Since you guys have been asking, these are my initial thoughts concerning these two torrefied Eastman dreadnaught models.

I apologize up front for the picture quality. I had to take pictures of these two at night in a room with terrible lighting. I’ll post better pictures sometime in the near future.

Strings:

Both guitars are strung with Martin Phosphor Bronze treated Medium gauge strings. I like these strings as they seem to give long life without sounding overly coated.

Overall Tone:

The overall tone of these two guitar are quite similar. They are both loud, clear, and have almost a bell like quality. And much to my surprise, they actually sound much more similar than they sound differently. Because of this I am beginning to realize that guitar brands and makers may have a larger contribution on the tone than b/s tone woods.

Again, to my ear, they seem to have that balanced Eastman voice. Neither is too boomy or woofy. Though, much to my surprise, the E10 has a slight bit more bass than the E20. Tonally they both are voiced more like a Collings than a Martin. I kinda expect the E20 to sound more like a vintage Martin D-28, but it wasn’t so.

I would describe both guitars as having bell like clarity and great overtones. They both have volume to spare without being harsh.

The E10 seems to have the classic mahogany bumped mid range with a very pronounced quick decay bass and strong highs.

The E20 has that slight smiley face EQ with a focus on the bass and highs while still retaining a great amount of balance. The E20 is quite clear and has a fair amount of bass without being boomy.

The E10 sounds glorious, dare I say majestic. So many overtones happening at one time. The E20 sounds sweet and musical. It rings with the chimes of the guitar gods!

In the overall tone department, both guitars are very good examples of modern takes on the classic dreadnaught.

Volume:

The Adirondack top seems to add more volume and clarity to the tone when compared to Sitka counterparts. The E10D-TC seems to have the edge over the E20D-TC here. It might be that the guitar is two years older, but I don’t think this is the only factor at play.

I distinctly remember the day I first played the E10D-TC. I was blown away by its volume and bass response. It was as loud as some of the pre-war Martins that I’ve played. I now attribute this to its very large full C shape neck. For this reason the E10 seems to be slightly louder than the E20.

Neck:

Speaking of necks, this is where the two guitars begin to differ. Both are said to have mahogany 1 3/4 inch necks but the feel of the two are not the same.

The E10 has a much larger, full size mahogany neck. It’s as large as some of the Martin authentics I’ve played. Think “baseball bat” neck. It’s big, but not uncomfortable. I have medium size hands and find it very easy to play when set up with low action. It also takes medium strings very well.

By comparison, the E20 has a smaller, thinner neck. I haven’t measured them, but the E20 feels like a 1.725 or 1.7 inch wide neck. It’s not the full C that the E10 is either. My E20 feels more like some of the necks on the reimagined D-28’s that I’ve played which have the high performance taper.

Out of the two, the E10 seems to provide more volume with its mass, and the E20 provides a sleeker and slightly more comfortable feel with its thinner profile. I like them both but I had to choose just one I would go with my E20.

If this is a large factor for you I would suggest playing one in the store. These necks feel completely different even with similar set ups.

Playability:

Both guitars come from the factory with high nut slots and high saddles. After filing the nut slots deeper and reshaping the saddles both guitars now play as good, if not better, than my two USA Martins.

I partly attribute their great playability with Eastman’s impeccable fret job. These guitars came with the best dressed frets I’ve seen in any guitar under the $4000 price range. Both guitars play great up and down the neck without any buzz or fretting out. Both play great with a capo and have nearly perfect intonation.


My E10 has been one of the most stable guitars I’ve ever owned and I’m hoping the E20 will be the same. If you gig a lot stability can be a life saver.

Aesthetics:

Both guitars are very elegant and beautiful, but both had a few fit and finish issues. Where the neck joint meets the body of the guitar there was some leftover glue on the E10 and the same place on the E20 has uneven stain. There were other small cosmetic issues like hazing in the nitro finish, but overall these were not deal breakers for me. The tone and value make up for slight cosmetic imperfections.

It might also be worth noting that my E10 came in a little bit better fit and finish than my E20. This may be because it was one of the first 5 E10D-TC’s that Eastman ever made. I’m thinking they paid very close attention to detail on that first run. I hope they keep up the good work as the demand for these models goes up as the years go on.


As far as aesthetic features go, I tend to prefer the more traditional rosewood head plate and herringbone binding on the E20. The E20 looks like more of a pre-war D-28 than the E10 looks like a D-18. The E10 has an ebony head plate and a tortis binding that is quite beautiful, but not found on D-18’s from the golden era (if my Martin history serves me correctly)

Both guitars have beautiful tone woods that are on par with many of the boutique guitars I’ve played. The mahogany on the E10 appears to almost have a blistering effect to it. The EIR on the E20 is lighter and grayer in color than my D-28. Eastman is using some very good East Indian Rosewood. My wife really liked the color of it too!

Build Quality:

Both guitars seem to be very well built and have very little to no structural issues. ( I can’t say the same has been true for all my Martins costing 2 to 3 times the price.) I feel like the value to quality ratio is very high on these Eastman guitars.

