We Will Build You Virtually Any Bass You Can Find on the Internet
We will build it with any body shape, any headstock, any scale,
any wood, any electronics, any construction, bolt-on or neck-through-body,
AND in most cases our prices will be better.
I Started Out Building Custom Basses Back in The
80's, Back When Bass Players Were Very Adventurous &
Progressive, It seemed like a good business to get into
because most of the boutique basses of the day were
overpriced.
Sadly these days we build fifty guitars to every one
bass, Many people are not aware of our basses and
this page addresses some of the different ones we have
created over the years. We will still build one of a kind basses,
so give me a call if you would like something special.
Ed Roman 2010
HISTORY & TIMELINE OF ED
ROMAN BASSES DIFFERENT BRANDS
Ed Roman Scroll Basses
Totally Hand Carved No 2 Alike
Ed Roman Scroll Basses
Totally Hand Carved No 2 Alike
Ed Roman Scroll Basses
Totally Hand Carved No 2 Alike
We Do Not Charge Any Extra For Lefthanded
We Don't Have To, All Of Our Neck Through Guitars Are Custom
Clone Of A Vox Teardrop
All Of Our Guitars Are Available
As Basses & Vice Versa
Neck Through Body, Ebony Fretboard,
Ultra High Quality
Available in Original English Or Later Italian Scales
Lowrider Bass 2001
Custom design your own headstock,
We can provide you with exactly
what you want !!!
Phantazm Bass Available In Any Scale
This One Built For James Kasper 32" Scale
Atomic Inlays, Neck Through Construction, Ebony
Fingerboard
Quilted Top & Back !!!
Ed Roman Early Model Abstract Stretch Bass from
the 90's
Ed Roman Does Not Charge Extra
For Lefthanded Neck Thru Gold Series Basses or
Guitars. After All We Build Them All From Scratch
Anyway.
Ed Roman is
committed to using the finest sounding & most
beautiful looking tonewoods available in the world
today.
Full On Neck Through
Body Construction, Hand Carved One At A Time By
Musicians Who are players themselves.
Individual Bridge
Saddles Are Available For The Utmost In Separation.
Customer Picks Exact
Knob Placement
No Extra Charge.
Customer May Supply
His Own Wood Or Pickups or Hardware On Any Of The
500 Or So Models Offered By Ed Roman Guitars.
Ed Roman Basses Are
All Designed To Balance Perfectly While Hanging On
Your Shoulder.
Strings installed from base of the guitar
There are many innovations on an Ed Roman bass you
won't find from most other builders
Magnetic easy on/easy off cavity cover plates.
Unlimited choices of body shapes
over 350 body shapes to choose from
Over 40 different tonewoods in stock at all times
You can order a guitar from Ed Roman with a weight
restriction guideline pre-specified
Choice of Bartolini, EMG, Seymour Duncan or any
pickups you want
Available with light up knobs & Inlays
Abstract Stretch Bass 2001
Ed Roman Abstract Claw Bass
1999
Dave Overthrow Playing an
Abstract Claw Bass Guitar
Original Roman & Blake Claw Bass Prototype
Built For Dave Overthrow 1993
Abstract Devastator Bass Ed Built
For Himself Back In 2004
This Was A One Of A Kind Bass That Is Licensed And
We Don't Offer Them In Our Line
However we felt it should be on this page to
demonstrate our capabilities
We could build a guitar that closely resembles it.
Wanderer Bass
Gospel Bass
Our Answer To Ned Steinbergers Small Paddle Shaped Bass
This Is Hand Made From One Solid Piece Of Walnut
No Seams Anywhere
Custom One Of A Kind Short Scale Bass
Abstract One Of A Kind For Dave Meros (Eric
Burdon & The Animals, Spock's Beard)
Ed Roman first started building bass guitars
back in the early 80's with his partner & first luthiery teacher, Barry Lipman
back in Connecticut at East Coast Music Mall. The original Basses were named R&L
Basses. They were nationally advertised and met with a fair measure of
success. The local musicians adopted the name "Rolip" which was short for Roman
& Lipman.
Ed designed all the basses and decided on what woods, pickups & components to
use. Barry executed the building & painting. After several years it became apparent that Barry could no longer meet the
manufacturing demand for the basses. Ed sold his controlling interest in the
companies East Coast Music Mall & Roman & Lipman and set out to build guitars
with a new partner. Ed's new partner was a guitar bass building guru named Ron
Blake.
Ron had been chief luthier for Carl Thompson
and had been responsible for prototyping & making the very first Ken Smith Bass.
Ron also collaborated with Les Claypool on the
original Scroll Bass and built about 6 of them for Les. He also built
several hundred others for Carl Thompson who was selling them quite successfully.
Ron was also involved in Ghost Building guitars
& basses for many famous people including Stanley Clarke's famous Piccolo Bass.
Ron never got the credit he deserved but that's what Ghost Building is all
about!!!.
Stanley
Clarke has been credited with creating the piccolo bass (essentially a bass
tuned one octave higher), and although he mainly plays Alembics, the first
piccolo was a Carl Thompson. Stanley owns two Carl Thompsons, both piccolos.
