Eastman AC330E-12 - stock strings

[marit]

Originally Posted by donlyn

Eastman AC330E-12 - stock strings

marit,

My, you've been busy today. I've been watching snow fall.

About neck thickness. While I can adapt pretty easily to most smaller differences in neck widths and thicknesses, I tend to prefer a thicker or fatter neck. Oddly enough I came across a used sunburst laminate body Sigma GS-200 six string. It is an exact (in all dimesions except one) Gibson J-200 clone. Full width and depth, but the neck is a thicker 'C' shape and has a slightly wider (than Gibson/Epiphone 1+11/16") width of 1+3/4". I love to play it. Also sounds pretty darned good too.

It was sitting on a neck rack at GC with some bad strings on it. I usually carry analog calipers with me, but it was an accidental impromptu visit. I could tell it was under-strung. Was in great shape; maybe somebody else didn't like the neck either. Anyway, I liked the feel of it, so I brought it home. Somebody had put 11's on it and they were more than a bit crusty. Slapped some Elixir PB HD Lights (that .013 - .053 hybrid) on it and haven't looked back. Also an all year 'keeper' at this point.

Used to have a black 60's Gibson Les Paul Custom with that kind of neck and it really felt good to play. Strung it with .010's, which was a bit thick for an electric, but it was nicknamed a 'fretless wonder'. It was.

So I guess it's a case of different strokes. De gustibus non disputandum.

Just for the experience, see if you can get to play a Taylor 12 string. Might be good for a comparison if nothing else. That old 355 I have is OOP, but there are still a few out there for a cheap price, even if it's not on your buy list.

Sigma does make solid-wood guitars too, but I don't know if they have 12 string ones.

Be well and play well.
And good luck on your search,

Don
.

Ha ha no I didn't try all those guitars out yesterday. Over the past few months I've been going to different guitar stores to try them out.

Those made in China Sigmas are pretty nice, my hand was cramping up as I was just playing it for a little bit so their chunky necks aren't my cup of tea. I've understood the Eastman has a similarly chunky neck, I might still try it out this week as my curiosity has won now, haha. There's the Sigma SDR12-45, which I think is a gorgeous guitar. However it costs 1500 euros w/o a pickup, and the German stores I've asked about it said they would advice the Eastman over the Sigma. I don't know if they will have a similarly chunky neck to the Gibson esque Sigmas (just sent out an email to ask, lol).

I also tried Taylors and I love how they play! I was really hoping the Taylor 150E would be my dream guitar, but soundwise, it just wasn't. I also tried the Taylor 352CE quickly, but not enough to know if soundwise it was for me. It's also way over my budget, so it kind of needed to be an instant wow experience and it just wasn't that.

Well, that about sums it up :-) have a good week!

[marit]

I went to (Harry) Sacksioni in Amsterdam, he had the guitar in stock and had just a couple of days ago fitted it with Martin 'extra' light .010 strings. I'd tried it months ago at another store and that must've had the stock strings on it. These .010 strings did not seem to match the guitar well, there was just something missing. Also didn't like the chunky neck on the Eastman so even with the .010 strings, playability wasn't great for me.

Also got to try out the Guild F412 and F512 and a Martin D-28-12! That was very cool. Liked the Martin the most, but the neck of that didn't quite suit me either. He had a cheap Fender in store (with the funny looking headstock), that played the most comfortable for me.

He was definitely keen on selling me the Eastman, but it just didn't impress me as much.

The neck on the Sigma SDR12-45 (which I haven't tried) and the neck of the Sigma Guitars GJA12-SG200 (which I have tried) are the same, says Sigma. So that isn't an option either, as I didn't like how that played either.