Eastman Guitars T186MX

All hand-carved solid mahogany body and solid maple top; ebony fingerboard; dot inlay; 3-piece set mahogany neck with a C-shape profile; gold-plated foreign made Kent Armstrong pickups; Gotoh tuners; Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece; 2 volume and tone controls with amber knobs; 3-way toggle switch; 3-ply binding on the body, neck and headstock; bound
f-holes; Eastman "spirit varnish" with 2 coats of lacquer, then they buff most of that back off. Lower bout of body is 16??????same size as a Gibson 335.

First off, this is actually a hollow body, not what we think of as a semi-hollow body. There is a 3 or 4 inch square block directly under the bridge to support the bridge???but other than that it is hollow all the way around. You can see daylight all the way across inside. Already, that makes the sound much different than a 335. Secondly, this is all solid wood and the back and sides are mahogany???which make it much darker/warmer than the laminated maple 335. Then the top is solid maple for some top end brightness and note clarity, I would suppose. And the craftsmanship on this guitar is far above the norm; it is nearly flawless. However, the apparent corners that were cut are in the hardware and electronics. It sounds nice and jazzy out of the case. But to me, the foreign made pick-ups were fairly lifeless and lacked charm and personality. And in my experience, foreign made pots and switches are also sub-par. So within a week of owning the guitar, I had the entire guitar gutted and re-wired with Warmoth 500K pots and 3-way switch, and put a Seymour Duncan Benedetto A-6 in the neck and a Gibson ???57 PAF reissue in the bridge. I normally play clean at the neck and distortion only with the bridge. This made a huge difference in the sound of this guitar; it is absolutely fabulous now. I topped it off with 6100 Warmoth fretwire (I like the .055 tall) and flatwound 11???s. In the neck position it sounds more like a true archtop than a 335 because of the mahogany back and being true hollow. It is an awesome sound. In the bridge, you can still do the distortion thing for Larry Carlton/Robben Ford stuff and also play rock and blues, and I suppose country too. It is an extremely versatile axe. And lastly, my new Gibson ES-339 feeds back more than this axe, BUT neither guitar is bad. This Eastman is a gem.

Every Eastman I have ever seen, all at guitar shows???fit and finish are superb???as was mine. Some of them are set up with way too high action, but that can be adjusted. But the one 803 archtop???the floating bridge would have to be sanded some to get the action down lower. It was still too high, but the screws were adjusted down as far as they could go. Something to check before you buy. And with Eastman???s???I do recommend you play before you buy. I actually wanted an archtop or an El Rey, but fell in love with this T186 at the show. The inlays and binding are all perfect on this guitar as is the finish. This is where this guitar is even better than my new Gibson Custom Shop ES-339. Eastman puts beautiful violin type finishes on their instruments, and they are truly superb finishes???at least in my experience. I can???t and don???t say that about anyone else, actually. I have been a fan of Eastman for years, and finally found the one I just couldn???t live without.

I don't think you would want to knock this guitar around, as it would probably bruise easily. But it seems durable, and the hard case would sure protect it in transport. WOuldn't use any guitar without a back-up.

Don't know...never had to use them. I did void my warranty with the big frets and new electronics...but that had to be done in my opinion. No regrets.

I also own a Dr. Z head, 2 Bogner cabinets, Fender Blues Deluxe 112 combo and a Groove Tubes Soul-O 45 112 Combo. Plus 3 chambered Warmoth strats, Godin solid-body classical with Roland synth, etc...
Overall, this Eastman sounds better, better craftsmanship, and with all solid wood???is superior to my Gibson ES-339. The only real problem with the Eastman that I can???t fix is that it is not a Gibson. I paid $1189 cash for my brand new Eastman at a guitar show; with an amazing hardshell case???you couldn???t touch a Gibson 335 for this much. And this is a better guitar in my opinion???but it does sound different that a laminated semi-hollow guitar. But I love Gibsons too, so I got one of those. If you are on a budget, or just want a great, great instrument???then get an Eastman. I would not hesitate at all to get another Eastman; any model. I would just want to play it first, no two guitars are alike.

Hand-carved mahogany body and maple top; ebony fingerboard; dot inlay; 3-piece set neck with a C-shape profile; gold-plated Kent Armstrong pickups; Gotoh tuners; Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece; 2 volume and 2 tone controls with amber knobs; 3-way toggle switch; 3-ply binding on the body, neck and headstock; bound
f-holes; Eastman "spirit varnish" buffed with 2 coats of lacquer.

