Eastwood Guitars Guyatone LG-200T

For 279$ US, this instrument is really good. Nice features: 4 singles coil pickups with a bigsby tremolo. A lot better than a Mexican Fender.

Perfect instrument for any types of music.
I use it for jazz, Blues, Rock etc...

The factory settings were not that good. The Pickups were really low. After an adjusment and a new set of strings, it was a lot better.

I'm not using it right now for live playing, but I'm sure that it will withstand a lots of gigs. I will not be affraid to use it live.
For the studio, that guitar is incredible...

No problem with Mike, he's a good guy...

I've been playing for 25 years and I own a US fender Tecaster 52 re, MIJ Fender telecaster custom 60' bigsby, MIJ Fender Jaguar 62, Gibson SG RE 61 1976, Gibson Les Paul DC faded. I'm playing with a 1981 Marshall JMP 50 watt 2X12 Master volume Combo + a 1936 2X12 Cabinet and a 1970 Fender Bassman 10 Silverface 50 watt with 4X10 at my rehearsal place. At home and studio, I'm using a Fender Blues junior 15 watt.

I'm using LG 200T only for recording and it does the job right.
With a nice setting, that guitar is excellent buy.

new-ish. black. with black pickup covers on 4 single coils.

psychotic body shape, tortie pickguard. heavy log.

satin finish neck. razor frets. ouch.

bigsby copy tremolo made useless by cheap string-pinching nut.

individual on/off switches.

decent amount of options, given.

itd sound great if the pickups werent like a mile away from the strings...

the neck is very dry, and the frets have cutting issues. meaning, they cut me. rrrr. it basically feels like what it is; a cheaply-made chinese slave-labor log. it plays like crap but i play like crap so really, who is to blame?

its extremely reliable, given.

i know myrareguitars.com sold these, but i just bought from some dude who didnt want it... i fell in love with the look and totally overlooked that it played like poop on a stick... yay

i love the look. but i hate the guitar. it's just a fashion statement, kids.

Specs already noted.

I bought a Demo described as "Dead Mint."

Not a well balanced guitar but due to the design, it's expected.

I love the versatility of 4 single coils which can all be seperately switched on or off.

Since the website didn't note it at the time, I specifically asked what the neck scale was. I was told it was 25.5." It was 26.5" with a zero fret.

Nice finish. No visible flaws.

Action was very high possibly in an attempt to minimize buzz which was significant at the 12th fret.

It would not hold a tune and would not intonate properly.

The nut was plastic, poorly cut and not glued in.

The tuners were absolute trash and I learned the hard way why Bigsby aficionados recommend staying away from copies.

The pole screws on the bridge were plastic and stripped after only a few turns.

Before the modifications, I would not have trusted this guitar for a minute.

Although Mike went way above and beyond to make it right I have to subtract points due to the misrepresentation of the instrument.

The damage could probably have been averted by better packing.

First of all the guitar arrived damaged. It had been dropped from height onto the headstock.

Two of the tuners had been pulled out and twisted. The quality was poor anyways and the guitar wouldn't hold a tune so I replaced them. Unfortunately this did not fix the problem and I finally realized it was the Bigsby copy that was the issue.

The neck was seriously bowed possibly due to the damage. I was unable to adjust the truss nearly enough to compensate. When I removed the neck to see if I could shim it, I was shocked at the thickness of the shim that was already in there.

Since the neck was beyond repair, I didn't care for the scale and the unstability of the trem, I decided to replace the neck with a Strat style and go to a fixed bridge. This was extremely disappointing because the Bigs is one of the reasons I bought the guitar. I felt I had no choice in order to make the guitar even playable.

Because this instrument was engineered so poorly I'm assuming I received more of a prototype than a demo.

After replacing the bridge, tuners and neck - I enjoy this guitar but then again, it's not the guitar I bought now.

I would still like to have a Bigsby but because the scale change forced me to move the bridge back, now there is no room.