One is a 34" scale (the first piccolo ever), and the second is a 32" scale.
When the first bass was being made, Stanley was so excited, he told Carl to
bring it over the minute it was completed. Carl Thompson ended up hand
delivering to Stanley at 3:00 in the morning! The second bass has a more
interesting story. Stanley had just accidentally broken the headstock on his
CT, and it could not be fixed before his next recording session. Carl was
working on a 32" scale short bass at the time, and offered to lend it to
Stanley. He modified the nut, finished it up quickly and gave it to Stanley.
The Funk god liked it so much, he decided to buy it and use it as his backup
bass. To this day, Stanley Clarke still uses that bass for dubbing and
recording.
"Luthier Carl Thompson built the first
piccolo bass to Stanley´s specifications. It basically has the same
intervals (E, A, D, G), scale and spacing of the regular bass, but it is
tuned one octave higher. Other players have followed suit including Ron
Carter who had an acoustic version built for him. But Stanley maintains: "
It
was my idea."
Today Ed Roman Not Only Makes Piccolo Basses But Piccolo 12
String Mini Guitars As Well. The Piccolo Bass is an awesome instrument but the
guitar is beyond incredible Click
here To See Them
Roman Lowrider With Graphite Neck
In 1993 Ed started acquiring the
inventory, fixtures & tooling for several more defunct companies. BC
Rich, Kramer & Steinberger. Ed decided to concentrate on building
instruments. It wasn't as easy or profitable as retailing them. The
cost of setting up was astronomical, He didn't have the funding, and being
old fashioned about money, he refused to borrow money to pay for the brand
names. After acquiring all the Steinberger inventory & tooling, Ed
successfully released the LSR line of
Headless
Guitars & Basses in 1995. LSR flourished for
many years. When Gibson the people who owned the rights to the name
"Steinberger" decided to release a low cost imported lookalike using the
Steinberger brand name the LSR line took a back seat. Even though the
quality was measurably better and there were 35 different body shapes
compared to Steinberger's 2 body shapes. Today LSR is a small boutique
company building over 50 models of headless guitars & basses. A new model is
released about every 4 months and you can still buy a completely customized
instrument. Ed says there isn't enough business to sustain a company full
time so he has since come out with 13 other guitar brands. Between all these
brands and different models Ed is extremely busy.
The Lowrider traditional bolt on basses were released
in 1999, due to the fact that Pearlcaster Guitar
line had been so successful Ed thought it would make sense to build a line
of bass guitars based on Leo Fender's original designs. He made several
improvements to the neck joints, electronics, woods, frets, fingerboards and
numerous other smaller improvements.
The Lowrider line was less than successful, The instrument was great but Ed
never spent the money to advertise and he priced it way too low. When a
consumer sees something priced too low they surmise that the instrument is
probably imported or of lower quality.
Ed decided he wanted no part of building this style of guitar in his already
too busy woodshop.. So he had the bodies & necks made by the same firm
that built, Sadowsky's, Lakland, Tobias, Mike Lull Modulus & many corporate
brands such as Yamaha, All parts and Stewart MacDonald.
Ed maintains the mistake was we put these up for too low a price.
People assumed incorrectly, that because they were priced so low, they
simply couldn't be any good.
Ed experimented with various shapes & modernized double octave
necks like above.
We Do Not Charge Any Extra For Lefthanded On
Any Neck Thru Body Guitar
We Don't Have To, All Of Our Neck Through Guitars Are
Custom
Ed Roman Basses Part 1
1995
Dave Anderson Unrehearsed Unscripted Video
These Videos were originally intended to be rough tests !
Dave Anderson came off so honestly & smoothly that we decided not to mess
with them.
We left them alone, mistakes & all !!!!
Ed Roman's First Instrument Manufacturing Company
Circa 80's
These were the beginning of the Abstract Legend 25 years ago.
These were the first run of 6 made back in Connecticut
sometime between 1983 & 1990
We still have one of these bodyblanks Ed has stashed for himself
He never got around to finishing it
Call if you want to buy a piece of history for a reasonable price !!!
Roman Abstract Invader Bass
Special Order Only
For Every 1 Bass We Build We Probably Build 50 Guitars
All 500 Models Of Guitars We Make Are Available As Bass Guitars
Also
Ed Roman Basses Part 2
Dave Anderson Unrehearsed Unscripted Video
These Videos were originally intended to be rough tests
Dave Anderson came off so honestly & smoothly that we decided not to mess
with them.
We left them alone, mistakes & all !!!!
Done entirely in one take !!!!!
The X's designate Ed Roman's personal recommendations. They
have no bearing on whether or not we carry it. These are nothing
more than my suggestions as a Bass player myself. These suggestions
are based on quality, playability, tone, bang for the buck and
overall value.
After several years it became apparent that Barry could no longer meet the
manufacturing demand for the basses. Ed sold his controlling interest in the
companies East Coast Music Mall & Roman & Lipman and set out to build guitars
with a new partner. Ed's new partner was a guitar bass building guru named Ron
Blake. 