This Chinese-made guitar speaks with a new accent. The 1 3/4" deep body carved out of solid mahogany, maple top, plus an abbreviated mahogany block under the bridge and tailpiece, give this double cutaway a pure organic sonority. The tonewoods resonate with the true timbre of mahogany, maple and ebony not found on other "semi-hollow"
guitars. It's really hollow in there! The T186MX delivers a see-through tone, not a semi-solid vibe. Don't kill the natural beauty of its sonic magic with spurtage from FX pedals. The 25" scale allows for wider fret spacing which makes fingering effortless, including broader tonicity that sounds less squishy along upper registers right up to the 22nd fret. The 1.75" bone nut adds extra distance between the strings, facilitating fingerpicking especially.

What I love the most about this Eastman is the clarity of the chord voicings. Strum a Gm9+7. Wow! Each of the 6 notes resounds with clear definition that makes this lush chord sound brand new. Even discordant formations ring without a blur. The rounded mahogany neck also helps to empower some remarkable sustain -- singing for almost as long as a high-end solidbody. This semi-hollowbody definitely fills a guitarist with complete confidence.

It came with D'Addario 11-49 roundwounds. The fingersqueaks forced me to experiment with flatwounds. But the Thomastik-Infeld 11-50s that
I put on ruined its true-carved tone. The guitar sounded dull and vacuous. So I changed back to roundwounds. Despite its delicate acoustics, no feedback problems can be expected when played at normal volume levels. The Kent Armstrong humbuckers don't crunch with the same punch as '57 Classic pickups, let's say. But of course, when I unloaded them full blast through my Roland Jazz Chorus 120, the explosion boomed through the room like an embassy bombing shaken by distortion!

No adjustments were necessary. Its low action makes 11-gauge strings feel like 10s. This is due mainly to the flat radius (16"?) of the fingerboard which feels like a classical board. Notes bend in a friendly manner and speed along the ebony flyway, but will buzz if struck too hard. My smiling callouses have suffered enough from archtops. I don't enjoy wrestling with obese bodies, or fighting heavy-gauge, meat-grinding strings, just to produce a rolled-off mellow (yellowed?) tone that sounds like grandpa's colon: death warmed over. Those old jazzboxes belong with the Botox crowd. Let's roll on ahead to thinlines. Musically, they offer a greater variety of tone colors than a single floating pickup at the neck. And ergonomically, a double cutaway just sits so naturally on the knee.

The bookmatching on this maple top doesn't match, not exactly dancing cheek to cheek -- more like yin-yang opposition. No big deal, since bookmatching doesn't affect the sound, and the mahogany back and sides
flow with tight, parallel grain patterns.

The finish is described as "antique classic" but resembles more closely what Gibson calls "root beer." Actually, it looks more like
Tsingtao dark beer. (You definitely need to be 21 years old or over to drive this guitar!)

The glossy glow of the finish creates an abstract expressionist design, a figure/ground eye test. This reviewer gazes at the flametop and sees a torched landscape. Beijing after a fire. Autumn leaves at the bottom of a murky river. Fractals. Any way you examine this guitar, the Eastman T186MX is a work of art that can hang inside a modern art gallery, right next to Jackson Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm."

And let's not forget the inviting smell of its spirit varnish combined with a hint of alcohol in the lacquer. This guitar definitely packs all kinds of allure.

My one complaint against Eastman concerns the case. It's a tacky, lightweight, thermo-plastic, semi-hardshell "cello" ding trap.
The lid opens up to a precarious 85 degree angle. This means it will accidentally shut, even when placed on a level surface such as the floor or a table. The first time it happened, the lid caused a ding in the binding at the lower bout of this gorgeous instrument. Luckily, no wood was damaged. So now, every time I open the case, I have to guard against the inevitable quick closure of the lid like a jaw ready to snap down on my neck, or the guitar's.

This constant aggravation is counter-productive, considering that the case boasts having an "interior instrument suspension design" which secures the guitar in place like a neck brace against sudden jolts.
It's risky also to stand the case upright on 4 plastic supports, bottom up. Again, another accident waiting to happen. Shoulder straps are supplied for the buskers out there. The handle feels like Play-Doh. Yet, despite all these cheap frills, the case doesn't even contain a storage compartment for picks -- or a sandwich. The Eastman
archtop cases, apparently, do provide a "detachable accessory pouch."
A cello couldn't fit inside this "cello" case, anyway. So the reliability and durability of the T186MX is seriously jeopardized by its own packaging.

I sent Eastman polite enquiries about their faulty case, as well as about a missing wrench for the truss rod. After approximately a year
of intermittent e-mails, a company spokesman finally replied. He stated that "the new cases have a storage compartment," and that
"the lid issue is being looked at."