Don't let my review discourage you. Eastwoods are quite popular and the other reviews reflect that it's most likely I just got a "dog." Mike was wonderful to deal with.

The features are pretty well described below. I just want add: 4 single coil pickup, each with it's individual on/off switch and a Burns trem. THAT'S FOUR PICKUPS!!! Mine was a demo.

There are so many pickup combinations that I still haven't explored all of them. My current favorite is the second PUP from the bridge...sounds a lot like a Tele. Sustain is great.

Set up very well right from the factory. I've had it about 5 weeks and I still have the factory strings on it, and they sound fine. The neck is thin with a satin finish...very nice feeling, and the frets were all dressed properly with no sharp edges. The Burns Trem is awesome! Much better then the Bigsby on my Sidejack...the Burns holds tune even when dive bombing (which I don't do much of).

This guitar seems tough. I haven't dropped it or anything, so I don't know how well it will hold up to abuse. I hope to never find out.

Mike's a great guy and did not spoil that thsi was a surprise gift from my wife while I was dealing with him on the Sidejack.

I want a T-shirt, though. I want one, bad.

I love the look and playability of this guitar. It sounds fantastic on nearly every setting I've tried. Great company, nice guy to work with.

Korean built, odd shark fin type shape, with four single coil pick ups, one volume and one tone control knob and four individual pick up switches. Basswood neck and body (i think) with tremelo. 24 Frets and it's a lovely dark green with a white scratch plate.

Sounds lovely. Crisp with a fair amount of top when played clean. Nice and crunchy when played with overdrive/distortion. The four pick ups with their switches mean you can get 15 different combinations out of the fella and with that comes a range of different tones. Can't do anything like a Les Paul, simply not beefy enough, however for the range it does do it fantastic. Very good at clipped funk guitar, jangly nonsense and has a fair amount of sustain when given the right amount of overdrive. It's avery versitle guitar.

It came with a fairly high action, though it does play rather well. Needed tuning when it came out of the box, but to be fair it had travelled a few thousand miles to get to me. It was an ex display model and as such there were a few nicks on it, but otherwise it looks good.

Would i use this in a gig? No it's defiantely a studio guitar for me. Sounds lovely but i would risk taking it out on the road. Like any guitar with a tremelo it goes out of tune pretty quickly and bits have been know to drop off in the middle of playing a song. Think if i took it for a pro set up i could get this alteredm, but i've got plenty of guitars for gigging with so i think i'll hang on to me money.

Mike is a top bloke, answers queries and deals with any problems usually (if he's not in bed, there is a rather big time difference between Canada and Nottingham apparently) within a couple of hours.

It's a lovely and unique guitar this one, i love the sound it gives, i love the way it looks, i just wish i could trust it. If it was nicked i'd be looking to replace it (I'd tell the insurance people it was an origional guyatone and claim the #4g).

brand spankin new copy of a Guyatone LG200T, made in china. 24 frets, maple neck, bound rosewood fretboard with sharktooth inlay. 4 single coils, each with individual on/off. black finish, tortoiseshell pickguard. very convincing bigsby trem lookalike, roller bridge.

well, initially i didnt know what to think, because of the problem i was having with the pickups - theyre WAY far away from the strings, and they wont adjust any higher than they are. so, as a result, the output is somewhat... stunted. but thats easy to deal with. and, also i was playing it through a crappy horrid little amp, so that was part of it, too. but, took it to a practice and ran it through the marshall stack and it sprang to life - i was AMAZED the amount of sounds you can get, this thing can sound like anything. a jaguar, a strat, a tele, a jazzmaster, even some hard-rockin les paul tones are to found here. in that way, this guitar is VERY indecisive, it doesnt know WHAT it is. (thats a good thing.) handles amp distortion VERY well, and sounds amazing with old-school fuzz ala sovtek bigmuff and univox superfuzz.

