Eastwood Guitars Ichiban

Made in 2008, made in Korea. 22 Frets Carved mahogany body, maple neck rosewood fretboard. 2 mini humbuckers (bridge p/u is angled) with slider switches to turn them onn and off. Bridge is much like a Fender Jazzmaster with a roller bridge. Tuners are generic, six on a side.

Gotta love that surf-sound! This guitar has a great vibe. The sound is very clear and clean. Pickups are medium output, mini humbuckers. My only complaint with the soundis that the tone pot doesn't do a whole lot to change the tone. But I like the sound that it makes and as a rhythm player, I find a tone I like and stick with it for the most part. I bought this guitar to get that vintage Jazzmaster sound for playing Elvis Costello and Surf-punk stuff and it nails it.

Set-up was quite good tight out of the box. Frets are very nicely dressed. Nut was well cut and strings stay put. No fret buzz. Roller bridge is great to have with the Jazzmaster style tremolo. Returns to pich pretty well. Again, I'm not a lead player so my tremelo use is more subdued them some, but it works fine for me.

It feels very solid. The neck is downright chunky and is very sturdy. All switches, knobs and tuners feel smooth and stable and none wiggle or feel loose. The finish is a gloss poly whish is usually pretty indestructible. I would use it on a gig without a back-up if I had to...but I always bring a back-up.

Support was great. While I was doing my research on this guitar I wrote them and received a nearly immediate reply. Very friendly, helpful and enthusiastic. They believe in their products and you can tell it matters to them if you're happy with your purchase.

I've been playing for 30 years. I'm a rank amatuer. I love funky guitars and this one is exceptionally retro-cool. Sounds great, plays great and is different from what everybody else is playing. It's a screaming deal too. I love sub-$500 guitars. I've got some high-end guitars too, but I can't 'collect' those. Too expensive! I can buy Eastwoods, Minariks, Maldens and the like and I have great fun without having to sell the house to feed my habit. This guitar fits the bill perfectly. Great looks, great playability and a great value.

2 mini humbuckers. 22 frets, Jag style tremolo, 1 volume 1 tone, separate on/off pick-up switches, roller bridge. I give it 10 cuz what else do you need?

Good surfy, clean sound. Humbuckers are nice and hot. With the right effects you can do prety much anything from rockabilly, surf, jazz to shred.

Korean. Really well made. Smooth satin neck. Nice fretwork. Eye-catching good looks. A welcome change from the same old. This is the first guitar I have not had to adjust or change anything. Set up with low action. Kinda reminds me a bit of an old 60's Hagstrom.

I think it would stand up to most players demands.

Eastwood (Mike and Peter) are great guys and go way overboard to please. This is the third Eastwood I have owned and have had no problems. Mike is always quick to answer my questions.

I have owned and played every thing from Sears Danelectro an Tiesco to Gretch over the last 40 years. I'd get another one if it got lost or stolen. I compared it to chinese Fenders.

This is a feature loaded guitar. I love the mini humbuckers and it's pickup switches and the trem is like "buttah"

Great sound, many usable tones. But It nails a great surf tone and with both pickups going it has a great funk vibe.

It was set up perfectly and practically in tune right out of the box! Amazing

I have no worries about using this guitar in a live situation. It's built to last , that was obvious from the moment I took it out of the box

what can I say? you see in the other reviews all the good stuff there is to be said about the fine folks at Eastwood.

Other companies ought to take a lesson from the Eastwood gang.

I've been playing for a long time 40+ years and i can honestly tell you all out there in Harmony Central Land.that I've never NEVER had this much fun playing a guitar. It's so retro in feel, vibe and sound and being somewhat retro myself it's a perfect fit.
I will be getting more Eastwood products soon now if I only find more stuff to sell!

Black Lefty Eastwood Ichiban. Solid Mahogany body modeled after an upside-down Teisco Del Ray. Bound Maple neck w/ rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets and a Galanti headstock. Comes standard with two mini-humbuckers, a Mosrite-style roller bridge and floating tremolo. This is a very well made, very versatile guitar & it looks great.

This is a great sounding guitar. The mini humbuckers offer great weight & tone .. think between single coil & humbucker. I've played it through a variety of amps Marshall 800 & Plexi, Fender Twin & Bassman, Vox AC30 & it always delivers.

You would be hard pushed to find another guitar as well set up as this for the price.

I've had this guitar on tour for over a year & I've had no reliability issues at all. It feels very solid.

The customer support is the best. Mike Robinson is a legend. He replies to all e-mails personally, with great knowledge& humour. Eaastwood are one of the few manufacturers to fully support left handed guitarists. If you're a lefty, you'll know how difficult it is to find interesting & unique guitars.

