Eastman Guitars

Eastman Guitars

Eastman: Humble Beginnings

Eastman Guitars, as we know the brand today, was founded in 1992 as Eastman Strings by flautist Qian Ni after graduating from the renowned Boston University School of Music. His goal? To produce high-quality instruments that would be accessible to working musicians. Under Ni's inspiring leadership, Eastman grew from a humble, small company run from his own car to one of the major players in the music world. To this day, Qian Ni is closely involved in the production process and considers Eastman a family business, where everyone knows each other and is involved in developing and improving the instruments.

What makes Eastman unique?

With Eastman, everything starts with the soul of the guitar: the inside. As they call it themselves, they think "Inside the box", which actually means that Eastman stays true to the longstanding tradition of guitar building. Consider, for example, choosing the best sounding woods, and hand-worked bracing within the acoustic guitars. Eastman's craftsmen look at the building process with the utmost attention to detail, to ensure that every guitar becomes its best self. You could actually just call it love! In addition, each Eastman model has a familiar, chic appearance, reminiscent of the heyday of the guitar in the 50s and 60s. These vintage features, along with the craftsmanship of the builders, make Eastman guitars truly unique instruments.

The acoustic lines

First of all, we start with the Eastman acoustic series. The models of the brand can be divided into three series, namely the PCH series, the AC series and the Traditional series. The series have one thing in common: they offer an amazing price/quality ratio. Below is an overview of what the series exactly entail, and which models we find within the series:

  • PCH series: The perfect entry-level guitars from Eastman. These instruments are very competitively priced and are therefore the ideal guitars to start with. Within this series three different models (which are classified in the traditional body shapes) are available, namely the Dreadnought, Grand Auditorium and Orchestra Model. The guitars are made of laminated sapele with a solid (!) spruce top.
  • AC series: A step up from the PCH series. These guitars are completely solid, and therefore sound a lot more mature than the PCH series. The models that we find in this series are the Grand Auditorium, Jumbo and Travel.
  • Traditional series: These guitars are characterized by their vintage correct looks and feel. All guitars in this series are again made of completely solid wood, and the great thing about the Traditional series is that there is a perfect guitar for both the novice and the advanced musician. For example, the 1-line within the Traditional series (eg the E1D) is less than 200 euros more expensive than a PCH guitar, and you still have the experience of a completely solid guitar. How cool is that! In addition, within the Traditional series we find the most beautiful Eastman guitars, which are made of the most beautiful tonewoods and are finished in the most chic way. Within the series, the Dreadnought, Orchestra Model, OO and Parlor models are available.

Electric

In addition to fantastic acoustic instruments, Eastman also produces some awesome electric guitars. And here too, the classic looks and comfortable playability are the most important pillars. At Dijkmans we have two series in stock, namely the Solid Body and Thinline series:

  • Solid Body (SB): Single Cutaway guitars, completely solid with two humbuckers, you guessed it: that immediately feels familiar. Trust us, these guitars are insane. The coding of the guitars is simply SB59 for the nitrocellulose finished models (these guitars are equipped with Seymour Duncan 59 pickups) or SB59/V, if the guitars have been given an Antique Varnish treatment by the Eastman violin department. The latter model is equipped with top-of-the-line Lollar Custom Wound Imperial pickups.
  • Thinline (T): These are Eastman's Semi-Hollow electric guitars. And they look beautiful, let's say... The guitars within the Thinline series that we sell are all equipped with laminated wood. This was chosen to give the guitar more control over feedback at higher volumes, so that the tone is much better preserved. So you can rock effortlessly with these guitars. The models we have in stock are the T59 (equipped with humbuckers and a fixed bridge), T64 (equipped with P90s and a Bigsby) and the T58 (equipped with TV-Jones) pickups.

Dijkmans and Eastman

We at Dijkmans have had a huge range of Eastman instruments in our shop for several years now. The updated PCH and Traditional ranges are extremely popular with our customers, and we've actually never had anyone fail within the extensive range of this fantastic brand.

So come and visit us in the store soon, to enjoy all the beauty that this brand has to offer!