Opinions on Eastman AR503

[John A.]

I think you’re right about the slightly nasal resonant peak, as that’s how I’d describe it through my DRRI. However I’m increasingly thinking mine has a dud tone pot. It’s either on or it’s off (off being around 2-3) with very little effect on tone until you hit that point. I’m probably going to upgrade the pots and maybe consider a new pickup, as I’m not sure the Seth Lover complements this guitar.

One I played today had a chrome pickup cover, the other had a gold one. I think the former is the duncan and the latter is a Kent Armstrong. The chrome one might have been a hair brighter and more detailed, but it was at the edge of detectible, and the two definitely sounded like the same guitar.

John

[Humbuckr]

I retract my previous comment after further investigation and tinkering.

Im now very close to the warm Wes tone on bumpin’ and neither volume or tone controls are rolled off (and I use a jazz 3 pick, not thumb).

The key was switching to the “normal” input on my DRRI which has removed the shrill/nasal overtone I was hearing. It requires an outboard reverb pedal. I have amp treble and bass completely off. That’s a nice clear rhythm tone and with the MXR 6 band EQ engaged with a bump around 400K it gets into Wes lead territory. The other factor was adjusting the pickup height, now 3mm bass side, 2.5mm treble. Pretty warm on these settings. Trying to dial more treble out using guitar tone or more extreme EQ pedal settings makes it less natural and more farty..not worth it.

Im glad because I was starting to question the purchase. It’s a very sensitive guitar to setup and amp but worth spending time with. No way this could be achieved sitting in a shop. I think I’ll prefer it even more at the next string change (planning to switch from TI bepops to swings).

[John A.]

I retract my previous comment after further investigation and tinkering.

Im now very close to the warm Wes tone on bumpin’ and neither volume or tone controls are rolled off (and I use a jazz 3 pick, not thumb).

The key was switching to the “normal” input on my DRRI which has removed the shrill/nasal overtone I was hearing. It requires an outboard reverb pedal. I have amp treble and bass completely off. That’s a nice clear rhythm tone and with the MXR 6 band EQ engaged with a bump around 400K it gets into Wes lead territory. The other factor was adjusting the pickup height, now 3mm bass side, 2.5mm treble. Pretty warm on these settings. Trying to dial more treble out using guitar tone or more extreme EQ pedal settings makes it less natural and more farty..not worth it.

Im glad because I was starting to question the purchase. It’s a very sensitive guitar to setup and amp but worth spending time with. No way this could be achieved sitting in a shop. I think I’ll prefer it even more at the next string change (planning to switch from TI bepops to swings).

Good to know.

John

[RomanS]

I retract my previous comment after further investigation and tinkering.

Im now very close to the warm Wes tone on bumpin’ and neither volume or tone controls are rolled off (and I use a jazz 3 pick, not thumb).

The key was switching to the “normal” input on my DRRI which has removed the shrill/nasal overtone I was hearing. It requires an outboard reverb pedal. I have amp treble and bass completely off. That’s a nice clear rhythm tone and with the MXR 6 band EQ engaged with a bump around 400K it gets into Wes lead territory. The other factor was adjusting the pickup height, now 3mm bass side, 2.5mm treble. Pretty warm on these settings. Trying to dial more treble out using guitar tone or more extreme EQ pedal settings makes it less natural and more farty..not worth it.

Im glad because I was starting to question the purchase. It’s a very sensitive guitar to setup and amp but worth spending time with. No way this could be achieved sitting in a shop. I think I’ll prefer it even more at the next string change (planning to switch from TI bepops to swings).

Unless you need the bright tone for use with other guitars, you might simply want to clip the bright cap in your DR - a very popular mod, as a lot of people dislike what it does...

[Humbuckr]

Unless you need the bright tone for use with other guitars, you might simply want to clip the bright cap in your DR - a very popular mod, as a lot of people dislike what it does...

My understanding is that the normal channel doesn't have a bright cap- probably why I prefer it for jazz with this guitar.

Jazz tones are a funny thing. Ive been listening to a lot of my favourite Wes/ Kenny Burrell/ Grant Green tunes recently and the tones are pretty bright in many cases, often varying from song to song and album to album. I think I'm close to what I want with the EQ pedal and normal channel now. End of the day its (unfortunately) not a vintage L5 and never will be!!

[RomanS]

Exactly!
That's why I meant that you should clip the bright cap on the other channel - that way it would sound more like the normal channel, but you could use the reverb...

[John A.]

My understanding is that the normal channel doesn't have a bright cap- probably why I prefer it for jazz with this guitar.