I've been playing for longer than I care to mention! I own many guitars, including three guitars from Eastwood & I would absolutely buy it again. It really is amazing value.

The standard left-handed black Ichiban with tremolo arm - same fittings etc as described previously. New-style tone and vol knobs as a previous person mentioned - look nicer than the stock photos!

The pickup on/off switches are a great idea, something I actually did as a modification to a previous guitar as it seems to make more sense to me.

Mosrite dot markers are a bit tiny under stage lighting, but look cool and I only ever look at the top of the neck for fret positioning generally so no worries!

Came with a really good case, well made and nicely lined.

If you want to hear the Ichiban in action, check Le Chat Noir on Myspace (www.myspace.com/chatnoirband) - we're currently recording our second album and it's the main guitar I'm using on the songs that are up on our profile.

The first thing I noticed was it has a really nice tone unplugged - clean, no buzz, warm but bright at the same time, if that makes sense!

I play through a bi-amp setup, with an Atomic Reactor 112 and Ashdown Fallen Angel 60w all-tube 4x12" stack. Plugged in, this thing delivers a surprisingly wide range of sounds, with a really distinct character of its own - I have owned a Gibson SG, a Tokai ES-120 and a custom-built Telecaster in the last 2 years, and this gives me the unique tones I was looking for.

On the bridge pickup, it is reminiscent of an SG (perhaps the mahogany body is the reason) or a more ballsy Telecaster, delivering crunchy, singing distortion or almost Strat-like quack when played clean. On the neck pickup it has a really fat, gritty punch, not so much to my tastes but I found it excellent for a bit of slide playing. Real attitude.

It's the only guitar I've owned with with mini-humbuckers, and it's a real joy to play - perfect for my style of music, ballsy blues-inflected modern garage rock. More bottom end kick and grunt than single soils, but more definition and twang than humbuckers - and at the same time, almost always hum-free. Feeds back very rarely also, it's far more controllable than my Tele or ES-120 which screams whenever I stop playing!

I play in a 2-piece so I need a full but defined sound, which this delivers amazingly well - if I was going to buy another guitar, I'd get a stop-tail Ichiban for backup!

The body is really beautiful, lovely carving, and the pickguard is great too. A wonderful-looking guitar, I've had a lot of compliments so far. Certainly the best-looking guitar I've ever seen in this price range, I play gigs about 4-8 times a month and it's so boring to see yet another Strat, Tele or Les Paul copy... I like to stand out both visually and sonically, and this really does the job on both fronts.

I live in the UK, so it came via airmail - of course the intonation and action wasn't going to be perfect out of the box. It's all a matter of personal preference anyway, I don't know any serious guitarist who leaves their new instrument with the factory settings. A quick adjustment to my tastes, a new set of strings and it was all sounding perfect!

The tremolo arm really isn't as bad as others made out - you push it in firmly and it doesn't go anywhere where you don't want it, i.e. the floor. You just have to be a bit forceful, you won't damage the guitar, that's how this type of arm are supposed to be mounted!

The neck is quite a deep C-shape - it felt strange at first after using my other guitars, which have slimmer profiles. After a bit of practice I don't notice anymore though, it's a joy to play, the fretboard feels really fast.

My only criticism is the tuners, they remind me of the ones on my first guitar many years ago... I play quite aggressively and I need to retune after every song, particularly if I use the tremolo arm at all. I might buy replacements, but everything else is perfect.

Very well-made and fitted out at the price - just the tuners drop marks for me.

Seems to be very reliable, solidly-built and with a good weight to it.

As previously mentioned, I'm an aggressive player but I don't see this thing falling apart in a hurry. I feel much happier gigging with this than my hollowbody, I was always scared of that taking a knock... I have a bad habit of getting carried away and chucking my guitars, so far this one has taken it all and lived to tell the tale! Similar weighty, reliable feel to me Tele - the thing is like a brick.

I wouldn't gig it without a backup, but that's more a comment on the fact I tend to break a string every gig than the reliability of the instrument!

Mike is simply lovely, he was very helpful and any questions I had were answered promptly.

The guitar came with a 3-year warranty, but I think if it ever broke it'd almost be cheaper to buy another than get it sent back and forth across the Atlantic to be fixed!

Excellent. If I buy another guitar anytime soon, it'll be another Eastwood - can't be beaten for looks, value and tone.

If you want 'that' sound and look that another player has, you're in the wrong place - by all means go and get yourself whatever it is they play and join the ranks of sheep-like identikit guitarists out there.