the setup fresh out of the box was horrible!
as said, there is the problem with the pickups being so far away from the strings, i dont know if there are such a thing as "taller" single coils, but if there are, im going to be buying some, for the bridge pickups at least... theyre just TOO damn low.
dead-silent knobs, sturdy switches.
not real fond of the bridgepost anchors stamped into the pickguard, but oh well.
the neck was a tad dry, but a bit of oiling and it smoothed right out - feels fantastic now! no-label tuners, not brilliant, but they do the job. the plastic nut isnt terribly clever, i will most likely replace it in future. but, how much shit can i give a 300-hundred-something guitar? especially something this achingly cool?

this guitar will last, because i will not abuse it. but, even if i was the type to abuse such neatoness, it would hang in there. i CAN depend on it, and i hopefully will. its certainly more interesting than a strat, right?

god save mike robinson.
oh, thanks for the shirt, too. its neat.

it needed a little help right out of the box, but im positively wild about it. this guitar is the king of cool. i am going to hump it nightly. it wont be stolen. but, if it were stolen, id be very upset.

Not sure when it was made or indeed where, the guitar has a sticker saying China, but the box was Korean, I'm sure it's a Canadian company however.

The specs are as follows:
*Basswood body finished in a very, very dark trans green
*Maple neck with a 24 fret rosewood fretboard and a zero fret
*4 individually selectable single coil pickups (no namers) wired in parallel
*Master tone and volume controls
* Tunomatic style bridge with roller saddles and a Bigsby style tailpiece
* Cheap no name tuners
* Came with two wrenches (one for the allen bolts on the bridge, one for the trussrod) and a dreadful cable. No gigbag however which would have been helpful considering the uh... "unique" shape.

I'm quite eclectic in what I listen to, I like anything from jazz to rage against the machine, so I like versatile instruments, which this is, although it could be more so. It's excellent for surf, but merely ok for blues and rock (got a fantastic Townsend sound going on the other day!), metal not such a great idea with this unless you change pickups or wire 2 in series. But then that's the case with most single coil guitars. But hey, it was cheap.

The guitar unplugged has a cool, mellow, and quite resonant sound. The bass is a little flabby sometimes, but the midrange and top end are ok and generally well defined, although I don't know how well this guitar will cut through live. It's a very flat sounding guitar in general, but the maple lends it a little more top end snap, so the tone shaping possibilities are good.

I'm currently using it with a Laney LC-15, I can get some fantastic clean sounds, but dirty it sounds slightly brittle even when I roll the tone back, that said, there's a lot of output from the pickups which suprised me. I say a lot in a relative manner. For no name single coils it's oomfy, but I wouldn't compare it to a humbucker, let alone something like a Bareknuckle Warpig(absolute metal in a pickup) or an EMG-81(when you want to sound generic and kinda sterile).

The pickups on their own sound distinctive in all 4 positions, but using both bridge or both neck pickups doesn't yield enough of a difference to warrant them being wired in series as opposed to paralell, which would have given far greater tonal diversity. This I plan to rectify when I change the pickups (and indeed everything associated with the pickguard).

For a ?270 guitar it sounds good, but not great compared to more expensive instruments. And it's cheapness shows more when you crank the gain, it sounds cool but warm (if that's even possible)and defined clean but as you crank the gain it all gets a little bit muddy. But as I said, the tone shaping possibilites are there and if you can get your own guard cut to sit whatever pickups you decide are best for it in, you can turn this into a professional SOUNDING instrument without a doubt.

Now, you may notice I capitalised "sounding" above, that's because getting it playing professionally would take more work.

The set up is ok, I haven't adjusted it out of the box yet, but I'm sure I will. The pickups however do require adjustment, these obviously weren't adjusted to balance them out.

