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Complete Retop & Purfling With Matching Headstock
Too bad it still has a rosewood board, The Ebony would have been
better
This Guitar Came In With A Delaminated
And Split Top
The Original Top Was Flame Maple, The Owner Wanted
It Replaced With A Solid Spruce Top.
More To Come (10-16-09)
Check out some of the
Les Paul's we have retopped
These Photos show a Hollowbody PRS
This is a new top for a PRS Hollowbody
Made in our custom shop
This one is better because you can use a tun-a-matic bridge
You are no longer stuck with the inferior PRS wraparound bridge !!!
This is a tremendously expensive process !!!!
That's why we have only converted 10 of these
guitars in the past 10 years
The Original PRS guitar after we cut off the top !!!
Above you can see the new top being glued to the original body.
We used a very plain piece of wood to do this guitar
The customer wanted an opaque solid color !!
This one was done over because the customer was looking
for the guitar to sound better
Usually we do retops because the customer wants the guitar to look
better.
The Tun-A-Matic bridge is a far superior bridge to what PRS uses.
This customer did not care about looks, He is a real player
Notice no birds on the neck !!!!
Retopped In Our Custom Shop
Check out some of the
Les Paul's we have retopped
It's a pity no one will ever know the
wizards at Ed Roman Guitars are the magicians who transform these
plain looking guitars into the beautiful masterpieces they are today.
The PRS company will benefit greatly from this work.
Over the years thousands of people will
see these guitars and wrongfully assume that PRS did this beautiful
work. Many of Ed's customers request that we do not show their
guitars on these pages because they feel that it might in some way
decrease the resale value of their guitars. The next time you are
looking at a particularly beautiful PRS you might stop and wonder if
it's real or is it one that Ed Roman retopped.
PRS traditionally won't do a 10 top on a bolt on
model. Ed Roman has done over 200 retops on PRS bolt on
models. Ed has always felt the bolt on
ones sound so much better than the glued in ones.
Click Here For
Explanation.
Many people feel the need
to belong to a group of people who own the same brand name item.
Corvette Clubs, PRS Forum, Harley Owners Group etc etc. We
feel that is because today the dumbing down of Americans is rampant
in our schools and on our Boob Tubes etc etc. No one wants to
be innovative. People all want what other people have. In some
strange way it makes them feel safe!!
Sadly these people are why our country is fast becoming a third
world. When we were innovators
and free thinkers our country was strong economically and everyone
was prosperous. It hurts me to see the younger generation today
struggling so hard to even be able to pay their rent.
You might say to yourself, I could just buy a
Quicksilver or a
JET or an
Abstract, The
tops on those guitars are always so beautiful that no one in his right mind
would want to redo the top. But then their are no worldwide user groups on these
brands. People won't envy me if I own one of those. This is all part of the
advertising agencies and corporate master plan to dumb us all down so we will
spend our money on cookie cutter products that can be made cheaply and sold for
a very high profit.
Incidentally Ed Roman has retopped 14 Dragons,
Approximately 20 Signatures, and a number of first editions. Paul Reed Smith in
their ultimate wisdom has made many good numbered limited edition guitars with
very plain tops. The sunburst top that came on PRS Artist Ltd #001 was almost
disgraceful looking. In fact Ed has not retopped it. whoever has it these days
is the proud owner of a very plain looking yet expensive guitar. at this re writing
the number of PRS retops surpasses the 500 mark.
For some more interesting Information look at
Ed's rant entitled Ghostbuilders.
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Check out some of the
Les Paul's we have retopped
Retopped in Ed Roman's Custom Shop
For Ed DeGuzman 1997
Example of a retopped guitar & headstock
Complete renovation
New Quilt Top, New All Rosewood Neck
Ed Roman's Custom Shop !!!!
The only thing original on this guitar is the back of the body !!!!!!
Too bad he kept the stock PRS tremolo,
If he had used a Tun-a-Matic bridge, this guitar would have stood up to a
Quicksilver
Retopped in Ed Roman's Custom Shop
It is extremely rare that we will
retop a
22 fret model
You can't polish a turd !!!!
This one is not a retop, It's a brand new body !!!!
