Eastman stops using Nitro switches to Truetone

[Pura Vida]

Although Eastman's official reply is saying June 1, Mark H. was telling Donovan and others that they began rolling out inventory with Trutone back as far as last December, so anything made since then (not the COA date) could go either way.  I haven't had a chance to email them about my Alpine TC, but I'll try to send them an email soon.

As for Khaya, I'm happy to see them finally confirming it, since we've known / suspected it was Khaya for a long time.  Previously, they'd only say that it was sourced from various places in Asia, which doesn't really tell us anything.  Martin's Honduran Mahogany is reportedly sourced in Fiji.  Most people agree that Honduran Mahogany and African Khaya sound nearly identical (as opposed to Sapele), and Khaya is slightly harder than big leaf Mahogany.  And personally, I think that Khaya looks better, which is one reason Eastman's Mahogany guitars are so strikingly beautiful.

[pszy22]

If I ever sell it, I don't expect the average buyer to know or care to ask

I agree with your statement assuming you plan to sell a 200 or 300 dollar guitar.  That's what average guitar players buy - epiphones, yamahas, recording kings, etc.

Most guitar players I know, are interested in what exactly they are paying for once they start to pony up 1200/1500/2000... dollars.

Rightly or wrongly, alot of folks tend to associate a nitro finish with a higher quality (more costly) guitar.  The lack of transparency regarding the change is puzzling, if it is an upgrade, why wasn't it announced and marketed?  Even now answers range from sometime in December or maybe it was June, but you can't really tell anyways since the serial numbers are totally random so who knows when your guitar was built.

Eastman certainly builds some good instruments, but they have an uphill battle to convince folks to spend serious money on a guitar built offshore.  They certainly aren't making life easier for themselves by the way they handle the free flow of information.

[eastmanschool]

Most guitar players I know, are interested in what exactly they are paying for once they start to pony up 1200/1500/2000... dollars.

I don't disagree with that. And again, I get why people are upset with Eastman not being forthcoming about the finish switch. But I'm doubling down on my belief that with Truetone comes a chance for real improvement in the finishes.

Anecdotal testimonial; I have an E10D, dated March 2019. So I assume it's nitro. But it's not as, I don't know, integrated as the nitro on my Martin or the "Full-Pore Vintage Hand-Brushed Finish" (whatever that is) on my Furch. By comparison, it feels more laminated than finished. Yes, it's nitro, but Eastman is still working on that learning curve. Having Dana Bourgeois as a partner/consultant, can only help.

So, yeah. Looking forward to getting my hands on an Eastman with Truetone.

[UncleJesse]

I would be surprised if it's water-based, I've not heard of any established builder of repute using water-based lacquer. Generally, it doesn't have the durability required. I would consider water-based lacquer to be about as far from nitrocellulose as you can get. I may be wrong about this, but I haven't heard Dana say anything about the actual content of his new finish, other than it cures really fast.

To address water-based lacquer, I have heard of small luthier shops using it.  Whipple Creek for example uses a water-based lacquer, specifically "EM Tech 6000".  The great flatpicker Robert Bowlin plays Whipple Creek guitars alongside his pre-war Martins.

[AlanSam]

Interesting lead Uncle Jesse! Also, never previously heard of Robert Bowlin, but found this vid which I like a great deal :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoB4I87fijo

it has a flavour of classical guitar.

[TomC]

I found this an interesting presentation of finishes by Taylor. I would like to say unbiased, but where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.

https://woodandsteel.taylorguitars.com/i...qHiA%3D%3D

[AlanSam]

Thanks Tom - Interesting!

[Al30906]

Seems like Eastman has stopped using Nitro finish on any guitar and instead switched to a urethane finish they call Truetone. The Facebook group posted a message from Eastman confirming the switch effective in late May early June this year. I'll see if I can copy the full Eastman response later.

When did they start this? Thank you.

[jengstrom]

I wanted a new lefty E1D and was watching several sites that have a lot of lefty guitars. One site got one in around May or June and it is now mine.

After this thread started, I wrote Eastman to ask what finish mine might have. They wrote back and said mine was from 2019 so it had the Nitro finish.

2019? This was a new guitar shipped to the vendor well into this year. How could it possibly be a 2019 guitar?

So I wrote them again asking that question. Their guess was that the guitar was built but not completed before Covid shut the factory down, and that it wasn’t completed until early this year, but they didn’t know for sure. Since they didn’t know when the finish was applied, I don’t know which finish my guitar has.

It doesn’t matter. It’s an amazingly good $500 guitar that blows away anything I’ve played shy of a Martin standard.

John

[jphenderson91]

This is the email I got from Eastman. I couldn’t really tell on my E2OM that they had changed the finish from previous models. I will say that it new finish is a bit more consistent than the nitro on my older models.