The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    I have an Eastman AR810CE. I like the unplugged sound. No, it's not as loud as a flat top but it also has a different sound than a flat top - more the fundamental note and less overtones. Some prefer that sound for jazz. I can also plug in my AR810 for the amplified jazz sound. I have choices. My AR810 is well made and plays well. I spent a little bit of money on a set-up and a bit of fret leveling which will be true for many guitars other than from custom builders. I put a Benedetto pickup in mine but many are happy with the stock KA pickup. The difference is subtle. $1,100 is a fair price.

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  3. #52

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    When I was trying out guitars, I compared the AR810 I bought to a Kingpin in the store. I played them both acoustically for about an hour switching back and forth. The acoustic tone of the Kingpin was nowhere near as good as the Eastman.

  4. #53

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    Well today was a new guitar day! After playing a large collection of guitars at a local shop, I landed on an Eastmam AR810.

    Super nice guitar, loud as hell unplugged... i took it by my luthiers place who said some frets were a little bit high but tapped them perfect, and then lowered some fret action, because my luthier does really low priced work this was a great buy on a new guitar.

    Definitely going to replace the "kent armstrong" with a real one.

    Overall very pleased..minor setup work needed done but im pretty excited to get to know it and let it warm up.

    Eastman AR810CE-20160825_151152-jpg

  5. #54

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    Congratulations on a beautiful archtop!

  6. #55

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    That's a beautiful sunburst! Congratulations, and play it in good health!

  7. #56

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    I love the AR810 !! It was Eastman's first arch top and pretty much a copy of a Benedetto Manhattan. They are wonderful instruments. Another pickup worth mentioning on that guitar would be a Bartolini 5J, neck mounted is the smart way to go, takes some strain off that pick guard mounting. eBay has them.

    Big

  8. #57

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    congrats!

    can you elucidate on just what your luthier had to do with frets..did he have to level certain high frets (via sanding) or actually hammer the high frets back into their fret slots??

    kent A handmade pups, good move

    enjoy


    cheers

  9. #58

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    Oh I missed that... yes, contact Kent Armstrong directly and tell him what you want. I had him do one for my Heritage Eagle. Great sounding archtop pickup!

  10. #59

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    Eastmans (Eastmen ?) are great guitars. Congrats, and enjoy !

  11. #60

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    It's a good guitar, indeed. For an acoustic, I personally would prefer a higher action and higher frets, not what I would have on an electric guitar. But it's your guitar, and if you prefer it that way, I'm happy for you!

  12. #61

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    Honestly, fit and finish is just what it should be for what I payed, but the real mind blowing thing was, I played tons of VERY expensive guitars at the shop, 5k+ hand made instruments....some of which i really couldn't understand being the price point they were.. No names going to be mentioned but I almost bought one of the mans guitars this last summer, and it would have cost me nearly 5k dollars. I guess the point is, you don't know whats gonna call out at you, regardless of price/quality until you put your hands on it.I guess I can chalk that up to "one mans trash" because I thought "holy hell am I glad I didn't make that move," I would have been so disappointed.


    I have an eastman mandolin that I play Bach Partitas on and it shakes down some of the best mandolins on the market at jams where I slip Bach licks into bluegrass tunes. But I am astonished at how loud the instrument is, how well it plays after I had my luthier set it up (which was FREE!! yahoo!!) Got off the phone with Kent Armstrong this morning, he's a really clever guy for sure, and his reputation speaks for his quality. Thanks for the love guys.

  13. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
    It's a good guitar, indeed. For an acoustic, I personally would prefer a higher action and higher frets, not what I would have on an electric guitar. But it's your guitar, and if you prefer it that way, I'm happy for you!
    I wish i was able to determine a guitar's action from an angle like on the OP's foto. What's the secret to be able to do this - and how high is the action you see on this particular foto?

  14. #63

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    I thought he said his luthier lowered the action, but on re-reading I see he said lower the fret action. It's a slightly confusing term. Does he mean file the frets lower?

