Eastwood Guitars Joey Leone Signature Model RBC

Here are the stats on this wonderful guitar:

Finish: Flamed Red Wine
Body: Flame Maple Top, Back, Side, Center Block
Neck: SET One Piece Mahogany
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Scale Length: 25 1/2" (648mm)
Width at Nut: 1 11/16"
Pickups: Three Custom Coil-Tapped Humbuckers
Switching: 27 Positions, On, off, Coil Tap
Controls: Master Volume and Tone
Bridge: Tune-O-matic Bridge, Stop Tail.
Hardware: Grover Imperial Tuners

This is a limited edition; only 50 made. I received #42.

The flame maple on this guitar is fantastic, and as the description says, it's flamed on the front, back, and the sides too. Gorgeous! The finish is a wonderful dark red.

I'm also struck by the complex contouring of the arch top and the binding.

The fit and finish is superb. This is the best-built import guitar I've ever owned.

I also want to mention that the setup out of the box was spot-on. I purchased the guitar direct from Eastwood Guitar's website. Whoever is setting these guitars before shipping should be given a raise. I pulled the guitar out of the (very nice) case, tuned it up, and have been playing it for weeks with no adjustment needed.

This guitar is super versatile. Each of three humbuckers can be switched from double-coil to single coil, or turned off via a 3-way toggle switch for each pickup. You can have any combo you want.

I was shocked at the plunky, quacky Strat type sounds I can get from this guitar with the coils tapped. Awesome tones.

The humbuckers themselves are warm, medium output in my opinion. Running through a Vox amp, I was able to get jazz tones, rock tones, just about anything I wanted. Running through a Peavey XXX half stack, I was able to get some sweet early Rush Alex Lifeson tones (this is the reason I bought the guitar). Feedback is not a problem, I think because the guitar is semi-hollow. Cranking the gain to max on the amp, I was able to get feedback if need be.

I would describe the sound, clean or dirty, as rich when the humbuckers are running, and plunky when the single coils are running. The guitar is truly a chameleon. I often change out pickups (cause I'm a picky bastard). I'm not changing out these pickups.

Action, fit and finsh are phenomenal. Like I mentioned before, I am shocked by how well put together this guitar is.

I was a little nervous about paying $1,000+ for an import guitar, that is until I received the guitar! This axe is worth the money.

I can't find any flaw in the build of the guitar. Everything is clean, tight and well-made.

If could change anything, I wish the frets were super jumbos, instead of medium-jumbos. That's a very personal preference though. I think most people will be content with the frets.

I may also change out the bridge for a Tone-Pros, so I can lock the bridge height. This isn't a complaint though, just a personal thing.

I've owned the guitar for around 3 weeks now, and haven't had any durability issues. The finish is medium-thick (maybe could be a little thinner?), and I've been able wipe off my greasy finger stains with no trouble. I dread the first chip or dent I get, only 'cause the guitar looks so perfect now!

I intend to keep this guitar a good long time, and I think it will last.

Mike Robinson at Eastwood has been great. He responded quickly to my intial inquiry about availability, and answered my follow up emails promptly.

The guitar has a 3 year limited warranty for defects. Seems fair to me.

I'm gushing a lot and writing a lot about this guitar because it truly impresses me. It's a joy to play.

I like it so much, I'm saving up to buy it's cousin, the Joey Leone Signature RBC (same basic guitar, but with tap-able P90s).

I'm giving this guitar solid 10s, with no misgivings. Maybe I just got lucky, and got the best of this limited run. I don't know. My feeling though is that all 50 guitars in the run are probably pretty damn good.

I gambled a bit, buying this guitar online without ever having tried an Eastwood guitar. The gamble paid off and I got a superb guitar. I'm staring at it right now, and it puts a smile on my face.

Mine is the sunburst model manufactured in July of 2008, The sticker says Made in Korea. 22 Frets with beautiful (real) MOP Gibson-style inlays on the fret board. Gold Grover Imperial Tuners. This guitar is a real looker- I am constantly getting compliments on its build quality, tasteful details, and most importantly- killer sound!

Mine has the Bigsby and it works great- stays in tune very well.

I've been using it with a Vox CC Ac-15, and a '74 Fender Vibroluxe. Both amps sound great and yield very different sounds. I actually prefer the crunchy vox tone- the p-90's really drive the amp nicely. The pickup system is easy to get used to, but hard to explain! I'd watch the demo videos at the eastwood site if you're curious about how it all works.

