I am hearing different things about whether james olson voices individually his guitars or not but if he doesnt and given how "industrialised" are his processes, his may ironically be far more of a factory operation than froggy bottom...

I'm not implying that you were downplaying FB, just inadvertently misrepresenting them. Michael Millard is physically involved in every FB, and voices them all. They build under 100 guitars per year.

Santa Cruz builds 500-700 guitars a year (according to the wise and all-knowing internet). I don't know if Richard Hoover is involved in each guitar, but my impression is that he isn't.

Huss and Dalton is somewhere in between.

Eastman quality is on par with just about anything being mass produced today with the exception of the smaller builders.
I think makes the "handmade" aspect even more admirable when you consider the margin for error is even greater.
I'll put my E10 00 up against my D18 or my J45 all day, every day.
The last part of your statement has nothing to do with the subject and in any case there are lots of guitars mass-produced off shore using robotics.

I'm just curious, what's your "skin in the game"? Why do you care what others think of Eastman guitars?

I've played exactly two (2) Eastman guitars. Both were brought to me for setups. Both were, in my opinion, sub-par in both workmanship and sound quality for their price. I went so far on one of them to record it and analyze its response - frequency response curves, sound wave form, onset transient, decay, overtone distribution - to verify what my ears were telling me. Regardless of how it was made - by hand, machine, CNC - it would have been an awful sounding guitar - to me - for half of its selling price. I'm fully aware that one person's "perfect" sounding guitar is another's reject. Each of the owners of those two guitars liked their guitars. (Presumably, they wouldn't have bought them if they didn't.)

To be clear, two guitars is not a sufficiently large sample to come to any conclusions regarding Eastman guitars. However, that was my experience with the two I have examined. I have no opinion on Eastman guitars as a whole and have no objection to those who like them - or those that don't.

That's been my experience as well from doing repairs in my shop. I've had a few come across my bench and was less then impressed with any of them. Their owners however loved them so there's that.

I have never tried an Eastman guitar but for an unimpeachable example of really good quality fit and finish and excellent workmanship in a mass produced guitar that was made in China I would suggest the excellent example of avian guitars which is sadly out of business now. My church worship leader has a skylark and it beats anything I have ever seen in its price range.

Labor cost is key to the handcrafted claim. The amount of labor in that Eastman would be cost prohibitive if produced in the US. I fail to see how that is irrelevant. IMHO, there is very little difference in those 'handcrafted' Eastmans and dozens of other Asian guitars.

How does Jim Olson individually voice his tops? Does he use tap tuning? I have been informed that he did not.

I love SCGC, but they have 21 employees, quite different from Froggy Bottom with 3, sometimes 4 employees. And (as I’m sure you are aware) Michael hand carves every neck according to customer specs — as requested. I consider Goodall with James, Luke and Jean (3 employees) @100 guitars/year to be a better comparison to Froggy Bottom.

I respect your knowledge, so what's wrong with my challenging statements about something I am familiar with? I did a ton of research before I bought my first Eastman, so I know a little about them and their company.
Saying stuff like they build 200,000 guitars per year which is completely untrue.
In your post you did say your experience was in the past and limited.
Have you tried an Eastman built in the last few years? Have any of these other folks tried one?
I own one and it has received very positive reviews from players who don't know who Eastman is from the man in the moon.
A better question you might ask is why do some these same folks continue to bring up stuff that happened in the distant past.
Eastman has come along way in recent years, but apparently these folks don't know that or choose to ignore it.
I think Eastman is a very "unique" operation, something to hold in esteem and they deserve better than they get from some on this forum. That's my "skin in the game."
Hope that explains it.

I agree, and if it looked like I was saying FB was comparable to SC... I was actually trying to do the opposite.

For those that will inevitably turn it into a competition; I prefer FB, but have no problems with SC. I'm just pointing out differences in scale.

A handmade guitar is made from raw materials and put together by hand.

A Handcrafted guitar is made from prefabricated parts, such as kits, or parts, then put together by someone.


Ed

Let's keep this polite, guys.