  15. #64

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    ok, so the frets were tapped back into place to perfect level. no, they werent sanded, nor were they really raised, but my luthiers are ocd. so that being said, i took it to them to have it set up proper, sure enough they found a few things right in front of me. so ill let them get to know the instrument as it changes based on what they did, and learn what it likes myself over time. Now, i did have the string action lowered, which I prefer to be just a bit higher than electric height, but there are so many variables to what I like, the guitar, the strings, etc etc. i cant say what exactly makes that happen.

  16. #65

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    I'm still happy with the AR810CE I purchased new in 2007. At that time they had no tone pot and the volume pot has an annoying taper. One of these days I plan to install a Schatton dual control. I had to reglue a bit of wood binding on the pickguard. Otherwise it plays great and is problem-free.

  17. #66

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    Congrats Thelonious! I agree with your assessment, 3 years ago I was searching for a carved archtop with a great acoustic voice. After many months of testing guitars I bought an AR910ce, every 9 series Eastman I played was very hard to put down, love the 1.75 nut, 25" scale great playability, regardless of price. Later this month will be replacing the stock KA with the hand-wound 12 pole.

    As much as I love my Eastman, it is thunkless, but I'm fortunate to also have a 175.

  18. #67

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    Eastman AR810CE-p_20170515_172038-jpg

    So I picked up this beauty through a local Craigslist guitar-for-guitar trade. I offered a very nice (but not my favorite) flat top and brought this Eastman home. It's a 2005 AR 810 ce, original owner, that sat in a closet for the past 10+ years. It looks as good as a new guitar on display at a shop!

    I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it plays perfect, looks great and sounds great. The acoustic sound is loud and punchy with a pick, and the electric sound is just wonderful. Of course, we are in the honeymoon, but hey

    I'm not sure what strings are on it (maybe Elixirs) but they sound good enough for now that I'm not in a big hurry to change them out. Also, the black colored floating pick up with "the Eastman" printed on the cover sounds quite good enough to me at this point.

    This guitar came with the quirky but interesting older Cello style hard case, which is . . . interesting.

    I'd love to hear some experiences and recommendations from other 810 owners.

  19. #68

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    You got yourself a very nice guitar. A pro in my area plays one through a silverface Super Reverb. He sounds great through this rig. Your Rivera amp in the picture should work very well with this guitar. Enjoy.

  20. #69

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    I've been a big Eastman fan since 2009 when I got a prototype (unmarked) from Archtop Guy... I love it to pieces. The guitar is not from 2009 for any fact checkers, it's from around 2002 or 2003, purported by Eastman reps who recognize it's back as their 5th guitar for their first NAMM show. The Eastmans are real sleepers in my book...

    Congratulations !!

  21. #70

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    Congrats! When you get to string choices it is a tough decision. I have tried almost everything on my 805ce and right now I have a 13 set of d'addario half rounds on it. It is tough with these guitars because they are so good acoustic but, at least personally, I want a good electric sound too. I have put 14s on most of my guitars at this point and this guitar is the one that did not sound as good with them. I think that 12 or 13 gauges do the best because heavier doesn't let the top vibrate as freely and it doesn't produce a tone as good. Next string change I might put TI Bebops back on because they played well with this guitar.

    Unless you got a replacement pickguard on there I think that yours is later than mine. Mine is also a 2005 but it has the larger pickguard. It came with one under the guard volume knob but it was not good so I changed it out almost right away. I didn't like the pickup so I changed that to an old GB10 pickup, then a Benedetto and finally to a Kent Armstrong floating PAF and it is perfect for the electric tone I want from this guitar. If you like the pickup, though, no need to change it but I thought I'd mention it.

    I have been curious about how many guitars they made each year - what is your serial number? Mine is 00231.

    I also love the wood on this thing. Eastman has a reputation for traveling around looking for nice wood and even though the two pieces of my back don't match up I just love the look of the wood. What does your back look like? I didn't know if they weren't matching backs on most guitars or if it was just mine - I got it in 2008 from Lou at Guitars n Jazz in NJ and he said that it was marked a second - it had a virtually unnoticeable, 1/8" sized mark on the finish and that was what he said had it marked a second but i didn't know if the back played into it too even though he said it was just the mark. The sides are also amazing to look at.

