- This topic has 18 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE WITH ED ROMAN GUITARS! :
I wanted to buy another PRS, but was told BAKERS are much, much better. I have heard good things about BAKER, like Robben Ford plays BAKER. I have a PRS so I thought, why not try a BAKER. Salesman told me it has a feel similar to a McCarty PRS. Far from true. SO! I tried to return the guitar and got the run-around. I was told my salesman was “OUT” and to call back. I call back and was told he was now “OUT SICK” I leasve a message for a manager to call back becuase he is also unvailable at this time. After several calls over a 7 day period I finally get a call back from Ed Roman himself who tells me the guitar is not returnable and would not give me a return number, and that if I ship it back, he will refuse it and I will be responsible for shipping cost both ways. Also, that he “TAPES” all his phone conversations. BUYER BEWARE!!!! when you deal with Ed Roman Guitars. I refuse payment with my Credit Card company and before they can put my claim through(less than a month) Ed Roman charges me off to a collections agency. NICE!? HUH!?
the guitar: 2004, Made in Japan or Korea though I was led to believe it was a USA made BAKER. 24 frets, 2 SD Black back humbuckers, PRS Body shape, cheap tuners and hardwear though I was told it would be tone pros. Nice looking finish for what it is, (a 00-00 guitar, not 500) maple top matching headstock, but noticeably cheap production like Korean made Ibanes/Schecter/EXP/Cort not USA HAND Made like I was told.
I have been playing for over 20 years. My gear consists of Black Face fender amps from ’65 to ’67, a Buddah Super Drive 30, a Dr Z Carman Gia combo. For guitars I have several Strats, 1 Tele, PRS McCarty, 2 McNaught Vintage 22’s double cutaway, a 1920’s Regal resonater wood body, Guild 12-string, and an electric reso. I have never expereienced anything like this with any music store or dealer in my life. I can assure you I will never buy or recomend buying from Ed Roman EVER!!!! If there is any one else that reads this and has had a similar experience, please feel free to contact me. Ed Roman Guitars has several complaints of filed against him with the Better Business Buraeu. All you need to file a class action lawsuit is 7 people. He uses false advertising to sucker in people like you and me. So I would not settle for a Jap?Korean? copy of any kind. Not that those guitars are not good, they serve a purpose for beginer or gig guitars but not for some one that wants a nice USA built guitar. If there is anyone considering a BAKER that Ed Roman is selling, I would recomend getting a Schecter Classic neck through body. It is half the price and twice the guitar.
IF THERE IS ANYONE ELSE WITH A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE OR IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE THAT HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH ED ROMAN, PLEASE CONTACT ME AT [email protected] . I am trying to get enough people together for a class action lawsuit against ERGuitars for false advertising. Thank you.
-
Replies
-
-
I bought a new old stock Michael Spalt hybrid bass. They improperly packed it when the sent it it was damaged. I just happen to run my finger over a crack in the body. I had it for 10 days. They said I had it too long to get a refund. They have no policy on shipping damage. Their trying to lump me in with the people who just didn’t want their guitars. They’ve taken my money hostage to make me have to accept a repaired cracked bass . And them not returning any of my money for the bass being devalued.
-
I know this is an old thread but I’m a new victim and I just joined this site. I thought I had investigated the Baker guitars enough to buy one off ebay. It was advertised as retailing for $1899. In the end, I have a Korean product. I paid only$500 including a PRS hard shell case, so the deal may be at least fair. But I would have paid less for a Korean guitar with a different name on it. On the positive side, this Baker Bushwacker is pretty, and play pretty well (see below for a caveat). It has two humbuckers with coil taps. Although there is a range of tones available ,it is less than my Paul Reed Smith and Warmoth guitars. It seems well made but we will see.
Here’s the interesting part. I have the quitar so I might as well find out what I can about it and make the best of it. I go to the ed roman home page and the emails are turned off. They say you can call but only about buying, they don’t want to entertain questions about product unless it is how to buy.
Here’s what I have. The hardware does seem ok. The saddles on the bridge don’t rattle as in a previous review. I just went back and checked and the bridge seems solid. The neck appears to be ebony but I can’t be sure. The action is low and fast. However the high e string seems somewhat close to the edge of the neck. I don’t know the gage of the strings and would like to know what is recommended for the nut. The clear finish seems quite thick. The guitar is light in weight and does feel good on me while standing. Perhaps I will call today and see if I can get answers. I have a Korean PRS that I paid less for and they seem about the same in quality. They have about the same range of tones but completely different necks. The Baker has a thinner neck which I prefer to the PRS fat neck. I feel confident that I can get questions answered about the PRS, they are not embarrassed to sell a Korean made product and support their costomers. Right now I’m not feeling that way about the Baker brand but hopefully I’m wrong.
