Ed Roman PB1

I wanted something that looked like the old square body Steinberger. I wanted something that played well and sounded good. That it is what I got. This has the graphite neck, and two Black Back Seymour Duncan Pickups. Steinberger Trem System. I got it sparkly black. Not lots of features I suppose - but SOLID!

This thing sounds GREAT! The Black Backs are the best sounding pickups I have heard, and this guitar really can rock. The clean sound is great - the distorted sounds are great - and all sounds in between sounded great.

The guitar took 7 days from the time I ordered to my doorstep. I had it overnighted via my own UPS acct. # and that helped. The action was set better than any guitar I ever played. I had been shopping for a Les Paul - maybe a Class 5...and when I played them at the stores -the action was horrible. They played like bulky things. The fit of this guitar is EXTREMELY tight. I had one of the japanese model steinbergers and hated it - you could just hear the thing cringe when you bent the strings...this guitar is just GREAT. Not one scratch or nick on it. Everything operates perfect. I like the finish because it only sparkles up close - it is not a "cheesy" sparkle finish on it. I got it in black.

I haven't played it enough to just it's durability or reliability. I don't play out so this is really not a huge issue for me.

Well...chances are if you read this - you heard and read about Ed Roman. Well he was my sales guy. He is definitely not there to make everyone feel good. But Ed knows his guitars and he KNOWS he KNOWS his guitars. Which is good -because he builds and sells guitars. Everytime I called and asked for him - he came to the phone. He is a nice enough fellow. He is a business owner in that he does not have a lot of time for small talk, but I was always the one who said "okay talk to you later". Though it took a whole 7 days for my order to get completed (they had a body in stock already painted which helped - he quoted me three weeks, but had a body so it took 1 week), I call them four times. I wanted to make sure they got the check, make sure they knew order, check the ETA, check about the UPS info...they were very cool. I would order another guitar from him.

I liked the experience - they were incredibly fast and helpful. Not entirely personable, but they are there to get you a good guitar - and thats what they delivered. Considering the experience was all over the phone and done 2k miles away - I can't complain. I have read all that I could find about Ed Roman and read his entire site. I like them...and would buy another off them. 2k is a lot for a guitar - I usually go the stock Jackson route - but value wise I thought it was decent. At 1500 this would have been a great guitar - but at 2k its a fair value for sure.