Happy Saturday to y'all - I haven't posted for quite a while for a variety of reasons but I have tried to keep track of what's being said here - I've noticed that there does not seem to be a lot of conversation about double tops....I'd really be interested in hearing from any / all players who are familiar with DT's, especially Dreds. Spring's acomin' and I got my 1st Covid vacc shot yesterday so it's time to start thinking about fishing and outdoor jams - Life is still good no matter what they tell me ......

Mark Herring recently answered a question on the Eastman Guitar Owners Group site on Facebook about what is the most popular Eastman guitar sold with the following answer.

"Here is the answer to your question. Keep in mind, this is based on orders taken during calendar year 2020 from authorized dealers in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand (does not include domestic sales inside China). It includes backorders taken that may have not been delivered to dealers yet. I will arrange them in categories and disclose the top 3 sellers in each category: AC Series - #1 AC222CE, #2 AC122-1CE, #3 AC422CE / Dreads - #1 E1D, #2 E20D-TC, #3 E10SS/v / OM's - #1 E1OM , #2 E20OM-TC, #3 E2OM / Solid Bodies - #1 SB55/v-SB #2 SB55DC/v, #3 SB59/v-GD / Thinlines - #1 Romeo, #2 T484, #3 T486 / Archtops - #1 AR503CE, #2 AR580CE, #3 AR380CE."

Thought I'd pass this on the group here, although I know that many of us are also members of the FB group.

Interesting trends - certainly seems to be driven by new models!

I had my luthier install a K&K mini in my E8OM-TC. Tonight was the first chance I've had to play it plugged in thru a Baggs Session DI (with a little saturation and compression added) right into the stage box/snake to the board. It was a practice for our Sunday morning contemporary live stream service. It sounded great! We recorded one song for a morning devoting (2 takes thankfully) and worked on the other three we're doing on Sunday. I usually play a dread but I thought these songs would pair better with the OM and I was right...The E8OM-TC worked perfectly. Just a heads up that the K&K mini is a great PU in the E8OM. And the Session DI pairs nicely with it.

Just acquired an AR503CE.  beautiful workmanship, but i am not impressed with the tuners.  would like to replace with something that has at least an 18:1 ratio and in a black chrome or ebony button.  would rather not have to re-drill for screw holes.  any suggestions for a quality tuner that drops into existing holes?  i actually wouldn't mind routing out the post hole a bit if required..just would rather not end up with a old screw holes on back of headstock.  thanks in advance for any suggestions

i originally posted this on the general forum and then realized it should have gone here...first time post..sorry for duplication.

I just installed the JJB transducer pickups in my Martin 000-15m, and am having an issue.  The G string has very low volume.  All the other strings are find, including the D!  It's very strange.  I've been communicating with Jessie and he has been great.  I have tried all of his suggestions including: reseating the string, removing the saddle and making sure there is no debris, restringing, etc...  I also sent him multiple pictures of the installation and he said it looks great (I used the jig approach).  I even tried tuning the G up to G# to put a bit more downward pressure, but no increase in volume.

I really don't feel it's a product issue at all and have told Jessie that.  If the transducer was bad, I would think the entire transducer would be bad and so the D string would be dead too, but it has fine volume.  My only other thought is that somehow, when installing, the G side of the middle transducer picked some debris or something that deadened that side.

He said I could remove the transducer with a razorblade and he'd send me a new transducer free for me to solder (like I said, he's a great guy).  I tried a little with a blade but I'm just afraid I'll either damage the guitar, cut off my finger tip or both.

Sooo, after all that, my question is if any of you have seen this before and had any other ideas?  The string itself sounds perfectly fine acoustically, so I really don't think it's the string.

Sorry for the super long post but I wanted to provide details.  Any ideas would be great!

Hiya all - here's my performance of the song Forever Young, as arranged/covered by the great Martin Tallstrom.  This is played on my Gomans Fanned Fret (there was a recent fanned fret thread - thus the motivation to share!).  I had a little bit of level clipping on the recording which you might hear... thanks for watching!





Tim

Hello, Everyone:
I'm considering buying an E20D. I have owned an E8D for years and I LOVE the sound. It has matured into an orangish topped, gorgeous tone machine. I have also always enjoyed my E10D for its lovely sound and powerful projection which I am told comes from the Adirondack top. So, lately I have become curious about the E20D. Would it be worth the investment? Is there really THAT much difference from the Sitka topped E8D?
Of course I am particularly interested in the opinions of those who have owned or have played both extensively. Thanks for your thoughts!

Hello folks,

I hope you'll forgive and humour a question which I imagine may be a bit naive for veterans of this brand. I had a look around some older posts to see if I it's been asked already but nothing popped out immediately so here goes.

For many years I've adored the canonical sound of a Gibson 335. I appreciate that there have been variations and iterations over the years of build / components / pickups but with this said, I think it's fair to say there's we could average these out and get something we might call a classical 335 tone.

Were money no object, I might take the no-risk option and pick up a standard Gibson USA edition but I don't have enough money to justify that kind of outlay.

I've taken a look at some affordable alternatives, namely Epiphone and Sire. Of course, some concession to build and components has been made, as great value as these guitars may be. I might be able to stretch to a Eastman T386 or T486 if they're the right choice for me. Having looked at some videos and checked the specs, I can see they're close to a 335 but perhaps significantly, use different pickups to the standard Gibson USA's. I'm not so bothered about tuners and knobs etc, it's my focus here is mainly about the tone.

So here's my question: If I really like the way a standard 335 sounds and would like to get pretty close to this but via an Eastman guitar, what is my best move? Are any of the Eastmans close enough out the box that all but the most discerning would say "yup, that's basically the 335 sound" or would there need to be a pickup retrofit to achieve this? Or am I barking up the wrong tree altogether?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

a lovely sunburst one 

I am a bit confused with the spec though....

The official Eastman web site for the archtops says the 403 ced has ebony fingerboard,tailpiece/bridge and perhaps the scratch plate too but the current ads in the stores  says rosewood!

Same for the metal.....Eastman says nickel but up to date current ads say chrome!

My serial number is L2000553 anyone know which is correct?

Thanks guys and nice to be here

Piano Man arranged by Kelly Valleau on my E8OM-TC. Didn't quite make the barre chords coming out of the solo but this is the closest I've come to nailing it! It's in CGDGBD which makes the 6th string a little floppy on the short scale but it's the longest I own.

https://youtu.be/P7n81dFlBhM