I was in Nashville last week visiting my son who works for a band and I attended the huge Amigo Guitar Show on Sunday. I played all those old classic expensive Martins and Gibsons and walked away again amazed with Eastman's products. Corner Music Nashville had 2 E10SS/Vs, very nice. Both had fairly new strings and they sounded pretty much identical. In a blindfolded test, I would have bet $12 both were rosewood guitars...mellow, warm IMO, smooth overtones vs an E10D. The E10D, which I've always said is a great guitar, sounds like a hog with clearer note separation, and bold and loud.

My question is why these E10SS/Vs would have such very different tonal characteristics vs Eastman's E10D. The same woods, I just wouldn't guess that scale length, sloped body and thin varnish finish could make so much difference. (???)

Regardless, the E10SS/V is a really great guitar, I loved the warm, smooth, woodsy, old sounding voice.

Never one to leave well enough alone, I’m planning on replacing the standard open back Ping tuning machines on my Eastman E10 OO SS with Gotoh SX510V tuning machines in nickel with oval ivoroid buttons. As well as anticipated smoother tuning the buttons will be a better match for the ivoroid binding of the guitar. I’ve ordered from japarts.ca who appear to be the only exporter of Gotoh tuning machines who deal in English. The tuning machines are apparently manufactured to order and will ship direct from Japan to me here in the UK. How geeky is it to be excited about new tuning machines. Of course pictures will follow once the tuning machines arrive.

For those who have played both SB59v models with the Seymour Duncan Antiquities and the Lollar Imperials, what are your thoughts? I've been trying to find a good way to play both and compare them, but my local shop only has the Antiquities version in there store right now. I really liked them, but I have a feeling Eastman switched to the custom spec Imperials for a reason.

When i received my new E10 00 in mid March it came with the Exp16 light strings which sounded great when i first plucked it's first notes, but not even a month in the strings seem to have lost their warmth and tone rather quickly. My question is since this is my first experience with D'addario strings, what is their usual life span? The main reason i ask this question is that the replacement cost of this strings is close to the price of SCGC parabolic strings which i know what the tone and life is of those strings is. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I’ve owned a few Chinese guitars before and they have been ok, nothing spectacular. That all changed a few hours ago.

This guitar easily rivals my Gretsch Pro Line for fit and finish and completely blows my old Gibson 335 completely out of the water.

I was after a warm blues tone in a 335 thin line style guitar and I found great tone in the Gibson and horrible build quality and a neck I did not like. I found stunning build quality and a great neck in my Gretsch thin line but not the warm tone I wanted.

A quick run through with the Eastman with my Fender Princeton Reverb 65 gave a fantastic tone, just what I was after.

This particular guitar was set up and displayed the 2019 NAMM and the attention to detail in the set up is stunning.

Besides the tone I had one other concern, the 1 3/4” neck, wider than my other guitars. Within a few minutes the buttery smooth neck with Ebony fingerboard made me forget all about the wider neck...not a problem.

I’m very pleased.

Pictures to follow later tonight

Hey everyone,

Anybody know much about this model of RK?  It has a torrefied Red Spruce top.

Thanks

Hi, I believe I'm the newest member at EGF. I am currently researching Eastman guitars in my quest for a good sounding acoustic.
 Most of my info has come from AGF, and I recognize some of it's members here. 
    I am currently focused on playing the blues. Doing a lot of phrasing but also rhythm. Just playing Strats but figured I should have an acoustic. I've never played an Eastman but interested in a smaller body OM or 000. I've never owned one of those either but Very interested in them.
   I'm living up in Prescott az. and there are no dealers in Eastman guitars here so planning a trip to to Bizzare guitars in Phoenix to play a few. Hoping I do like there tone and necks. I've played a few acoustics here but can't get inspired. 
    This is a cool site, glad I found it.

I was looking at an E6om with Fishman Matrix pick up fitted, and remembered discussions on the various types/makes of acoustic guitar pickups available. As I recall, on this forum the under saddle-type pickups are generally regarded as inferior to the mic-type pickups in terms of achieving a woody/acoustic sound. I discussed this with the seller who wrote - 'The mic style pick ups are great, the only issue when plugging in is feedback. I owned a Seymour Duncan magnetic/mic pick up, which enabled me to mix the blend of mag and mic, playing live I always had to turn the blend to around 80% mag, 20% mic irrespective of how the guitar tone was mixed on the desk'. Any views/guidance on this from my fellow EGFers?

T386 (with upgraded pickups and wiring), into reverb pedal then straight into tweed deluxe clone.  Just a little Sunday porch picking.

So, what I'm curious about is.. colour. A long time ago I really fell in love with the most beautiful guitar I ever saw: the AR-904. Sadly solely through pictures as they never appear in the wild. Until.. recently. The pictures on the site do make me wonder what's going on though, and I really hope someone here is able to shed some light on it.

First, a clear example of the type I fell for, just so we're clear what I'm talking about:
https://reverb.com/item/4943199-eastman-...ic-archtop
Isn't that yellow just incredible? So *lively*!

The one I might go and purchase:

http://i66.tinypic.com/v4xxdf.jpg
http://i66.tinypic.com/2l1dtu.png
http://i65.tinypic.com/34gvfrr.png
http://i64.tinypic.com/2aet43r.png
http://i65.tinypic.com/apfub8.png
http://i64.tinypic.com/2hdw93n.png
http://i64.tinypic.com/2w7mz2g.png

It doesn't seem to have that same incredible colour. I asked the seller and he said that that "blonde" and "natural" are two terms that are used interchangably, and that the yellowing is something that comes with the years. However, these archtops aren't old (the one he is selling is from 2012), and I don't believe that the other one turned this yellow in about 8 years. Is this one just a different colour altogether? The pictures definitely aren't conclusive, in some it does seem a lot yellower than in others.

I know the best solution would be to drive over there, but since it's really far I do want to know more first. I will ask for additional pictures in better lighting but... this forum is such a fountain of knowledge and some here actually own an AR-904 so I was hoping that our collective wisdom could help me out a bit here.