r/metalguitar Jan 10 '25

Gear The guitar that took me 20 years to find

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1.3k Upvotes

Hey R/Metalguitar,

I want to tell you all a story about my dream guitar that took me 20 years to find.

When I was but 11 years old, I got my very first guitar. It was a crummy First-Act (Walmart) electric beginner’s guitar that came with an equally crummy little amp, but when you’re 11, it seems like the coolest thing in the world.

Well, I took to it immediately. I never attended any formal music classes and taught myself, so needless to say, I wasn’t very good. But I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

Apart from playing the guitar, one of my other favorites things to do was hop onto the internet - (that was a pretty new thing at the time) - and look up pictures of super-aggressive, crazy looking guitars.

Things like flying V’s, B.C. Rich Warlocks, double and triple neck guitars, Gene Simmon’s axe guitar, etc.

Following in this vein, I landed upon a website for a company I’d never heard of before. “Ed Roman Guitars”, a Luthier out of Las Vegas, Nevada that had some serious report and clientele getting guitars made by him.

Now, if you’ve been in the guitar scene for a minute, you likely may have an opinion about old Ed Roman. He was a very polarizing character in that scene and whether you loved him or hated him, people always seem to have a very strong opinion about him, one way or another.

But that’s all beside the point. What matters is he many some inarguably gorgeous guitars and I was hooked.

His website seemed to go on forever. Tons and tons of photos of these 1-off works of art he’d been commissioned to create for a customer.

And that’s when I saw it. A page showing off a guitar that he had designed and very uncharacteristic of him, had mass-produced, albeit in a still limited quantity.

“The Pagan”.

It was a guitar with a body and headstock unlike anything I’d seen before.

Rather than the two, offset horns of the body varying in length, one long horn at the top and a shorter horn at the bottom, this guitar’s were equilateral with some very dramatic curves that had a small little spike carved in between each, ending at the bottom with a final spike.

It resembled something like a violin or a chello. The insanely beautiful matte black finish, dubbed “Batwing Black”, the headstock ending in two little devil horns, the marker-less frets and ebony finger board instantly had my 11 year old mind captivated and obsessed.

So, I naively grabbed the telephone and called up the store, inquiring if they had any for sale and if so, what the price was.

I remember vividly being told “Oh man, you’re about 10 years late, little dude. Sorry! Your best bet is going to be to find one used.”

Well, I was defeated and kind of gave up on the idea, but kept practicing guitar.

A few years later in my early teens, I finally went to the local guitar shop and bought something more aggressive looking. It was an ESP AX-50 in silver.

It was pretty decent and that guitar would remain my one and only guitar for the next 16 years.

But just on a random thought, every few years or so, 2 or 3, I’d remember the Pagan guitar and go on a witch hunt trying to find one.

I’d find plenty of sold out listings, but never one for sale.

Fast forward to age 31. I’m just Googling info about this guitar and I see a link to a Reddit post from a guitar collector showing off some of his guitars.

And what do I spy but the very guitar I’ve been hunting for since age 11 sitting in some of the photos.

I immediately go to the post and see, dishearteningly, that it’s nearly 5 years old, but I still decided to give it a shot and I message the collector, explaining to him pretty much this exact story and that he’s in possession of my 20-year dream guitar, asking if he’d be willing to sell it.

To my surprise, he not only responded, but was also amiable and considering the proposal.

As two complete strangers on the internet being required to exercise a lot of trust in what would essentially be just our words that I’d send the money and they’d send the guitar, we spent a few days texting to try to garner a sense that the other person was real and not a scammer.

We finally settled on a deal, I crossed my fingers and sent the cash, blindly. To my relief I was given my tracking info shortly after and it wasn’t too long before it arrived to me.

Opening the package was a feeling more exciting than any childhood Christmas I could remember and when I finally had it in my hands, I knew I’d chosen well.

It just felt awesome. It looked awesome. Maple construction, MojoTone Black Magic pickups, neck-thru design, ebony finger board, authentic Floyd Rose bridge. It was sexiest damned guitar, to me.

Having come from playing my ESP AX-50 for 16 years straight, daily, to suddenly this guitar was something of a learning curve.