I really love the neck pickup alone, and the combo of the bridge on full with the neck on low. (again, watch the eastwood video if you have no clue what i'm talking about).

You can really get a huge range of tones and sounds out of this thing, from strat to tele. hard rock to jazz. seriously.

I bought the guitar used, and the setup was perfect. It has not needed any adjustment- intonation is perfect, it stays in tune well, and the neck is straight as an arrow.

Again, this thing is so solid. I totally trust it to perform for me whenever its needed. It came with a nice solid case, too.

I emailed the company to ask them a quick question and the owner wrote me back personally! I love eastwood.

I've been playing guitar for 8 years. This is my first high quality electric. This guitar leaves nothing to be desired. It's fabulous. One thing to note- it has a center block which helps feedback issues but does make the guitar quite heavy. It took a little getting used to (especially if you're used to strats), but doesn't bother me at all now.

For anyone who is not familiar with Eastwood guitars, get up to speed. Not a ton of musicians that I know have played an Eastwood and this is truly a shame. I have a 2008 tobacco sunburst Joey Leone model and i find myself astonished at the variety of tones on this guitar. With alot of electric guitars made today, they have nice tones, but alot of them are unusable. All of the tone variations on this model i would find myself using on stage. Not only do these guitars sound unbelievable but they are some of the most interesting looking and beautiful guitars i have ever laid my eyes on. Whatever style you play-there is a guitar in the Eastwood catalogue for you. So many choices, so little time.

I am an acoustic player and i find myself transposing some of my acoustic songs to the electric. It's hard to find an electric that has enough warmth to sound pleasing when you're playing open chords as opposed to power chords or bar chords. But with the Leone model (semi-hollowbody), I have no trouble at all. I find myself playing the electric guitar now as much as i did when i was thirteen. A Fender Strat with Fender Lace Sensor pickups and Eric Clapton electronics and a Lucille haven't gotten me as excited as this Eastwood. That, i feel, really speaks volumes about this guitar.

The guitar was perfect...flawless...shocking! Electric guitars, more times than not, have to be adjusted a little when you get them from the shop. Whether it's the pickups, the bridge, the action, or even sometimes the paint job-but the Leone model Eastwood i would not alter if offered money to do so. Honestly, this is an incredible guitar.

The reliability of this guitar is outstanding due to the variations and variety of tones. I can't comment on the durability, though, having only had it a month.

The company itself has friendly, intelligent, knowledgable employees who go out of their way to make sure that you are satisfied with the product you are purchasing. They have a wonderful artist endorsement program, as well. I would highly recommend these guitars and the program to any musician I know-regardless of stature. Hell, if Bowie's guitarist and Morrissey's guitarist are playing them...well, i believe that says it all!

Been playing for 15 years, seriously for about 4...own tons of gear including Fender Strat Plus with Lace Sensor pickups, Epiphone Lucille with '59 replica Gibson Burstbucker Pro pickups, '65 Tiesco with original '65 single coils, '85 Brazilian Rosewood Martin D28 acoustic, 1970's Glen Campbell Ovation used on the Goodtime Hour, custom '93 Ovation acoustic, Line 6 pod, Korg effects box, synth wah pedal

The Eastwood is the best sounding electric I have and it works well with all my other gear and effects. No complaints, whatsoever.

Bought it new a year ago I play regularly in an LA indie rock band. Mine is the darker burst finish. Came with a great solid case. Really gorgeous guitar. Lot of laquer however - which, while it is very solid, gets greased up with finger prints, keep this one clean fellas. The guys above have covered the features pretty well.. all I can say in addition is that I have had mine for a year and two setups now - all the features are still intact and working. One of the plastic caps to my pickup switches is stripped, but still on (cheap fix), and (not sure if this was during the setup) at one point the strap holder screw keeping my trapese in place was stripped. I did the ol' toothpick trick and its fine now. Fluke? probably.

about 6-8 months after setup I was having a bit of trouble with some intonation in chords really close to the neck like a barred F. I was told that this is pretty common in semi and full hollows.. I got mine re setup with 11's and I feel like it is mostly gone. I'm kind of a tonal perfectionist however.

