Blue in the BlueGrass

[whvick]

Just went to the luthier to pick up my Eastman E10OO 12 fret.
Before I go farther let me say this is not a knock on Eastman. He says it is a good guitar, well made, with good wood.
It sounds great, But the sad part is the top is not stable, and it is hard to get a good set-up.
*Running a camera around the inside you can see that someone shaved the bracing, I guess hoping for even more volume. And it appears that someone also drilled out the peg holes some.
He wants me to play it for a month and bring it back. At that point if I am lucky it will be stable enough to set-up properly. If not he may have to add auxiliary support bracing.
So not worth getting upset. It is part of buying used.
However, I have seen a thread or two telling us it is not a good idea to sand or shave bracing. This is a case in point.
The good side is I have a good luthier, willing to take time to help. And if I can never get it really perfect it will not break the bank.
Even with the action high at frets down the neck, the cowboy chords sound great.
*Again I do not in any way think this is an Eastman problem.

[Taylor Ham]

Sad to see such an instrument getting unnecessary mods. In chinese there is a saying "giving the snake legs". aka perfect is the enemy of good.

Several painters were commissioned to show off their skill by painting a snake. The best one finished early, so he decided to make it even better by adding some legs. He was disqualified because it wasn't a snake anymore.

In a few years this may be the feature of one of those re-brace videos on youtube.

[whvick]

IMG_9606.jpgIMG_9609.jpgIMG_9607.jpg

Note that the crack is well repaired

[phil0021]

Looks like a new bridge — Good job Luthier!

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by whvick

Just went to the luthier to pick up my Eastman E10OO 12 fret.
Before I go farther let me say this is not a knock on Eastman. He says it is a good guitar, well made, with good wood.
It sounds great, But the sad part is the top is not stable, and it is hard to get a good set-up.
*Running a camera around the inside you can see that someone shaved the bracing, I guess hoping for even more volume. And it appears that someone also drilled out the peg holes
...
However, I have seen a thread or two telling us it is not a good idea to sand or shave bracing. This is a case in point.

This sort of thing is why, whenever the topic comes up, I warn emphatically against brace-shaving. Many choose to ignore me entirely, but I’ve seen more guitars ruined by post-factory brace whittling than by any other single cause.

It can and - as often as not - does damage the instrument.


Wade Hampton Miller

[mcduffnw]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

This sort of thing is why, whenever the topic comes up, I warn emphatically against brace-shaving. Many choose to ignore me entirely, but I’ve seen more guitars ruined by post-factory brace whittling than by any other single cause.

It can and - as often as not - does damage the instrument.


Wade Hampton Miller

And more often than not, this, brace shaving, is done to try and get more "dread or jumbo" like bass response out of a smaller body...which just ain't ever gonna happen.

But in thread after thread over the years on this forum, folks have been warned not to buy a smaller bodied guitar when they mention that they love the bigger tone, timbre, and dynamic response...especially in the bass notes...of a dread or jumbo body, but they want a smaller bodies guitar to play.

Then, over the sage advice of a few folks who warn that they are not going to get big, deep, round bass out of an OM/OOO or smaller body, the folks buy the smaller guitar and in not to short of an amount of time, they come back on the forum and start asking if there is anything they can do...strings, picks, "mods"...like brace shaving...to improve the bass response.

Some folks will suggest, shaving the braces, and before you know it, you end up with threads like this...or most often...the person suffers in silence not wanting to have to admit the mucked up the guitar, trying to do something that folks warned them from the Get/Go could not really be done.

And then the guitar gets sold to some unsuspecting/unknowing buyer...and on and on.

Tis a shame for real...for all concerned, including the guitar.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[whvick]

You nailed it.
A friend purchased this off craig’s list in Colorado for me. He and his son are both good guitarists and checked it out for me. They saw the crack but my luthier said no problem, and you can see how well he repaired that. It played ok and sounded great.
The seller did tell me that he had a bad shoulder and was in a bluegrass band. Dreads were too big and he had hoped to get the “voice” he wanted out of this OO Eastman, but could not.
When it got to KY, the luthier right off said the top was not perfect and he would run a camera around the braces.
Tommy, the luthier, did say that shaving was even worse on 12 frets because of the spacing of braces and bridge on a 12 fret.
The rest I have recounted above.
It will not help to get mad. I expect that Tommy will finally attempt to add or replace bracing. I will hope for the best cause I really like the guitar.