thanks for the axe.
Kept forgetting since I read on his website on Monday about his death to post something about Ed Roman.
One of those controversial figures out there in the guitar based interweb world. Lot of people didn’t take to Ed. But as I found out on a number of occasions, when getting into little heated online exchanges, a lot of the times those slagging him off hand’t actually met him or had anything personally to do with him. Second, third, fourth hand info. Of course it had to start from somewhere and a number have had dealings with Ed and just didn’t like the little fella.
Well any road up, I met Ed a couple of times during the mid 1990s, before his move to Las Vegas, when he was based at the East Coast Music Mall in Danbury, after repeatedly seeing the ads they used to run in magazines like Guitar For The Practising Musician. And well I got on all right with the bloke, he gave me a pretty good tour round things at the shop. Other guys at the shop were nice as well, Barry Lipman and young lady I can’t remember the name of.
Man those walls in Danbury were just full of guitars. Along with pics of Ed with rather famous guitar pickers. Pretty sure I’ve still got their poster of the guitar packed picture they used in the ads.
And of course I ended up buying some stuff. Was initially going to get a Hamer guitar but noticed a couple of bodies in a display case one amber and one blue. I had to have the blue one. A two piece solid – no veneer or just eighth inch top – quilted maple Strat shaped body, cut for two humbuckers and a Wilkinson trem, with a wicked All Access Neck Joint
(see pic on above), it was pretty much a Pearlcaster body. It coast not much over $200, which seemed a snip. Just needed a neck, trem and some pickups. The neck I already had a Wilkinson trem for another project, dealt with later but I also picked up a couple of PRS ‘buckers with gold pole pieces – Vintage Bass for the neck and HFS (Hot, Fat, and Screams) for the bridge – at the shop for well less than they go for now. All in all a great, possibly one off, guitar for around $500.
That guitar, Toxic I, is probably my go to axe and so I’ve been playing said guitar for the last few days as a tribute to Ed.