#31
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Your friend is not right...but...he's not wrong either...he's just "not wrong" in a different way. Eastman's are really fantastic looking, playing, and sounding guitars...exceptionally well made, and very much handcrafted, very old school Martin style from circa the 50's and 60's...at least the the way the videos of their shop tours appear to show. They also use absolutely top notch woods and other materials as well. So...they are certainly worth the money, and your guitar is certainly worth the 1K price to that extent. But...here is where your friend is right...but he doesn't know it. The Gibson L-00 was a cheap guitar, a basic low end, budget level guitar. Have you ever seen an actual vintage one from the 30's or 40's...their heyday? They used lower grade woods on those, by far, than what Eastman is using on their/your L-00 model, and Eastman's construction craftsmanship is miles and miles ahead of the caliber of work that Gibson did on those old L-00's. Gibson built those cheap, fast, and dirty. Lower grade woods, bracing rough cut off of a saw and just glued...with a slop of glue...straight on the guitar...no shaping, no sanding, no cleaning it up...just cut and stick. And Gibson carried that caliber of craftsmanship...if you could really call it that...debateable...on throughout the every facet of building that model. But, that was kinda the point to that guitar...it was a "cheap, fast, and dirty" budget guitar. It sold, in the 30's and 40's for around 30.00 to 40.00. I think in the 30's the list price was like $27.00 or $28.00, just a basic instrument that was affordable for folks who wanted a Gibson guitar, but did not have the money...remember...30's and 40's...to buy a nicer, higher end instrument. They were Gibson's "Cheapo" all around, but, they played well, held up well...in spite of their build/material quality...and have that certain sound that only those old L-00's can really create. So...Eastman making an L-00 style model that sells for 1K is sort of a polar opposite to what the actual original guitar from Gibson was all about. But...for all that extra money...you are certainly getting a much higher quality version than the original, to be sure. duff Be A Player...Not A Polisher |
#32
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Wow I didn't see it that way. I know that the L-00 were budget guitars in those days but I still thought that they were amazingly made. And yeah I'm not sure that they used the same quality of woods or time to make them. So I see your point! |
#33
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No debate. He simply stated his opinion on the matter. Most of the other commentary herein revolves around "I don't like Eastman because...." followed by "but MY Eastman ...." - completely pointless. The "my dog is better than your dog" goes nowhere. Just play what you like.
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#34
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Hi, I'm afraid that the "friend" is revealing a certain type of bias.
With just one Exception, all my instruments are made abroad. One comes from China (Eastman archtop) one comes from the Czech Republic (my mandolin) and most come from the USA. So, all foreign made.
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! Last edited by Silly Moustache; 03-12-2019 at 08:42 AM. |
#35
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I'm in the camp of the friend being flat-out wrong, due to uninformed bias. And that's not just because I own and enjoy an Eastman. I just don't think it's possible to make broad generalizations like that about what an instrument is "worth" or its quality based on where it was made. People anywhere are capable of producing a fine instrument as long as the workers/luthiers are trained and (perhaps more importantly) there's a market for the product. Remember, Japanese guitars also used to be thought of as cheap junk, and opinion has gradually caught up to reality as quality went up; that is, except for people who still can't get over the non-American bias and wouldn't play a Yairi or L-series Yamaha, as was discussed a week or so ago in a Yamaha thread. I also hear lots of good things about Faith guitars, despite Indonesia's reputation for making some of the cheapest Fender and Squier models. Guitar making is a skill, it's not something that's reliant on geography. Last edited by Archsas; 03-12-2019 at 08:30 AM. |
#36
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The Chinese have been making acoustic stringed instruments since the beginning of time. They kinda know how to do it. |
#37
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#38
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Same old, same old.
The preponderance of comments are very favorable to Eastman. Others say "buy what you want regardless." That's cool. Lastly a handful of negatives based on guitars made ten years ago or more. Negative remarks about bad experiences can be made about any brand including custom builds by independent luthiers. I won't do that... serves no purpose and doesn't reflect well on me. YMMV.
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Nothing bothers me unless I let it. Martin D18 Gibson J45 Gibson J15 Fender Copperburst Telecaster Squier CV 50 Stratocaster Squier CV 50 Telecaster Last edited by Kerbie; 03-12-2019 at 06:47 PM. |
#39
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#40
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At the end of the day I don't care what my friend says. But I bring it up because honestly this is not the first time I purchased a foreign made guitar for over $500 and got some criticism.
In about 2008 I bought an EASTWOOD electric guitar for $800 new. It was a cool guitar. It was a copy of an old Airline guitar. But made better. I took it to this small guitar shop by my home, at the time, and the guitar teacher there played it. He was shocked when I told him how much I payed for the Korean made guitar. It was almost like his brain didn't think you should buy an asian made guitar at that price. Even though it was high quality. I remember him saying "for an imported guitar?" And I feel the same way now with my friend. As if " no way, for that money i could buy..... (this or that American guitar.) And I will tell you, I believe that these instruments will hold their value. There will be people who look at their build and materials and buy it. Nothing like an all solid acoustic. Let's face it, you will be hard pressed to find an all solid acoustic under $800, no matter where it is made. Maybe a Fender PM. But it's slim pickings. |
#41
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Tell us what your friend has. We can arm you with enough one liners about his gear to send him scurrying.
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Goodall, Martin, Wingert |
#42
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Well..................like, like, like, like and more like. Last edited by Steadfastly; 03-12-2019 at 06:58 PM. |
#43
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RwP |
#44
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One of the things that the MIC guitars are missing - whether you want to admit it or not - is history, and this history has value in the marketplace. I doubt people were buying Martins in the late 1800's and thinking "man, this thing will be worth a crap load of money in a century or so". However, we now know that they are.
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“Pretty drawings last for 15 minutes. Art lasts for centuries. Pretty drawings come from fear. Art comes from love and despair.” “Out of dialogue with others comes rhetoric. Out of dialogue with yourself comes poetry.” Last edited by Kerbie; 03-12-2019 at 11:24 AM. Reason: Removed religion |
#45
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Well, I think the idea that Chinese guitars have some kind of irrevocable stink on them because they are Chinese is silly. Their best guitars are very competitive and Eastman guitars are a good example of this, though I would have to note that an Eastman E10Ss/v costs about as much as a used modern Gibson j45, or pretty close. I'd rather have the Gibson for a number of reasons, but none of them have to do with the Eastman being made in China. Are we going to complain about Canadian guitars because they are Canadian? Every guitar, no matter who makes it, has to be played and judged on its merits as an instrument and some pass and some fail. Everybody makes duds sooner or later, after all. Who has not played a Martin or Gibson or Fender that happened to be inferior to the next guitar on the rack? They are all just made out of wood, after all.
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2003 Martin OM-42, K&K's 1932 National Style O, K&K's 1930 National Style 1 tricone Square-neck 1951 Rickenbacker Panda lap steel 2014 Gibson Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe Ltd, Custom Shop, K&K's 1957 Kay K-27 X-braced jumbo, K&K's 1967 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Nashville 2024 Mahogany Weissenborn, Jack Stepick Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina Tonedexter |