As for the wrench, he said Eastman doesn't ship them. His suggestion?
"Gibson and PRS probably use the same size. So if you have one of them, it should work fine." Recommending competitors' tools to repair your own product shows no class. Well, at least someone responded, eventually. . . .

The T186MX possesses what we, in the West, refer to as "mojo." Because this guitar represents the carving-edge of mystery in China, I would venture to say that it has "Tao!" The best of the east and west have come together in this Eastman, as harmoniously as the left and right hemispheres of our brains. Not all products from China should be suspect; no lead paint on this adult toy.

The T186MX deserves its status as a boutique guitar. It's not a knockoff, not a mirror image of the Gibson ES 335. To end those bench-clearing brawls during comparison games, the ES 335 was the Marilyn Monroe of guitars in 1958, setting the standards for semi-solid beauty back then. Just because this thinline model also comes built with slim shoulders and big hips, externals can be deceiving. Few hands have touched, few ears have heard, and few eyes have beheld the intelligent design of this double cutaway. Appreciate them both. The T186MX is an Asian supermodel, a Lin Chi-Ling, not a perfect 10, but pushing the borders of evolving aesthetics in 2008 -- and the future.

Unfortunately, Eastman lacks marketing savvy. Their company slogan proclaims: "We make them the same way you play them -- by hand." So if no two instruments are identical when carved by human hands -- not cut by a CNC machine -- then why use alphanumeric codes to name such quality guitars? The AR810E; the AR910C; the AJ616. The "T" in T186MX
stands for thinline, the "M" for maple -- and the "X" for mahogany.
What? Something got lost in the translation.

Somewhere down the line, surely one of the Chinese workers, or American PR people must have experienced the same thrill that I did upon seeing and hearing the T186MX. I nicknamed mine my "mahogany honey." It's a tune cocoon that has inspired so many compositions.
Instead of those collectivized numbers, let's keep it real. Imagination also forms part of the human touch. Gibson has enjoyed enormous success worldwide with their visionary genius in designing and labeling guitars, even their variations of the ES 335 prototype;
from the diamond-shaped f-holes of the "Trini Lopez," to that big black lady "Lucille." Similarly, Eastman would be wise to advertise their exotic T186MX as the "Eastman Tao." Dui?

I earn my living as a performing poet and educator. If I ever lose this guitar, I wouldn't hesitate to replace this hard-to-find Chinese charmer. I would miss the tempting voice, the delicate loveliness, the enchantress within seducing a man with a slow hand. Mmmnnn, can't stop looking at her, can't stop playing her, can't get her off my lap.

2007 Made in China. Handmade with solid handcarved body. ebony fretboard, gold hardware. gotoh tuners. kent armstrong pups. comes with cool shaped, cello like case.

beautiful hollowbody sound with pretty nice sustain. used with peavey jsx212 combo. great for jazz tones on clean. no complaint with the range of sounds.

was well set up from the shop. varnish is nitrocellulose and beautiful. gets a few point hit due to small blemishes in the finish like some stain on the binding in a few spots but overall very nicely done. lacquer is rich but pleasantly thin so it feels like a historic. even smells good..the varnish has a smell to it hard to describe but mixes well with the wood smell making playing this a multi sensory experience. i know it sounds strange but play one yourself and you will see what i am talking about. fretboard is on the flat side and neck is medium to thin thickness. one other point hit is that its not bookmatched. the top is reasonably matched but the back is two completely different grain patterns...one straight and the other with curves. not a big deal but detracts a little from the overall finish.

seems pretty sturdy. its a hollowbody so you cant throw it around and expect no problems. treated with care it should last just fine. havent owned it long enough to comment on durability of the nitrocellulose. i have read other comments about people having some flaking issues but that could be user error.

havent needed to deal with them.

overall, this is a stunningly beautiful guitar. yes bookmatching would have been nice but the attention to detail is pretty nice. little niggling about small stains on binding aside, they have done a great job. handcarved solid tops and bodies are things found on instruments costing 3 times as much. uses a unique tone block that only is under the bridge and stop tail so that most of the body is actually hollow. the nitro job is impressive and as i said earlier it smells incredible...guess that might wear away over time as it airs out but it makes playing that much nicer! i love the fact that it is pretty much a custom piece for less than $1500. i would take this over a gibson any day... and i do own a les paul supreme. i have just not been impressed with gibson's quality assurance program lately. they are getting away with way too much sloppiness. one nice thing i wish it had is push/pull splitting for the pickups like the yamaha sa series. overall this is a keeper and i cant put it down.