The finish is not that great. The trans green only really shows when it's in strong direct light, it just looks black a lot of the time. The binding has flaws in it, the inlays have a small ammount of glue around them, the headstock has a couple of raw patches and the neck pocket has some slightly shoddy routing going on. I'm almost afraid to open it up, but I'll have to so I can get a tracing of the pickguard for when I replace the electronics.

Generally, this is where the guitar shows it's cheapness, it's fine, but there are cosmetic flaws, if these don't bother you then it's fine, and most you have to be up close to notice. Oh, and the string spacing doesn't match the pickups. It's kind of obvious they just thought "We'll slap any old no name strat style single coils in" and didn't think to measure up. Using lipstick style pickups would have A: been closer to original spec and B: saved the spacing issue. Angling the pickups would also have compensated.

Also it's worth noting the tuners need replacing if you want to even look at the Bigsby in a way suggestive of vibrato.

It's a Fenderesque design, and has a maple neck with a straight (as opposed to angled ala Gibson) headstock, so will be strong. The neck is bolted in with 4 bolts and has a reasonably deep pocket which will lend strength and probably contributes to the suprisingly long sustain this guitar has. The strap pins are the usual affair, will be replaced with strap locks, but aren't bad for what they are.

The finish is thin on the neck which is good, but thick on the body, it'd probably resonate better with less laquer, and maybe show it's green-ness better, but at least it'll survive the road longer before looking like SRV owned it.

Always, always have a backup. This guitar is it's self a backup, but I'm gonna bring it up to spec anyhow. Tough, maybe not telecaster tough, but still tough.

I'll give these guys a 5. I contacted them, they were friendly, and answered me promptly although couldn't help me with a wiring diagram, that's poo. No warranty, although I purchased this over e-bay brand new, from a store may yield more in this department.

But all they told me was to take it to a guitar tech if I couldn't figure out the wiring...thanks a million guys.

I've been playing 3 years, and also own an SG copy by Vintage (for slide), a dreadful Aria dreadnaught style accoustic, and a Faith Jupiter. I've got a Warmoth project on the go too but I can't really call that anything but a project until it's done.

I'll give this an 8, it needs work to be a professional instrument, but since it's cheap it'll still be good bang for buck when I hotrod this sukka.

Before buying this guitar, I would have asked about the neck thickness. There's nothing wrong with the neck, but I'm more into early telecaster baseball bat style necks and was under the impression that this would be reasonably thick, it isn't. I can live with that, but I prehaps would have shopped about first.

If it was stolen and I'd hotrodded it, and liked the results, I'd buy another for sure and do the same to it. However, stock, I'd probably find something a little more comfier for my fretting hand if I had to replace it.

It's a great guitar inspite of it's flaws however. The overall design is excellent, I may even make another with Warmoth in the future. I regretted buying it, but I've gotten accustomed to it's face. ;) I'll admit I bought it on a whim, but I have good taste so that usually works out ok anyhow.

I wish it had useable tuners and was wired so the bridge pickups and neck pickups were in series like the coils of a humbucker, both of these will be rectified however.

Expect everyone to ask about it too, it's a weird guitar but to be honest nobody's said a bad thing about how it looks or sounds which is encouraging. It's very retro-futuristic. I tried really hard to hate it but couldn't, it's insidiously cool.

As for what I have planned for this, I'll try and get it closer to an original Guyatone LG200T. This means a new pickguard with 6 on off switches and 4 lipstick style pickups, most likely Kent Armstrongs. I'll have an on-off switch for each pickup, and then what I assume the originals to have had from photographs, a switch to change the bridge coils or neck coils to being in series. This will add spectacular tonal variety, and look very, very cool. Like a penguin in an igloo with a pint of Guinness extra cold. I'll add locking tuners too, this is really an essential upgrade for any guitar with a trem in my opinion.

If you get a chance to play one, do so. It's maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine, and it represents decent value for money, albeit not quite what you'd probably get from Tokai or G&L's tribute series. But if I wanted ANOTHER telecaster or Les Paul I'd have one from them. But the Guyatone will complement my lineup very nicely.