This is a PRS that thinks it's a Quicksilver
(See the bridge we installed)
Retopped Body, with Bird Inlays done at Ed Roman's
PRS does not offer nice tops or bird inlays on their bolt on models !!!!!
PRS Retop In Process
PRS Retops in Hawaiian Koa
When we retop a PRS then we can use a Tone/Pros Bridge
This is highly advisable!!
Some people do the entire retop just so the can change the inferior stock
PRS bridge
Here's A Pretty Stock Straightforward Retop
The customer had dropped this guitar and it put a huge ding on the face !!
A beautiful example of an emerald green quilted retop
The top on this PRS Signature model was originally flamed
Bonni
Pink used to be a really sought after color
People would pay several thousand extra for just the color !!
We retopped at least 12 PRS guitars & refinished them in Pink
Naturally we went inside and changed the color markings so that it would look
Original !!
Check out some of the
Les Paul's we have retopped
 This is
yet another PRS that we retopped and refinished. We also
inlaid purfling around the entire body. I would have liked to redo the
fingerboard with ebony and do some really nice inlay work to it.
Rosewood is
such a blah wood, it doesn't do much for the inlay. In fact
rosewood camouflages the abalone and tends to make even the prettiest abalone
look blah....We also inlaid an eagle on the headstock of this one. This
particular guitar was the 100th PRS we retopped. It was done for Winn Wilson of
Connecticut in 2001.
Today Ed Roman retops about 20 PRS guitars a year.
Back in the 90's we did about 50 a year. Today people just buy a
Quicksilver instead.
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Retopped, Refinished &
Floyd Rose Tremolo Added
Not recommended but if You want it done,
We will do it !!!!
Retopped Headstock
in the late 90's we did about 50 matching headstocks on PRS
When they came out with the newer shiny decal there was a problem with the logo
falling off
We must have fixed 100 of those !!!
Dragon Inlay
PRS Serial #78
Poor Man's Dragon
The Problem
Restore this guitar to original so not even Paul Reed Smith
himself could tell it was restored.
This early PRS Guitar serial # 78 had been cut to accommodate a Floyd Rose
Tremolo (Ouch).
Otherwise this guitar was in dead mint condition.
If you look closely you can see the enlarged tremolo cavity.
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If You Can't
Afford A PRS Check This
Out
More Problems
Where was I going to get the decal to restore to the headstock.
PRS uses a
completely different decal today.
This guitar had dot inlays and no birds.
I have now located decals for restoration purposes only
I decided that I wanted the top to look as good as a
JET or a Quicksilver
I wanted it to sound fabulous.
The Solution
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Completely remove the original PRS neck from the body.
Rebuild an exact replica body. Don't glue it back together but instead use bolts
(this will give you much more tone and sustain)
Use a piece of 100 year old mahogany and a gorgeous 6A
quilt maple top.
As far as the decal is concerned, I went to a philatelic
dealer friend of mine who deals in rare postage stamps, valued in the hundreds
of thousands of dollars. (These stamps have to be removed from letters).
He told me that he was working with a Swiss company in
developing a chemical that would also remove original water transfer decals. As
long as they were less than 50 years old. In 98% percent of the cases the decal
was completely reusable. This news solves a lot of problems that restoration
people have had for years.
I will be offering this service at $250.00 retail price for anyone
interested.
Dealer Inquiries Invited
100% Confidentiality
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Notice: The Seafoam green paint in the truss rod cavity. I
left this on purpose.
However if I ever decide to sell this it would be relatively
simple for some unscrupulous person to remove the Seafoam green paint and of
course pass it off as an original. If I was doing the job for
a customer I would normally remove it anyway
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So you own a vintage guitar
A little anecdote for your reading pleasure
Once there was a man who cursed me because I did these restorations to old
guitars. He even spoke badly of me for doing it.
He Downright Flamed Me !!!
(He felt that certain things should never be changed).
Until one day his girlfriend stepped on the cable of his original 1958
Flying Vee. She stepped on the cable directly in front of the guitar. The cable
snapped up causing the input jack to literally explode out of the guitar. It
totally destroyed the lower bout in the weak spot where the jack had originally
been drilled. The end result was a splintered nasty mess where the chunk
of wood extracted itself from the face of his very valuable guitar.
