Trial by Fire: Eastman go head to head with a vintage Gibson! We're big fans of the Eastman brand, and if you've chatted to us in the shop you'll no doubt have heard lofty claims from us about how well these fantastic instruments stack up against the guitars they're based on. 'Incredible', we say, 'best value you'll ever find in a 335 style', 'It's like you're playing a vintage one!'. To be fair, we're salesmen, it's our job. Still, it's fun sometimes to put ourselves on the spot and see just how our claims stack up, and today the staff have decided to put me on the spot: take Eastman's new 'like you're playing a vintage 335' T59v limited, take my own bonefide vintage Gibson ES355, put them head to head and see whether I can hand on heart say the Eastman compares. It's going to be tough on the Eastman, because I love this guitar. A little background Gibson introduced the ES335 in early 1958, and it was joined by the upmarket ES355 at the end of that year. The 335 was a genuine game changer: an arch-top guitar that looked...
Workshop Diary
Eastman Strings was founded in 1992 by Qian Ni, a student at Boston College of Music who initially set up Eastman as an importer of Chinese made violins, violas and cellos into the US. Whilst China was well established as a source of cheap instruments, Ni believed that for China to have a long term future in musical instrument making it would have to demonstrate an ability to make high quality instruments that were comparable to those being produced in the US and Europe: from the start Ni looked for violin makers who were Western trained in making professional grade instruments. By 1994 Ni’s business was doing well enough to provide full time employment to a team of experienced makers and to set up a workshop based in Beijing dedicated to making Eastman violins. Critical to the success of the brand was Ni’s determination to produce instruments using traditional violin making techniques rather than relying on modern technology, and Eastman violins were made on workbenches using knives, chisels, gouges and rasps rather than...
High action on an acoustic guitar is a common complaint, and usually we can readjust the action on an acoustic by correcting the neck relief using the trussrod, and if necessary reducing the height of the strings by filing down the saddle. However, occasionally with an older guitar it is not possible to lower the saddle enough to get the action where it sould be for the guitar to play easily. Traditionally the solution to this was removing wood, either by shaving down the bridge itself or by planing the headstock end of the fingerboard. Neither of these was a terribly good idea, and often detrimentally effected the sound and playability of the instrument. As the value of older Martin and Gibson guitars began to rise repairers began to investigate more sophisticated solutions to the problem, and the process of removing the neck altogether using steam to release the glue in the joint and then refitting it at an angle that would allow the guitar to be set up with the required action became the standard for correcting this problem in high...
Danelectro Reissues: how do they compare to the originals? Regular readers of our blog will no doubt be aware that we’re big fans of the modern Danelectro brand: what we haven’t touched on is that we also love the originals, and we thought it might be interesting to do a comparison. The most popular model in the current range is the DC59 based on Jimmy Page’s legendary 3021 model Danelectro, and I’ve been doing some restoration work this month on an original ’59 Danelectro – it seems like a good opportunity to get them up on the bench and see how they compare. View Danelectro reissues for sale at Forsyths A bit of background Danelectro was founded in 1955 by Nat Daniels in Neptune, New Jersey, and they were always something of an oddity in the guitar world. There was no shortage of companies producing high quality guitars in the US in the mid 50s: indeed, this was the start of the golden era of the solid body electric guitar. Likewise, many companies saw the commercial potential...
Exploring The White Rice guitar Our guitar expert James Youngjohns examines the Atkin White Rice guitar and talks to the maker Alister Atkin about its origins This guitar, we’re sure you will agree, looks like a guitar with a story to tell. View the Atkin White Rice replica guitar in our Manchester show room That story starts with the legendary country picker Clarence White and a very worn, battered 1935 D-28 the young White found in a music store in desperate need of attention. The guitar was in a terrible state of repair, was missing a fret board and had undergone a series of modifications. The top had been sanded thin and the neck shaved. The owner previous to Clarence had played the guitar sufficiently hard to wear away patches of wood around the sound hole, and attempted to improve the appearance of the guitar by enlarging the sound hole so that the damaged wood was removed. Still, it was a D28 at a price Clarence could afford, and he purchased the guitar and entrusted it to a repairer who fitted a Gretsch...
Gordon Smith guitars in Northamptonshire View Gordon Smith Guitars in stock at Forsyth Music Shop here One of the nice things about working with John and Linda at the original Gordon Smith workshop in Manchester was that, being just down the road, the opportunity to drop in for a cup of tea and a nosy about what guitars were currently on the bench was always available. When the chaps at Auden took over production of Gordon Smith last year they were quick to extend the same offer and we finally made it down to Northampton to check out the new facilities. A quick look through the workshop door and we could immediately see that several of the extremely ingenious self designed jigs and machines that John built to facilitate the build process are still being used. Aside from these jigs the guitars are very much bench made instruments with band saws, thickness and spindle sanders, hand routers and pillar drills being used for most of the build stages. It's a little more labour intensive than letting a CNC machine do the work but it's a relief...
Fitting Bare Knuckle pickups to a Fender Telecaster This is a Japanese Bound Tele that is in for a nice upgrade: we're installing a set of Bare Knuckle pickups. If this post inspires you to follow suit, we carry a good selection of Bare Knuckle and Tonerider pickups and our guitar tech Glen is always happy to advise on pickup selection and general wiring advice - so if you want to treat your favourite guitar to an upgrade just call in or email and we'll be happy to help. Anyway, let's follow the process... View Bare Knuckle pickups in the online shop Pickups selected: lots of options to choose from but our customer has gone for a set from the Blackguard Tele series: Firstly, out with the old: Carefully desoldering the old pickups from the switch: In go the new ones: Final adjustments: the guitar is now set up ready to play so we can set the balance: Finished and ready to go!