Jazz tones are a funny thing. Ive been listening to a lot of my favourite Wes/ Kenny Burrell/ Grant Green tunes recently and the tones are pretty bright in many cases, often varying from song to song and album to album. I think I'm close to what I want with the EQ pedal and normal channel now. End of the day its (unfortunately) not a vintage L5 and never will be!!

I think once Burrell settled down with Super 400s and Twin Reverbs in the late 60s, his tone got a lot more consistent, but in his earlier days of switching between different single-coil and CC equipped guitars, his tone varied a lot and was pretty bright. But Wes and Grant, yup, often quite bright. People talk about Grant always turning the mids all the way up and bass and treble all the way down on his amps, but it doesn't usually sound that way to me.

John

[Humbuckr]

I think once Burrell settled down with Super 400s and Twin Reverbs in the late 60s, his tone got a lot more consistent, but in his earlier days of switching between different single-coil and CC equipped guitars, his tone varied a lot and was pretty bright. But Wes and Grant, yup, often quite bright. People talk about Grant always turning the mids all the way up and bass and treble all the way down on his amps, but it doesn't usually sound that way to me.

John

Indeed, I do wonder if Wes’ rig was actually super bright just tamed with that thumb. I suspect regular humans playing through the same rig with a pick would sound very different to him!

[jazzkritter]

IMHO the L5 does tend to the bright side (mine sure does) so you may be right about the Wes sound being thumb-tamed. He did use pretty heavy flats, IIRC 15 on top. And often a Twin, which can be an ice pick.

[HighSnows]

Does anyone know the neck depth specs for the 503? Can't find specs at Eastman or anywhere else.

[DanielleOM]

Does anyone know the neck depth specs for the 503? Can't find specs at Eastman or anywhere else.

I just measured one that I have. I measured at the 5th fret fret maker. From the neck to the top of the fret board I measured 23 mm. Measured with a rule. I do not have calipers here. If this measurement is critical for you, I would have some one measure the guitar you plan to buy. They are hand made and I have in the past seen considerable variation from one guitar to the next for same model built in the same model year.

[Humbuckr]

Does anyone know the neck depth specs for the 503? Can't find specs at Eastman or anywhere else.

Don't have callipers to measure mine but I can tell you its an exceptionally comfortable neck profile. I like the width afforded by the 1 3/4 nut and that adds to the feel too. I have a 58 reissue Les Paul with a pretty chunky neck- the Eastman is less deep but feels slightly wider. The Eastman is slightly deeper than my 61 start at the 1st fret but stays more even with less taper at the 12th.

Ive taken the Seth Lover out of mine and put in a custom made Sunbear 59 PAF (a relatively new UK pickup winder). It has an A3 magnet, 7.5K and brass baseplate. It has rounded off the highs but maintained clarity and stays cleaner until a higher notch on the volume pot of my DRRI. I've fiddled around a lot with pickup and string height too, a very sensitive guitar to setup.

With regards to earlier chat about amp settings, I don't think I was initially getting the best out of this guitar on the normal channel and treble/ bass rolled off. It could be the new pickup but I'm now finding it best on the reverb channel (bright cap unclipped) with volume 5-6, bass and treble 5-6 and guitar volume rolled off to round 5-6 (easy to remember!).

It's my first arch top and really a completely different animal to what I'm used to but I think I'm getting close to some nice recorded arch top tones...think Kenny Burrel on the Sunup to Sundown album (with the bass and mids pushed a bit).

[James655]

I'm the happy owner of an Eastman AR503CE, sunburst, that I purchased new five years ago
Attachment 77106
I play this guitar exclusively unplugged at home, so that it is now strung with Phophore Bronze 12's for 3 or 4 years
That is the best fit I found for the acoustic sound (and the worst for electric sound !)
This is my go-to guitar when I want to spend some time with a guitar without having to use an amp or when I don't want to make too much noise ! That means, in these pandemic times, that itr gets 80% of my playing time.
In fact, I can't remember how it sounded plugged in, that was probably not too bad
It's prone to feedback, as you can expect from a thin carved top, but as far as I remember, that remained manageable.
I notice that they sell this guitar new for 25% more than what it was 5 years ago
Fit and finish are very good. Perhaps you've heard about finish problems on the early Eastman, but mine was, and still is OK
It has aged quite good and is very stable (never had to tweak the truss-rod)
Very confortable to play with the 2 3/4" rim and the 25" scale and the 1 3/4" nut.
Perhaps one day I'll string it again with TI's and plug it in ?

Let us know if you pull the trigger on one.

Hi 339.
After almost 4 years my comment:
I always desired to posess a 503 and since 10 days I finally own one, the classic version. Like on my previous guitars I had it strung with Tomastik Infeld Jazz Swing 112. An adorable guitar.......