Then this same man (Who has paid me well for his anonymity) was
knocking on my door to repair his $75,000.00 guitar.
(Update 2005 $125,000.00 guitar)
I guess when the shoe was on the other foot, he didn't seem to mind that
I could fix his guitar so that not even he could tell it was repaired.
When I took the job in I told him that I could definitely fix it, I also
told him that I would not tell him how I fixed it. I also told him if he could
see the repair I would not charge him for the job.
Believe me he tried to find the repair. When he
arrived to retrieve his guitar he came with a magnifying glass and a halogen
light. He spent 15 minutes looking for the spot where he assumed we had glued in
the wood and made the repair.
It took him several years to sell the guitar. In effect someone with a
1958 Flying V is floating around out there thinking that his guitar is original.
Here's how I repaired it. (12 years has passed at the time of
this writing) If he happens to read this, then he will finally know how I
fixed it.
I split the guitar completely in two and used a whole new piece of wood on
the bottom bout of the V. I simply replaced it with a new piece of korina and
then refinished the entire guitar. That was the easy part. We didn't know
as much about distressing
guitars as we do today. We were using ultraviolet lamps to age the nitro,
spraying Freon, freezing & baking guitars to get them to check.
It wasn't that hard to do because the guitar was really clean to start
with and it was just an aged clear that we had to make look old. It's much
harder with colors like sunburst. White korina doesn't have a distinctive grain
pattern that is either memorable or discernable by too many people.
Remember there is only one sure way to buy a vintage guitar and be sure
that it is original.
If you buy it at a garage sale or find it in an old attic somewhere and
pick it up for $100.00. You can rest assured your guitar is original. The
minute the guitar is tainted with a huge price you can be pretty close to
positive that something has been changed in it.
Dealers who specialize in vintage guitars don't like me to talk about this
type of thing. They might even flame me for talking about this. The bottom line
is they do not want you to know how easy it is to make a fake or a forgery. Any
competent repair man can do and don't think for one second that they don't all
do it regularly. There is plenty of restoration work out there and the customer
invariably wants to make it look original.
In my case vintage guitars are only one small part of the entire market.
So I simply don't care. I am only to glad to expose this type of activity.
Ed Roman 10/23/07
Inlay Work
First rough draft of the Dragon Inlay
I am redoing the blue wings with turquoise.
Of course, now that I have decided to do a Dragon Inlay on the guitar, it
would be relatively easy for someone to tell that the guitar is not original. I
really don't care about originality. I fully expect this guitar to play &
sound better than most PRS guitars so I will probably be keeping it for myself.
(This Job was done prior to me building
Quicksilver Guitars)
Finished version ready for frets
above
Ready for finishing
I used the original PRS fingerboard..
I should have replaced it with a jet black gaboon
ebony fingerboard.
The dragon inlay would have looked much better on black than on brown !!!
The guitar would have played & sounded even better !!!
The extra $100 I saved would have made this guitar $2,500.00 more
valuable!!!
Oh well, I won't make that mistake again!!!!!
The Poor Man's Dragon
Finished and Ready to Rock
Ok, so this guitar isn't built by a group of low paid factory
workers, Ok, so the inlay isn't done on a CNC machine. Ok, this guitar isn't
technically "Original".
I guarantee this guitar will play circles
around a stock PRS Dragon, I guarantee the neck to be faster, the frets
smoother & tighter, I guarantee the pickups to sound better, the overall
tone of the guitar to be far more versatile than a stock PRS. I guarantee the
top to be as beautiful as any PRS private stock guitar and the workmanship is
unparalleled in the industry.
I am not producing these guitars, I don't have the time, I
built this one for myself as an experiment to see what it would cost.
Oh Yeah, the other reason I built it was because I wanted a
24 fret guitar, PRS doesn't do 24 fret Dragons.
I knew there was a better reason than the first one. I might even have kept
this guitar, except for my dumbass blunder with the
rosewood vs ebony fingerboard.
Ed Roman
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New Winged Serpent Inlay
First the serpent is designed with colored pencils
After the customer approves the drawing
it becomes a reality
The serpent inlays are all done one by one by hand
no two are exactly alike.
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