UPDATE:
first of all, sorry for all of the typos in my review below. i'm not retarded, just lazy at editing.
secondly, i measured the pickups, string spacing, pole piece spacing, and bridge saddle spacing today. i found out that i was right about the incorrect pole spacing.
the 1st (top neck) pickup has spacing of 50mm from E to E, all of the others have 52, which means that the polepieces on pups 2-4 are too wide apart.
the bridge is narrow (1cm string spacing, ca. 51 or 52 E to E) and so the guitar should have been fitted w/ pups with the appropriate narrow spacing. i've drawn a mock-up (scale 1:1) of narrow-spaced pups and string spacing as found on the guitar, then placed it under the strings of the guitar. it fit exactly.
so, those planning to buy after-market pups will need to look for "asian"/narrow spaced models (i.e., ca. 50mm E to E and ca. 1cm spacing from polepiece to polepiece.) for ALL 4 positions. mighty mite alnicos are supposed to be a lovely-sounding pup and good bargain and they have the proper narrow spacing, so i'm planning to try those out.
anyhow, i gotta go cuz my eastwood is getting lonely...

first of all, let me make clear that this is my all-time favorite guitar ever. i've had others that are better crafted and that have better sounding pickups, but this one has ALL of the features that i love in a sassy 60s surf-style package.
however HC tells me to BE CRITICAL! so, critical i'll be in order to give an honest assessment.

here's the rundown:
24 frets, solid basswood body (see my praise for basswood below under "SOUND"), 1V, 1T, 4 singlecoil pickups (wow!), 4 on/off switches for each pup, 1-piece maple bolt-on neck, rosewood fretboard, pearloid sharktooth/aluminum dot inlays, tune-o-matic-style roller bridge, schaller-like mini tuners (which do their job well), 25 1/2" scale (zero fret to saddle), bigsby-style vibrato, and a partridge in a pear tree.
more specs:
nut: 1 5/8"
neck width at 12th fret: 2"
total length: 41 1/2" (which mean s you may have to look for a case that fits. fortunately, i had one from another long guitar that fits perfectly. unfortunately for you, i got it 2nd hand and don't know the make. i do know it was made in canada, if that helps.)
neck depth: 7/8" this took a little getting used to for me. it'sa thin neck but i kept feeling that it's thicker than i'm used to so i measured it and found out it's the same size as the guitar that i'm replacing. finally i nopticed that there is no taper toward the nut. there is in terms of the width, but not depth. it took some getting used to but it's comfortable nonetheless.
it was the features that made me decide on this model. it has everything i wanted: vibrato, multiple singlecoil pups (and what's better than 3 pups? that's right--FOUR!), and 24 frets! in case no-one has noticed, it's not easy finding a single-coil model that's not based on a tele or strat, and to find on that's like a jaguar-meets-bo-diddley's-1959-gretsch is nice, but to find one that has a good vibrato and 24 frets? ya gotta love it. you gotta. (24 frets should be standard, really. they're common on shredder models and the like, but even if you don't ever plan on playing widdly-widdly up on the top frets, it's just nice knowing they're there if you need 'em. besides, it rounds off the fretboard to an even 2 octaves.)
came with cable and allen wrenches for the trussrod and bridge and bigsby.

WOOD: well, i'm sure some are prejudiced against basswood because it's cheap compared to mahogony. it is indeed cheaper than many other woods used to make guitar but not cheap in the sense that it's used as a substitute for "real" tonewoods. it's just not rare or endangered and grows more quickly and therefore less expensive. and while basswood is known for being used on cheap guitars, it's also selected by companies like fender and ibanez for its tonal quality. like any hardwood used for making guitars, it does have its own sound character, which some may love and some hate, depending on the sound you are looking for.
basically, it tends to accentuate mids and deliver a spongy bass. that is EXACTLY the tone that i wanted, so i fell in love with basswood when i got this guitar. i like the feel of maple but its density makes the bass too crisp for my taste. basswood seems to warm up a singlecoil guitar just enough. in short, hooray for basswood!

