Eastman Guitars John Pisano

I have been playing guitar for many years my std axe being a well broken in strat. It works but in comparison to a great Jazz Box it has no tone, no harmonic complexities that come from say your Vintage Gibsons l5's, 400's etc. So for the last 3-4 years I have been searching for that something that would give me those complex tones I drool over. Well I looked and played all the contemporay offerings, reissues etal, to which Ill say didnt come close to the sounds of some of the vintage classics interms of tone and playability. The problem with finding a classic is they where either stuffed or > $10k which I couldnt afford. Anyway in my search I came across an Eastman in a store it looked good, apparently well made and souned good but it was Chinese so I hung it up and left. I didnt want some doggy Chinese thingy. The days and weeks went on and I kept thinking about it, I did some company reaseach all looked good but still I was sceptical about Chinese Guitars especially quality comtrol issues. My attention focused on the John Pisano. All the specs looked good but there were none around to try. I emailed and spoke to various guys in the US as the US seemed to have more Eastman product available than here in Australia and I bought one(thanks Jeff). Nervously I waited for its arrival. As soon as I picked it up to play my initial fears where quelled. It was a nice and simple in design with good quality components

I have it set up with 12's. Unplugged it is just OK but plugged in it is a beast. Melodic lines are beautiful and rich, percussive rhythms are great. Get a bit of overdrive happening and its blues nirvana. All of which is underpinned by unmistakable vintage archtop resonances.

Out of the Box it played like a dream, easy. Everything spot on until I changed the strings and let the bridge move. Oh well a bit of mucking around all was well again

This is a very light wieght rigid guitar . Just be carefull not to bang it about. I suppose time will tell how durable it is but given that those vintage jobs have some what lasted why wouldnt this?

Havent needed it

Its a great piece of art as well as a fine instrument. I would be so distraught if I ever lost it for what ever reason.

I just demoed an Eastman John Pisano at the music store at the OldTown school of folk music in Chicago. This was a new guitar so I assume it was made in 2007. After all the hype about Eastmans, I was extremely disappointed in the materials on this guitar. While the solid spruce carved top looked fine, the split back was poorly matched. I guess it is commendable that here is an Asian instrument that actually has solid wood top back and sides. However, the joinery on the sides was inaccurate at best. The ebony (ebonized?) tailpiece was beautiful, the bridge adequate. The nut was an average black plastic and looked a bit off somehow. However, the intonation was very good. There was WAY too much varnish on the guitar - it had actually pooled around the neck/body juncture. There was an obvious bubble in the finish on the side of the neck near the 14th fret. Given the guitar listed for about $3,500 and retailed for about $2,899 I found the quality of the workmanship to be pretty poor.

I played the guitar through at new Fender Blues DeVille (which is an amp I own). The guitar sounded good through the amp, but not particularly striking. I found that the single floating pick-up gave better highs than with a Gibson P90 but when the tone was turned towards the bass end of the spectrum the sound was muted and weak, nothing like the growl that you get with a P90 or even a decent humbucker. The guitar was really very weak when played acoustically. Note, there was no one else in the store while I demoed the guitar so I had a good 30 minutes to check it out without competing noise.

The set-up on the guitar was superb - I am guessing this was done at the store and NOT by the manufacturer although I can't say for sure. The strings felt like 10s or 11s which are a bit lighter than I would like to see on a jazz guitar - perhaps this explains the weak tone when played acoustically. As mentioned above, the finish was very thick and uneven and there was at least one bubble in the finish. The joinery looked like it was done by a recent graduate of shop class! I was appalled!

