Eastman AR805ce (video added post #8)

[Bert]

Late yesterday afternoon this pic appeared on ATL CL for sale....



New pic this morning, standing next to E20OM-TC... 



Early bird gets the worm.

[Pura Vida]

Retirement fund strikes again! Beautiful, Bert... CONGRATS!

[Meathead]

Ah that is great! Congrats Bert! Diversifying the Eastman Portfolio Index Fund! :)

Based on the headstock and logo, it appears to be an earlier year model <?>

[Bert]

2006 model, orig owner / limited play / excellent condition.  Just browsing new posts on CL yesterday afternoon - Eastman AR805ce... $750.  Checking Reverb prices last night, feel like a thief.  Nice guy, just wanted it gone in a hurry, working and no time to diddle... perfect.

Spent about 4hrs cleaning / polishing, new strings, dialed in the floating bridge / setup... intonation spot on - plugged it in. Everything checks out great.

Sold my classical and 59' Gibson LG3 in the past few months, had been sitting on a little stash waiting for the right one to come along.  Had been kickn' round T series, etc.  hold on - 'Bingo' in 3D technicolor.
 
Eastman has been building master grade archtops well before the first flattops.

all's well in storyville 

[Bert]

yo Curt, this was an unexpected stroke of good fortune.

I had the AR810ce (17" lower bout) for several years. I traded it in on a used AR880ce Pisano at MapleStreet. My son was over one weekend and I told him to take the Pisano home for a while and see how he liked it, bout a year ago. Makes me happy.

The AR805ce is a 16" lower bout, I like it much better than the 17", easier to handle, otherwise same as 810. Solid hand carved Maple / spruce top. I wouldn't be happy with a laminate model, acoustic tone is more important for me than volume.

so good to have an arch back in the house

[Jure]

Congrats Bert... Beautiful looking, great color and simple / clean look. These beauties make me want to learn some jazz.
Enjoy

[Bert]

For me, the heart and soul of a solid wood archtop is the acoustic tone. Jazz and many other types of music use the archtop. Jimmy Buffet's guitar player, Mac McAnally plays an Eastman archtop among his instruments.

I had been strongly considering an Eastman 'T' series when this fab instrument magically dropped in. The semi-hollow bodies are great, I used to own a T184mx. This was recorded using a Shure SM81 mic sitting in front of the AR805ce (new D'ad EHR350 Light - Half Round strings). So, this is how it sounds natural with no help from electronics. Plug this guitar in and a whole other dynamic comes into play, you should hear 'Smoke on the Water' on this puppy.

https://vimeo.com/258837178

[gnappi]

Hollow bodies are not only for Jazz, Steve Howe, John Mc Laughlin, Ted Nugent, Jan Akkerman and others seemed to "get by" with full hollow body gits. The only limit to a git is in the hands of the player.

[Bert]

Hey Gary, thanks for your thoughts. You and I must have hit the Post button at about the same time. You've been a big help to me in clearing up which direction I should go 'T' vs arch. bert

[Meathead]

Hey Bert - sounds great unplugged! Very nice tone and note decay. Thanks for sharing the video.