Eastman Guitars AR910CE

2007 Eastman AR910GA. Made for the '07 NAMM show. 17" by 3 1/8" F hole cutaway archtop. "Golden Age" finish. Hand carved spruce and maple, ebony fingerboard, bridge and tail piece cover. 25" scale. 22 frets. Gold and ebony tuners. 1 3/4" nut width. Tone and volume controls mounted under pickguard???these are the only features I don't love on this guitar. They're a bit flimsy. Would prefer more robust knobs mounted on the pickguard, but it's a small quibble.

The stock pickup it came with sounded a bit thin to me, so I replaced it with a Kent Armstrong handmade floating PAF. Sounds great now (see below).

I was looking for a good jazz box in the $1000 range about a year ago. This guitar appeared on Ebay at a price I couldn't refuse. The seller sounded reputable, so I broke my basic rule of never buying a guitar I haven't played, payed a bit more that I'd planned to, held my breath until it was delivered, and have been jumping for joy ever since. It's sound is just beautiful. I've played it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Roland Cube 60. Sounds great through both. Big, sweet, jazzy. Also has a great acoustic sound, especially for comping. Freddie Green would love it.

I'm not the first owner, so I don't know how it was set up at the factory. It was in good shape when I got it; an excellent local luthier replaced the pickup and did a set up, and it's the nicest-playing guitar I've ever owned (that includes Gibson 175, '49 Gibson L-4, Gibson 335 among others). The neck fits my hand perfectly. The action is silky smooth. Intonation is perfect.. Frets are smooth and true, never buzzy or muted.

The construction is flawless. Beautiful curly maple binding. Joints are clean and tight. I'll rate it "fabulous," with one slight caveat: the finish is somewhat delicate. It has picked up a couple of minor dings since I've owned it, and I don't know how they got there.

The basic construction seems very sound, as noted above. Again, finish is delicate. You have to be careful with it, or else not mind some dings (hard not to mind on such a beautiful instrument). Also as mentioned, would prefer more robust tone/volume controls. But that said, I have no qualms about gigging with this guitar???just need to keep a careful eye on it. Don't leave it in high traffic areas on the bandstand.

I've been playing for nearly half a century. I have played a great many guitars. This will be my guitar until I shuffle off this mortal coil. If it was lost or stolen I would weep, save my shekels, and buy another one???although I'm sure I would never get a deal as good as this one. Guitars, like kayaks and shoes, need to fit right, and this one fits me perfectly. If you're looking for a sweet-sounding, smooth-playing jazz box, and you don't have ten grand for a hand-built boutique instrument or a vintage Gibson, I'd say you can't do better than Eastman (but try out a lot of them).

Absolutely stunning 2007 EASTMAN 910 CE Fully carved Archtop in Natural with all solid premium woods. It sports a 5 piece maple/ ebony fretboard, 1 3/4" at nut and mutli laminated maple / ebony headstock. This guitar has a solid quilted maple back and sides and a solid aged spruce top. It comes with natural wood binding, an ebony tailpiece, and Shaller tuners with ebony buttons. Ebony pickguard with hidden volume and tone thumb wheels. Floating Kent Armstrong gold plated pickup with adjustible poles.

The acoustic sound of this guitar is right up there with my Gibson l7. It has a rich sound and very bright. With the volume knob turned down to about 6 on the guitar you can achieve a nice warm mellow clean jazzy tone through an all tube amp.I play it through my Mesa Boogie Express. The tone is amazing.

The action on this guitar was quite high and the neck and frets needed to be worked on. I also ran into some buzzing when I tried to lower the action and even at that the action was still too high. I had an experienced tech work on the guitar and now it is superb. The action is as low as my G and L electric guitar and the relief is perfect. After addressing these issues, leveling the frets and straightening out the neck, the guitar is top shape. Although not all Eastmans suffer from this, I also have an 810 which was perfect right out of the box. Your best bet would be to try it out first.

I gig with this guitar every week and it is very reliable. This is a solid guitar with no problems in a live setting. The tone is amazing and I wouldn't need a backup if it wasn't for some different slack key tunings that we use in the island music scene. But for jazz, there is no need for a backup. This guitar is all you need.

