Compare Eastman guitars

[jzucker]

I may be selling the 165 if anyone is interested:

[cmajor9]

Wow! That's the best-looking 165 I've seen. I was looking at those seriously awhile ago, but most didn't have such a nice finish (sometimes Eastman finishes can seem a bit "ambiguous" to me).

[heavyblues]

i have a t146sm. The stock pickup is nice, but I replaced it with a CC...now it is superior imo(in terms of tone and dynamics). If ONLY the CC pickup didn't have so much noise. Despite the noise, that pickup is staying in there and never getting swapped out!

I love mine. Never tried an el rey, but boy they seem awesome.

As a side note, the sort of uneven dynamics, resonance, volume, and punchy attack that i noticed in the t146sm seems to do with the pickup I think(loud warm and seemed hard for me to tame in terms of dynamics). My reasoning being that once I swapped it to the CC, the dynamics cleaned up. The volume, attack and punch backed off perhaps from switching from a humbucker to a 'light' single coil.

Thought I would add that in there, in case you find the 'bold' character of the t-series to be an issue, if at all.

I really want an el rey though, i think they are the future!

[NSJ]

The Eastman El Rey ER1 7 string is fantastic! I swapped an older Gibby for one and have NO REGRETS. it's very neck heavy, and playing with a strap is a must--I installed strap locks on mine.

For the price, it's the best 7 string on the market--lightweight, under 6 pounds, elegant and simple ornamentation, 25" Johnny Smith scale.

Also, learning to play 7 string is a revelation on the deficiencies of the 6 string--for example, playing chords up the neck, you can get proper sounding bass notes that really make the melody notes right true.

The El Reys seem to be Eastmans secret weapon--mine is small and light enough to fit into a Fender gig bag!

[Steve Z]

The Eastman El Rey ER1 7 string is fantastic! I swapped an older Gibby for one and have NO REGRETS. it's very neck heavy, and playing with a strap is a must--I installed strap locks on mine...

Here is an old thread telling that Jeff Hale has an easy, relatively inexpensive fix to get the neck to balance properly...

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guita...html#post69678


Neck Heavy issue is discussed around 4:30 point of this video...

Cheers,
Steve

[jzucker]

you can velcro fishing weights near the endpin jack to solve the balance problem. Doesn't take much...

[basile865]

I know this is a little late but I finally was able to get over to Sound Pure and try out and compare a few Eastman guitars.

I was very impressed with the build quality. They all were light weight, comfortable neck carves, solid strong jacks, pots and selector switch if equipped. Fit and finish was top notch - excellent stuff. I tried numerous models although the El Rey wasn't in stock. Mostly 15", 16" hollow bodies.

I did compare them to a few Benedetto models as well as a used Sadowsky that was in stock. The Eastmans held their own against much more expensive guitars. Only thing I found on one of them was the frets felt a little grindy when using any vibrato. Thats one of my biggest pet peeves on a guitar, but then again they're not really designed to have notes bent too much - but I come from a blues background and thats part of my sound.

They are a good enough deal that I would spend the extra money on having the frets polished or re crowned to be a little smoother and you'd still come out with an instrument with excellent value and tone.

They were very close to the Benedetto models I played, however the Benedettos seemed just a tiny tiny bit more uniform across the fretboard. I'm used to a guitar having a few sweet spots in the neck that just sound better - I was very impressed with one of the Benedetto's I played having equal volume and resonance anywhere on the fretboard - even past the 12th fret.

But for half the money if not more then half, Eastman gets my vote. Great guitars.

[jzucker]

a fret level/polishing should run less than $75. Most shops will do that as part of the sale.