Eastman AR380CE John Pisano

[jerrylm]

Hi all, I was looking around for prices as I plan on purchasing a Eastman 503 archtop, after a bit of a disappointing experience with the Epi 175, pretty much come to the conclusion I like them much better in all respects. I had pretty much ruled out the 371 from Eastman because I like the smoother cut out and style of the 503 a bit more.

Then last night I went to LA Guitar Sales and here pops up an AR380 Eastman, sure looks like a beautiful guitar! And the price is spot on for me.

Only thing is it has two pickups but overall sure looks like a nice guitar in the photos. Never heard of this model and would like to know if anyone here has seen one?

Or if anyone owns one? Any opinions or information sure is welcome, can't find to much on them so far...

[spiral]

Ooglybong has one.

What are you looking for? Those 3 Eastmans are all very different. The 503 and 371 are on pretty opposite spectrums.

503 = 25" scale, carved top, 2.5" deep
371 = 24.6" scale, laminate top, 3.25" deep
380 = 25" scale, laminate top, 3.25" deep

[richpiv]

According to postings I've seen, the 380 is all laminate maple 16 X 3 5/16, but every site seems to have a different scale length and nut width.

The 580 is carved maple top, laminate back and sides 16" X 2 9/16", 25" scale and 1 3/4" nut. The 580 seems to have the same specs as the 503, but with slightly better looking wood. I have a 580 and agree with Jack that is sounds a tad wispy without much bite or thunk. It does have a nice acoustic tone, better I thought than the 503.

I've changed out the pickup to a Gibson 57 without much improvement. So I think this one will turn into the "pickup experiment" model. Maybe a Charlie Christian design or a staple, just for grins but probably a KA hand-wound.

[jzucker]

specs are all over the place on this. Mine has a 3pc mahogany(ish) neck and rosewood(ish) fingerboard. Neck heel is glued on. Pickups are extremely weak. Less than 1/2 the output of a traditional PAF. I found that the guitar doesn't have a huge amount of character. What I've noticed in my travels is that the older wood really does make a difference. This guitar sounds like a new guitar to me. It's a pretty sounding instrument but it doesn't speak to me. It appears to be slightly less than 3" thick , 16" wide and a 1 3/4 nut. I find the nut width to be too wide. I'm not sure why it became the rage to have the wider neck when the best jazz fingerpickers such as pasquale grasso, peter mazza, tuck andress handle 1 11/16 just fine. I feel that the width and neck depth on this guitar make it slightly uncomfortable to play if you have small hands. Scale length feels like 24.75" but I didn't measure.

[tvorog]

Hi!
Have been thinking about buying Easman guitar fo some time, but i live in a country with no official Eastman dealer so i only can buy used one. And one guy here is selling his Eastman AR380CE John Pisano signature (basically it is the only Eastman electric on sale in whole country right now lol) for like $1100 and i'm not able to play it before purchasing. Guitar is really beautiful from what i can see on the internet and it looks like a nice option to me (cosidering that i can't think of any other avaliable alternative besides Ibanez PM2) but i have some second thoughts.
So my question is what do you think about that guitar? Been looking at ES-175 style guitar, love the sound and style of it, and this guitar happens to be very similar (its only thinner, i believe). I am more into bassy, mellow sound. My reference points in terms of sound are Jim Hall, Joe Diorio, Metheny, if talking about old school guys and Gilad Hekselman and Kreisberg if talking about new generation.
I am assuming John Pisano is an old school guy, so how flexible is this guitar in terms of sound? How does it cope with more modern sound?
Thanks!

[ronjazz]

It's well-made, comfortable and most I've played are easy to play, a good choice for the money. It's electric and hollow, so you should be able to get a nice warn sound out if it with a good amp.

[Bflat]

Hi there,

I own this model. It is a great guitar in my opinion. Very light weight and the pickups do provide some nice low end. It has a great neck and fretboard. Never tried a real Gibson ES-175 so I can’t compare for you. As for versatility I think it is only (or at least best) straight ahead clean old school jazz. Check out some videos of John Pisano as this guitar really can do this sound very well.

Cosmetically it is wonderful but the color of mine is much redder than a friend of mine’s is but it plays so well and sounds great so it really doesn’t matter. Hope this helps!

[jzucker]

extremely different guitars. The eastman has a very thin top and a response more like a hand carved archtop . It's a much lighter build than the 175 which is a thick top, very heavy build. The eastman will feedback more but will have a more delicate and complex sound where the 175 will have a more electric sound, more sustain, less feedback and that typical thunky midrange. You won't get thunk AT ALL from the eastman. I would say that in terms of consistency, the eastman would be your best best. Gibson 175s are one of the most inconsistent guitars.

[WilliamScott]

The Eastman 380 is a great guitar. Good price too.

[tvorog]

extremely different guitars. The eastman has a very thin top and a response more like a hand carved archtop . It's a much lighter build than the 175 which is a thick top, very heavy build. The eastman will feedback more but will have a more delicate and complex sound where the 175 will have a more electric sound, more sustain, less feedback and that typical thunky midrange. You won't get thunk AT ALL from the eastman. I would say that in terms of consistency, the eastman would be your best best. Gibson 175s are one of the most inconsistent guitars.

