Ed Roman started out making custom Harley Davidson Choppers and motorcycle accessories during the late 1960s: he used this money to enter the music business in 1975. In 1975 Ed made a loan to a local music dealer friend and received about 50 old Gibson & Fender guitars as collateral.  Ed held the guitars for almost 2 years, finally when the dealer could not pay back the money, Ed began selling off the guitars - this was his start as a guitar dealer. He went into mail order guitars but also had retail stores - opening the East Coast Music Mall in 1982 - a music superstore.

In the early 90's Ed purchased the BC Rich company and its inventory of unfinished guitar parts and templates. Ed produced USA made Neck Through Body BC Rich guitars for a period of 5 years under his own name - this led to his Abstract guitars brand. He also bought the contents of the Steinberger factory in Newburgh NY & became the place to go for old Steinberger parts. Ed started building his LSR brand guitars which evolved from the original Steinberger design. He developed a reputation for his outspoken opinions which he recorded as "rants" on his website - Ed ranted on subjects including Asian guitars, sales commissions, guitar prices and well known guitar brands.

By the late 1990s Ed needed to leave the East Coast and start afresh. In 2001 he relocated to Las Vegas and began to set up a huge guitar store. Eventually opening in 2003 it was a 44,000 square foot building housing more than 7000 guitars on display.  He brought in investors in 2006 with plans to expand the business, but under their controlling interest things started to go South. Ed left the organization and quickly moved to buy back the rights to his name & website, he opened a smaller and more manageable operation including 10 own brands comprising more than 500 models which were made in Ed's Las Vegas Custom Shop.  By 2009 he had closed the store entirely to concentrate on the custom shop. Ed died in 2011 aged 61.

Source: Ed Roman website (22 August 2023)