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I have been playing 40+ years. I own 15 guitars including two Taylors, two Larrivees, and a Martin 00028 "Golden Era" 12 fret for acoustics, a Taylor acoustic bass, a Fender custom shop "Nocaster", an American Standard Strat, a '57 Gibson ES 125, a really ace Ibanez ArtStar AF120, a '67 Hagstrom solid body 12, a beautiful hand-made nylon string from Del Langerjans plus a couple hack guitars and several ok amps. I'm afraid the Eastman (at $3,000!) really was not much better than my Ibanez which I bought on eBay for $400! If I were you I would get a Heritage which is about 6 times the guitar for a bit less in price.

sunburst, like no other -- reddish to burgundy depending on the light. All hand-carved solid wood -- spruce on top, flamed maple sides and back. Wood binding and ebony fingerboard, tuning buttons, pickguard, bridge and tail. Beautifully designed markers on the side of the neck, leaving the fingerboard simple and classy. One Kent Armstrong humbucking pick-up mounted at the neck. Wooden volume and tone knobs. Just a gorgeous guitar.

Once I settled on strings, it absolutely sings. I switched back and forth between 12s and 13s -- the 13s were too muddy, the 12s just right. You can control the tonal range from bright to fat, but I tend to the fatter sound. But clear tone throughout from bass to treble. Surprisingly, feedback issues are pretty manageable. Use it with a polytone minibrute.

No adjustments necessary and no problems with the guitar from the factory. The finish and the bindings and inlays are flawless.

This is an archtop, so I handle with care. But every thing seems very solid and reliable. And the guitar is amazingly light.

Have owned the guitar for about a year and have never had to call on the company. They seemed pretty responsive at their web-site.

Have been playing off and on for about 20 years. This is my 7th guitar -- an Ibanez George Benson, Ibanez AS-50, a Gibson SG, an Epiphone Chet Atkins, a Collings acoustic, and a Takamine Acoustic. This guitar plays so easily and gives me the sound I've been looking for -- an acoustic tone with great sustain and cutting abilities throughout the tonal range. It responds to how hard or soft you play, making it a very expressive guitar. It would be a no brainer to buy this guitar again if it were lost, stolen, or destroyed. Like it so much better then the heritages or gibsons.

This came into my store one month ago for a consignment sale; I liked it so much I bought it myself (I am now selling my '98 Guild X-700). The solid flamed maple back and sides caught my eye, as well as the hand-craftsmanship on the neck, binding, inlays and snappy headstock. The top is hand-carved solid spruce. This Pisano is number 11 and the original owner had it for only one year. The smaller body (it's not here right now but I have measured it recently) and extremely light weight makes it advantageous to play for long periods. Easy to hold on to while I sit those long periods of playing, practicing and performing. I am using Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Swing 11's but may switch to either the 12's or the T-I George Benson 12's. The tuners are fine but I seem to have to retune a bit too often; probably cause of the hotter weather this time of year or the T-I's (I just started using them) but that costs one point..

The single Kent Armstrong neck pick-up works best at a medium to high volume though the light (11's) gauge of these flat-wounds may contribute to a tad too much treble on the high strings. I prefer dark, Martino-to-Wes tones and may even buy an Acoustic Image combo or head to lean further in that direction. My stand-up bass player loves the tone as is...as for now I play through either a Roland Cube-30 with the JC-120 setting or my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, with an emphasis towards darker tones. The Pisano doesn't blur the deeper bass tones, which is much better than by former big-bodied Guild. That used to rumble some on the lower end. This Eastman has concise tones throughout. Less feedback potential, even with all-solid wood construction.

When I first picked this up and played I felt like it was playing itself. Incredibly facile fretboard. It was professionally setup before the original purchase and shows no signs of needing further attention. Fatter, flatter frets allow for effortless 'skimming' as I slur or slide into different voicings. I may lose any callouses if I don't play my steel-string acoustics once in awhile. This guitar seems to be flawlessly constructed and set-up. I do notice a couple of cross-grain imperfections in the highly figured flamed maple back; they are only 'skin' deep and each about one-half inch long. No sweat. Good wood, and it smells fresh cut!

