When Ed Roman purchased the Baker brand
name at bankruptcy back in 2003 there was much gnashing of teeth,
whining, moaning & crying. Because of all the hoodoo, Ed made the
conscious decision not to put his name on the guitar.
There were
numerous things Ed didn't like about the original Gene Baker model.
In fact Gene had been making Ed a totally private & exclusive
costlier model
for several years before the bankruptcy.
This model was known as
the Bushwacker, it featured many of the things that Ed Roman's
economy priced Baker guitars feature now.
Almost 5 years later, more
than 7000 guitars later
Ed Roman finally offers the guitar with his logo on the
headstock !!
Ed has finally come to grips with all
the improvements & price cuts.
Ed does not usually believe in
set neck guitars,
The Baker was a set neck
guitar and therefore the glue in the neck
joint interfered with the resonance & tonality that the neck was
affording the guitar. Ed could never understand why companies like PRS
would charge $1,000.00 or more for a solid rosewood tonewood neck and then
defeat it entirely by gluing it in. The new 2008 USA
Roman Baker will only come in a
"Neck Thru Body" version or a deep set
neck tenon like the Centurion Guitar.
Ed never liked the original Baker
headstock, he thought it was just a little too big and looked out of
place.
Historical
Information
Ed was on a camping trip in the Rocky
Mountains 200 miles from anywhere when he bought the Baker brand name
& trademarks. Camped out on the side of a high mountaintop the
elevation allowed his cell phone to work. So being the workaholic that
he is he bid on the company without ever even showing up at the
auction. Ed bid extremely low because he had seen nothing so he
was surprised when he outbid Ernie Ball Musicman (who was at the
auction). Sterling Ball has exhibited to Ed Roman that he was
very displeased about being outbid.
The other bidders were upset that Ed never even showed up to bid.
I guess they resigned themselves to the fact that Ed would have outbid
them. In any case there was much gnashing of teeth that evening in
Santa Maria because Sterling Ball wanted to buy the company and Ed
prevailed.
Besides the oversize slightly bulky headstock, Ed didn't like the
weight and overall balance of the guitar he set out to fix that
immediately!!! He also stopped offering the antiquated 22 fret
model and cut the cost to less than half of what the guitars were
selling for.
Ed thought the guitar was way too expensive for a
CNC made guitar so Ed
decided to cut the price tremendously. This caused an unexpected backlash
from people who had already paid several thousand dollars more for their Baker
guitars. These people were quite upset, Ed had effectively
ruined their overpriced investment. These people badmouthed the new
product. (See Flamers Page)
99% of these morons, never even saw
one of the new ones.
Their mouths started to run like several
dozen full flushing toilets !!!
Ed didn't like the yellow urine colored rectangular offset inlays so he went to the
white block inlays.
Now 5 years later Ed has finally decided to offer the guitar in a
hand made model.
If you want one of the hand made models Ed will build it under the Ed
Roman brand if you want. Remember the hand made model is constructed
like a Centurion or a
Jackson neck through body
guitar. There is absolutely no
glue in the neck joint to dampen or squash the resonance, sustain &
overtones.
See the below the proposed improvements on the
new Romanbaker
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