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Over the last year or so whenever I visited my fav guitar shop I’d play this guitar because it kept calling my name. An hour would fly by and then I’d pass on it… because it’s got no neck pickup. Last time I was there, I traded some guitars for an unbelievable PRS 20th Anniversary Custom 22 and finally decided the Eastman was coming too.
This is an Eastman SB55/DC. As usual for Eastman, it’s got top-notch electronics (Lollar) and hardware (Faber). What’s unusual is that when it arrived at the store straight from the factory it had a broken headstock. This particular store employs a team of top luthiers and the guitar was professionally repaired. Which means the price was right. Also unusual is the adjustable Faber bridge, which according to Eastman was only used on a handful of SB55’s.
I’m a PRS groupie. That’s the standard against which I judge other guitars. It’s very personal of course, but PRS just works for me. My only other guitars are an Ibanez GB10 and another Eastman (a Romeo). Anyway, this little single-P90 guitar is very quickly becoming a favourite. It plays and sounds fantastic and is totally addictive. It’s hardly been out of my hands since I got it.
The workmanship is exemplary. The so-called Antique Varnish finish looks and feels great. There’s nothing ‘new’ or ‘cold’ about this guitar. No need to break it in. It’s already broken in. The neck feels somewhat wider than a Gibson and also somewhat flatter. I find it super comfortable to play. It’s light, balances well and nothing gets in the way when sitting down or standing up.
Much has been said about the magic of single pickup guitars like the LP Junior. I always took that with a grain of salt to be honest. But after a month of playing this thing I have to say the hype is true. It’s amazing how many terrific sounds I can coax from this guitar by using the full sweep of the volume and tone controls. I even love playing jazz on it and don’t feel I’m missing out on anything.
It took me almost a year and three visits before I took her home but I’m so glad I did. I’m listening to Jim Hall’s Concierto album as I write this and I can get so damn close to that tone on this guitar…
Next time you find something like this in the wild, give it a chance.
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10-20-2024 12:02 PM
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Some vids.
Clean tones start around the 1 minute mark.
Clean tones start around the 2:20 mark.
Some nice clean tones around the 4:50 mark.
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Always really liked this guitar in their lineup. Wish it came in a 2-pickup version
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That’s why I passed on it twice before snagging it the third time. After a month of playing it, I think this guitar is exactly how it is meant to be. This is electric guitar playing in its purest form. Awesome. BTW, a second Lollar dog-ear P90 is easily added.
Originally Posted by chris32895
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Fabulous tones here. Check from 7:26 for example. Or the faux-acoustic sounds around 8:30. But the whole vid is worthwhile and fun. The Eastman I got gets all the tones this vintage Jr gets, perhaps a few percentage points less magical, but very inspiring and so much fun to play. I never gave much credit before to the superlative tales about Juniors but since I got this little Eastman, I do.
Using the full range of the volume control with high-headroom clean sounds may require a volume pedal with a boost function. Which I have but rarely used before, until now. Juniors are mostly run into moderately overdriven tube amps so if you roll back the volume control it cleans up without a big volume drop. Plug one into a Twin or something like that and there _will_ be a volume drop. Some of the guitar’s sweetest clean sounds can be found between 0 and 5 so some kind of boost is needed.
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This has a nice demo of a '57. The acoustic like tone is lovely. Pete Townshend got it on Live at Leeds - was that an SG with P90s? Originally Posted by Oscar67
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Yes, that was an SG with P90s.
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A single neck pickup version would be sooooo cool.
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The dogear P90 isn’t routed into the body but screwed on top of it. A luthier could easily move it to the neck position. All it would require is filling up a few small holes and routing a narrow channel for the pickup wire, which would be hidden by the pickguard. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Love These! Just wish it came with a Fatter Neck like the original ‘59Gibson version! They ring like a Bell!
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I think the bass note at the beginning is wrong. Like there are two different keys happening. Originally Posted by Oscar67
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All my best things are in hock
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This guitar was built for me about 25 years ago by a late very dear friend of mine. He was the bass player in one of my bands. I had a spare T Top from the early 70s and I fancied a single (bridge) pickup double cut. Before long, after he'd made a start on the guitar, I said I'd rather have 2 pups. I don't really know what he put it the neck but I really didn't get on with it. The balance wasn't good. I changed the neck for an SD Jazz. That overpowered the T Top so the TTop came out and I put an SD JB. Now it supposedly had Seymour's favourite combination but the Jazz really didn't suit the all mahogany guitar (it's in an LP now). The Jazz was replaced with a DiMarzio Humbucker from Hell!
With split coils on both pickups it's a very versatile guitar but it's not what I set out for it to be. True story.
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That would be cool. I wonder if you could keep just the two knobs and activate each pickup with push-pulls. Originally Posted by Oscar67
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"Jim Hall' like tone from Peter Bernstein?
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