Eastman E1D Classic Acoustic Guitar
Catalogue No: igEAS-E1D-CLA
What a creature. An all solid wood and handmade acoustic guitar for a little over £500. Bravo, Eastman. With a solid spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides, and the Classic finish for extra umph. Marvellous.
What we say
As ever with Eastman the beauty is with the detail, even when it comes to the discerning player looking for a bargain. Let's look at the basics first. Solid sitka spruce top gives you that wonderful bright tone that won't take forever to warm up. Solid sapele back and sides backs up the spruce to make this baby sing. Sapele is one of those great woods with a big low end and decent middle for the strummers amongst us, and when you want to fingerpick and find all those extra little tones, it gives you a wonderful upper end. Sapele: mahogany's slightly brighter cousin.
When it comes to an acoustic guitar, you do really need about the inside of it - after all, that's where the sound comes from. The bracing is top drawer. Hand scalloped X bracing gives the spruce enough give to allow what lower end it has from it's big lower bout and makes it sound, well, as you'd hope every sitka dreadnaught would. Dreadnaughts are built for those who want a lot of everything. This guitar is a lot of everything, and for not a lot of money.
All the little details really help too. You've got bone being used on the nut and saddle for the purists. You've got really lovely ebony used on the fingerboard, bridge and bridge pins - it all looks pretty much bang on. There's beautiful tortoise binding. It comes with a very good Eastman branded padded gig bag with neck support (why doesn't everyone do this, honestly?). A standard even C neck profile, standard 25.4" scale length, a nice 12" radius - bob on. All it takes now is you to buy the thing and write some classics. Or play some classics. Classic.
Specs
Neck Material: Mahogany
Fingerboard: Ebony
Fingerboard Radius: 12"
Neck Profile: Traditional Even "C"
Nut: Bone 1-3/4"
Fretwire: 20 Jescar-FW43080
Scale Length: 25.4"
Body Dimensions: 15 5/8" x 4 3/4"
Bracings: Hand Scalloped X
Body Top: Solid Sitka Spruce
Body Back/Sides: Solid Sapele
Bridge/Saddle: Ebony/Bone, 2 5/32" Spacing
Rosette: Classic
Truss Rod: Dual Acting
Binding: Top and Back
Binding Material: Tortoise
Logo: Maple Headstock
Inlay: Pearl Dots
Side Dot Color: White
Bridge Pins: Ebony
Body Top Finish: Gloss Nitrocellulose
Back/Sides Finish: Open Pore
Hardware Color: Nickel
Pickguard: Tortoise Shell G-Guard
Tuners: Open-Gear Ping V93N 3+3
Electronics: None
Strings: D'Addario .012-.053 #EXP16
Action Height: 12th fret 3/32" on the bass side and 2/32" on the treble side
Case: Padded Eastman Gig Bag
Truss Rod Wrench: 4mm