It seems pretty light; the rigors of playing, say on a hot day, have yet to be tested much. I do believe there is a correlation between great tone and fragility so I will be gentle and careful. That costs one point. No strap buttons; I play sitting down anyway. Jazz is not that much of a 'performance' art. The finish is light and beautiful and has the look of durability and the hardware is top notch. I banged the headstock on the ceiling (whoops!) the other night and didn't leave a blemish. The cello-like duraplastic case is strong and made to stand, holding the guitar inside the cushioned interior by the upper neck, ala a cello. It comes with well made snap-on straps for carrying like a gig bag.

N/A; I hope never to need their support but have heard great things about customer follow up. An acquaitance bought an Eastman archtop over a year ago and had some problems. Brought it to my shop for some work. Word got around to Eastman somehow, they told someone who them told me to tell the guitar owner to contact them. He did, they farmed it out to a Bay Area luthier/tech and he totally refretted it, no charge. Now that is support!! Non-authorized work (we didn't do that much and didn't mess with the messed-up frets) followed by warranty work, no questions asked...Pretty damn impressive...

I havebeen playing 35 years, own a guitar store in Ukiah,Ca and own six guitars by myself. I love this recent purchase but have yet to give it a rigorous road test. It sounds and plays great. I bought Chinese and don't regret it for an instant. Better than my Guild X-700, Gibson Howard Roberts or a couple of ES-175's I have played not to mention countless other jazz-style archtops. This is a humdinger...

2006 model,sgle Kent Armstrong 12 polepiece P.A.F. p/up in body 16"archtop sgl. cutaway,solid spruce top,flamed maple back, sides, and neck, wood binding around body only,1&3/4"width unbound 25" scale 20 fret ebony fingerboard,unbound f holes, multi laminated headstock front and back, eastman fiberglass case(not very sturdy).

I haven`t had a chance to use it live yet. But after playing it everyday for several weeks it sounds great acoustically,it`s opening up nicely.electrically it also sounds great w/out much feed back. I`m judging the sound on it being a !6"

The only thing that needed adjustment was the nut, so I could lower the action. Other than that PERFECT! The first one I got had truss rod issues. This one has a slightly beefier neck,which I prefer. I`m only deducting a point because of the nut.

Great workmanship! The finish is thin, but I like that so the instrument breathes. No strap buttons,pretty normal for an archtop.I don`t think you have worry about it holding up.

From the emails I`ve had w/them, excellent! They sent another one in less than a month.Remember these are all hand built instruments not assembly line.

This is my 2nd Eastman( 805 CE ). I`m very impressed w/ their work.I`ve compared these guitars to very high end archtops and they have more than held their own. Their really are no other solid spruce archtops that even come close to these guitars including the japanese high end ones.

2005 model archtop, 2 3/4 deep, 20 frets, solid spruce top, solid (attractive) maple back and sides, ebony fretboard and bridge, lacquer ( gorgeous) sunburst finish, custom Kent Armstrong pick up, gold schaller tuners and Eastman case (very nice)

I traded a 805CE model for the John Pisano, while the body is not as large as the 805 the difference in playing the two is incredible. The Pisano plays itself, I have never played an archtop that is so comfortable to fret and hold. John & Eastman Strings did a great job designing this guitar. The acoustic sound is not as full as the 805CE but can still hold it own over anything else I have played with a body of this size. The custom Kent Armstrong pick up is quite nice as well, very responsive to finger style and walking bass type playing.

Fit and finish are great, you really have to be a nit-pick to find anything that is a flaw in materials or construction on the guitar, Angel did a great job of setting this one up.

Although the guitar is very light is seems very sturdy, I would use it without back up.

If I could give an 11 I would , Gordon Roberts has gone way beyond my expectations with customer service. You would not get this much attention to detail and responsivness from any other manufacturer.

I own 7 nice guitars, this one is at the top of my list regarding construction and playability. I use my PRS Hollowbody II as the pinacle of construction and the John Pisano is as good. My dealings with Eastman Strings has been a positive experience. I look forward to many hours of playing this guitar.