Ed

Wait till you hear this one.  I recently bought a used PRS from my local Guitar Center in Dallas. The salesman told me it was the best sounding and playing PRS he had ever had in the store. It had a Tone Pros Tuna-matic bridge on it and the body was slightly slimmer than usual. The salesman at GC told me (I think his name was Harry) said that the guitar was no ordinary PRS, Supposedly it was made for someone in Creed  blah blah blah (I found out later that was an outright lie). Several other salespeople all agreed that this guitar had the PRS magic and it was the reason why PRS had such a good reputation.

I played the guitar and it truly did feel great, The neck was rock solid and was incredibly highly figured. The body has a beautiful blue flame top and a natural back. I sat there and tried about 12 PRS guitars, The salesman was right, none of them came close. The guitar had almost twice the sustain of any of the other ones and the neck was smoother and faster.

Anyway I could not resist buying the guitar, In fact I had to borrow most of the money from my bass player. They sold it to me for only $800.00. The reason it was so cheap is there was no serial number on the guitar and the PRS logo was not on the headstock. There were no bird inlays but that was cool !  I was a little worried about buying a guitar with no serial number and no logo but they gave me a fully paid receipt so I figured it had to be OK.

The suited guy at the counter remarked that this guitar held tune better than any other guitar he had ever played. He told me that I made a very wise purchase and reassured me that I had made a good move.     (He didn't know how right he was)

I took the guitar home and I used it that weekend on a gig, It performed superbly and I was one happy guy to say the least.

About a week after I got the guitar I discovered there was a push pull pot on it and that it slit the coils on the pickups. What a great surprise. further fiddling around with it I noticed that the pickups were bolted down solid instead of floating on springs like all the other PRS guitars. I unscrewed the pickup and removed it and lo and behold there was the inscription.

"Ed Roman Was Here".  Everything I had read on your website came tumbling back at me like a ton of bricks.

This guitar appeared to have had a custom body not a PRS body, It had the step route pickups like on your site and the neck has that 1500G system that I read about on your site. The neck appears to be an original PRS but I see now the modifications you made to the heel and the tongue where the pickup bolts directly to it like a Quicksilver. That accounts for the extra sustain! I am assuming there is a Buzz Feiten System on this guitar because of the tuning stability.

I could probably sue Guitar Center for falsely representing this guitar. But I am thanking them from the bottom of my heart because I have one of the most awe inspiring guitars I have ever owned or for that matter even played.

Whoever this guitar was originally built for might have misrepresented it to Guitar Center but I an the luckiest guy in the world.  I was going to buy a PRS decal off that store in Cleveland that sells them but now I would rather it said nothing.

Long Live Ed Roman

Pete Posintini

Plano TX

Reply From Ed Roman

Hello Pete

Glad to see you like that guitar, I originally rebuilt that PRS for a NYC police detective by the name of Manny Poole,  As I remember he lived somewhere in Jersey. The last time I talked with him had been injured in the line of duty and was partially paralyzed.  So he must have sold it, I'm surprised it ended up in Texas. I did a number of cool PRS rebuilds for Manny.

Several other things that you missed.  The guitar has a Korina Body and Seymour Duncan Pickups, There were also 2 small stainless steel barrels inserted in the tongue of the neck to add mass and stability.

The original PRS fingerboard had been removed and a new ebony one was been installed.  look carefully at the frets you will notice you can't see the fret tangs on the side. look at a regular PRS and you will see the tangs are completely visible.

I usually sign the PRS mod's in the pickup cavity and I usually Jokingly print " Ed Roman was here"   Ala Kilroy was here... Just a little private joke between myself and someone who will remain anonymous right now.

If you want a letter or perhaps a copy of the original invoice for the work please let me know.       The Guitar on the right is a PRS that we retopped right here in our shop.

Ed Roman