Eastman Guitars AR800E

2003 AR800E Solid, hand-carved body from flamed maple, top is solid spruce Three piece maple neck, ebony fretboard, ebony pickguard (volume control is hidden underneath) hand-wound floating pickup attached to the neck over the oval sound-hole, cleverly designed 1/4" jack located in tail strap peg, adjustable bridge My only complaints are 1)my particular model doesn't have the second peg by the neck for a strap, which would require me to use an acoustic style strap should I want to stand 2)there is no tone control, however that can be easily added

I started (as most do) as a rock guy and slowly matured into a jazz player. The guitar suits me perfectly. It has an incredible clean tone when amped, and due to the oval sound hole, it has a decent amount of projection acoustically. The sound isn't very easily manipulated, but I don't really see why you would want to. It is an amazing jazz box for a relatively small price. With flatwound strings, it has a beautiful tone. I can't really describe it all that well, since it is rather unique, but it is guaranteed a great sound. A lot of people complain about the slight amount of feedback you can get at higher volumes, but you will find that with any archtop, and Eastman does an incredible job of keeping any excessive electronic buzz to a minimum. I run it through a solid state practice amp with a small, inexpensive tube preamp, and feeback has been of no concern.

Everything was set up perfect on this guitar from the start. I bought mine used, however, there were no modifications to begin with, and none needed. With time, any archtop will need some decent care and bridge adjustments, but maintenance on the 800E is particularly simple and easy. The action was wonderful, and with flatwounds, it feels perfect. There was only one minor finishing flaw on my particular instrument where the neck meets the top of the instrument. There was a small glob that cracked on a minute scale, but it does nothing to affect the tonality of the instrument, and is virtually unnoticeable without a very careful eye and good lighting.

As far as reliability goes, I haven't had all that much time to test it. I have, however, been enough of a clutz to bump it a few times, and it seems very stable. Everything is very solid on the instrument, and I would trust myself at a gig without a backup (even though that isn't the most adviseable plan, anything could go wrong, but nothing seems as though it would). It's a very solid, stable instrument.

I wrote this review mainly to compliment Eastman's outstanding customer service. If anyone were to go to their website and view the forum, they would see how quickly each question gets a response from one of the techs. I had two small issues, one with registering my instrument (since I was the secondary owner) and one about a small buzz caused by a vibrating screw (easily fixed in under 5 minutes, not an issue), and I recieved a response to one of the emails the next day, and I received a response to the other within that day. If anything goes wrong with the instrument, the warranty is quite comprehensive (as long as you don't damage the instrument yourself) and the company is willing to work with you in as many ways as is necessary. They will even send some parts at no cost, and in fact have been sending out upgraded tailpieces to all registered owners (hence my angst about registering my instrument, and no, there was nothing wrong with the original tailpiece, the new ones were just simply better). I don't believe I have ever dealt with anyone as easily as I have with Eastman, and others will agree.