-
-
12-18-2017 02:31 PM
-
I have always been apprehensive about seeing the massive CC pickup with the tri screw mounting on a top with spruce softwood grain, especially as light as Eastman tends to build.
It may look like a fantasy come true to some players, but it makes me very nervous. Feedback, grainline cracks and the effects of that much pickup on a lightly built carved top. Keep in mind every Eastman I've seen tends to be lighter than any Gibson I've ever seen within that design class. Excepting the small del rey type guitars.
Let me know how that works out.
David
-
Sure looks cool
But it needs a pickguard.
-
It was more of an observation that anything else...
For me, ideal would be doing this sort of thing on the AR371ce platform to get more of a Gibson ES175-CC sort of vibe. This would address most of the concerns you raise Truth.
Or a laminate 17" instrument... I need to cultivate an Eastman ear for ideas like that...
But I was mostly fascinated how Eastman is quite willing to make instruments there is a current demand for. The big guys seem to be stuck with one size, we have made it forever this way, stop asking questions and buy the damn thing frame of mind...
-
I played one of these at Rudy's back in April. It was a cool guitar. It didn't sound like an ES 150, but nobody expected it to. It sounded really clear and really nice. Surprisingly loud acoustically, given the massive pickup hanging from it.
-
The lower bolt passes through the intersection of the X-bracing, so it's not as dependent on the top alone as some of you might fear. This helps retain the acoustic response in addition to being far more secure than using just the thin spruce top as an anchor.
-
I guy I know has a similar one (his has what looks sapele or rosewood back and sides). I haven't played it, and only have heard him play it so I can't comment from direct experience. It sounds good, in a bright, single-coil kind of way; doesn't seem to feed back more than other archtops. Like all Eastmans, very pretty woods and finish.
Originally Posted by guido5
Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
-
I wish they made a Super 400 option meaning 18 inch. I might bite on one if they would, floater for me not ces.
-
Get one built from Lora. Originally Posted by deacon Mark
David
-
David: can you elaborate a bit on your point regarding the El Rey models. Which Gibson design class would you compare them to? And are you saying the equivalent Gibson would be about the same weight as an El Rey? I'm actually looking at the 14" El Rey models specifically because of how light they are--Eastman says they average about 5.5 pounds. Thanks much!
Originally Posted by TruthHertz
-
But that price tag: $4000! One might be able to have a CC pickup retrofitted to an existing guitar and come below that price point.
-
Don,t know about this one. They seem to have copied a few designs and somehow it has not quite worked out, in my opinion at least.
Maccaferri - Fibonacci type cut-away, kinda cc pick-up, benny tail piece, huge f-holes. The stain finish, especially on the top is horrendous, looks like it started to dry on the rag as it was being applied. Just my take.
-
ok..i agree with th^^..to have a pickup with that much hardware counteracts the benefits (acoustically) of an all spruce top... and also leaves it prone to splitting down the grain line
also they use a lollar cc pickup...which is not a true cc pup design anyway...it's cosmetic..the extra 3 screws are not holding magnets..they are holding acrylic plates...
lollar was making them as direct fit replacements for old units...without the huge cobalt magnets of the original you might as well just get the single rout versions...like what lollar (and pete b/vintage vibe) also make...
so for the sake of looks (albeit cool...but), they've destroyed a spruce top
dont drink the kool-aid
cheers
ps- & i love jason lollar pups..great pickup guy..but not the best use of one of his great designs!!Last edited by neatomic; 12-18-2017 at 07:32 PM. Reason: ps-
-
I believe the $4k price tag is retail price, so probably discount 20 to 30% of that.
-
Cool guitar but it needs the UK made CC pickup - ie the one with the huge cobalt magnets to justify mounting it that way.
-
Rudy is asking $3200. Looks awful pretty to me.
-
I agree on the aesthetics, but there's real potential. Eastman is in a position to compete with some high end builders like Daniel Slaman by providing a lower-budget alternative. People are into those CC's, but there's a cosmetic inconsistency between the vintage pickup and the modern styling. Maybe consider the following: use black instead of tortoiseshell for the pickup cover, add a pickguard, get rid of the cutaway or at least offer a no-cutaway version, use a metal trapeze tailpiece, use vintage style tuning knobs, offer it in sunburst (Eastman does a great sunburst!). This guitar could be a must-have if it just didn't look halfway between a Benedetto and a 30's Gibson.
