Eastman guitars are made with a tremendous amount of care and labor. This can be a good place to discuss what we know (or think we know!), as well as post some questions here. Perhaps we can convince someone from Eastman to join our new group and provide some insight here.
Let's start with the 2011 Eastman factor video.
Earlier this spring, I attended an Eastman store event, hosted by Steve Bernstein. He was tremendously informative, confirming much of what we already knew. Namely, that Eastman guitars are truly hand-made with second and third degree luthiers in their factories. Their production volume is about 10k for ALL stringed instruments, so he agreed that my estimate of 3.5-4k for acoustic guitars is probably about right.
In discussing this with Steve (and others with some insight), their biggest gate to growth is training skilled luthiers. They require a five year apprenticeship before they even let someone work on a guitar, so despite having expanded their factory floor, the output volume will take several years to ramp up. They have 150-200 employees working in production, but obviously not everyone is working on acoustic guitars.
And despite what nay-sayers think, it's truly old school over there... there is no machinery, and up until 1-2 years ago, they were even hand-carving the Eastman name onto their headstocks! The abalone in their guitars is actually hand-set abalone and not Abalam (which isn't cheaper, but it is easier to apply). And when I asked Eastman how many hours it takes to make one acoustic guitar, they told me 60-80 hours of labor (and a couple of months end-to-end total), which is why they're only able to output 10-12 guitars per day.
Further, on the "40" series guitars, only a select few touch these guitars. When they tap tune the "40" tops, there's literally one guy who they consider a master of this process, which is is why they make so few of them. He's in the process of training a handful of others, but it's like training to be a Jedi... it's more of a lifetime skill, not something where someone completes a course and gets certified.
This is still a boutique level of production. When I mentioned to Steve that I just bought an E40-OM, he got excited and replied: "I played your guitar, when it arrived into their Pomona offices." They had a hard time letting it go and spent nearly a month fine tuning it before they released it to the online dealer, who ultimately sold it to me. At the time, it was only the second E40-OM in the country with the first being the one they launched at NAMM.
I pelted Steve with questions for about two hours, and he was enthusiastic to share his insights. Some of these are above (augmented with additional discussions with emailing Eastman and asking some others with inside knowledge). Even he was amazed and shared the story of meeting their main luthier... he showed him a mandolin, and the luthier immediately responded, saying he actually worked on that particular mandolin. And then he turned it over to show Steve an area that gave him some particular trouble with carving.
Assuming it's not sales BS, these insights are really remarkable. I'm probably forgetting half of what we discussed, but but as I remember more, I'll post it here. Apologies for the long post, but it was a valuable learning experience and got insight to their rather secretive production details.
Another (long) video, which shows an Eastman luthier creating a rosette inlay. I appreciate this video because it shows the amount of skill and labor involved, and it also supports that these luthiers are artists, not just some sweatshop factory employees, cranking out product.
Let's start with the 2011 Eastman factor video.
Earlier this spring, I attended an Eastman store event, hosted by Steve Bernstein. He was tremendously informative, confirming much of what we already knew. Namely, that Eastman guitars are truly hand-made with second and third degree luthiers in their factories. Their production volume is about 10k for ALL stringed instruments, so he agreed that my estimate of 3.5-4k for acoustic guitars is probably about right.
In discussing this with Steve (and others with some insight), their biggest gate to growth is training skilled luthiers. They require a five year apprenticeship before they even let someone work on a guitar, so despite having expanded their factory floor, the output volume will take several years to ramp up. They have 150-200 employees working in production, but obviously not everyone is working on acoustic guitars.
And despite what nay-sayers think, it's truly old school over there... there is no machinery, and up until 1-2 years ago, they were even hand-carving the Eastman name onto their headstocks! The abalone in their guitars is actually hand-set abalone and not Abalam (which isn't cheaper, but it is easier to apply). And when I asked Eastman how many hours it takes to make one acoustic guitar, they told me 60-80 hours of labor (and a couple of months end-to-end total), which is why they're only able to output 10-12 guitars per day.
Further, on the "40" series guitars, only a select few touch these guitars. When they tap tune the "40" tops, there's literally one guy who they consider a master of this process, which is is why they make so few of them. He's in the process of training a handful of others, but it's like training to be a Jedi... it's more of a lifetime skill, not something where someone completes a course and gets certified.
This is still a boutique level of production. When I mentioned to Steve that I just bought an E40-OM, he got excited and replied: "I played your guitar, when it arrived into their Pomona offices." They had a hard time letting it go and spent nearly a month fine tuning it before they released it to the online dealer, who ultimately sold it to me. At the time, it was only the second E40-OM in the country with the first being the one they launched at NAMM.
I pelted Steve with questions for about two hours, and he was enthusiastic to share his insights. Some of these are above (augmented with additional discussions with emailing Eastman and asking some others with inside knowledge). Even he was amazed and shared the story of meeting their main luthier... he showed him a mandolin, and the luthier immediately responded, saying he actually worked on that particular mandolin. And then he turned it over to show Steve an area that gave him some particular trouble with carving.
Assuming it's not sales BS, these insights are really remarkable. I'm probably forgetting half of what we discussed, but but as I remember more, I'll post it here. Apologies for the long post, but it was a valuable learning experience and got insight to their rather secretive production details.
Another (long) video, which shows an Eastman luthier creating a rosette inlay. I appreciate this video because it shows the amount of skill and labor involved, and it also supports that these luthiers are artists, not just some sweatshop factory employees, cranking out product.
"It's only castles burning." -- Neil Young
![[Image: 4vUgYWK.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/4vUgYWK.jpg)