The daunting task of this guitar is choosing which of the 27 configs to use. Personally I go between a few of them for my bands normal set. I never use the middle pick up, go figure.

For well rounded sounds I swap between having the neck pickup and bridge pickup conversly switched (one in P-90 one in coil tap).

With the neck pickup in P-90 only you get a great hollow body sound - deep but not muddy.

Every now and then if I want to strum a lot and stay out of my lead guitarists way, I flip the bridge into coil tap only - it gets a sort of jangly sound like an acoustic would occupy in the mix.

I never really want the 'strat' sounds, but they are there for the taking and sound great. The middle pickup helps with those as well.

Mine was setup in shop before I touched it. New. No Flaws.

I forget to bring a back up.. I haven't even broken a string on the RBC much less any other difficulties. I never feel nervous about it. The laquer is thick, it will scratch before it will wear. One time my strap came loose and I dropped it while leaning over. I nearly cried, but besides a very small dent it held like a tank.

The RBC comes with Joey Leone's signature on a wooden plate attached to the trapese. No offense to Joey but it's MY guitar now. I got it flipped around to the blank side on first setup which was no problem. I contacted Mike of Eastwood about the possibility of doing this before I even bought the thing and he wrote back really fast with a response. I doubt I would have any trouble whatsoever in customer service when I can email the main dude directly.

I'm only 25 but have been playing live for 5 or so years. I was looking for a semi hollow body in a lower price range - I knew when I played the RBC that it would be a great long term investment into a strong, versatile instrument.. so I splurged a little. I don't regret it. I love the guitar still.

I have had the guitar for several months and am just now getting around to writing a review on it. One reason is that I???ve been .playing it, both at home and for rehearsals and shows. This is the Eastwood Guitars Joey Leone RBC (rock blues, country) Signature Model.

Eastwood Guitars is located in Canada, and the CEO and president is Michael Robinson. He also owns the site www.myrareguitars.com. For the past few years Michael has been designing guitars that are replicas of vintage guitars from the 50s and 60s which are worth a lot of money and are fragile, but which play like baseball bats with strings. The reviews say these redesigned instruments are much better than the originals. You can find them on the rare guitars website as well as www.eastwoodguitars.com.

Joey Leone, a rock and blues guitarist who currently lives in Vermont but does a lot of work in both Canada and the US, primarily New York, has helped Michael in the design of these guitars. You can find a lot of info on the company on these two websites.

The story goes that Joey told Michael he wanted to design a player???s guitar and Michael handed him the keys to the shop. The whole story for THAT is on the website, too. I knew Joey was working on this and when I saw Brian Greenway of April Wine demonstrating the Eastwood Joey Leone Signature RBC model on Youtube, I felt I just had to have it. Note: the cherryburst guitar you see Brian Greenway and David Love demonstrating on Youtube is the exact guitar I own. I bought the prototype directly from Michael Robinson. He offered it to me and I jumped at it. I kidded him about selling a used guitar, but this thing is now famous. I had no problem paying $1248, including a hardshell case and shipping. At this writing, it is the one and only cherryburst model of the RBC guitar.

What you got is a basic ES-335 semi-hollow body type, with a slightly longer neck (Joey designed a Fender-scale neck for the instrument, to make it easier for us string-benders.) It has three specially-designed P-90 pickups, each with an industrial-strength toggle switch, with an off, on and coil-tap setting. Somebody with time on his hands figured that there are 27 different tonal variations possible, plus all pickups totally off. I didn???t check his math. I can just get a lot of different sounds by switching the toggle switches. One of my favorite settings is bridge pickup on, middle pickup coil-tap, neck pickup off. It gives kind of a single-coil vibe while maintaining the fullness of the overall guitar sound. .Because the toggle switches are solid construction, there is a slight click while switching from one setting to another. It is barely noticeable, but there. This is a talking point, not a criticism.

Tone and volume controls are one knob apiece, harking back to the good old days. With this guitar, that???s all you need. There is no pickguard. The guitar comes with D???Addario 11s on it. I broke the high E string (something I rarely do) and put 12s on it, like my guitar hero and buddy Crazy Joe Tritschler.. They work fine. A tremolo tailpiece would have been nice, but it might interfere with the toggle switches, so ???no loss. The set neck is smooth and fast, with mother-of-pearl inlays. THAT feature has been noticed and commented upon by folks in the audience. It is a very sturdy guitar and should hold up well. It has been comfortable to play through a couple of four-hour gigs. Note: Since Eastwood put a Fender-scale neck on a Gibson-style body, a 335- type gig bag is a tight squeeze, but it fits.