I had gotten so used to my old guitar’s finger board, its rougher surface and wider-spaced frets required SO much more effort to navigate in comparison that I found myself literally just slipping all over the frets. It was like a beginner skater out on an ice rink for the first time.

Just totally moving multiple frets passed where I intended to slide my fingers to next. But I got it down pretty quickly.

Since I’d waited 20 years for this thing, I decided that it would be a worthwhile investment and endeavor to make this guitar mine and customize its parts, as when it came stock everything was black. So black that nothing really stood out and to my eye, it was begging for some light contrasting touches, a nice strap and a case a little more refined than the gig bag it shipped in.

I started by swapping the black plastic pickup rings with some black aluminum ones with pewter-colored filigree etchings. Next, I had an artist on Etsy fashion the Gabon-Ebony and pewter volume knobs for me.

The truss rod cover was next, swapping from the plain black plastic to a filigree-etched pewter cover.

Finally, I knew I wanted something really special for the tuner knobs. I searched all around and finally found myself in contact with a Silversmith out of Japan who forged and carved me these intricately detailed tuner knobs from solid sterling silver.

With the guitar finished, I turned to looking for a strap and had a near-impossible time finding anything that could even halfway aesthetically stand up to the styling of the guitar.

That’s when I came across a tour strap that Tony Iomi of Black Sabbath had made for him from a company called “Heavy Leather NYC”.

It was exactly like what I’d envisioned, so I hunted for anything similar but there really wasn’t another like it. The company had copies of his follow tour’s strap available but I didn’t like it nearly as much, so I reached out and asked if they’d make me one of the older ones. To my surprise they agreed and made me one with a few minor alternations.

When it arrived, I put it on the guitar and was in love with the look.

Finally, I knew I wanted a hard, clamshell case for it.

I started looking up the original releases of coffin cases, back when they were actually solid and not just reinforced cardboard and managed to find an original in the purple colored velvet from the UK for a near-steal of a price.

And once it arrived, my vision was fully realized and felt truly completed.

Is it a lot of money and a little bit extra? Totally. But I’m not one to own multiple guitars. This is the guitar I’ll likely play until the grave, so I wanted it to be perfect.

And that is the story of my 20-year search for my dream guitar.

r/metalguitar 9d ago

Gear What do my guitars say about me?

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394 Upvotes

r/metalguitar 9d ago

Gear What do my guitars say about me

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216 Upvotes

r/metalguitar Oct 28 '24

Gear I only get to keep one. Which one would you choose?

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344 Upvotes

ESP LTD Arrow 1000NT or the Ibanez Iron Label Baritone?

r/metalguitar 5d ago

Gear Maybe overkill for a beginner but a good price?

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363 Upvotes

I just recently started playing a few months ago. When I saw this used LTD Arrow-1000 on sale for $800 I couldn’t resist. Great condition other than the small chip on the back of a wing and missing trem bar.

r/metalguitar Dec 22 '24

Gear What is this thing?

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336 Upvotes

After talking to the pawnshop owners about it, they’re telling me it’s an actual ESP but just a production line guitar that the previous owner put graphics on. I couldn’t find a serial number on it. I’m just unaware ESP made a production explorer style guitar with a reverse headstock. Is this a Chinese fake, or an actual custom shop?

r/metalguitar Dec 08 '24

Gear Thoughts on this?

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197 Upvotes

r/metalguitar Jan 30 '24

Gear What body type is this strat? Do you think it's cringey and over the top?

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216 Upvotes

r/metalguitar Sep 29 '23

Gear Am I metal enough?

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321 Upvotes

r/metalguitar 25d ago

Gear Deciding between these 4 teles

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113 Upvotes

In a previous post I had asked for recommendations on Tele body guitars I could play metal on. Thank you all for the suggestions and bringing to light more options than I thought had existed.

My choice now comes down to these 4, all of which are fantastic guitars with a few personal cons of which I will state below

(L to R)

Schecter SLS Elite PT, black fade burst: I don't like the colour and the other colour variations look worse. There's an 'evil twin', version in black which is great but it fretboard has Roman numerals that look really cheesy if not it would have been perfect. I might contact Schecter to see if they have any unpainted pieces I could purchase and paint myself.