If you want to stand out, make a statement and be original, as well as getting a lot of nice comments about how gorgeous your instrument looks and sounds, then trust me - get an Ichiban, or any of Eastwood's other wonderful guitars! you won't be disappointed!

This is a 2006, Korean built (German carved body)Eastwood Ichiban. Solid Mahogany body modeled after an upside-down Teisco Del Ray. Bound Maple neck w/ rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets and a Galanti headstock. Comes standard with two mini-humbuckers, a Mosrite-style roller bridge and floating tremolo. I'll give the features a 10 because they are well-made and exactly what I was looking for.

It took some getting used to, as I'm accustomed to playing with single-coil pups, but I'm loving the fullness of the mini-humbuckers. The sound isn't as bright, but it's more detailed. I play in a touring/gigging shoegaze band, and think the Ichiban is a very nice counterpoint to the genre-standard Fender Jaguar you'd normally see. Paired with my effects and amp (Fender Tuner, Boss TR-2 Tremolo, Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler, & Ernie Ball Volume Pedal into a Carvin Bel-Air 2 x 12), this guitar is capable of achieving the perfect blend of spacey,distorted, and melodic sounds I need. I have yet to really hone my feedback manipulation with it.

As seems to be a recurring comment about Eastwood guitars, it could have arrived more decently set up. It was o.k. But the strings were thin and twangy, and the Low E and A strings have a significant fret buzz, meaning that the action is a little bit low. Now, I love low action, but the buzz is a problem. It was, however, an easy fix. I simply restrung the guitar and slightly raised the bridge on the top end. Also, the tremolo bar, which I use consistently, falls out every time I bend forward, which I do often. This is my biggest concern. Other than these very minor deficiencies, the guitar is an absolute beauty.

If I can remedy the aforementioned tremolo bar problem, this will be my primary guitar. The hardware is very solid and the finish looks built to withstand the ages. I do hope the white color will turn creamy before too long. But that's just my affinity for vintage/vintage looking guitars. The strap buttons seem alright, though the back button has already loosened slightly. I'm of the opinion that I'll be able to depend on the Ichiban to live up to its name (translates to "Number One"). I always use a backup.

I wish I could turn this rating up to 11. Mike Robinson at My Rare Guitars/Eastwood Guitars is attentive, friendly, and very helpful. I felt great about buying a guitar from him. I would buy another, especially if he'd make the Ichiban in a light blue or surf green!

I've been playing for 10 years. My other guitars are Fender Strats and a Teisco E-100 (for feedback manipulation). I asked everything I'd want to know before buying a guitar and was promptly and sufficiently answered each time. If lost, I'd instantly replace it. The ICHIBAN is a very unique-looking and sounding instrument. There's really nothing else quite like it. The only thing that bothers me about the guitar is the Tremolo bar issue mentioned earlier. Other than that, it's a player's dream. Shoegaze is back.

This is a Canadian designed guitar based on a backwards Teisco Del Ray. Before seeing this guitar online and reading about it, I would just have said, it looks awesome. It's the first design from Mike and his crew at myrareguitars.com in his own Eastwood line, you probably know all this from looking at the website. You're thinking, can I really just buy a new guitar online. I did and I am really really happy with it. Sizewize, it's maybe a touch bigger than a Jag-Stang, but I don't have one to check. The neck, though, is a much flatter 12" radius which I find really easy to play. The 'german carve' mahogony body is the sickest. You don't realize until you hold it how perfect the contour is where your pick arm rests against the body. Simple, but great.

I got the black one with the tremelo (jazzmaster style). It has 22 frets, and I'll be honest and say that where the neck meets the body is a big old chunk, just like a regular 4-hole strat. This is no problem for me.

The two mini humbucker pickups are MONSTERS responsible for the sounds that come out of this diminuitive beast. The tilt of the neck pickup may do some neat voodoo with respect the harmonics it emphasizes, but face it, it just looks cool. The pickup selector switches just turn the pickups on and off. They are wired in such a way that there is essentially no volume change no matter if you are running any of the three possibilities. Both off is well, off. The switches and pots are quiet and the jack seems solid, really solid compared to silly things you see happen in guitar center or whatever on a competitively priced stripped down fender or gibson.

The tuners are generic, but well made. The bridge is Mosrite roller style, which I'd never played on before, but it is really nice and works well with the trem system.

I bet this was made in late 2005.

I have to give it a 10, because the features you get carry some serious tonnage.

Also, the black guitar has a pearloid cream pickguard that looking at it online looked kind of gross. In reality, though it has a really nice luster and shine on the pearly parts and french vanilla creaminess in the rest.

