EASTWOOD GUITARS DUNABLE GUITARS

Established in 2001, Eastwood’s modus operandi is to create instruments that not only evoke or replicate rare classic looks and vintage sounds, but to offer them at reasonable prices. Founded by Michael Robinson, the company produces more than an astounding 250 models, and their regular customers include famous guitar super nerds like Jack White, Foo Fighters, Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and John Fogerty.

“We’ve built up a large international following of like-minded people that desire something other than the Fender-Gibson sound, or perhaps never liked the Fender-Gibson sound in the first place,” laughs Robinson. “They usually become loyal customers because of two things: Even though our guitars are weird, they exceed people’s expectations, and we make the online buying experience easy.”

Part of what makes Eastwood unique is that they sell all their guitars exclusively online. With so many different models, Robinson says it’d be impossible to do it any other way. “Even if Guitar Center carried 12 of our guitars, it would only scratch the surface of our inventory,” he says.

Thankfully, shopping on their well-designed website is all part of the fun. Once you get comfortable with the fact that you can narrow down the specs, watch the videos, read the reviews and then pull the trigger and get the precise model you want in the mail, it’s a bit difficult to settle for limited selection of brands and colours at a local store. If you buy one of their instruments and it’s not love at first sight, Robinson assures they have a no-questions money-back return or swap policy. “We will do whatever we need to do to make somebody happy with their purchase, because it’s easy for us to do that,” he says. “But a surprisingly low number of people have been unhappy.”

If Legion and Eastwood push all those groovy nostalgia buttons, and Kiesel guitars are on the cutting edge, then Dunable represents the best of what’s here-and-now. Designed to look classic with just enough ‘pointiness’ to feel heavy metal, one can imagine the company’s guitars being valid now, and 50 years from now.

“I try to make my guitars look organic, but also like something heavy is going to come out of it,” explains owner Sacha Dunable. “For lack of a better description, our aesthetic is pre-Floyd Rose era – before the hair metal guys got involved.”

The key to their classic look are their stunning matte finishes – their Cyclops 2020 Metallic Purple Burst with gold hardware, for example, is almost too awesome to look at. “We like a nice thin finish because you can still feel the wood,” Dunable says. “It’s about appreciating the materials and not covering them up with a thick plastic coating.”

In addition to the Cyclops, the Yeti and R2 models are their most popular. However, we were also attracted to their Cosmonaut, which is a tasteful but entirely original mashup of a Telecaster and a Rickenbacker.

Dunable speaks for all these companies when he explains why more independent makers have been sprouting up like mushrooms at a Grateful Dead show. “If you put your guitars online, it’s just as easy for someone to find all of us as it is to access the bigger companies,” he says. “It’s levelled the playing field. We’re all on the internet and you can email us directly and order from us directly. There’s going to be a lot more directto-consumer things happening than brick-andmortar stores opening, that’s for sure.”