I was also very impressed by the quality of Adirondack spruce Eastman is using on these two models. I believe it to be on par with most boutique builders in the $5,000 price range. They are very straight grain and uniform in spacing. They have no runout and very little streaking, which sadly I’ve seen on boutique guitars costing into the 5 figures.

Comparison to Non TC models:

I don’t own a non TC model Eastman, but from those that I’ve played in the store the Thermo-Curing process seems to add a bit of snap to the attack, right out of the box, without being too harsh. These sound like Eastman’s on steroids that have been lovingly played for years.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great non TC models out there. I’ve played several of them, but I just like the darker looking tops on these guitars and I believe TC process adds stiffness and stability as well. Plus, it’s only a couple hundred dollar upgrade.

Value:

10/10. These are comparable to guitars costing 2, and 3 times as much.

Overall Impressions:

I’ve owned many high end Martins and Taylors and I think these Eastmans are on par with guitars at least twice their price point. These aren’t just good guitars for the money. The are good guitars period!

Both are winners in my book. Both are loud and powerful dreadnoughts. Both have similar voices with slight nuances.

Both guitars sound absolutely amazing and are still very new. I’m excited to see how both guitars will age over the decades. If you can get your hands on either one of these models, do it! I wholeheartedly recommend both of them.

I hope this was helpful. I’ll do more updates to this post as the weeks, months, and years go on.

Cheers!

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I’ve now spent a full day with this beauty, my new E20D-TC. I did a setup yesterday evening, which included, leveling out the saddle, slotting the nut, adjusting the truss rod, and putting on light-medium gauge strings. (This guitar shipped with lights so I put on a hybrid set I had lying around. I’ll have to go tomorrow to get some Martin medium 2.0 lifespan PB)

And finally, I took it out for a photo shoot! She really is a beauty. And after a little set-up she is playing as good as all the others.

I’ll get a full review up once I have played it for a little whole. I’ll also do a comparison between it and my E10D-TC

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Qian Ni is a flutist... Eastman owns Haynes, got a hot one for EGF'rs, less than 10miles from me :

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/msg/d...75507.html

Hello guys,

So i'm new to the Eastman family !
Heard so many great things on the brands in the last months/years and was time for a new Acoustic so i decided to take a ride and go try this brand along other brands.

God i was totally amazed by those ! Tried 5 Eastman and my love went to an E10SS, never had a guitar before that was so resonant and vibrating (and i Had Taylor 414, Gibson SJ200 and Martin 00028-Clapton), each time a strum a chord on it, I instantly smile, it's absolutely amazing.

Also i landed on a picture of someone posting a picture of the inside built of his E10SS and thought it was beautiful, so when i changed strings, i checked inside mine, and saw that it wasn't that good looking.
Finish on the bracing isn't flush, there are white marks (glue ? Dust ?) a bit everywhere and a glued black thing at the cross of the X that we also can see from the outside, scalloped bracing is very less pronounced on mine, straighter and not as curvy, and dirty holes on each side of the pins slots.

Actually the guitar sounds amazing, so it's not an issue at all, just wanted to know if you ever looked inside yours, see how it was and wondering what this black cross could be :/

Thanks for you replies

Here is the picture i saw on internet :



And here is mine :






Black cross visible from the outside :

Hey all,

here to share a New 2nd Hand Guitar Day, having responded to DSM's query yesterday about the T386, since I literally acquired the guitar the day before.

Just a bit of context, prior to purchasing this T386, I have two Eastmans: an AR371CE-2, and a T486. Plenty of hollow and semi-hollow goodness to go around.

I play blues, rock, funk, soul and pop; within the context of my band I use a combination of my Gibson Nighthawk Standard, a parts-built Stratocaster and the T486 that I bought back in 2018. The T486 has since been modified to have Fralin Twangmasters, which lend a more trebly snap to the otherwise warm and buttery tone.

Some people may wonder: why bother with the T386 when I already have a #1 semi-hollowbody in the T486. I suppose variety is the spice of life, and I figured that I could use a backup for the T486 if and when it needs some sort of repair/maintenance work.

Since a thread is useless without photos, do have a look of these snaps of the guitar in my (rather cluttered) office here.

The idea of buying a second 335-type guitar took shape in my mind about 3 months back, about 4 months after taking delivery of the T486. I love that guitar to bits, but as with anything brand new and shiny, it still is a baby in my eyes, and I really could not bear the thought of it getting all dinged up, which is silly and runs counter to my general approach to guitars, all of which have either seen gig or bluesjam / open mic action.

I decided that I would try my best to see what second-hand 335 options there were out there; I figured taking a scratch and dent out for the usual rounds at the blues jam would help me and my stupid brain from worrying. My budget was around about USD1100, which is very close to what I paid for the T486.

In my previous journey that arrived at the T486, I auditioned almost all of the semi-hollows that were available locally in Singapore: Gibson, Epiphone, D'Angelico, Gretsch, Edwards, etc. and at the back of my mind, I knew that I still wanted an Eastman. Unfortunately, my local dealer only brings the electrics in one piece at a time due to a combination of very limited local awareness/presence of the product, a severe lack of marketing, and to be fair, a very small local market for semi-hollows and/or jazz-style instruments. Shipping per piece is exorbitant and I'm not about to shell out extra cash just for shipping.

