Hiya all - here's my latest.. recorded tonight.  Thanks for listening!

Two things here. Firstly, what a consummate artist Tommy E is! Seemingly effortless, until the end when he lets out a sigh:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3SWbIs8_tY
Secondly, interesting guitar. Tommy joined forces with Jean Larrivee to produce the Larrivee Model: C-03R-TE Tommy Emmanuel. It's a 12 fretter with a florentine cutaway and a wide 16" bout - the same as Eastman's AC range. Did you notice how big Tommy's hands are. Tommy once observed that Molly Tutt has hands like a mouse but is a world class guitarist. I think the small size of her hands dictates her playing style, with her hand mostly 'floating' over the finger board when she is being extended. Unlike Tommy who you will see periodically resting his small finger on the guitar top.

Does anyone know for sure if when Eastman specifies a guitar has back and sides of mahogany that it's real mahogany and not Sapele?  Johnson String Instruments states that the AC322CE has "solid Sapele (African Mahogany) back & sides".  The Eastman site says nothing about this but does state that the back and sides of the AC122CE guitars are in fact Sapele.

Saw this posted by a European based dealer... looks like a limited run of 300 guitars.  I have to say, looks amazing!  I assume some of the US dealers will be getting in stock too?

Anyone know a source for the Eastman clenaing/polishing chamois or similar?

Superior to microfiber IMO. I'd like to get several, not just for guitars.

Looking for a recommendation.

Thanks.

any idea when these will hit the stores, didn't see one in stock what little I looked

Looking at Ted's site this morning. He has two E6OM-TC's in stock with Alpine and two E6OM-TC's with Sitka in stock. The Alpine's are $1190 and the Sitka's are $1110. Don't recall him ever having any Alpine's in stock before. I could have missed them. I look fairly often.

I left my E20P and a ukulele alone and unescorted overnight a few weeks back.  The E20P started to develop a belly and next thing I know, this popped out.  I decided to adopt it, I named it Josie. 

I lied - I've actually had it for two weeks now, but I haven't had a chance to get some decent pictures.

I'm presenting this NGD with warts and all. And by "warts" I mean things that are probably inconsequential to most, but I can't leave well-enough alone, so here we are.

Ahh, new guitar case off-gassing smell!



Since getting this guitar I've removed the pick guard because it had sharp edges and I felt it didn't do the guitar justice. I may replace with a Holter guard, but I quite like the look of a guitar without a guard as well.

I looked at several E8OM-TCs before selecting this one in particular because I liked the top. Pretty tight, straight grain lines, with a little figuring in the upper bout. I know this is silly, but I wanted the alpine over any other TC top because I prefer the lighter color. It contrasts so nicely with the ebony and rosewood.









There was some residual glue visible when playing just by looking down through the sound hole. I tried to leave it alone, but I couldn't. I went in with a little piece of 220 grit sand paper and gently sanded the area in the direction of the grain to get rid of most of it.





The way the center of the X-brace is finished is interesting. Often you will see a piece of cloth over it (typical of Martin, for example), or maybe nothing. The E8OM has a scalloped center.



Here's a circa 10 year old AC712 for comparison with no cap.



And here is the E1OM with... I'm not exactly sure what because I couldn't get the camera to focus. But clearly more work was put into the E8OM, as you might expect for the price difference. The E1OM still has a much more nicely done interior than some other guitars costing much more.



Here are some additional interior shots. I wish more online guitar reviews would show us the interior because some of them are a mess that tells a story of the workmanship (or lack thereof) that goes into these instruments. In this case we have nicely sanded, scalloped braces and clean surfaces. I'm not a luthier, but this looks like pretty nice work to me.









Alright, I'm done nerding out for the moment. Now... do I drop some Gotoh 510s in this guy? Hmm!