Repairs, Restorations, Retopping and Refinishing
Gibson "Les Paul"
 Retopped & Rebuilt in Ed Roman's Custom Shop This started out as a 1970's Gold top Les Paul. as you will notice in the photo there were several extra toggles installed near the volume and tone knobs. (presumably an attempt to upgrade the limited electronics of a stock Les Paul). The stock plastic "mother of toilet seat" neck inlays were replaced with real Paua Abalone, I shaved the original top off the guitar and replaced it with a beautiful piece of wide flame maple. It was completely rebound and finished in a beautiful translucent amber. Below I have dropped some photos of a bunch of the Les Paul retops I have done. Gibson Les Paul necks break more than all other guitars put together. The Funny thing is that most of the less expensive copies don't ever seem to break at all !!! |
P Series Steinberger With Macassar Ebony Top
Neck Thru Body Single Cutaway Guitar From Ed Roman
No glue To dampen your sound
With the correct electronics & 24 frets these sound better than a Turner Model 1
Les Paul With A New Spalt Maple Top
Wow! Flamed Spalted Maple
Super Thin Flames Picture Is Not Too Good
Disappearing Pyramid Inlays, Ebony Fretboard
Hard Mount Pickup Routes, Real Wood Binding Neck & Body
Les Paul Retop Jobs done at Ed Roman's Custom Shop
We have been doing these retop jobs for 20 years. We really don't know of any other shops that offer this service. Sometimes It's actually cheaper to build a whole guitar from scratch than to do these jobs. We charge about half as much as it would be to build one from scratch. So it doesn't make good sense for us !!!! We also replace the stock Gibson el cheapo plastic neck inlays with real MOP or Abalone.
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| Quilted Maple PRS Retop | Flame Maple Gibson Retop |
Gibson Les Paul Retopped In Ed Roman's
Custom Shop
Not the best picture of this
It came out looking a lot better
We
Regularly Retop old guitars with spalted maple
Here are Several
After playing this you won't want a Gibson !!!
The tone & resonance are awesome.
That big tuning fork headstock resonates like a banshee.
Another Ed Roman
Spalted Maple Retop
Quicksilver
Rich Warm Deep Spalt
"Quicksilver Guitars are
Awesome Guitars"
They are the most versatile guitars we carry
Guaranteed to give you more different tonalities than any other guitar on the
market.
AT ANY PRICE
"Quicksilver Guitars are Awesome Guitars"
This guitar is lighter than a Les Paul
This guitar plays circles around a Les Paul, The action is set lower.
Due to the Tone Pros bridge & the strings thru body it out-sustains a Les Paul
This guitar Is less money than a Les Paul
This guitar is hand built completely in the USA unlike a Les Paul.
Tone is subjective!!!
This guitar has split coil pickups so it offers more
different tones than a Les Paul
Why would anyone want a Les Paul ?
Maybe they have been brainwashed since being a kid!!
Maybe they like heavy, cumbersome, outdated guitars!
Maybe they are rebelling against modern technology.
Maybe they are insecure, and want to join the groups of other lemmings.
Maybe they are trying to recapture their youth.
Maybe they like paying hand made prices for machine made guitars.
This little rant is not supposed to piss anyone off. (I'm sure it will)
This is written because...
I would like to see people think for themselves,
I would like to see people stop being taken in by paid
for magazine ad's & paid endorsers !!!
Another Gibson Retop
Done in Our Custom Shop
Ed Roman has done 750 of these using many different woods
Why Do a Retop ?
| To fix the guitar after
some idiot damaged it or put a tremolo on it. To make it sound better. To make it unique. To make your guitar look much better. To make your guitar infinitely more saleable for much more money !!!!! If you own a PRS with a tremolo or one of
their substandard, wraparound bridges. Or possibly a BC Rich,
that has one of those cheesy Badass bridges or Quadmatic
wraparound bridges. Or any guitar with a trem or crappy
bridge. Sometimes it's cheaper just to out and buy a new guitar. But then there's that old nostalgic sentimentality that you have attached to Old Betsy. You can't put a price on that. Maybe the guitar belonged to your dad and you want to honor him by playing it. Very admirable but that old time technology will limit your playing severely. Dad would not want that. |
Gibson Les Paul retopped and repainted in Ed Roman's custom shop.
We also subtract about 2 lbs of wood from these beast's
effectively making them lighter & more playable.
We have seen at least 2 or 3 of these at every guitar show we go to.
In only one case was the guitar being billed as a retop.
Ed Roman guarantees there is no way for anyone to tell it was a repair or a
retop.
Ed Roman guarantees that no one on the planet is capable of telling the
difference.
All work done in Ed Roman's shop
PRS Retop & Headstock Quilting
All work done in Ed Roman's shop
We are always retopping & lightening Les Paul's
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We have been doing these retop jobs for 25 or more years. We really don't know of any other shop that offers this service. It's actually cheaper to build a whole guitar from scratch than to do these jobs. We also replace the stock Gibson El Cheapo plastic neck inlays with real MOP or Abalone. Granted this service is not inexpensive.
however it costs thousands more to have Gibson do it. Some less than intelligent people cannot validate themselves as human beings unless the headstock says "Gibson" !!!! A Real Pity For The Human Race!!! Oh Well |
Custom Made Aftermarket PRS Replacement Bodies
These bodies allow for the use of a Tune-O-Matic Bridge and Direct Mount
Pickups
These bodies can be made from whatever wood you desire
PRS does not offer Korina backs like above
All work done in our shop
Retopped At Ed Roman's
Custom Retop Job For Eric Leipzig Abalone Inlay all around the body.
Real Abalone Inlay replaces the cheap plastic that Gibson uses on all their
guitars.
All work done in our shop
Custom retop before we have drilled it out
| The retopping jobs are not limited to just beautiful wood. We also offer
Mirror Ball finishes in single or multicolor.
They can be done with Rhinestones or completely in Mother of Pearl or
Abalone. If you have a wild idea and you would like my shop to do it for
you, Please send in your guitar (Any Guitar) with a short written
outline of your idea and your budget. I am known to give better prices to people who come up with original cool ideas. Because it's a lot of fun to put out something new & different. Ed Roman |
Hamer Californian Retopped & Refinished.
Solid Korina Back
Brian May low cost import model with custom pickguard retopped in our
custom shop
We have also added custom electronics & ebony fretboard