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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on May 18, 2020 9:47:42 GMT -6
Great call with Eastman John. +1 (as the young turks have it!) e&oe ...Yep I have been looking at Eastman guitars for a long while now.
EB
I have a colleague who used to work for Eastman. He travelled back and forth to the factories in the Far East. Fascinating stories. It will be interesting to see if the current COVID-19 pandemic affects the supply chain from the Far East to the USA. John |
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Post by antares on May 19, 2020 8:05:31 GMT -6
I have a colleague near Philadelphia who holds Eastman in very high regard, and boy is he ever picky over guitars.
e&oe ...
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Post by antares on May 22, 2020 7:19:42 GMT -6
For some while now we have seen recognition of the unquestionable prowess within the Fuji Gen Gakki plant, and with very good reason. I wonder who the hallowed Asian builders of yesteryear will be in thirty years time? Eastwood is a real contender in my view. I know that Eastwood has its roots in The West. I don't know whether they manufacture any instruments at all here, but it's funny how a Western sounding name colours the imagination surrounding Asian built instruments ... take Ibanez as an example. That was a clever appropriation of a western sounding name that coincidentally had deep roots in guitar making. So distinct from Tokai, Yamaha, Hondo, Kawai, Takamine, Yairi and so on.
I used to work with a lovely Vietnamese girl who affected a western name. I think many of them do. I respected that at work, but since the factory closed I keep in touch with her and I always use her given name. She worked three times as hard as I did and I never failed to recognise it. Perhaps Pacific Rim companies adopt westernised names in the interests of international commercial trade?
e&oe ...
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Post by dnic on May 23, 2020 8:28:58 GMT -6
I've had at least two Eastman's in the shop. One, a Les Paul copy and a Martin 000 size acoustic. Both very nicely done in fit and finish. After a set up they were stellar.
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Post by antares on May 23, 2020 12:20:19 GMT -6
There's me muddling up Eastman with Eastwood. The latter are pretty good too ;<D
e&oe ...
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Post by dnic on May 23, 2020 12:24:23 GMT -6
There's me muddling up Eastman with Eastwood. The latter are pretty good too ;<D e&oe ...Lol, I didn’t even notice! |
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Post by antares on Aug 17, 2022 3:14:55 GMT -6
Eddie you were looking for an acoustic around a thousand bucks a while back in this thread. I'm guessing your GAS circumstances are wholly different a couple of years on, but rather than just quote manufacturers without having played any, I played one of these just over a week ago and I was stunned by how good it sounded and how easy it was to pick. It had a slightly wider fretboard at about 1.875" I would guess. I know you aren't into Martins and Taylors- I'm the same on that really, but doing the blindfold test I was astonished at how good it was for the money. It wasn't too blinged out either which as pretty as it is, I find the MOTS generally overdone on Blueridge guitars. reverb.com/item/55282358-blueridge-br-371-parlor-naturalIf that link doesn't work just search for Blueridge BR-341, BR-361 or BR-371. There may be others. I'm guessing that a BR-341 might be even be under a grand new? |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2022 8:59:26 GMT -6
Eddie you were looking for an acoustic around a thousand bucks a while back in this thread. I'm guessing your GAS circumstances are wholly different a couple of years on, but rather than just quote manufacturers without having played any, I played one of these just over a week ago and I was stunned by how good it sounded and how easy it was to pick. It had a slightly wider fretboard at about 1.875" I would guess. I know you aren't into Martins and Taylors- I'm the same on that really, but doing the blindfold test I was astonished at how good it was for the money. It wasn't too blinged out either which as pretty as it is, I find the MOTS generally overdone on Blueridge guitars. reverb.com/item/55282358-blueridge-br-371-parlor-naturalIf that link doesn't work just search for Blueridge BR-341, BR-361 or BR-371. There may be others. I'm guessing that a BR-341 might be even be under a grand new? I did buy one. I got the Fender Paramount. For me, it is the best acoustic I had ever had in my hands, and I have had many of them. At this stage of the game, I may not ever buy another one. I have two others that are OK at best.
