Ask Roman ?

[FLICKOFLASH]

First I wanna give a big high 5 to Roman & welcome him


Tell how you began in guitar restoration & construction ?

[Roman Rist]

Thats a long story
thanks for the welcome!

Some day I will tell it (the story)


RR

[BOBBO]

Roman .. I was thinking of replacing the inlays on my R8 with the cellulose ones Flick has coming and maybe rolling the neck ... How much should a reputable luthier charge for each ??? Do you do that stuff ?

[Roman Rist]

Bob, I do it ALL!

Roman

[single cut 54]

Hello Roman,saw your headstock/neck repair post really enjoyed it .Have you ever been asked to repair a break that was passed repairing or is every broken neck fixable?And do some breaks end up needing a new neck?

[Roman Rist]

Originally Posted by single cut 54

Hello Roman,saw your headstock/neck repair post really enjoyed it .Have you ever been asked to repair a break that was passed repairing or is every broken neck fixable?And do some breaks end up needing a new neck?

Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it.

I have never seen something that was "unfixable". What does come into play most of the time is economics............the simple question is this;
Is it worth it??

I have done some vintage les pauls that needed a re necking. I would salvage all I could from the original neck such as the fingerboard, Holly veneer and logo, truss rod and start from scratch.

Using old wood , of course.
This one here for example was a busted neck, butchered body 68 gold top, and she was turned into a 59 plaintop.




cheers,
Roman

[loneguitar]

Roman, Welcome, looking forward to your insight and learning from y'all

[Roman Rist]

Thanks man, if I can help out a little that's cool........but No trade secrets.

[loneguitar]

Understandable

[BCRGreg]

Roman, it hurts when I pee. Why?

[single cut 54]

Originally Posted by BCRGreg

Roman, it hurts when I pee. Why?

Take your thumb off the end Greg and relax your grip.That should help but if not a squirt of pot cleaner does the trick for me.

[Roman Rist]

Originally Posted by BCRGreg

Roman, it hurts when I pee. Why?

Oh, you need to read my book! 1001 home remedies involving duct tape and wd-40.

Trade secret;

If it is supposed to move and doesn't WD-40

If it moves and isn't supposed to Duct tape.

For pain in strange places, first spray the area with WD 40, then duct tape the hell out of it!

you will be fine

[FLICKOFLASH]

Originally Posted by RFR

Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it.

I have never seen something that was "unfixable". What does come into play most of the time is economics............the simple question is this;
Is it worth it??

I have done some vintage les pauls that needed a re necking. I would salvage all I could from the original neck such as the fingerboard, Holly veneer and logo, truss rod and start from scratch.

Using old wood , of course.
This one here for example was a busted neck, butchered body 68 gold top, and she was turned into a 59 plaintop.




cheers,
Roman

fixable ?

[BCRGreg]

I lost on that auction! I was going to make that bad boy work!

[Roman Rist]

A shame, she's a beauty!

we could have fixed her

[Mr Bones]

Ok who has the pic of that goldtop that is a smashed top and binding only

[Roman Rist]

Originally Posted by FLICKOFLASH

First I wanna give a big high 5 to Roman & welcome him


Tell how you began in guitar restoration & construction ?

Well Flick, you asked.........

When I was 16, I wanted a Danelectro with the amp in the case. Seeing how my dad worked at Sears, I figured that would be easy enough.

Instead he brought me home a Silvertone Tiesco the one with the built in speaker that looked like a pregnant Telecaster.......ugly!

I started to modify it. that guitar had 4 different paint jobs, 4 different pickguards, and at one time even had 2 genuine GIBSON humbuckers!

(I really wanted a Les Paul like the guy in the Allman Bros had)

Next I got a brand new 73 Ibanez natural flametop Les Paul copy.

I did a sunburst and I set the neck...no more bolt on!

I even added wood and carved out a real heel!

Then I built about 4 guitars on my kitchen table.
Guys I would jam with would ask me to do work on their guitars,,,,,which I proceeded to hack up

Then this jamming buddy sold me a 57 Tele that his girlfriend threw off the 3d story balcony during an aurgement.

I bought that guitar for 50 bucks and proceeded to glue it back together. I played it for a while and sold it for a whomping 200 dollars!!!


I was hooked!

I was going to do this for a living! even though I had not a clue as to what I was doing.

I spoke with a friend of mine who told me of this guy in Hollywood who was sick of it and wanted to turn the shop over to someone ( read sell)

That guy was MAX. (he'll probably want to kill me for going public with this)

I did the trial by fire apprenticeship.

I would show up every day at noon, he would take in work, then split to go drink.

The first month was spent making excuses for why the work wasn't done and he wasn't there. sickness, tragic events, family matters, etc.

One day I ran out of excuses. as soon as he would leave, I would lock the doors and figure out how to do the work!

At 5:30 I would open the doors and let the clients come to pick up their instruments. To my amazement, they liked the work and actually paid!

At the end of the day, I would go find MAX and give him the days loot...........and he'd buy me a beer!

He real quick figured out that I liked to work, and he liked to drink, and the "good apprentice" would provide his beer money



Don't get me wrong, MAX liked to build guitars, and we spent many nights till 3AM building guitars, Max just didn't like to deal with people.

I came into some money and then bought MAX out.

Somehow we became partners, (maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had the money to buy enough Korina to do 40 replicas)

So we became partners and, Man we built a lot of guitars!

This was back in the day Gibson wasn't so uptight about replicas. hell we even put an ad in Guitar player.........................and didn't get sued!

Some one from Gibson even called to see where we got the Korina.

Well, we were no help, and when the Gibson reissues came out they were Three piece and thinner than 58/59s due to lack of proper wood.


Lesters were ALWAYS a big part of our activities. The quest was to build a LP that was as good as and as exact as a 58/59 burst.

There was no real money in it, almost anyone could still afford a real one.

We just did it for fun, similar to the thrill a painter gets when he can "forge" a Picasso.

Max focused exclusively on the Bursts, and I was busy with the shop.

It seems like every day I was doing some work for a Rockstar.

I was right across the street from the one and only Guitar Center, and every band that hit LA stopped there!

The Boys at GC would send them right to me for work.


Now, I work away from the hustle and bustle of the Sunset strip.

that's my story......you asked for it.

[Gigan]

Sweet, thanx for sharing Roman.

[terence_tez]

nice...
its great to be able to do what you love fer a living.

[Mr Bones]

wow, cool story!

[BCRGreg]

Max is gonna kick yer ass, Big R.

[El Toro]

So that's why my guitar took a year!

[PoorMan]

Roman,

I'd like to take a stab at building a body from a blank...it there a decent alternative to a bandsaw for rough cutting the body shape? Because I don't have a bandsaw, or room for one.

[Roman Rist]

Originally Posted by PoorMan

Roman,

I'd like to take a stab at building a body from a blank...it there a decent alternative to a bandsaw for rough cutting the body shape? Because I don't have a bandsaw, or room for one.

With a good scroll saw you can cut out a body....go real slow!

Or a template and a router.

If you wanted you could even cut it out with a jigsaw! I've done it. just need at least a 2 inch blade.
Roman