Thanks for the answer. English is not my native tongue, so i'm sorry, but what exactly do you mean by "thunky"? And how what would you say about getting the tones for players i described in the starting post?

[neatomic]

john pisano replaced jim hall in hall's first band-the chico hamilton quintet...he also was joe pass' right hand man...great player...

im not an eastman fan, but the pisano model is the exception...and 1100$ is great price!!!..almost too good...make sure seller is good and will accept return

luck

cheers

[jads57]

Jack Z nailed the description of these guitars. I used to own the JP880 model. Very nice light 16" archtop with a very thin top and back to produce an acoustic response.

ES-175 depending on year or model can vary quite a bit in light build to very heavy laminate construction . I prefer the heavier builds of the late 1980s to more current models
Although they do build a Historic lighter build that's quite nice in on way!

[jzucker]

Thunk is the mid range honk you get out of a great 175. It's a term I've coined but it seems to have stuck and is now widely used to describe this kind of smokey, dark, mid-rangey tone that the 175 is famous for. You won't get this out of the eastman guitars. I've heard it from some older guilds and also the seventy seven guitars.

[Jonathan0996]

I played one once and thought it was a terrific guitar. Easy to play, nice and light. Very responsive, but not at all like a 175. Jack was right about that.

The Eastman would make a great solo or duo guitar. You can milk a lot of nuance out of it. You might be able to use it with a rhythm section if you stuffed enough foam in it, but as it is I think it would be pretty feedback prone. That's what light, lively and responsive guitars do.

[tvorog]

Guys, sorry for my questions, but this is the video that should have been added to the starting post. Peter Bernstein's sound (right audio channel) is exactly the tone i'm in the search for right now. Bassy, mellow, thick. Is eastman fine for that kind of tone?

[73Fender]

From a practical point of view, if these guitars are hard to come by in the op’s area, and considering the price, there doesn’t seem to be much down side in trying one.

I’m a fan of the brand and have bought three used Eastman acoustics. One day I hope to try one of their arch tops.

Good luck to the OP.

[sgosnell]

Bernstein plays a boutique solid carved top model. The Eastman is about as close to that as you can get from a moderately priced factory guitar. Considering that there are few other options open to the OP, I would advise going for it. It's all well and good to recommend every make and model we know about, but if they aren't available to the OP, it's a waste of everyone's time.

[ledocs]

I own one of the early Eastman AR 880CE's, #12 in the series, I believe. I bought it used on consignment at Buffalo Bros. guitars in Carlsbad, CA. I retired in 2006 and moved to France. I think I bought this guitar in around 2008, and I've been buying guitars at a rate of one every three years since I retired, although two of them are guitars I bought for around $400 just to travel with, one I keep at home in France, the other is stored at a relative's house in the Bay Area.

I like the Pisano for its light weight and playability and tone, but I was playing it yesterday, checking its intonation, and I've realized that it's too mid-rangy for me now, its tonal characteristics are very limited, it's pretty much like an acoustic guitar with a pickup, I have one of those too, but the amplified acoustic is much brighter than the Pisano. So I'm thinkng about modifying the Pisano 800CE by adding a pickup, possibly another Kent Armstrong humbucker in the bridge position, so that my 880CE would be converted into the functional equivalent of the 380CE. I've never heard a 380CE, so I am not looking to duplicate its sound at all (although I will now look at demos of it on the Internet, maybe hear what the bridge pickup on its own sounds like), but what I do want to achieve is the ability to brighten up the 880 and to make it less limited to the one classic jazz tone that it currently produces. I just want to add some treble and have the ability to brighten up the sound. And If there is a selector switch, as there is on Eastman's picture of the 380CE, the tone I have now would still always be available.

So my question is, what do people think of this idea generally? How much should it cost, and how much work would it be for the luthier? I sort of assume that this could all be done with dental mirrors or something and without drilling new holes, except for the two new knobs for the second pickup and a selector switch. And am I likely to get the result that I want? I have an ES-335 too, I'm not expecting the modified Pisano to sound much like that, I just want to have the option of brightening it up, so maybe it could sound *more* like a good flat-top folk guitar with a pickup than only like the jazz box that it is. I originally bought the Pisano because I write songs with arrangements that are coming from folk-based fingerpicking, which is how I started, but with some jazz or R&B stylings thrown in. I thought it was a very good compromise. But now that I'm buying more guitars and have gotten more into true electric guitars, I would like to have a broader tonal palette available to me on the Pisano, if the modification makes at least as much sense as simply selling the Pisano. I probably don't want to spend more than 500 euros or $600 to do the modification, if it's more than that I might just sell the Pisano, perhaps starting with an offering on this website.

Another option might be to get a Piezo pickup under the saddle, but the Pisano already feeds back quite a bit, as other posters have noted, I don't want to add to that problem. My hand-made acoustic with a Baggs Anthem pickup installed has a really bad feedback problem, I hate that about it. I've managed to mitigate it a bit in the past few weeks, but it's something I'm always conscious of.