Eastwood Guitars Saratoga

This is a Chinese made Guitar, manufactured this year I think). I refined and re-defined strat shape...beautifully contoured. Alder body, quilt top with binding. The binding is actually a light tone wood, rather than a cheap plastic binding...lovely touch! The guitar is finished in 'burnt orange' with a gorgeous lacquer on top. Smoothest lacquer job I've seen to be honest. It has a tunomatic style bridge, volume x 1 (which doesn't 'cut you off early...nice a smooth roll-off) same with the one tone pot. 3 way pickup switch...with out of phase in the pos. 2...kinda like a 62 strat I once had...which was unexpected, but a nice variation. 2 x Eastwood (passive...which is a good thing too!) Humbuckers. String thro' body design. Set neck. 24 fret rosewood fingerboard. Kind of PRS style Headstock which I like...with simple Eastwood' logo in black. Black unbranded machines. Neck and Headstock finished as the back of the guitar...nice grain. All hardware is black! (I like!)

As a rock guitarist...this is perfect for me. Everyone has a 'me' guitar...THIS is MINE! I run it thro' a Marshall jcm900 4x12 via my Zoom GFX4...and to be honest...I couldn't get a creamier sound on the settings I have. I have had to tweak some of my clean patches though AND at the amp...cos the power from those humbuckers is awesome...but once tamed..they really do deliver. The tonal range is superb, and I can go from metal to jazz at the flick of a couple of switches/pedals...but it takes time to get your sound set-up. Like I said...she needs to be tamed! No noise from the pickups at all...even in the out of phase position...which I was REALLY surprised at. The volume and tone pots have a really uniform and smooth roll off...allowing you good control over your sound from the business end. This is a guitar that I could definately depend on...I might depend on it twice and buy another! The sounds from the pickups are very full too...and easily controlled. Just make sure you have a compressor of some sort and tweak the 'attack' slightly, cos when clean, Saratoga still gives a dirty edge! Great in some contexts...but not always desired. But I like it the way it is...it has a personality of it's own...SO RARE in new guitars.

Guitar arrived in 3 Days from the USA...perfectly in tune...I checked!!! Hee hee! Set-up was nice and low...as we like it! Neck angle and dip was spot on...and I can't really say too much else cos it was kinda...well...perfect! I don't do 'measuring' but the f/board was nice a flat...excellent frets and beautifully finished off. The neck is fast! Routing was superb on the top...everything has it's place...and feels like they'll all stay there...sturdy! Reliable feel. The only flaw I could find (not that I care much cos the rest of the guitar makes up for it and THEN some!) was on the back edge of the top horn...there was a small greyish black mark. I went to rub it off then discovered it was under the lacquer!! Bugger! No matter...only I will see it!! This is the only thing that stops me rating a ten in this section! The balance when strapped was a little neck heavy...but compensating is not difficult...it wasn't that bad!

Will it stand up to live playing??! Hell yes!! The question is...can you control it??!! Everything looks like it will last for a good few years. There's nothing I would change on it right now...and when I buy a new axe...there is ALWAYS something I wanna change! There just HAS to be...no guitar is perfect...???? The only thing I will do is put locking strap button on her...not because I think it's necessary...I just wouldn't risk spoiling that lovely finish!
Definately a guitar to depend on...but ALWAYS have a backup!

Haven't had to Deal with Eastwood's CS yet...but from the service I have received from the onset (prior to purchase) and beyond...my guess is they'll be pretty good. If their guitars are anything to go by...they get a 10 for that too! (This one's for you Mike!)

Have been playing for over 15 years. I also own an Ibanez edr170...Ibanez edr470 ( I like edr's ok??!!) a Samick elec classical, and now a Saratoga. I have to say that if this got lost or stolen...somebody would be looking for a new life!! I would have to buy another one...maybe two to reflect how much I missed her!! Why do we call them 'she'?? It's obviously made an impact on me! Getting personal already!

My style varies from time to time...depends on my mood..and I think the Saratoga can handle them all, even though sometimes a small compromise is in order! How extrEMELY apt though, that Eastwood named this guitar after a Battleship!! I would just like to say 'well done' to Eastwood Guitars. This guitar far surpasses my expectations...and that's hard for me to admit sometimes! Long may you continue!

OK, here are the specs: made in 2002, Chinese manufacturer, 24 frets (good), laminated top, one V one T w/three-way selector, H/H, pickups are passive, quilted top on alder body (I think), neat light-tone wood binding between the wood layers, gloss orange finish - just short of tangerine, double cutaway horned Strat-ish body shape with arched top, string-thru with tune-o-matic style bridge, nice tuners (no name), non-locking, Strat scale (guitars dimensions clearly duplicate a Strat without simply "being" a Strat), very thin neck, nciely dressed frets, low action from factory, came with cord, and more importantly with allen wrench for truss rod adjustment.

Play a variety of styles: primarily I'm a rocker, but play three shows a week in a comtemporary christian church, so play huge variety of styles. Play to approx. 700 people a week, so have to have that variety.

Play direct into board to PA thru a Yamaha DG Stomp to which I've added a PreSonus "TubePre" preamp that has one 12AX7 tube. That one tube is sufficent to provide nice tube warmth and smooth distortion that takes the solid-state brittleness ot of the sound of the floor uint alone.

Also use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe when cranking at home/clubs/restaurants etc.

The Saratoga is designed for fast play and lots of sustain. It delivers big on its design goals. I use two guitars any time I'm on stage so I have an immediate replacement if a string or jack breaks, or any other failure occurs. I ususally use my Les Paul - Studio model with a third 490N pickup added - as the other guitar to the Saratoga.

