Aged To Perfection
Eastman’s product development manager, Pepijn ’t Hart, joins us to talk about some very special new developments in the company’s acoustic range
Eastman continues to forge ahead with products in both its electric and acoustic ranges and, as always, the quality and value for money is simply outstanding. Both the E20 models we reviewed raised eyebrows around the Guitarist offices for their general playability and, most importantly, their sound. It’s uncanny the way Eastman has made two fresh-off-the-workbench instruments that you would swear had been in action for the previous few decades – they don’t only look as though they’ve been around the block a few times, they feel it, too. So we were curious to know where the idea of producing the new lightly reliced series began. The secret, it seems, starts with the violin industry and the application of a special varnish…
“For some reason, especially on the acoustics, the sound is so lively with the varnish,” Pepijn ’t Hart tells us. “We started with the E10SS, that’s our slope shoulder, mahogany back and Adirondack top acoustic. There’s a really good reason why violins have always used this kind of finish –
Stradivari did it – and that’s because there’s nothing between you and the wood. The good thing with the violin is you don’t really touch it; there’s the chin rest and there’s the hand going over the neck and the neck is always [left unfinished].
“And so with the guitars it’s a bit more difficult because when you play guitar you touch them everywhere,” he continues. “That’s the reason why we decided to always antique the finish – the guitars are already worn in and look as if they are 60 years old. We’ve had many requests over the years… ‘Can you not antique them? I prefer to do that myself.’ But if you hang the guitar in a shop, the first one playing it will make a ding on it and they have to discount it and so that’s the reason – it’s a very practical reason – and apart from that, it looks really good.”
The E20 guitars have both been given a sunburst finish…
“The E10 had been a really successful guitar and it was also in the classic hand-rubbed finish, but we received many requests for a sunburst. I think we can do a really authentic sunburst – we already did it with the electrics, including the SB59 with the Goldburst. First we spray the colour on the top, then after that we hand-rub the violin varnish, we do the ageing – the colour and violin finish work really well together.”
Despite both guitars being based on established designs, you’ve added a few features that are unique to Eastman.
“We try to venture away from the classic Gibson look because we also want to stand on our own feet. And, obviously, in the acoustic world, most of the time guitars either look like Martins or Gibsons from the classic golden era. So we tried to add a couple of things to the guitars that would make them look like our guitars. I love herringbone [trim] on any guitar and I think it works really well with the sunburst top, and you never see herringbone on a Gibson‑style guitar and so that was a simple trick. And then [chief designer] Otto D’Ambrosio designed the beautiful diamond inlays on the fretboard, which give it a bit more of a face of its own, and on the headstock there is the diamond inlay, which is something I designed for our SB57 model. And then, of course, the slotted head on the OO is a feature that is more Martin than it is Gibson, and so in that way we managed to give these guitars a little bit of their own identity.
“We chose the rosewood because we already had the mahogany [on the E10] and rosewood is probably the most coveted back and sides wood in the world and it has more range and more depth, more highs, more lows and a little less mids. So a perfect contrast to the E10.”
“We try to venture away from the classic Gibson look because we also want to stand on our own feet”
Where does the violin varnish fit in with poly and nitro finishes?
“I think you could portray it on a line as being the poly at one end, the nitro in the middle and the violin finish at the other end. Nitro is also a breathing finish, but with the violin varnish there is nothing between the player and the wood, and so all the sound and all the resonance comes through. I think one of the greatest advantages varnish has is it’s not only the sound, but it’s also the feel: it feels old. We are probably the largest hand-crafted violin maker in the world and from the early entry-level violins, everything is antiqued; everything looks old. It’s so funny I never realised that, with the violin and classical music, you’d think that nobody wants an old-looking violin, but apparently everybody does – even starters want a violin that’s not glossy and shiny and new. With the guitars, we’re actually dragging behind because I think violins have been doing it for 400 years. Gibson and Fender relics started in ’94 or ’93 and so violins were ahead of us!”
Eastman has recently formed a partnership with the USA luthier Dana Bourgeois. Tell us a little more about that.
“There are a lot of things that have been going on in our acoustic ’shop. One of the biggest things is that the Bourgeois company joined the Eastman family. Dana Bourgeois has contributed a lot to the Eastman brand. The weight of the guitars has been greatly improved. Even stuff like the measurements of the dreadnought are different now – the older Eastman dreadnoughts are a little bigger – so we now have the same measurements Dana uses. We have kilns in our workshop where we take out as much moisture as possible – not torrefied as such, but enough to avoid having to wait to use the wood for another two years or so. That is a magical thing that has happened that has worked really well. Dana Bourgeois can bring a lot to us; we can learn from him. Our head luthier, Kehua, learned a lot from him – the history of guitar building, torrefaction, making the tops a little thinner, the braces a little thicker… It’s all about the details.”
And there’s a new line of instruments being released that combines the ethos of Bourgeois and Eastman…
“We are now also creating a line of instruments together with Bourgeois where Dana hand-voices tops in Lewiston, Maine [USA], and then they’re packed in a crate and shipped to Beijing. These are going to be the first co-built Bourgeois guitars. They’ll have the same boutique quality and obviously we are making them available to a bigger audience because a boutique guitar is only for a very small percentage of players. So that is kind of the magic happening. [Eastman CEO and founder] Qian Ni had this dream to have the very best builders inside our family and at the same time Dana wanted to make his guitars available to a wider range of players.
“So at Summer NAMM we will introduce the Touchstone Series, which is the name of the new range of Bourgeois/ Eastman guitars.” www.eastmanguitars.com