Eastman Guitars 508S

Fantastic, all-solid, slot-head grand concert model with solid mahogany back and sides, AAA Engelmann solid spruce top, hand inlayed maple rosette, rosewood binding on body, fingerboard and headstock. Hand built in Beijing, China.

An amazing guitar! A blues fingerpicker's dream! Clarity, with unreal tone and projection. They don't get any better than this.

Set up by Steve at Guitarsplus USA.com It came to me in perfect condition. Great setup.

It's a solid wood acoustic guitar. Hand built. Take care of it and it will last forever!!!!

Steve at guitarsplususa.com was a wonderfull person to deal with. Great customer service.Comes with Limited lifetime warranty. Just like martin.

I have had $4000 guitars that were as good (not better) At $729 This guitar is one of the best deals of my life!!!!!!!!

I recently traded a Walden 1070ceq "Supranatura" for an Eastman 508S. They are very different guitars, and I've been leaning toward country blues style fingerpicking. The Eastman is much better suited to this style.

The 508S has a transparent finish, solid spruce top, slotted headstock, mahogany back, sides and neck. It has open Gotoh tuners. The nut is 1 11/16. Neck has wood binding, 14 frets to the body. Mahogany inlay around the sound hole.

The body is grand concert size. Body has wood+plastic binding. It is very much like a Taylor GC6/8, but costs a lot less.

Like the Walden this replaces, it is made in China.

Features, fit and finish/build quality is really excellent for a guitar in this price range, so I give it a 9.

This guitar is very well suited to fingerpicking country blues. The Walden was also a good picking guitar, but more "classical" sounding. The Eastman is snappier and has less bass.

I really like the way this guitar sounds and it is very comparable to the Taylor's mentioned above for tone, sustain, etc.

For my style of playing I rate sound quality 9. I expect it will improve with age. I've got an old Martin 0018 that sounds better (especially with the mammoth tusk nut I had installed!). However, that old Martin never leaves the house, and this baby will!

I purchased this guitar at Bernunzio Music in Rochester, NY. They did the setup - and it is excellent. They were awesome to deal with (thanks John) and highly recommended.

Intonation seems right on to me. The only slight flaw was a very small mark on the back (probably from another customer as this guitar was on display).

The nut/bridge appear to be tusq. Someday I may replace with real bone nuts (especially if I can get my hands on some more of that fossil mammoth tusk).

The guitar is brand new, so not sure about how well it will hold up yet.

However, it seems very solid. It is a light guitar, so I'll take care not to bash it. The build quality is really good, so if it isn't abused, it should hold up quite well. I plan to travel with it.

As stated above Bernunzio was awesome to deal with and they come highly recommended. In terms of customer support from Eastman, that hasn't been necessary. The guitar comes with a limited lifetime warranty (original owner only)

I give Bernunzio a 10, Eastman a ?

I've been playing for over 20 years on and off. I bought this guitar to travel with, play with friends and perhaps a gig now and then. If it was stolen, I'd replace it with something very similar - a nice guitar that I can take out of the house and not worry about too much.

I love the sound of the guitar. I also considered the Recording King Studio Series and Blueridge BR-341 which both have are 12 fret with wider 1.75" nut width (also nice chinese made guitars). If the 508S came with the wider nut, I would consider that. However I like the grand concert body on the 508S better. I also think it sounds better than these and other comparable guitars in this category I considered.