Are all the Baker models now make in Korea? Ed’s site talks about the handmade neckthrough models being made in the states but is the standard line no longer constructed here? This would be in contridiction to his buy American stance, one I support by the way.
Patrick -
-
-
-
-
I checked my post today, and guess what? no DVD, im trying to forget but its difficult, i cant sleep some nights, other nights i wake up at 3 in the morning after having nightmares about it, it wont be long before im under the doctor with it, these people and their promises, they dont know the chaos and carnage they leave behind…… i’ll keep everyone posted on this, it might run and run.. 😥
-
Lee, glad you’re over the missing DVD 😉 . That’s a good one. On another forum (which makes me, in ER’s eyes, the biggest pile of faggots since the Salem Witch-hunts) there was a sudden rush of ‘coily cable’ ironic jokes.
I love that “how to capture that vintage tone” stuff. It occassionally makes me swing a handbag ( 😉 again). I read crud like where the Fender truss rod adjuster is best placed, scratchplate materials, etc. ER is right, coiled cables are cack – total impedance nightmares. Oh, hang on, they’re the “missing link” in the Holy Grail of the Hendrix Tone. Cancel those lessons…
-
Heres a good quote from Ed’s site, he is trying to flog some curly cables, and as we all know 99.9% of curly cables are rubbish, so Ed has probably been shipped a box of 5,000 so heres his spin on how to get rid of them:
‘Hey, did ya’ ever wonder how Hendrix got that distinctive dreamy tone? Well we don’t know either! Jimi Hendrix always used a Coiled Cable probably for the convenience. It seems although that the coiling of the cable delivered a subtle resistance to the signal path. This may be a small part of the reason that it’s harder today to get some of those retro tones back when coiled cables were common.’
‘Subtle resistence to the signal path’ ?? come on Ed how long did it take you to think of that one? i think Jimi used them cos they were new, and different and cool, no other reason, if there had been a pink plastic see through strat he would have used it. And on the OLP models he states they come with Black/Black seymour duncan pups, but shows the picture with zebra pups, and you never actauly see a picture of the stated black/black duncans.
-
-
Carbon, I had another look at the ER site and, in particular, the Baker section. Apparently, anyone who fails to get decent service from ER himself, and mentions this on a forum, is some sort of “faggot”.
Well, he claims this strategy works for him. OK Ed (you’re not the only co. that reads fora), it doesn’t. 2-3 years ago, I thought the ER site was run by an eccentric, passionate guy who cared about guitars. Now, it looks like a site run by a foaming-mouth barmyhead who votes Pat Robertson for President. Moaning about the ‘cong is one thing; employing them at $1/month to make guitars selling for $xxxx is another.
-
Ed must have someone from his website watching this. I noticed this morning, he has corrected the Ed Roman Baker specs. And just for the recoerd!!! The person he is speaking of in the testamonial section about these very guitars thas was not happy with the neck, was I. I was also not happy about the fact that I was led to believe this was goping to be a real Baker, not a Faker.
-
-
Carbon, having never bought from ER, I can’t back you up from a buyer’s exp. HST, I agree with your comment that ER’s site SCREAMS xenophobia and the view that anything not made in the good ol’ is a POS. I think he grudgingly admits that German Schaller tuners are OK (damn right they are 🙄 ).
To hear that he has pinched a name for a few bucks and then handed the job over to the Saiein factory is some choke-joke. I hope that you get some satisfaction, but thanks at least for the warning.
Oz
-
I have done some investigating and a few things I found are as follows which contradict the specs they show on Eds site.
They claim its a 25″ scale which its actually a 24.625″
They claim it has a 7″ deep set neck tenon, it has the standard Baker neck tenon which stops in the neck pickup route.
They claim it has Tone Pros, which it doesnt Tone Pros doesnt make non-locking hardware. The brand name under the bridge is SIC which probably means Samick and the saddles are very sloppy so you can feel them wobble rocking side to side just bending a string or picking.