PICKUPS: now, on to the pickups. all four of 'em, baby! woo-hoo! well, when i ordered i was curious as to whether each pup would have its own sound, being so close to each other. i was pleased to find out that not only does each pup have its own flavor, despite their proximity, but all of the different combinations offer different colors as well. as my friend stated: "a veritable palette of sounds." the bridge pup can be very tele-like, full of twang and grit, combining the middle 2 produce a definite strat quack sound, the 1st (neck) pup and the 3rd together start sounding jag/jazzmaster-like.
the pups are all ceramic but are "vintage voiced" and are 5.5K, 5.4K, 5.4K, 5.5K, from the neck to the bridge. the fact that each one can be turned on and off individually makes this a very versatile instrument and could even be tweaked for those who like to mod: series wiring, wiring 2 singles together for a HB, phase switching, the possibilities are endless. also, each one generally retains its own voice when combined with 1 or 2 others.

SUSTAIN? yessir. this surprised me as well, as models w/ vibrato sometimes lose some tone or sustain and basswood isn't always 1st choice for those who love sustain, but this definitely has got it. that is, in spite of the crappy soft plastic nut, which i'll be replacing w/ a roller nut.
also, the routing for the pups is just one big cavity, which seems to make intentional feedback easier to produce, but its's not enough to make it prone to unwanted feedback.

SUMMARY: my rating would be 7-8 and reflects the guitar as-is. the stock ceramic pups are good and aim for a vintage tone, as befits the model. a bit of twang, a bit of chime, a hint of jangle. i'd probably give it a 9 once i put in some nice after-market alnico pups.

FINISH: the sunburst is that sexy 3-tone mosley/post-59 strat style we all love and is very well done. for the most part, the clearcoat is glossy and smooth but i did find 2 or 3 little bubbles and a bit of build-up from overspray. so, it would be a factory 2nd if it was a $1000 guitar, but for the price i'm willing to overlook flaws that only the owner would notice.
it's a satin finish on the neck, which i never liked until someone pointed out that a glossy finish + sweaty hands = sticky grip. a satin finish prevent this and now i think i prefer it.
in general, keep in mind that this is a $350 guitar and you'll be pleased with the finish. it looks great from a couple feet away andn has only small slaws upon inspection.
SET-UP: well, once again, keep the price in mind. as opposed to a lot of run-of-the-mill, cheap-ass guitars, eastwood guitars seem to be generally well made and worth setting up, even if they aren't 100% perfect as delivered. so a bit of time setting up or $35 at your local tech and you're ready to roll. (rock and roll, i presume. ahem...anyhow...) mine was a demo model so i'm not sure what was done at the factory and what was done for demonstration purposes. in any case mine came so heavily shimmed that the bridge was so high up that it looked like a cello, which meant the bridge pup was way too far away even though i raised it fully. so i ended up taking out the shims to see if shimming was at all needed. i ended up shimming the neck so it would tilt back SLIGHTLY and match the angle of the bridge and strings. once i got that set up properly i was able to lower the bridge as well as the action, so now it's almost perfect. i also had to file the nut, adjust the vibrato, cut a mounting spring on the bridge pup, etc., but once set up properly it's a very nice-playing instrument.
CONCERNS: the only thing that i'm concerned about is the string/polepiece alignment. the two E strings aren't really in line w/ the polepieces of pups 2-4, and i'm wondering if narrow-spaced polepieces wouldn't have been better. the string doesn't have to be in the dead center of the polepiece, but these are to the far side of it. i'll probably be putting in some alnico pups so i'll check on spacing then.
SUMMARY: the nice thing about eastwood guitars, as well as their cousins jay turser (apparently made in the same factory and also inspected by one c.y. moon) and agile, is that, even if they need a bit of tweaking or could be improved with upgrades, they are definitely worth the money and effort. few epiphones in the $350 range would be worth tweaking or upgrading. eastwoods, on the other hand, are generally well built and worth the time to set them up or worth putting some boutique pups into. they may need a little adjusting, but once that's done, it's a good instrument.
(btw, why are finish and action in the same category on HC?)

