad Company, He was involved closely with all the major British acts in the late 60's & early 70's. He was responsible for Booking Led Zeppelins first USA tour and probably about 10,000 other major shows from Jethro Tull to Pink Floyd To Rush To Deep Purple during the 70's 80's.

In 2001 Ed went to Las Vegas with the crazy idea to build the World's Largest Guitar Store. It took him just 2 years to accomplish his goal and he had set up a 44,000 square foot building housing more than 7700 guitars on display. Ed represented over 200 guitar companies. The store became a destination location for thousands of musicians worldwide.

There was one major downfall the store also became a destination store for thousands of curiosity seekers, tire kickers and no money looky loo's & be backers. The sheer amount of salespeople and staff required to service these people started to cut into the margins very heavily.  Ed even toyed with the idea of charging an admission fee.

In 2006 Ed brought in some partners who were going to help to raise the bar even higher, they were supposed to set up a museum and open up several more large stores in LA, New York, Dallas & Chicago. The Las Vegas location was slated to also be a museum with an admission charge for non customers & curiosity seekers. 

These new partners initially threw a bunch of money at Ed to buy the controlling interest and then promptly dropped the ball and the company teetered on extinction. 

They made every classic mistake that a business can make, They brought in incompetent management, hired new purchasing people who immediately bought too many of all the wrong things. They fired most of the experienced help and tried to replace them with low paid snot nosed kids.  Sales fell off like someone switched a light switch.

 When they started to slow pay the vendors of course they got shut off almost immediately. Customer service was at all time tragedy proportions. They effectively destroyed the company within 4 TO 5 months. Many of Ed's loyal customers did not understand that there were new owner's and different ideas about how customers wanted to be treated.

When they instituted the commission policies Ed left for good to start another operation.

These new people tried to compete with Guitar Center. Something Ed had never even tried or wanted to do.

Ed moved quickly to buy back his shares, websites, brand names, designs and intellectual property.  Between the great cost of buying everything back, The economic conditions and several other mitigating factors Ed decided to downsize the operation and gave up the concept of being the biggest guitar store in the world.

Ed opened a smaller and more manageable operation that carries 99% of what the big store carried and over 14 private brands comprising more than 500 models which are manufactured right in Ed's Las Vegas Custom Shop.  It may no longer be the biggest store in the world but it's selection is still the most impressive anywhere.

There are more than 600 models available at Ed Roman guitars that cannot be bought elsewhere.

The Las Vegas custom shop is located in the mountains outside of Las Vegas several miles from where Ed resides. Here in an relatively tranquil atmosphere the guitars are all hand made & assembled. The paint & finishing shop is located in nearby Pahrump which is well known for it's brothels.

Serious buyers & collectors are able to visit the Custom Shop, They can pick the wood and body style they like and the guitar will usually be fully constructed within 3 to 6 months.

In 2009, Ed decided to downsize the store even more, even though the store was doing OK,  it just wasn't any fun anymore, Ed had no patience for the tire-kickers, tourists & timewasters.

Ed decided to close the store and become an even more aggressive discounter.  With the lowered overhead Ed could effectively compete with any one and easily undersell the corporate megastores that threaten to take over the entire music business.

In mid 2008,  Denny Laine of the Moody Blues, & Wings asked Ed to play on his new project. So together with Louie Patrizzi and Denny Laine, Ed went back to his first love,  playing in a band!!!  The band is strictly all original music and Denny himself is the musical director.

In October 2009 Ed did his first ever Email Blast which featured many items at stupidly low prices. Legally this sale could be sent out because it was only offered to long time customers and or people on the mailing list that had given Ed their email addresses.  This sale was not offered to the general public !!!

At this time Ed is actively seeking an investor partner to put together a large guitar Museum/Store/Venue in Las Vegas. Currently there are no decent stores in Las Vegas and the 2 million resident's of Las Vegas cannot go anywhere but Guitar Center and Sam Ash. 

The Saga Continues........  More To Come ~