    Also my tuners have gotten bad over the years. It holds a tune just fine but three of the tuners have a large amount of resistance when turning them. Since they work I haven't changed them but I'm sure at some point I will do it.

    Also, the neck is one of, if not the best necks I have ever played. The action can get lower than any other guitar I have tried (even after having fret work done on other guitars).

    Big congrats and welcome to the club. Here's mine.




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  22. #71

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    Hey Rio,

    Thanks so much for the interesting, useful, and detailed reply

    I notice your 805 has a different cutaway shape from my 810. Also I should mention that the 810 is pretty darn big!!!

    Regarding the backside woods, mine is not super spectacular looking like yours -- a bit of mis-matched slightly flamed maple.
    Serial number is 0997, so yes later in the year. I assume the guitar is all original -- including the pickguard -- as that is the way the seller was original owner as he presented it and he seems like a stand up guy and his story made sense (as in he knows the local Eastman dealer and so do I) I think the darkish burst finish is gorgeous -- different from yours, my guitar has burst finish front, back and sides.

    Regarding the strings, I appreciate the advice (and would love to hear plenty more options/opinions) . . . I'll probably just start out with my usual Elixir 12's for now as that may be what's on it and it sounds pretty darn good already. I'm not quite sure how to balance the acoustic vs electric sound . . . we'll see over time.

    I'm perfectly happy with the stock pickup and would love to learn more about it. It only has a volume wheel, but a tone wheel would be a welcome addition.

    Also, I'm sad to hear that the Gotoh tuners haven't held up over time. I like Gotoh's in general. I'm guessing that my guitar hasn't seen much use so they are still working like new.

  23. #72

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    You might not have the same experience with the tuners. Students and colleagues have not had this issue, although only a couple have older Eastmans.

    That is very interesting to hear your serial! This was at the beginning of their production so I am surprised they made that many in 2005, and I didn't know that they changed the pickguard so soon. I would like to switch mine out at some point because when I have taken off the guard in the past I have noticed a bit more acoustic volume. I am not eager to reinstall the pickup though and there is some me sentimental value since I didn't have the right tools so I sat for a long time with a small file to cut out the right shape for the pickup since it was larger than the stock pickup. Also quite interesting that they were doing the sunburst on the whole body later in 2005. I wonder if I wrote them to ask for some of that history if they would write back.

    I had a very hard decision between the 805 and 810 - they were both great. Also there were both cutaways available. I am not sure what they are offering now for cutaways and if both versions are still offered.

    If you like the pickup, there is some coolness to it because they don't use them anymore so you won't see them around unless you have an older Eastman. It's been so long that I don't remember what I didn't like about it and my tone preferences have changed over time and now that I have more guitars to choose from (and am not trying to get a super versatile sound from just this one guitar like i used to) so it is possible that I would like it now if I still had it on.


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  24. #73

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    I actually bought an 810 last week. My local dealer gets lots of Eastmans that have been classified as "blemished" by the company, but I can't find a single mark on it, and got a great price. I absolutely love this guitar. I also have an AR803-CE that I got in 2010, and they definitely have their own vibe. I know that some people find a 17" archtop uncomfortable to play, but I love it. (Maybe it's because I play sitting down?)

    I read a post from a while back that mentioned an issue with the tone control being unresponsive, such that when you you try to roll a little off the highs, it doesn't seem to affect the sound until about 80% of the way. I found that to be true, and the tone dial is pretty useless, but I've been able to compensate with my amp. Perhaps I'll swap it out someday, but it's not a huge deal.

    Anyway, enjoy it knowing you've got a great guitar that plays way above its MSRP.
    Last edited by billd; 05-16-2017 at 12:42 PM.

  25. #74

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    I find the 17" body with the 3"depth to be exceedingly comfortable. I'll fact, I actually found it to be more comfortable than the 805 which has a deeper body.

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  26. #75

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    Wow! Happy NGD! That looks exqusite (sp?). I'm really starting to like some of the Eastman archtops, since my new old friend has a Pisano that I've fallen in love with and hoping that someday I can persuade him to part with it. It's such a fine guitar, I doubt it will ever occur. Congratulations and enjoy that music!

    S