The Paul sound is creamier, the Saratoga sound hotter. The diference is small between the two, but detectable. The guitar is not highly versatile, but simply does a great job at what it is designed to do, which is crank out great rock, and shredder leads, at high volume. It can do an acceptable job with quieter, softer sounds, but it knows who it is, and it wants to fly. And it does.

In our stage environment, we have to roll on/roll off the volume frequently so there is no hiss through the monitors or stage horns when people speak. The Saratoga rolls on smoothly and quietly. Also, tone controls are rarely linear on guitars, but this one seems better than most - when you roll the tone control half way, you get a corresponding half roll-off of the treble. Very nice feature for any player who uses several guitars, and finds it troublesome trying to remember which controls work linearly and which respond too slow/too fast, irregularly, not at all, etc.

This may sound like a small feature, but things that happen in front of large crowds take on big importance. The thing has to work right, and the Saratoga passes the test beautifully.

One odd feature, which is probably a plus: the center postion on the three position pickup switch is wired to produce a thin, almost Strat-like sound. My guess is that the pickups are wired out of phase in this position. What it provides is a distinctly diffent tone - you have a neck humbucker, and bridge humbucker, and then rather than a blend, you have this thinnish tone. Unusual, but it probably adds flexibility that I just haven't used yet - call it a plus.

Set-up from the factory was very good. The thing came in a small cardboard box, which frankly surprised me two ways: I thought the box was too small to provide good protection (it wasn't; the guitar was absolutely fine) and it seemed much too small to hold that guitar. When I got it open, the Saratoga shocked me again by how small it looked.

I got a third surprise when I compared the Saratoga to the rest of my guitar collection. The thing is precisely the length and width of a Strat. The nut and bridge placement duplicate Strat dimensions, and the body shape - though it looks very different -is virtually the same size as a Strat. My conclusion - the different shape confuses the eye - the guitar looks slender and sleek and fast - but it actually duplicates the Strat. Weird, but definitely OK with me - I like the thing.

One oddity about the wood - seems the anufacturer chose a type of wood that contains small knots, like pine knots, but very tiny. There are only a few of them, and they apparently have no effect whatsoever on tone or stability, but they are there underneath the finish. This is only on the back side of the body and the neck - its not visible from the front. I guess if this was a multi-thousand dollar heirloom instrument I would object, but for a guitar that goes everywhere, gets played in 90 degree temps and 40 degree temps, gets left in the auditorium when it isn't being carted off to rehearsal, and generally leads a workman's life, this thing is great. No problem here.

One more thing: the strings are very close to the edge of the fretboard. I find myself falling off the edge of the board sometimes when I do vibrato. This is not a knock to the design - its more one of those "its like this" things - a trade-off. The neck is so fast in part because its so slender. When I pay attention, I've got room for all the string bending I want - I just get sloppy and forget because I play different guitars all the time. So just be aware - you have the advantage of a slim neck, and the disadvantage.

Yep, it'll go the distance, deliver the sound, stay in tune (a biggie), and not worry you to death when you have to leave it onstage with the sun streaming in the window on it. My friend who is Doc Watson's luthier takes old Martins apart with the heat from a 100-watt incandescent bulb. Heat does weird things to guitars and guitar glue. This one has handled August without complaint.

Its too early to say how the hardware will hold up, but so far so good. I will say that I broke a string (1st) on the very last chord of the last song this weekend. I had that problem with my Les Paul, except that with the Paul it started breaking them immediately, and did it infuriatingly frequently. So perhaps a quick brush with a deburring file through the string notches on the bridge saddles would be good. Not by any means absolutely necessary, just a good precaution.

One serious nick, but quickly solved: the thing is very unbalanced - at least on me - when on the strap. Its light enough that the weight of the neck in my plam doesn't hinder playing much, but when I release the guitar, the neck drops right down towards the floor.

However, the quick solution was to relocate the strap button to directly behind the upper horn. The guitar immediately balanced out, hung properly, and most importantly, the body - and so the strings - were still postioned the same, not suddenly sticking way out to the right where you find your picking hand over the high frets. An easy fix - I'd recommend it to the factory. Besides, it removes the strap pin and end of the strap from where your thumb goes when playing the high frets. Its not really in the way of playing the way its arrives from the factory, but on a guitar this slim, playing those high frets is what its all about.

All in all, a solid guitar. Just don't think of it as a battle ax - its more like the way Pete Townshend describes a Rickenbacker - a light, slender, almost-delicate instrument that really sings.

And by the way - there is no way I'd ever play a gig without a backup guitar. No way.

No experience with warranty, but no need. All I can say is that the response time when I ordered it was immediate, and the few questions I've had have been answered just as quickly.

I've been play 41 years - long enough to know things. I have 20-odd guitars at the time, I loan them to other guys who play with our band, and we own a 32 track studio where we do audio and video work every week.

I also am a guitar tech - I do setups on all my guitars, including fret stoning/crowning/polishing, nut cutting, bridge work, neck resets - you name it where it has to do with the feel - and the playibility - of the guitar.

This makes me aware of how good a value the Saratoga really is. Its obvious that whoever made the thing took the time to make it perform. I love the guitar - it looks great, it sits right, it plays well, and it responds to small hot-rodding touches. If I had to, I could make this guitar do about everything I use a guitar for. But its just too much fun to plug it into a hot tube amp and make for the ceiling. When you want to sustain notes and dassle onlookers, grab this thing and burn their ears.

Obviously, though not perfect, I rate this guitar high. When you figure in how much guitar you get for how little money, its a real steal. If it ever gets broken or disappears, I'll definitely get another one - its in the fold for good.