I love my Eastman electric, but I hear great things about their acoustics, too.
I've been building my own electrics for about ~30 years now so I haven't been in that market (to buy) for a long time.
But if I was, I'd absolutely shop Eastman, with no hesitancy.
From what I've read and seen (and I've researched them quite a bit) they don't really have a weak point across all the instrument markets they participate in.
Even their student/entry level lines are remarkably competitive and built well.
I researched their older electric jazzster archtops when I was thinking about buying one.
Never pulled trigger, but the reviews were all just as good, and I found potential deals on them on Reverb just as good as what I negotiated for the acoustics.
The jazz archtops and the acoustics share a lot of similar build characteristics, minus the top construction and any electronics, of course.
The weird thing I found about Eastman is they have a really interesting (and prolific, if not short by American standards) history with the guitar lines.
They seem to offer a model for a few years (3-5 maybe), then drop it and reconfigure a new model with a different model no. that is similar, but not a direct copy.
Like they're always examining the current market and updating models consistently, every few years.
I think this is to keep things 'fresh' and to not appear 'stale' by offering the same model for decades upon decades.
But there really aren't websites (that I found) that are easily searched that yield up their history and the older models too easily.
You really have to search hard for that information to find it to fill in the gaps until the 'big picture' appears.
I found Reverb to be very useful as a 'research engine' since people tend to put up as much about their guitar (to help sell it) as they can.
But when you do and you start to become familiar with the different models and their time periods offered...
It becomes really cool, and you see how interesting the history is with different models and feature sets.
For an example, when I bought my first Eastman, I didn't even know what a 'baby jumbo' was, really.
I 'stumbled' onto it (I think) in a Reverb ad, when I was searching for others at the time, which got my curiosity going.
And it was not easy at all for me to uncover exactly what they were and the years they were made.
And even in the baby jumbo category, they would change it up every few years, like clockwork.
The two I bought look completely different with different woods and features, which tracks exactly like and how they approach everything else.
But damn now I love my baby jumbos, so much after buying one (Mahogany), I went back and bought another (Rosewood).
They are both fabulous guitars (to me).
I mean, I just cannot imagine owning better acoustics for the $$'s level I parked myself at (under 1k, and the less, the better).
So the quality vs. dollar spent ratio, to me, is outrageously lopsided, on the positive end.
What I'm saying is that, to me, I got
multiple guitars every bit as as good as a $2k competitor for ~$600.00.
Damn...did I say I would say no more on the matter? :laugh2:
