Eastman guitar blues
 

So I was going to visit my sister in San Diego and decided to pay Pitbull Audio a visit there since they had Eastman t486 guitars in stock and I wanted to try one.
None of the stores in my area of Northern California had any in stock. I heard so many wonderful things about that guitar and Eastman in general so I was hoping to take one home. Pitbull Audio was offering a 10% discount on price as well!!

I get to the store and the 2 front desk people are perplexed about a couple of Eastman acoustic guitars that they have sold, the luthiers set up and are about to ship. I wait as the discussion proceeds, the origin of the discrepancy started from the luthier setting up one of the guitars saying it didn't appear to match the characteristics for that price range guitar. Long story short when they finally settled it, it appeared that Eastman had mislabeled one of the more expensive guitars which should have had a model and serial number of a less expensive version. Back to the factory with that!

So now the sales person is able to address me and I ask to see an Eastman T 486 guitar. My obsession to try this guitar is that it is one of the few electric guitars that have a wide neck, ie 1 3/4 at the nut. So he brings one out opens the box, and guess what? This guitar is labeled an Eastman T486 but has a nut width of 43 mm. So I get the salesperson to send guitar back to luthier to measure nut and he agrees it’s 43 mm. I then pull up specs on my phone for guitar and show to him that they must have put wrong neck on that guitar. Store person gets flustered and acts like nothing is wrong here. I keep my cool and don't argue at all but can see the store person is not happy. Not knowing what to do, I wander around the store looking at all the guitars they have on display contemplating the dismal conclusion that I have to start my search for a wide neck electric guitar all over again.

Then I think about it and decide to ask the store person to pull a different Eastman T486 out of the ware house so I could see if that one conformed to the spec. He did it reluctantly and amazingly that guitar had the wide neck, 1 3/4 inch as confirmed by their luthier. That blew my mind, In one guitar store visit, I witnessed two serious blunders by a guitar mfr who everybody says can walk on water. needless to say I am no longer interested in Eastman guitars and I hope they do send that guitar back with the wrong neck.

I'm not defending Eastman Guitars, but people have been reporting variations in Eastman necks since I first heard of them here 6 years ago. I guess you could say it's part on the Eastman mystique.

I also don't think electric guitar players are as hung up on nut width as the acoustic players on AGF are. They switch back and forth between Fenders with 1 5/8 to Gibson with 1 11/16 to their acoustic with 1 3/4 and don't seem to worry about it.

I've only been playing Martin guitars with 1 3/4 for the past 5.5 years. I just got an Epiphone es355 with 1 11/16 and I don't feel any difference. You should go try one. Or buy one from GC, they are giving until 1/31/23 for trial period. if you can't get along with it just bring it back.

I'm very happy with mine.

Human beings are involved. Humans are less than perfect.

Did you play the Eastman with the 1.75" nut width to see if you liked it?

- Glenn

Did you play the one with 1.69?

So….they get another box from the warehouse that is the right guitar with the right “jumbo” electric neck on it(exactly what you wanted) and you don’t say a word about it? What am I missing here? You wrote about everything else that happen there.

frank d.

You could buy this one……no surprises, fantastic upgrade, used. If you didn’t gel with it you could recoup most/if not all of your outlay. Just an idea.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=658571

I had a similar experience with a new Eastman E8OM a few years back. I drove 2 hours to try this specific model at a brick & mortar Eastman dealer. These guitars have a spec of 1 3/4" nut width and I knew w/o needing to measure that the guitar I had in my hand was 1 11/16" The dealer confirmed my thought with a micrometer measurement.

Hand made or not, this isn't acceptable. Getting a simple spec like this correct isn't rocket science and any company with good QC would catch that error. I will say that the guitar was in all other aspects a gorgeous instrument that played and sounded fine. I have since taken Eastman off my list of acoustic guitars I search out because I can't trust their spec sheet. It's not just my one little example, as many have had similar reports. However, I absolutely love my MDO-305 octave mandolin!

That's a good deal. I just don't know if I can trust buying something sight unseen from a private seller. I have been burned before and $1000 is a lot of money.

That is the way I feel exactly. IF they can't get the right size of nut, what else can they mess up and you won't know it until later? Sorry, I am not buying "it was just a simple mistake....." And what the heck is the point of writing specs if they can take the liberty of changing them at a whim with no notice? How about switching the pick ups for something horrible sounding, is that ok too?

I did try it and it sounded nice and played well. But being my first electric guitar and having lost confidence in the QC dept at Eastman, I did not want to take the chance and find some thing else out of place. Some times you have to let providence be your guide.

I am going to look into that epiphone es 355. Thanks!!

I am also looking at the D' Angelico premier DC mini. Maybe I will start a new thread on it. That has 1 11/16 nut also

I have an Eastman Eastman T185MX. The nut width is 1 3/4". It's got one of the nicest feeling necks I've ever played, and the fit, finish, and build quality is excellent.

I got my t486 on Reverb for ~ $700 a few years ago, and I love it. The 1.75” nut was a primary reason I got it, as I like to fingerpick it sometimes. I wish the neck was chunkier (I like baseball bat necks) but the width makes up for it. I’m with you on wide neck electrics - if they’re 1.65” and thin profile they just bother me.

The neck variations are the one gripe I have with Eastman. I had a E6OM-TC That had one of the nicest necks I've ever played. Unfortunately I didn't care for the tone. Wound up trading it in one a E10OM-TC that had a skinnier neck but tone for days. I want it all people! :)

They love to tout their handcrafted image, but for crying out loud, for what is probably the most critical part of a guitar, get a darn CNC machine.

Rant over.