I found this gorgeous 1996 Gibson Historic Reissue guitar with a killer maple top, only problem it was a dark burst, which wasn’t to my liking, but what a killer top, In addition the neck was very chunky with very little taper. I really didn’t find it a fun guitar to play. So after reading many post on the My Les Paul Forum, where I found many great reviews of Luthiers, one seemed to stand out as the best . This was Roman Rist, so I contact he told me he could make this guitar perfect, stating that he still had all the jigs and templates from the days when he and Peter (Max) did the replicas. He would have this guitar as close to a real 59 as possible, along with a nice authentic looking faded burst finish. Roman’s initial estimate was 6 weeks to 6 months depending on his work load and such. I was fine waiting as long as it was done right, he assures me the guitar would be perfect, and he would document the re-finishing, re-shaping with pictures of the progress. So off to Roman my guitar went, along with a 50% payment for the services Roman said he would perform. This is the part where I get confused or lost, we (Roman & I) had several conversations along the way, he told me the guitar was coming along nicely, but due to humid conditions he wasn’t able to complete the finish. Then Roman moved from LA to Northern Calf, Mt Shasta area, to share a shop with Will Boggs, owner of WB Pickups. I lost touch with Roman, as the phone number he had no longer worked, I tried e-mailing and snail mail but nothing, So I posted on the My Les Paul Forum, trying to contact Roman, Will Boggs reached out to me and called immediately. During this time, Will and I exchanged several e-mails and talked on the phone a few times. But nothing from Roman, Will gave me updates on the guitar, and told me how great it looked, I was fine with this, as I thought Roman was just super busy as I always heard he was. I asked Will to snap a couple of pictures, but for some reason I never got any. Then out of the clear blue, I get an e-mail from Roman, stating the guitar was stolen and he has no insurance, he thinks he knows who took it, but can’t prove anything. I replied asking Roman to give me a call, which he did, we talked for a while, he was shocked when I told him Will and I spoke and how great the guitar looked, as Roman said Will didn’t have access to my guitar it was locked in a separate room. The conversation ended with Roman promising to make this right, he was to build me a new guitar, a few pictures came along, but nothing more. It’s been over a year and I still have nothing. Not only am I out the $4,000 I paid for this guitar, I am also out the money paid to Roman for the work on the guitar. To Date Roman still has NOT made this Right!
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 01:08:30 +0000
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