I have used it at rehearsals, three-and four-hour gigs, as well as private playing. I have received many compliments from musicians and the public alike, at both the appearance and the sound of the RBS. I am currently playing it through a Fender Stage 112 amplifier and play primarily oldies and rockabilly, although I have tried it on the amp???s high gain setting, and it does very well. I have many other guitars: Fender, Gibson, Guild, DiPinto, ESP, Carvin, Heritage???This ranks up there with the best of them.

Mike Robinson is certainly approachable and can be contacted by e-mail. I have e-mailed Joey Leone too and got a nice response. My impression is that this is a company that cares very much about its customers. I have had no need to contact Mike about any flaws with the guitar. I haven't found any at all.

I am aware that I gave this guitare top marks in every category. I have no problems with it at all, and I would not downgrade a quality instrument just to have osetng negative to say.

I have been playing since 1958, off and on, both professionally and semi. Bottom Line: I REALLY LIKE this guitar. It is solidly constructed (Korean-made), sharp looking and versatile. I generally take a backup, mostly for variety, if I feel I need it.It is not a Fender, nor yet a Gibson, but has a personality all its own. As far as I know, it is the first original design from Eastwood Guitars, and I think they???ve got a winner! Yes, I would buy another one it if it disappeared. I???m really glad I bought it.

Michael and Joey: good job!

The Eastwood Joey Leone Signature Model is a semi-hollow body thinline guitar similar to the ES 335. The guitar boasts highly flamed bookmatched maple top and back, as well as flamed maple sides. I would say the flame is at least a AAA grade.
The neck is a one piece mahogany design w/ rosewood fretboard. The fretboard has a split paralellagram design (like a ES345) made of real Mother of Pearl. That alone separates the RBC from other guitars in its price range. It has 22 medium jumbo frets with a slight radius. The nack is 2mm wider then the standard Gibson design, which is barely noticable, but does make the neck very comfortable. The RBC also has a very cool looking slotted headstock with the new Eastwood E MOP logo.
The pickups a P90's co designed by Joey Leone and pickup legend Kent Armstrong. The P90's are coil tapped so you can get a Strat sound as well as a P90 sound. The three full size toggles switches control the pickups for a P90/cff/coil tap modes. The gives you 27 very usable sounds and 9 humbucking sounds. Amazing!
BTW the scale is a Fender scale which is longer then the Gibson design this gives you the opportunity to use a set of 10's and they feel like 10's, and 9's feel like 9's, etc. I have always preferred the feel of how unslinky the Fenders handle strings.
Also this is the only semi hollow designed guitar w/ P90's that i know of, Very cool!

The guitar was designed to be able to get alot of veru usable sounds..you know none of those weird out of phase sounds that sound cool in the store, but when you use it in the band its unusable. This axe can get a easily be a fill in for a Strat, Gibson, and archtop jazz box. It can also be a reasonable replacement for a Tele.
The P90's are a bit noisy (as most single coils are) but heres where the hum cancelling modes really shine.
The RBC was designed for rock, blues, and country hence RBC, but I have used this guitar for mellow jazz too.

The fit and finish on this guitar is very very,good, not perfect. But as an owner of many Gibsons from the 50's 60's and Custom Shop rarely do you see a perfect one. But heres the real deal..........it s phenomenal value for the $ ($1200)

Its built like a brick shit house........the finish is highly glossed and very durable.
No doubt the RBC is a one guitar at a gig axe.

Eastwood is well known as a top shelf customer service company. The no questions asked return policy is absolutely awesome, and takes the gamble of buying a online guitar. The good news is that Eastwood is quickly becoming a favorite w/ dealers across the world.

I have been playing professionally for over 20 years. this guitar fits the pro perfectly. But this guitar is also a great guitar for a cat who wants to move up from an entry level guitar. \This works well for finger pickers as well as rock and blues and country.
This guitar will love any good anmp you put it through........I use is w/ a 65' Deluxe Reverb, AC 30, and 18 watt Marshall combo.
Check out the Eastwood website (eastwoodguitars,com) for video and sound samples