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

 "The Maximus"
The World Most Durable Singlecut

Paul Crook (Anthrax, Meatloaf, Sebastian Bach)
Old photo Paul Crook holding the prototype for his new custom model,
"The Rockingbird"

Call our custom shop to get your own Rockingbird !!!
 702-875-4552

Hand Built In USA
Abstract guitars are built entirely by hand, They are built & painted by many of the original BC Rich &  Jackson builders.   Now that Davitt & Hanser has purchased BC Rich & Fender has purchased Jackson, many of the talented builders, who worked for both of these companies have joined the Abstract team.

Dave Meros

Dave Meros plays with "Spock's Beard."  Dave is also a member of the "Kings of Classic Rock"
He also played with The legendary (Eric Burdon & The Animals) for 15 years.
Here Dave is playing a custom Ed Roman, Abstract Bass from 1998

Spock's Beard
"Prog Rock From Hell"

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 $5000.00 + 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,
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 won't build it at all !!!
See The Maximus
 

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 making 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 and the Centurion brand features a deep set neck tenon that extends down below the bridge of the guitar.

Abstract Neck Thru Quicksilver       

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

Seen 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.)
Plugged into two Fender PA columns with Wurlitzer Brass Horn in the background.  (Ear drum piercing high end)
Wearing blue & yellow paisley bellbottoms & a pink, blue, & orange shirt. (It was so bright, you couldn't look directly at him.) The boots we are told were bright shiny silver patent leather.

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.

Ed played in Taboo a tri state area band that played everywhere from nightclubs to medium sized venues and toilet bowls all over the New York.

He started the music & guitar business as a hobby and because the band needed 12 microphones. Ed made up a letterhead & wrote to Shure telling them he was a dealer. He was able to BS them into thinking he had a store. The band ended up getting the 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 and finally when the dealer could not pay back the money, Ed began selling off the guitars. The rest is history.

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, 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, (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 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 26 years later Ed is still working closely with BOC

Bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Leslie West's Mountain, 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 9.00AM to midnight 7 days in a row for the spectacular grand opening!!! Remember this was the 80's we 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 and produced prototypes for Steinberger in the early 90's.

In the early 90's Ed took a 2 year vacation to finish building his experimental home & recording studio. Before coming back 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 and decided to do imported products.

In the 90's Ed purchased The entire inventory of the ailing BC Rich company. Ed produced American 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.

In 2002 Ed went to Las Vegas with the idea to build the World's Largest Guitar Store. It took him 3 years and he had set up a 44,000 square foot building housing more than 7000 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 be backers. The sheer amount of salespeople and staff required to service these people started to cut into the margins very heavily.

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 and curiosity seekers. 

These new partners 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 all the wrong things. They fired most of the experienced help and tried to replace them with low paid kids. Then they started to slow pay the vendors and of course they got shut off almost immediately. Customer service was at all time tragedy proportions. They effectively destroyed the company within 4 months.

Ed moved quickly to buy back his shares, website 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.

Today Ed has a smaller but more profitable operation that carries 99% of what the big store carried and over 10 private brands comprising more than 400 models which are manufactured right in Ed's Las Vegas Custom Shop.