The Second Act
It was only a matter of time before Juliet followed Romeo as the second wave of Eastman’s original design programme
For a company that has had considerable success with its Gibson-inspired electric models, such as the solidbody SB59/v single-cut and the more Junior-style SB55/v and SB55DC/v, not to mention the laminate thinline T64/v, the release of the Romeo looked a little out of place. That is, until we played the guitar. “A thoroughly modern take on the electric archtop, built exceptionally well,” we said after we’d tested it back in issue 459.
Conceived by Otto D’Ambrosio, who heads up Eastman’s USA design and custom shop in Pomona, California, Romeo signalled a shift after Eastman founder, Qian Ni, saw the design in its prototype stage and stated: “This is the way the future of Eastman should look.”
Along with another version, Romeo-SC – which swapped its custom wound Lollar Imperial pickups for a Seymour Duncan Tele-style Vintage Stack at the neck and a full-size ’59 at the bridge – a more dramatic addition followed in 2021: the Romeo LA. It proved that a design like this could move from being a ‘jazz’ thinline to retro rocker with outwardly just a colour change, some different pickups (Seymour Duncan Phat Cats) and a Göldo vibrato. In fact, the carved spruce top of the Romeo was replaced on the LA with a pressed laminate top. If anything, we’d say that Romeo LA has more kerb appeal to a wider audience. But in whatever guise, Romeo has become one of Eastman’s best-selling electric guitars over the past two years.
But where was Juliet? We knew another new-design guitar was on its way – and the first look we got was a design rendering that was emailed to us by Pepijn ‘t Hart, Eastman’s international sales and product development manager, back in March of this year. “Nerve wracking to share our babies publicly,” replied Pepijn after we’d taken a look. “There is nothing harder than designing an original solidbody for the most conservative guitar world where the same designs have been successful for over 60 years.”
Originally, Eastman’s plan was to launch the new guitars at the 2022 NAMM Show in June and simultaneously be able to ship them to dealers. However, the former happened but not the latter. “One of our workshops had been in lockdown for quite a while but has reopened again, so the market launch shifted from June to September,” explains Pepijn.
Finally, though, with a pair of Juliets now in our hands, we can see and hear the fruits of Otto’s and Pepijn’s labours. We wonder if the slightly offset design was merely a jump on the popular ‘offset’ bandwagon or for a rather more practical purpose? “It’s actually both,” says Pepijn. “I wanted elements of an SG, Firebird and Jazzmaster all merged into one design that would have to be offset.” Meanwhile, Otto wanted those elements to “translate into a guitar that is just well balanced and a joy to play. Player first!”
“Juliet is the first Eastman guitar that Otto built in Pomona [the namesake for Juliet PB’s Pomona Blonde finish],” says Pepijn.
“It gave me the opportunity to tinker and decide what would work best,” adds Otto. “Since we are not able to visit our workshops in China without going into a quarantine period of seven to 14 days, this turned out to be the best way to ‘test-drive’ the design.”
The body of Juliet also features that raised centre section that recalls Gibson’s Firebird, as Pepjin explains: “Otto and I have always loved that raised centre bar on some of the iconic guitar designs, although these models were not always the most ergonomic guitars to play. So we incorporated it on Juliet as a tip of the hat to those iconic designs.
“For the headstock design, I really wanted a six-in-a-row headstock, which we hadn’t done before. So I pencil-drew a very rudimentary headstock, with a step
down, which Otto turned into the beautiful headstock that Juliet now has.”
One thing that isn’t new to Eastman is the okoume that’s used for Juliet’s body and neck. “It has proven to be our golden ticket ever since we used it on the SB55,” confirms Pepijn. “It is always lightweight and has an incredible tone.”
So there was never any chambering or weight relief considered in the design? “No, absolutely not,” he replies. “We just take a lot of pride in sourcing the right woods and handpicking them for their weight. This is why okoume is so great – it just always has the right weight, as opposed to mahogany, where you really have to select it.”
“As we are also a violin builder,” Otto adds, “we buy so much wood around the world. We always have access to the best of the best. Whether it’s North American woods or European, African, always harvested in an ‘environmentally sane’ way.”
World events also informed the pickup choice. “During the pandemic we reached out to Bare Knuckle when all our American pickup suppliers were in lockdown,” Pepijn tells us. “We knew Tim [Mills] and his team were winding some of the best pickups around, but still we were really amazed by the sheer tone. Of course, we still work with our beloved American pickup suppliers, too – Lollar and Seymour Duncan – but we are just really proud to also carry the Bare Knuckle brand now.”
“[Eastman is one] lucky company to be able to fit these three pickup brands on our guitars,” says Otto. “For Juliet, however, we found the Old Guard humbuckers – which we asked to be only partially wax potted – from Bare Knuckle really fit the bill and deliver what we were looking for.
“But our vision has always been to create the best possible instruments we can and to do so there are no shortcuts when it comes to quality. Working with the best suppliers around the world has helped us reach the level we strive for and it’s not just pickups which is why we use CTS pots, Switchcraft, Gotoh, Göldo, LR Baggs, D’Addario NYXL strings: it’s just a line-up to be very proud of.” Like Juliet, we’d say!
“We incorporated the raised centre bar on Juliet as a tip of the hat to iconic designs like the Firebird” Pepijn‘tHart