I played in a power pop punkish band in high school, then played quiet noodlings throughout college and now that I'm in grad school I figure, time to rock the heck out. So basically, this guitar to me is like a premodded Jazzmaster in the Sonic Youth style but with out the wannabe associations. Or think fender tele deluxe. But here's the thing. I've been looking for a new solid body for a while, playing guitars in stores (ie reissue tele deluxes, SGs, HH strats) , but never thinking WOW this instrument is worth every penny. This one is amazing.

It's got guts to do some serious chunky sounds with just the neck pickup and some just the tasteful side of twangy sweetness with the bridge pickup. And somehow together it's a whole other tone. The two pickups sound so different that the addition of the two is a really full sound.

No noise at all.

This guitar can play surf (look at the thing, it practically causes the surf to come up and throws wood panelling on your car), punk power chords, bluesy skronk, noise, pop, and easily pushes through nice jazz chords with good voicing. I've heard it said that the best guitar is one that makes you want to play it and play better. This is that guitar for me at least.

Action is good. The rosewood fretboard feels very low friction, it has a nice sheen to it if you get my drift regarding the speed of it. The bridge pickup is a about a quarter inch higher than the neck pickup, but it works and works well (like I said, the pickups both give out the same volume)

Here is the only flaw with the entire guitar, the frets are perfect shiny, smooth wonderful. But near them where the board and its binding are sanded, I feel like it could've gotten a bit of treatment with some finer sandpaper. Now if that sounds like a little niggle it is. You can't feel what I'm talking about, and you can only see it if you hold it extremely close to your face. That's what I'm giving it a nine for, but it's a bit unfair to how perfect this thing is. You can tell by looking at Mike's site that he sells the messed up guitars at a discount if he ever gets any from his manufacturers.

"Will this guitar withstand live playing?" That is what this site asks... are there people out there buying guitars for dead playing? I guess that's what people do with their $30,000 instruments. This thing could rock a house party any night of the week and still meet you for breakfast at nine the next morning.

The strap buttons are awesome and really don't need replacing unless you are paranoid. This guitar could take a fall and keep ticking... but I'm not going to test it.

I haven't popped off the pickguard to see inside, but I have a good feeling about the wiring/electronics.

The only reason to use a backup with this guitar would be if you didn't have time to replace a string.

The hardware, including the 'generic' tuners seem tough.

This is the craziest part. The guy who runs Eastwood responds within a day to any query I've had thus far. I suppose this is pretty necessary considering that he is selling the majority of his instruments online, but it's really awesome.

I have not tried to get it repaired and don't forsee any problems.

There is a return policy for any defects and from what I've read here, it seems like the unfortunate folks who got problematic guitars got them fixed in a jiffy.

I've been playing guitar for 13 years now. I have a Penco ES 335 copy that my Dad gave me as well as an Epiphone acoustic. If it were stolen, I would go on a nationwide manhunt. If it were lost I would contemplate my own stupidity and get a new one.

It's weird to love a guitar. I love that Penco dearly for what it is and I hope it doesn't hate it's new younger sibling, because I don't forsee myself playing it so much anymore.

My favorite feature would be a tie between the neck and the fret size (not to big not to small, just right) and the electronics.

I sort of wished it had a mint green pickguard, but I was feeling that more before I saw the cream pearloid color in the flesh. I initially asked Mike about it before I ordered i and he pointed me to a custom maker who could do it... I'm not so sure I will.

Also, I got this partially as a birthday present to myself and therefore recieved a 10% discount w/ proof of birthday. That sweetened the deal a bit. I have to go back to playing it now.

Brand new original design from Retro Guitar company called Eastwood.I was so intigued, I bought one.Now buying a guitar cause it looks so cool is not something I do on a daily basis, But I do not regret this impulse.The mini humbuckers provide more than adequate output & I get amazing versatility from the multiple switching options.

Like i mentioned above the vesatility is really something. Just screames on the High end, but the mahogany body & angled neck pick up give nice rich, warm tones as well. My musical preferance depends on My mood, so this guitar is in my hands quite often.

Fit & finish is great, came set-up right out of the box, but made a few tweaks for personal preferance.

Time will tell, but to date everything has been great & if all indications hold true this guitar will stand the test of time.

Communication was excellent. My questions were answered promptly.Recieved the guitar within 2 days.I'm extremely pleased at the quality of the product, the price I paid & the service I recieved. I plan on collecting many more of their truly unique collection.

Have an Epiphone & a Fender. Played for 20 years, more when I was younger & I just wanted something more unique.This one fits the bill.