So when this T386 came up on a local classifieds priced at USD700, I perked up but kept it on the back-burner as I was still unsure if I wanted to 'step down' to the T386, as compared to maybe getting a different brand that would have its own flavour. I was also trawling Reverb.com for possible deals, but shipping cost and a general lack of variety of models that were a 'step up' from the T486 laid to rest my search for an 'upgrade'.

In the end, I got in touch with the seller, and after a bit of haggling he sold me the guitar, which was practically brand new bar one 1" scratch along the back, with the case for USD550. I reckon I got a steal! I love how resonant this guitar is, and how deep and rich the rosewood is on the fingerboard. In this day and age where other brands are using Laurel amongst other types of rosewood-alikes, or somehow getting very dry and pale-looking rosewood, it's quite nice to see a lovely darker shade on this Eastman. The single scratch aside, fit and finish were as perfect as my T486, and the Kent Armstrong pickups are more than lively for my purposes.

My only question is, how old is my guitar? Serial number is 131133309.

If you've read this far, cheers and hope you have a great day ahead!

Hello:

I am in the market to purchase my first semi-hollow. I was leaning toward an Epiphone Sheraton Pro II, but then went into a store and tried out a T386 and really liked it. It is a bit more expensive $919 vs. $699, but the salesman told me that it was much better built. As I am new to this market, I am hoping to get some unbiased feedback on the two guitars. Appreciate any thoughts you could share.

Thank you.

July 2, 2019 Total Solar Eclipse in Pacific and South America.

Took it as an omen of good things headed my way.

Changed the strings on my 1971 Guild F112   no blood, swear.  

I thought I was done with guitar purchases but sometimes I think a guitar picks you. Yesterday we went to our local music store as we needed a couple more stands. 

We've bought 3 Eastmans from this store but still, I wasn't in the market for another guitar. They have a really great selection of guitars. Martin, Guild, Taylor, etc and Eastmans!

So I was curious to try the new Taylor Grand Pacific models. The dealer pulled down the 517 as that's all they had left. He said the 717 sold the day it came in!

I honestly had no problem putting the 517 back. I'm still curious about the 717, that seems to be the one people go nuts for.

So I see this gorgeous slope shoulder that I originally thought was from the antique varnish series. He grabs it for me, I strum it and man, was I just floored! I couldn't believe how awesome it sounded. And this was when I thought it was twice the price thinking it was the antique varnish series. I look down and see it's only 799!  Long story short, I traded in 2 guitars on the chopping block and brought it home. 

I hope this is where i would talk about Eastman's warranty & customer service. About a week ago i was reaching for my 3 month old E10 00 and my hand grabbed the guitar just above the nut and bing, the B string broke just from the pressure of my fingers. So i preceded to change all the strings when i noticed cracks in the nut. In fact the nut had multiple cracks all thru it's length and when started to take off the low e string the nut material snapped off.
I contacted Sylvan Music where i bought the guitar and when i told them i lived 5 hours away they gave me the Eastman phone number which got me in contact with Dan. After explaining the situation with Dan, he told me he would back to me about a solution to my guitars' issue. Within 20 minutes he called back and said he had a contacted a Eastman dealer (mainly a mandolin dealer) in Reno who would replace the nut. I live around 40 miles south of Reno, dropped off the guitar last friday and picked it up this afternoon. The warranty repair was spot on and the guitar played great.

Considering how far i live from a major metro area (Reno population w/ Sparks included is around 350,000 and pretty much void of a good music store), i was really impressed how Dan, Eastman and Folk Musician in Reno took care of my warranty issue. Their attention to my situation was clearly better than when i had warranty issues living in the Santa Cruz/ Bay area with music store access much more accessible. 
Because of Eastman's attention to customer service, they have now have a loyal customer. And if i ever add another guitar to my collection, it won't be too difficult to figure out which brand i'll be buying! I just wanted to add my $2.00 when a company goes the extra step to satisfy a customer when it seems in these times a lot of companies forget who they are serving.
Thanks for reading

Hello to you all
This is my first post here, but I've read a lot before that. It's a great and friendly forum in here!

So, as you can guess, I'm here because I'm quite interested in Eastman guitars.
In fact, I almost bought one a few days ago, an E1OM. Great tone, I like how everything is defined, it's a very clean guitar for fingerpicking, and it handles moderate strumming quite well.
I loved the playability, comfortable neck,  and very good quality for such a gentle price.

But I had last minute second thoughts... About the tone, it's a little bit on the bright side according to my taste.
Perhaps after a break in period, it'll get a bit smoother, or a string change could tames the high freqs a bit.
So I'm wondering, for those of you who tried many Eastmans, would you say the E6OM is warmer? And what about the E10 (but the price of this one is not as friendly...)

How would you rank them in terms of bass foundation versus high freq brillance.

You can even add the PCH1 OM version in the mix if you have an experience with it :-)