Cheap nut with no lubrication properties such as the original Baker Delrin material as well as square and badly shaped
Tuners dont line up at all
No strap locks
Thick Polyester finish (yuk) in heavy gobs around any area where two pieces of wood meet such as neck joint, with plenty of glue stains in the raw wood that are clearly visible through the finish
Made in Korea Samick and not Japan as claimed
Korean pickups not Black back Seymours
Cheap truss rod design which allows the truss cover to flop around
Resin inlays not real shell materials
They claim quarter sawn lumber, this one has a badly skew sawn neck which leads to easy twisting (grain runs at a 45 degree angle), although the body on this one is quarter sawn which makes little difference to the body in terms of strength where it isnt neededThey claim solid carved maple top, its a veneered top about 3/16ths thick
Worst neck shape I ever felt, reeks of a bad shred neck wide flat and square not a good shred neck
Pickup rings are heavily bent over the top and not properly fit so the rings have major gaps between the top and bottom side of ring
Cheap foreign 5/16ths shaft pots and cheap toggle switch
Scarfed in 2 piece headstock and a 2 piece neck heel
Plenty of paint build up on the upper fret ends with lots of scratches visible, not the sign of quality fretwork
2 piece body with seem about 2″ from the bass side of the body not on center
For a transparent finish there are large dings in the raw wood that were painted over and are very visible with heavy cross grain direction buffing marks
Cheap hard shell case that has no functioning neck support, a good whack in travel and the headstock would snap since the headstock rests on the case instead of floating for proper protection, plus the guitar swims in the case freely with no form fit body support to keep it held in place
Cheesy Luan Mahogany neck and body not a quality wood at all
I highly doubt with all the details they skimped on that they would include 18″ graphite reinforcement rods which only a band saw would reveal the truth
They claim the Buzz Feiten retrofit needs to be done after an instrument settles, bullshit!!! Why does Anderson, Suhr, original Baker and many others come factory with the Buzz Feiten system already built in? I smell BS, also they are charging $250 for this option which all Bakers came stock with and they are charging almost double what Buzz Feiten has setup as the industry standard fee that any company can charge for this feature which is @ $135 and not $250
One of the only details they got right was the shape of the logo although it was placed incorrectly and not lined up where it was traditionally placed.
And last they destroyed many of the fine details that were signature to the original Baker design lines such as the truss cover, bull nosed headstock, tweaked body shape, natural flow of the carve top, inlays bastardized, lack of quality workmanship and much much more.In summary what I gather is if your going to have imports made, have them made correctly since the labor is so cheap in Korea anyhow. How much more could many of these simple details cost in comparison to what they are currently making? If you compare this Korean Roman Baker to any Cort of similar likeness you can buy the Cort for around $400 verses Romans $1300+, Cort makes one that looks very similar to the Baker Robben Ford model which all in all is equal in quality or better than this POS Roman Baker. Roman is ordering these direct from Korea and distributing them himself therefore cutting out who would normally be the distributor/middle man, so in reality he is most likely buying these instruments for around $125 his cost and rapping the customer BLIND, can you say PROFIT MARGIN!!!. He has no advertising costs except his own website to promote and sell the model, a controlled price for what he buys meaning no employee or material variables and he is lying to the public and misrepresenting what is being sold. He claims Robben Ford plays a Baker, which is true, but Robben would never endorsee the product Ed sells as a Baker and Robben would never play this model guitar period. So if you want a real quality Baker make sure Gene is behind it and I suggest you seek out his new company Fine Tuned Instruments and boycott the Roman Bakers. Roman has always bashed foreign instruments and praised custom builders with quality designs. Then why bastardize and destroy what Gene and his crew gave birth to? Baker Guitars stood for quality and customer service which you wont get either of these from ER. Gene must be near ill from the abortion ER created. Can anyone say that any prior Baker endorsee has been seen or would be willing, to even be caught dead playing a Roman Baker? I smell lack of quality control in production and the lack of proper inspection once they hit Eds shop. Buy a Cort or other for these instruments wont hold a candle to the competition in their used resale status.
-
I’ve never bought from him (now looking glad I haven’t) but I’ve been watching ER’s site for several years now. It’s certainly looking slick, but he radiates “I sell great stuff, everybody else sells crap, I know all there is, don’t come whining to me…”.
I always get put off by these types. Maybe there are a lot of satisfied buyers out there (he’d be out of business otherwise), but it’s how they deal with the unhappys that counts. Somewhere on his site, I remember reading something to the effect that you can go to LV, look at his stock, but you sure as hell can’t touch it. He doesn’t want your icky, working-muso’s fingers affecting the resale value of his $2000+ guitars.
Cough up several g because it looks nice on the wall and no comebacks? No wonder he hates Fleabay. Some Fleebers look like Trading Standards Officers compared with his sales pitch.
-
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.