Eastman Guitars AR905CE

This is a 905ce built around 2005 - It has the larger teardrop shaped pickguard. Flamed maple body and neck, wood binding, sunburst, ebony and metal tailpiece. Also has the ebony button tuners. One floating pickup. All the basic features you want on a jazz instrument although it does not have a tone control - just volume control which is hidden under the pickguard.

I'm using it with a Fender Blues Junior and I intend to get an acoustic amp for it as well. I have flatwound 12's on it. The acoustic tone is very nice - typical archtop solid top tone - quite different from a flattop as you know if you've played an archtop. Acoustic volume is moderate. Plugged into the Blues Junior you get a beautiful jazz tone. Rich and lush with the right type of chords. Plays very easily and is quiet. Also works nicely for fingerstyle and county blues. With right amp settings excellent electric blues as well.

Beautiful - there is a glow to the sunburst and the wood binding really makes for an elegant appearance.

Don't know about reliability yet. Does appear to be well built. Everything is solid.

Haven't tried them but they do have forums and lots of questions get answered. Seems to be a large user group out there. The rep, Gordan, seems to maintain a high profile on the forum as well so I assume that service should be good.

I've played about 35 years. Enjoy country blues, Celtic, finger style, and most recently chord melody jazz. I have a taylor 712 from around 1992 and an american made telecaster. I've owned many other high end guitars over the years as well. I have tried other archtops. The guild artist award, for example, while far more expensive, did not play as easily or have as good acoustic tone in my opinion. The heritage archtops are roughly comparable (but I hate the way they look!). I briefly had a Hofner New President - very nice guitar and a reasonable alternative to the eastman.

This is an update to my first review. the first eastman I got had some major deadspots and I could not get rid of it.
So eventually I changed the guitar for another 905.

The wood is less spectacular, but still nice.
There are some differences to the first 905 I owned.
- An ebony veneer at the back of the headstock
- two ebony stripes in the neck
- sunburst finish instead of the dark reddish brown

This guitar came with thin roundwound strings which did not do the guitar justice.
once I had the 905 strung with decent strings there came the full yet bright sound I loved about the first one - minus deadspots. At home I mostly play acoustic, and this guitar has an inspiring sound and enough volume for practising, though not enough to gig unplugged.
In my new trio (g, dr, ac-b) the guitar sounds wonderful. This is a one trick pony, but with the eq of my AER compact I have been able to dial in some variations from a very acoustic and bright sound (filter activated in channel one) to a more mellow and traditional jazz sound. It sounds good recorded into a DI, too (I felt no need to use an eq)
The guitar reacts very well to the way you play it (fingers, flatpick, hard, soft), so in my opinion it is a fine tool for the skilled player.
Personally I do not feel a need to change the pickup, but some people told me the handwired armstrongs would again improve the sound...

Finish and setup were perfect, but the guitar came with "wrong" strings (for an acoustic-electric archtop). Since I changed the gauge of strings the saddle had to be adjusted, which was done perfectly in the shop.
The pickup was raised a bit under the lower strings, which I corrected myself.

This refers to the shop: Lutz, the technician tried everything he could to get my first 905 fixed. He performed a perfect setup on the new one.

I posted into the eastman forum, too and got an answer within a day.

For sure this is not the right guitar for everyone, it has it's own sound (brighter than a gibson L5 or the like). You will have to look for a good one and maybe have to perform some minor setup.
But if you consider the price (and compare it to other brands) the value is fine.
If you like the sound and the way it feels you get a fine means of expression (and you dare to take it on the road).

see review submitted by bassman at 05/21/2005 14:14

see review submitted by bassman at 05/21/2005 14:14

see Reliability/Durability

This is the second part of my review (first part Submitted by bassman at 05/21/2005 14:14)

After seasons have changed and the heating period has started here in Switzerland I realized a fret buzzing in the upper register, starting at the 10th ? 12th fret, depending on the string.

I went to a well known local luthier / repair shop and they confirmed that the guitar is almost unplayable in the upper regions, caused by a hump in the neck in the region, where the neck meets the body. To solve this, they proposed two solutions:

- A fret dressing, which can probably fix the problem
- A refrett and levelling of the fingerboard, which would be the proper way

I have not made the decision how to fix the problem because I am still in discussion with the Eastman Guitars.

Another small issue that I have is a rattle of the G string if it is played open. The slot is cut to deep, compared to the others. I play not special thin strings without winding, a normal 0.012?s. But this is not a big problem.