I bought my guitar from Guitars n Jazz which is hands down the best place to buy an archtop. The owner Lou is a class act and very honest. He took care of all my needs and also assured me that when buying a guitar from him, that he will always take care of any issues under warranty. I found a local guitar tech that could handle my problems and Lou took care of the cost and everything else that needed to be taken care of. The Eastman company also got in touch with me and assured me that they would do whatever it was to fix my problem but Lou already promised me that if it can't be fixed he will just replace the guitar with a brand new guitar. If you are concerned about purchasing an Eastman from some iffy dealers, buy from guitarsnjazz.com and Lou will take really good care of you for the lifetime of your instrument. There are no worries when buying from Lou at Guitars n Jazz. He will give you an in hand description before buying and let you know every little detail in complete honesty, down to a little surface scratch. An absolute 100% satisfaction of quality service with a smile.

I've been playing for 20 years now and after addressing my issues with this guitar, this is one of the best archtops that I've played in quality, sound and overall feel. There are archtops that cost as much as a car and then there are archtops that cost about $2000 - $3000 relatively cheap with outstanding performance and those would be the Eastmans. All handcrafted solid wood with AAA tonewoods on the custom models that are in this price range. Well worth the money and the repair if needed. But like I said, not all Eastmans need addressing but if you encounter one that does and if you bought it from Lou at Guitars n Jazz, there is nothing to worry about. Find a great local tech and have him contact Lou and your guitar will be superb. That is what I did and I had no problems whatsoever. I would definetly buy another Eastman only from Lou.

My 910 is a fairly old model but has a neck comparable to my Gibson and Heriate guitars. The one in stock had a broken finger rest which made it dificult to play in the store. I purchased the guitar without the pickup and reveived a new pick guard a few week later. To date I have not installed a pickup. Eastman did ship the new tailpiece as a no cost upgrade which is now favorite and may actually improve the tone over the all wood Bededetto style it came with.

Accoustically this is the best overall guitar I
've played in many years. Very load with nice tone. It is very expressive without amplification.

Poor set up was and still is an issue. The guitar has had an expensive setup but still has rough edges on the frets. This is a work in progress

I really don't know.

The free upgrade to the mew tailpiece was very nice but it took a while.

I would definitely consider a second Eastman. These may not become collectible but for the lover of archtops this is a great deal. I have several guitars costing much more hanging on the wall.

It is a 2003 guitar, 17'' archtop. Carved solid spruce top, carved solid flamed maple back, solid maple sides, 3-piece flamed maple neck. Wood maple/ebony/maple/ebony binding (body & neck), unbound f-holes. One volume control dial under the ebony Benedetto-style pickguard. Kent Armstrong floating pickup. Natural finish.

Acoustic sound is superb; nice jazz tone. This guitar is amazingly loud (back and top are specially tuned). Great tone when plugged in (Kent Armstrong pickup works really well with my Polytone Minibrute II). The AR910CE is one of the best sounding archtops available today.

Action and neck relief are fine. Fretwork is good. Tuners are gold plated Shalers with ebony buttons, made in Germany. Eastman recently re-designed the tailpiece, and the new ebony/metal tailpiece is beautiful - it doesn't have unhealthy side effects of a nylon loop and the guitar always stays in tune, and it doesn't add any metallic ringing. The guitar has a natural finish - spirit varnish with a thin lacquer coat. Here is a link to an AR910CE picture: http://www.eastmanstrings.com/eastmanguitars/models/ar910ce.html
Here is another one: http://www.edromanguitars.com/avail/jazz/eastman/upt_AR910ce_950.jpg

The AR910CE looks and feels very stable, this is not a fragile instrument. Besides, it has a lifetime warranty.

Eastman Guitars customer support is superb. Besides, the company supports two Internet forums dedicated to Eastman guitars with updates, announsments, technical info, etc.

I've been playing for 15 years, and this guitar is the best archtop I've ever played. Great guitar + fantastic value.