Product: Eastman Guitars AR800CE
Price Paid: US $2000
Submitted
09/09/2003
at
11:24am
by
danny gotham
Email: steelstringer<at>aol dot com
Features
:
10
2003 model.solid wood everywhere--hand carved, to boot. maple back/sides, spruce top, ebony fretboard, pickguard, and headstock face. one floating pickup with a carefully hidden volume control--apparently this is the chuck wayne design. 16" body, violin-style reddish spirit varnish. oval soundhole, and soft cutaway. handcarving/assembly done in china.
Sound
:
10
sounds fantastic--plugged in or not. a wee bit warmer then an f-hole archtop..would actually work for any acoustic style--i could even see flatpicking or fingerpicking with it, but it is a grade-A jazz guitar first and foremost. the tone is built for roundwounds, not flatwounds, IMHO. it would probably work fine with flatwounds, but the acoustic qualities would be a bit less pronounced and crisp.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
clean as a whistle, and action is like butter. no complaints. had to a bit of tweaking to stop a minor buzz vibration from the pickguard assembly, but that is all.
Reliability/Durability
:
No Opinion
haven't had it very long, but it seems solid--can't imagine it being unreliable.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
no interaction with them, save checking out their cool website.
Overall Rating
:
10
if someone would tell me that i could purchase a hand-carved 16" (which i wanted--it's much closer to the ES-175 size that i am comfortable with) archtop in the year 2003 and it would cost me $2000, i wouldn't have believed it. if you can get over the stigma of playing an archtop made in china (it won't take very long when you see one of these instruments, and play one), then you might be able to see it for what it is--a top-notch instrument for a fraction of the cost you would expect to pay.
this company is going to go places. they build guitars for guys like me--that have always fantasized about a d'angelico, d'aquisto, stromberg, or benedetto, but could never dream of affording one. compare this instrument to any handcarved archtop--from any era--and you'll buy one in a heartbeat. the bottom line is that i should give this a 20, not a 10, for the overall rating.