HARDWARE: the vibrato is probably just as good as a bigsby. seems solid, returns to pitch as well (or as badly) as the original. it's obviously for surfy dips, subtle vibratos, etc.
the schaller-like tuners work well.
the nut is, as mentioned, crap, and i'm sure a better one would help in tuning stability.
the bridge is solid and fully adjustable, although the thumbwheels are hard to turn so you may need a screwdriver to adjust the height from the top. you can also lock it into place via 4 allen-head screws on the side.
strap buttons have been replaced by straplocks but the originals were the "good" kind that are sorta flat-headed so the strap doesn't slip off easily.
plus the buttons and the bigsby screws have felt pads to protect the finish.

DEPENDABILITY LEVEL: orange.
(that's good.) despite what people think, basswood is not light as a feather and can indeed take a licking. while it's nowhere near as heavy as a LP, the guyatone LG-200T does have enough weight to feel substantial--maybe a bit heavier than a tele. the soldering all seems solid, too.

basically, mike robinson seems to do eveything at eastwood and does a decent job at it to boot. he answers emails, ships promptly, takes care of customs and whatnot, offers an exchange policy, etc. aside from all that he obviously just genuinely digs 60s guitars so eastwood guitars is his way to honor the forgotten designs of that classic era. kudos to him.

my suggestion: to "hippen" the logo. the headstock looks too plain. just a little stylization goes a long way. that's why agile headstocks look nice and tursers usually look cheap. maybe an airline-like script for that subtle hint of a retro vibe. or even the logo from the website/brochure.
my other suggestion: a permanent label on the guitars with model and serial number on it. there's an inspection sticker with what could be a s.n. and what could be a date (04 10 14, i think), but a genuine i.d plate would be nice.

a lot of what i play is clean, so the sound of the guitar does matter, and the LG-200T has met my expectations for a good, versatile, vintage sound.
i was always hoping to find a well-made 60s guitar but the good ones are all so expensive for the most part, plus they often don't offer modern conveniences like tuners that work, pups that don't squeal, etc.
apparently the 60s guyatones are some of the better made instruments from 1960s japan but they're fairly rare here, esp. the LG-200T. they're still around, making pedals and reissues of their own vintage guitars, although the guitars are only available in asia.
it seems that the original LG-200Thad 2 outputs for stereo and a jag-like floating trem. personallly, i think the eastwood version is an improvement in terms of vibe and features.
i'm used to 70s/early 80s japanese-made guitars. this eastwood doesn't match those in crafsmanship, but those are some of the best-made git-fiddles around, imho. eastwoods don't have that craftsmanship feel of late 70s/erly 80s yamahas or matsumokus, but that doesn't mean that it can't sound as good with the right pups thrown in. even custom shop models are 90% machine made. (necks for example are machine made, then sanded down a fraction of a millimeter for that hand-crafted" feel. the LG-200T is in any case put together well. china is currently producing almost all of the electronic equipment we buy, from computers to tv's--just like japan was doing in the 70s. so i think whatever factory eastwoods come from is the first sign of good guitars coming from the land of the smile, ready to take over now that japan is limited to producting only very high-end stuff and korea is one of the richest countries in the world, making labor costs increasingly expensive.
i was debating between an early 80s yamaha ssc and a turser surfmaster when i decided to see what eastwood was offering. i'm glad i did.
this guyatone re-ish definitely has got it goin' on: surf vibe, modern improvements, nice sound, low price, and, last but not least, 24 frets! i means, it's a surf model w/ 24 frets! i didn't think i'd ever see one!