Ed Roman Blues Deluxe

The guitar is a left handed 1999, made on a special order from Ed Roman World Class Guitars in Connecticut. Made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. The body looks like about a 7/8ths scale ES-335. It has 22 nickel/silver frets and what appears to be a solid top. Looks like mahogany for the neck, with bound rosewood fingerboard. The color is called "Almond Burst", and goes from a golden color to deep brown/amber. No pickguard. Very much a flame grain curly maple body, although I didn't pay for a wood upgrade. Evenly cream colored double bound body. The controls are interesting, having what they call Variaphase (variable phase shifting). There are two knobs for master volume and master tone, the standard three way "front", "rear" or "both" pickup selector switch. There are two small three postition switches that allow either single coil taps, full humbuckers or switch-contolable phase shifting on each Schaller (I think) pickup. On "0" the coils are in phase, on "10" they are out of phase and between about 1 1/2 and 8 1/2 they vary according to the switch position. What does it sound like ? ANYTHING YOU WANT ! The phase control knobs match the master volume and tone knobs. Grover tuners, I don't know what kind of bridge it has. Nothing included, but I got an extremely plush, well made (in Canada) hard case for $100.00 additional. The Variaphase was also $100.00 extra. So pretty the first day I just put it on a stand and looked at it.

I think I hit a home run. I'm a blues fan(atic!) and play through a Fender Vibroluxe re-issue and sometimes use a Mike Piera TS-808 modified Ibanez Tube Screamer. Makes me wish I could play better. It can sound like any other guitar I've ever heard, even sounds good through the Fender 15R Frontman I carry in the trunk of the car for "on the road" practice. With the switches down to the coil tap position, it's a dead ringer for my rosewood fingerboard '62 re-issue Telecaster. With the humbuckers full on it sounds like every ES-335 I ever heard. When you switch in the Phase Shift circuitry you can dial up anything in between. No bad news, no bad noise.

I am a nitpicking, over critical pain in the a** sometimes and I went over this thing with my usual evil eye. I think Ed Roman re-intonates and checks out the setup before he ships, can't fault a thing there, same for the pickups. The top appears to be one piece. If you get your nose within six inches and look at where the binding meets the wood on the front and back there are some little voids where the finish didn't fill or the binding line isn't straight. There are some scratches on the fingerboard that appear to be from when the frets were being dressed, again visible from the 6" perspective. Those two things are all that separates this from being a museum quality piece. No one else has noticed, so I mark off a -1.

The construction/finish appear to be extremely similar to late 60s to early 70s Gibsons, which to me set a standard for electric guitars. I just got it, but it's built like furniture, and all the accessory hardware looks like good nickel/silver plating. The strap buttons are solid, but the screws have burrs on them from being marred (overtighened?). The finish is nitrocellulose, so I expect it to age gracefully. Under close inspection there are some sanding marks under the finish - more nitpicking, you have to hold it at an angle in strong sunlight, etc. Again -1 because it approaches perfection.

There wasn't any explaination of how the switch settings change the sound, so I called Ed Roman, who offers this as special model. He gave me a phone number to call in Michigan and Rendell Wall (I hope I spelled that right), the gentleman who INVENTED the Variaphase system took the time to explain it to me on the phone. A LONG time, because I drew a diagram while he talked. Simple as that, no "Dial 1 to get stalled . . ." or "Your call is important to us . . .", Straight from the man himself. He also listened to my feedback about the binding and fingerboard with great interest, offered to take the guitar back to buff out the fingerboard, and then went on to describe to me the best way to do it myself when I said "no way this ever gets out of my sight again." Ed's web page http://www.edromanguitars.com says that Heritage will replace or repair anything you don't like about the guitar. After this conversation I believe it. Ed is always direct and to the point, but gets the job done. He's a no B.S. guitar expert. One more would be "11" in this case.

I've only been playing for a short time, I've been listening for 35 years. I wish I would have ordered TWO, and I'm thinking about getting "another one, just like the other one" for my birthday next year. If it was lost or stolen I'd be devastated. "Blues Deluxe" fits this thing like shades and a hat fit John Lee Hooker. Get a picture of an ES-335 about the size of a Telecaster and you're right there except you can't hear the sound that comes out of it. Want to sound like Albert Collins? Change to B.B. King? No problem. The way the body angles back from the neck makes it fit me even better than the '62 re-issue Telecaster. There are stories about Hendrix ALWAYS having his guitar with him, no matter what. I understand better. Go to Ed's site and look at the "group" picture on the Blues Deluxe page. Too Cool. The small criticisms I have wouldn't justify being without it for a minute. The price, even with the optional Variaphase was $2165.00 LESS than a lefty ES-336 from the Gibson Custom Shop, and the wait was four months to the day. Dave-Bob says check it out ! ! !