But thanks for the info and thinking of me. I really didn't buy the Fender I traded for it. I am going to do a video on some day.
EB
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Aug 17, 2022 14:36:26 GMT -6
Steve -- I like the Blueridge guitars, too. The Eastman guitars and mandolins are very popular around Nashville, and have a great bang for the buck.
I haven't bought a new acoustic guitar in a while, but there are some very solid choices out there.
I was on a location recording last night and the female singer was playing a newer Martin OO-18...a little above this budget, but that thing sounded and recorded great.
John
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Post by antares on Aug 17, 2022 15:48:44 GMT -6
I always confuse Eastman with Eastridge John, but my now deceased friend from Philadelphia spoke highly of them, and he never pulled any punches.
My eyes were finally opened to the parlor/parlour guitar style by eventually getting to play an example. Back in about 1979, there was a contributor to the British monthly magazine called "International Musician and Recording World" by the name of Stephen Delft. He made select custom to order guitars out of a workshop in East London, but I understand that he emigrated to New Zealand decades ago. He wrote the guitar reviews for that magazine and they were thoughtfully written with no trace of hyperbole or evident manufacturer persuasions, a cut above the average hack's missives.
I read (I still have it here somewhere ...) the review written by Stephen Delft on Takamine guitars, specifically a little parlor guitar with (from memory) 12 frets to the body, a slightly wider neck and a slotted headstock. I seem to recall that he stated 12 frets to the body was entirely correct and that 14 fret parlor guitars miss out somewhere, but after playing the Blueridge, I'm not sure I agree. He described it as sensitive for picking styles and extremely highly recommended at the (then) price of £99. Of course I "knew better" and went off and bought a Takamine dreadnought copy from the same range for no better reason than Rory played a Martin D-something. There is much hype about such guitars and we should take all the "Lawsuit" remarks with a pinch of salt. Suffice to say that I wish I'd bought the one he reviewed, but my Tak dread was my main acoustic for about twenty years until I sort of scratched the smaller more sensitive guitar itch with my Yamaha LS400vt. Both are case queens now- you move on I guess. Dane has one or two YouTube videos on his channel repairing a pretty much identical Takamine- mine is the F360s ("S" referring to solid wood top.)
Stephen Delft also wrote glowing reviews about a couple of Gordon Smith guitars which influenced me to buy one. It's odd that I knew I wanted such a double cut, but either I was too young to know about or completely unaware of Gibsons and Epiphones, or more likely they were just too rare in the music shops over here. I have a well thumbed and falling apart book called "The History and Development of the American Guitar" possibly written or co-written by Ken Achard / Craig Bailey, and it was a prototype double cut Epiphone that I saw in there which sparked that desire.
I met Stephen Delft at a trade show in Olympia back then around 1980 (I think- it's getting blurred these days) and I pilloried him about Gordon Smith guitars because they didn't live up to the custom order nature alluded to in his article(s). Basically my specifications were ignored totally, but I have since learned it was the company's distributor that was to blame. Result- pursuant to Stephen Delft's intervention I had one issue sorted by the manufacturer. To have addressed all the others would have meant another guitar and I decided I'd rather have the one I ended up with because of its low serial number. How crass is that? One of the many things they ignored was my request for a P90. Some may remember the assistance provided on this forum when I was undertaking a reversible mod to fit the instrument with a P90?
So far as I'm aware, Elton John commisioned Stephen Delft to make a guitar for Kiki Dee. Stephen Delft left me with a penchant for Parlor guitars unrequited until playing the Blueridge just over a week ago. I'm tempted, but I'm afraid it's got to the stage of "one in, one out" and I'm sticking to it. My guitars referred to in this post can be seen in this thread, or at least they can until PostImage goes the way of PhotoChucket and its ilk.
Nashville is on my bucket list John!