Also, I imagine the additional cost comes from having the pickup installed in the US rather than in China. I'd hope a lower price could become feasible.
-
Looks nice, but at a $3,400 street price... more than I would care to spend on an Eastman.
Eastman AR905CC Custom Edition Archtop w/ Lollar Charlie | Reverb
-
^This. Aesthetic and historical dissonance gets my goat every time and is avoidable. Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
-
"The stain finish, especially on the top is horrendous, looks like it started to dry on the rag as it was being applied. Just my take."
Finally, someone who agrees with me about Eastman's vintage/antique finish.
I have been commenting for years this looks like a Jr High School woodworking project gone bad.
A deterrent to purchase.
-
The old AR805 model with a CC of your choice (floating or set in) probably wouldn't be a bad option either. Originally Posted by Steve Z
Big
-
The El Rey is different from Gibson tendency in design. They're kinda in a class of their own. Thicker tops and smaller width. It's really not the way Gibson builds, and they're not as acoustic sounding as any other Eastman or Gibson, but they do have an acoustic quality all their own. Originally Posted by Eastman
For all acoustic solid top models of a given width, 16", 17", Gibson uses a different arching pattern and a thicker top thickness than Eastman. It's not a matter of money, or carving time, because it takes just as long to carve either top. But Gibson and Eastman have carving thicknesses that favour different playing responses. The thinner graduations of the Eastman are a more modern design, for lack of a better term (not better nor worse) and give more off of the immediate attack because of the lower mass. Gibsons have built instruments with more driving "chunk and thunk" that gives a rounder sound, and ultimately tend towards a top that can be driven harder.
Gibson has changed over the years, and I have to say that there were instruments of vintage age that I feel were built lighter (not as light as an Eastman) that have amazing acoustic qualities. These days I do feel that Gibsons are overbuilt compared with older Gibsons. Part of that is an interest in warrantee survivability, part of that is that it takes real lutherie chops to take a top down to the thickness of acoustic response and not risk going too far, and part of it is the way you were trained. I don't know how the present luthiers of Gibson were trained, but I do know they left a lot of their old school knowledge back in Michigan.
Jimmy D'Aquisto made a contribution to lutherie when he started breaking new ground in his acoustic instruments. They were lighter in build, almost in the cello thickness range and they became the model for many builders who came after him.
Any Eastman I've tried was more responsive, lighter built and certainly lighter in weight than any modern Gibson. But that's not just Eastman. The equivalent sized Benedettos are also built for acoustic response and their graduations are for a thinner average top and back carving.
But what that does mean, in this case, is unless Eastman is building that top with especially reenforced thicker tops, reenforcement beneath the mounting holes (maybe a cross grain lamination beneath the screw holes) or something like that, a CC pickup is going to have less to bite into and that much mass is going to tax a piece of wood that already tends to separate along grain lines under unloaded conditions.
But I'm not the builder. And I'm not the buyer. And maybe for a bunch of buyers it might work out fine. But I am sure there's a higher incidence of owners of a guitar like that that will experience some problem. I see it in tops much thicker just from screw holes for a standard humbucker pickup ring, and that's nothing in comparison. Spruce is not forgiving in that way.
Just one peanut's opinion here...
David
-
My ElRey4 weighs in at 5lbs, it has a light floating pickup but a longer brass, wood overlay tailpiece. Originally Posted by Eastman
-
Sigh, when this thread started I suspected criticism would be slathered on this git, but hoped it would take more of a "Good job" tone. I have no interest in CC type pups but I'm glad to see someone is listening to those who do.
-
I'll never understand this kind of thinking: You've never played or heard one of these guitars but you have determined it's not worth the selling price because....? Someone on this forum a few months back bought an L5 and had to send back to the factory twice. I would expect he paid more than $3400 (if not double or more) but it says Gibson on the headstock. Could you please share with us disappointments you personally experienced with each Eastman guitar you've played? Originally Posted by Steve Z
Reply With Quote
Developing an Individual Style
Yesterday, 07:54 PM in Everything Else