I was a little bit surprised because the issue with the hump in the neck should not be normal for a guitar built with this craftsmanship and woods .Due to the fact, that Eastman offers a lifetime warranty, I believed that this would be covered by the warranty and so Eastman would pay for the work.

Wrong: Eastman stated that fixing warranty issues is the job of the particular dealer and they are not willing to pay the fret dressing. 12th Fret offered to fix the problem for me at no charge but I have to ship the guitar back to Toronto at my expense. That means I have to pay $ 600 shipping costs to solve a problem which would cost $ 100 ? 200 to be fixed.

I am in contact with the Eastman Guitars but as you can see in the forum on their homepage (topic fret buzzing in upper register) they are not willing to pay. We will see ...

see review submitted by bassman at 05/21/2005 14:14

beautiful solid wood archtop, all wood (maple/ebony) bindings, schaller tuners, wooden bridge, metall tailpiece with an ebony layer. one humbucker (sporting the eastman logo) mounted to an ebony fingerrest, stealth volume poti under fingerrest.
mine came in the classic finish, a reddish brown, stunning optics, beautiful woods all over.
one could ask for a tone control, I do not miss it at all.

I play jazz-flavoured pop tunes, mostly melody (the guitar is the "singer" in the band. Suits my style quite well.
The high strings have a very brilliant and singing tone, while the bass strings are more on the percussive side (I tried halfrounds and eventually changed to roundwound strings which give a bit more sustain).
the acoustic level is fine for recording alone, I even could play acoustic rhythm in mellow passages. I like the amplified sound to - typical jazz box on the more brilliant side of this style (more grant green than wes, if you know what I mean). I use an aer compact or go direct. tried a jazz chorus too. no complaints
I would give it a ten if it would not suffer from two dead spots (the f# and the Bb on the 4th string).
one of them nearly vanished after changing the strings so hopefully the other will become better to once the guiter will be played in.
Otherwise I will return it.

Setup was perfect. Straight neck, perfect frets. It came with coated strings, which I disliked. I am still experimenting with strings, but .012 roundwound seems to suit the guitar pretty well.
Mine has some minor dings on the top plate so they gave me a discount. I think it has a nitro laquer finish but I am not sure.
I was sceptical about the stealth volume control, but for me it works perfect.

This is a solid wood guitar, you would not abuse it. I did some studio jobs and rehearsals and have nothing to complain.
the case is not really solid in my opinion. looks like a cello case, but without the stability of one. came with shoulder straps, which is fine, but has no compartment for accessories.

I posted to the eastmanforums to discuss the issue of dead spots. they gave me their guess (which was not right). the repairman in the shop has tried everything and succeeded partially.

I play for like 28 years, I had some custom built and some factory instruments. I love the tone of the instrument but hate the deadspot taht still remains. I like the minimalistic look and beautiful wood as well as the unobtrusive finish.
In the shop I compared it with a gibson le grand, a guild artist award and my trusty ibanez plywood box. I prefered the eastman for the brilliance and breeziness of it's sound. I wish I would have made a special deadspot test before buying - but I hope these will go away when the wood is played in.

I just bought the AR905CE #0024 from 12fret in Toronto. The good thing of my experience with the AR905CE: the guys at 12th Fret make a good job and have packed and sent the guitar fast and well to Switzerland / Europe. So it has arrived without any broken stuff or so.

As far as I can see, the AR905CE sounds quite ok, how it could be expected from a solid wood archtop guitar. It has a lot of midrange and the bass is, compared to the rest of the tonal range, not very distinctive.

Now to the poor part of my experience with my new AR905CE. Here a list of all issues I have found till now:

The two holes in the neck for the pickguard screws are drilled completely inclined so that they go trough the neck down to the top. So the sense of the suspended neck has gone. In fact, the people at the Eastman factory have drilled 3 holes, one was so wrong that they could not use it.

There are 2 thick, black hairs in the lacquer

There is a nick beside the tailpiece fastener in the binding. I guess the tailpiece fastener was positioned once beside the little ebony piece when the guitar was strung

There are a few nicks in the lacquer at the top of the headstock

The B and the high E strings each have two slots in the bridge; I guess people at Eastman first have filed wrong ones

The string height of low E is to low compared to the other strings

The output plug/strap button is not fixed correct

The foam stuff under the pickup and the scratch plate is awful for a guitar in this price range

I do not guess that I will make o lot of experience with this weak guitar so it's difficult to say something to this subject.

I have mailed this issues to the Eastman customer support but I have nothing heard till now.

I would not buy this guitar again ...