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by dnic on Aug 17, 2022 21:12:32 GMT -6
Steve if you get to go to Nashville you have to give me enough heads up to plan a trip. If you wait a year or two I'll be retired and hopefully be able to make it. John lives very close to Nashville and we know a great pork sandwich shop.
Hoping to get started very soon on an OM model. Which is typically a 14th fret beast. I've played OMs and 000s and like that size very much. I was hoping it would be my next project but I may be doing a client build so we'll see what happens.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2022 7:46:41 GMT -6
Here is my acoustic guitar that I like a lot! Small in body but huge in sound. Easy to play. I didn't have to do any setup to this guitar. It is a perfect fit for me. I like it because it is smaller in size and sounds great! I would not be quick to turn your nose up at this guitar. Since I have owned it, I have had a lot of people trying to buy it from me.
To me, it equals many of the guitar out there. For me, it is the first acoustic I have owned in many years that I like so much as this one.
EB
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Post by antares on Aug 18, 2022 7:57:22 GMT -6
Well Dane I would love to do that- to meet John and yourself. I'm thinking Eddie can't be THAT far away either. It needs planning on my part and Linda would be along too. I *can* get BA staff rides via my sister, but standby is really risky because airlines habitually over book their airplanes. It would be great to meet Ken too. I went to NOLA in 2017, but I'd only exchanged one or two eMails with Ken by that stage and I only had 24 hours there anyway. Ken describes himself as a recluse so it seemed inappropriate to rock up to his door back then, still 'n' all, it's such a distance and so expensive that I do regret not being a little more assertive. Funnily enough, my friend from Maryland is going on his second road trip to Florida real soon (the first was wrecked by contracting Covid) and he suggested a meet up too, but I don't recall intimating that I was headed out west imminently.
I'll have to put my thinking cap on.
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2022 8:31:00 GMT -6
Well Dane I would love to do that- to meet John and yourself. I'm thinking Eddie can't be THAT far away either. It needs planning on my part and Linda would be along too. I *can* get BA staff rides via my sister, but standby is really risky because airlines habitually over book their airplanes. It would be great to meet Ken too. I went to NOLA in 2017, but I'd only exchanged one or two eMails with Ken by that stage and I only had 24 hours there anyway. Ken describes himself as a recluse so it seemed inappropriate to rock up to his door back then, still 'n' all, it's such a distance and so expensive that I do regret not being a little more assertive. Funnily enough, my friend from Maryland is going on his second road trip to Florida real soon (the first was wrecked by contracting Covid) and he suggested a meet up too, but I don't recall intimating that I was headed out west imminently. I'll have to put my thinking cap on. でつ e&oe ...As much as I would like to see you all, I can no longer travel. I had a hard time going 2 1/2 hours away to go see a doctor. (one way) I know I can't get on a plane as well.
But it would be cool to see you all. I had another bad spell last night. Not doing well at all today. Yet another night that I thought I was on my way out. But, I am still here, but not doing well. EB
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Post by dnic on Aug 18, 2022 8:31:25 GMT -6
Well Dane I would love to do that- to meet John and yourself. I'm thinking Eddie can't be THAT far away either. It needs planning on my part and Linda would be along too. I *can* get BA staff rides via my sister, but standby is really risky because airlines habitually over book their airplanes. It would be great to meet Ken too. I went to NOLA in 2017, but I'd only exchanged one or two eMails with Ken by that stage and I only had 24 hours there anyway. Ken describes himself as a recluse so it seemed inappropriate to rock up to his door back then, still 'n' all, it's such a distance and so expensive that I do regret not being a little more assertive. Funnily enough, my friend from Maryland is going on his second road trip to Florida real soon (the first was wrecked by contracting Covid) and he suggested a meet up too, but I don't recall intimating that I was headed out west imminently. I'll have to put my thinking cap on. でつ e&oe ...It would be pretty cool to meet up with everyone. Not remembering Ken unless you mean Ken Boudreau from Kens guitar workshop. But I'm sure I'm just forgetting someone. Although I really enjoyed his channel when he was active. |
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