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 :-)

Gibson guitars went bankrupt last year.  The new owners might be %#$@*(^!.

They put out a video a couple weeks ago threatening to sue anyone who copies their brands.  Like some of the guitar forums, this guy is having a ball with their new approach...

https://youtu.be/sHqx9TP65uU

Question: does 'ladder' bracing potentially have advantages over 'X' bracing - acoustically or lightness/strength? Does anyone own or have experience of 'ladder' braced guitars.

Hello,
I'm Tomek and this is my first post. Decided to sign up as the great info on this forum has already helped me a lot when looking for a new guitar.

I don't own an Eastman guitar - yet.  I have a T486 on a back order, waiting for the retailer to re-supply, was told the end of JUly.  However, after hearing the T64v online in various videos, I fell in love with that sound. I would change the order from T486 to T64 if not for one concern...
The loudness - I mean acoustically, not plugged in.

Would any of the good people of this forum that own the T64 be so kind and try to judge how loud it is acoustically?
Let's say on a scale 1 - 10 with the following orientation points:
1 - solid body guitar
10 - acoustic dreadnought -size played with a pick, strumming an open cord.
(I'd say 8 - acoustic guitar fingerstyle with no thumbpick, 4 - Gibson ES335 with a pick single notes)

I DO realize how strange and awkward this question sounds , but hear me out: I don't own a house, I live in an apartment, the only time of day that I can play is at night when my family is sleeping or falling asleep.  I have an acoustic dreadnought-sized which is too loud for them at night, so I usually play my solidbody via a small multieffects unit and headphones and that - loudwise - is ok. I'm assuming that ES335 acoustic loudness would be ok as well, so 3 (fingestyle) or 4 (pick) on a scale.  I've played ES335, haven't played the T486 but constructionwise it seems similar so I'm assuming the loudness will be similar as well.

However, the T64 being fully hollow, I have no clue. I have no experience with fully hollow guitars, full body nor thinline. Needless to say there is not a single Eastman in a shop in literary 500km radius from where I live, hence I'll be ordering online from abroad, so "try it out and you'll see for yourself" is kind of a last-resort option.

Thanks a lot in advance to anybody who could provide some info on this!

As many on the forum know I own a 2017 E10D-TC. It’s an amazing guitar in every way, but ever since they released the TC models I’ve always wanted the rosewood version. I almost bought an amazing E20D-TC back in 2017 when I was trying out the new TC models but I decided since I already owned a D-28 standard that another rosewood dread would have to wait. Well I can now say the wait is almost over.

Tonight I was telling my wife how much I’ve really wanted this guitar and how there was only one on reverb for sale. We checked the listing and sure enough it was only on sale for a few more hours. The shop “A Plus Guitars” (I’ve heard good things from other forum members about them, but have never bought from them before) had been waiting on this guitar for a year and a half and finally got it in early last week. I noticed tonight that they had it on sale for $1325 instead of $1559, (which I thought was a good deal) so I casually told my wife how I had considered buying it, and MUCH to my surprise, she told me should would pay half of it as an anniversary gift if I paid the rest. Our two year wedding anniversary is later this month, but since it was on sale she gave me the go ahead to get it!

How could I turn down that offer!?!? Someone please pinch me because I think i’m dreaming!

So tonight we pulled the trigger and placed the order online. I have an amazing guitar on the way and an even more amazing wife!!!

The only hard part will be that I have to wait a week to play it since we’ll be out of town for the next 6 days. Oh well, I guess the anticipation will make it all better.

I don’t usually buy guitars without playing them in person first, but these TC models have been that good. Every one I’ve played has been very special in its own way. I hope this one will be the same.

Finally, I just felt like saying that i’ll be so blessed to have two TC models in the house. No matter what model you have Eastman is making great guitars at all price points and there is something for everyone. Now I’m just going to have to find more time to play!

I’ll give a full report of the guitar when it arrives. In the mean time I’ve attached a few pictures from the listening. You can check them out below.

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