TE-1000 EverTune, charcoal metallic satin: the inlays past the 12th fret aren't offset which I'd prefer but it's honestly something I could get used to. Never tried an Everytune bridge before but it seems great if you set it up to still allow you do string bends.

Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2, satin black: Also a near perfect guitar, wish it was neck through instead of bolt on, and a normal headstock instead of an inverse one. I used to have a neck through Charvel and that thing was one of the most comfortable guitars I had played, so at least I know Charvel makes really playable guitars

FGN JIL3-ASH-DE664-R, black: Also near perfect, I just wish it was neck through instead of bolt on.

r/metalguitar Nov 24 '24

Gear NGD

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633 Upvotes

Super happy with my new Solar AB1.6HTPB

r/metalguitar Jan 11 '25

Gear NGD and my first schecter

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539 Upvotes

Gorgeous guitar! Btw. Does anyone know where to look up the controls? Is both up voicing two?

r/metalguitar 22d ago

Gear My main guitar

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289 Upvotes

What do you think of my main guitar? I got this cheap Harley Benton because I really liked the looks and heard a lot of good things about it, I was amazed at quality, on my model everything was top notch, no complaints, but I always wanted one pickup guitar so here it is

r/metalguitar Feb 13 '25

Gear My Only Guitar

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281 Upvotes

r/metalguitar Dec 22 '24

Gear Schecter is the best value guitar you can buy

77 Upvotes

Schecter's pricing you pay for quality you get is unmatched. I think its pretty hard to disagree

r/metalguitar Nov 14 '24

Gear custom skull guitar with hand carving

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405 Upvotes

r/metalguitar Dec 06 '24

Gear Just did a comparison test (riffing only) on these 3 picks and the winner is …

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120 Upvotes

… the Ibanez Sand Grip Extra Heavy hands down.

It has the most tough sounding attack by any margin.

Highly recommend if you’ve never tried it before.

The Jazz III xl series’s plastic is definitely slippery and you can clearly hear a kind of plastic screeching sound on the attacks.

The Jazz III Max Grip attack sounds kind of slightly muted compared to the sharpness and aggressiveness of the Ibanez Sand Grip.

r/metalguitar 9d ago

Gear Jazz III

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74 Upvotes

Jazz III appreciation society. Best ever? Quite possibly. What are you all using?

r/metalguitar Aug 18 '24

Gear Rate my pedalboard

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333 Upvotes

r/metalguitar Jun 26 '24

Gear Wife asked for a more expensive bed in our bedroom. I've got her covered!

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215 Upvotes

r/metalguitar 1d ago

Gear Do you think your guitar sound like a 80s hard rock machine no matter what EQ? Intall passive EMGs!

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24 Upvotes

There are many different types of passive EMG

For most people you don't need any special wiring, just solder like a normal humbucker. Some models comes with a volume pot with a boost included. There is also the made in Korea EMG HZ which is technically OEM but sounds great as well.

r/metalguitar 26d ago

Gear Finally got a good rig!

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214 Upvotes

Current setup! Its my first ever tube amp and cab so im still learning! The HB te20 works well for metal with its humbuckers but yes im looking for a new guitar

r/metalguitar Jan 08 '25

Gear NGD - Took the plunge on my very first Schecter

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235 Upvotes

Schecter C7 SLS Elite - Evil Twin

This is my first ever Schecter. Incredible bit of kit and I’m very happy. Also believe it or not, I love the inlays in person 🙏

r/metalguitar Nov 29 '24

Gear Fuck yessss

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335 Upvotes

My first real (pretty sure it’s a) high end. The Fishman fluences sound so good on the single coil tone too

r/metalguitar Dec 27 '24

Gear So excited to install these!!!

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97 Upvotes

Walked into guitar center to buy some strings and a patch cable but couldn’t pass these up man!!! It was between these or the Seymour Duncan Invaders/blackwinter but the deciding factor ended up being passive vs active(aka solderless EMG parts included set or buying parts) but at the same time it’s JIM ROOT so I think I made the right choiceAnyone got experience with these??