Eastman vs Sigma guitars

[cfranchi]

I saw Sigma has some nice 12 frets OOO-Dread guitars, their prices are generally nicer than Eastman and the Sigma guitars have more bling.
Did you have the experience to play both ?

[SasquatchLife]

Eastman is superior. Sigmas aren't bad, but I would go with Eastman if it were me.

[sleigh]

Sigma isn't a brand one sees here U.S. -- CF Martin allowed the brand copyright to lapse before they sold the brand to AMI and thus AMI (Acoustic Musical Instruments) isn't permitted to use the Sigma brand in the States. Sigma guitars imported to the States after the sale to AMI were marketed as "Kindred" guitars (and now as AMI). Here's the link to Wikipedia's page on Sigma Guitars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_Guitars. In fact, if you go to http://www.sigma-guitars.com, you'll see a link in the top right corner of the website that say "Visitors from the U.S.A. go here" -- click that link and you'll be sent to http://www.ami-guitars.com. On Sigma's site, the dealers are all German, French, UK, or Irish.

[Victor Vector]

My first acoustic was a Sigma DM1. It was ok, but NOTHING like Eastman, far far superior.

[John A]

There was a brief period in the 80s when some SIGMAs were really, really good.  A friend of mine had a D-45 copy that was as good as the contemporary Martin D-28's and D-35's that people I knew had at the time (sadly this guitar was stolen).  But that changed after Martin moved production out of Japan.  I've run into a few recent-ish Sigmas that were pretty crappy.

[sleigh]

Notice that the specs for AMI/Sigma guitars say "Solid Sitka Spruce top, Mahogany Back & Sides" -- that means that the back and sides aren't solid wood but a laminate of some sort, whereas the specs for an Eastman E3DE (about $770 retail) state: Body Top: Solid Sitka Spruce and Body Back/Sides: Solid Ovangkol. I'd take solid wood over a laminate, myself.

[AlanSam]

Steve's correct about Sigma brand not being available in US as 'Sigma' but as 'AMI', and also that if a guitar spec doesn't specify that it's solid wood - it invariably isn't. If you have a look through the Sigma home site you will find a number of competitively priced all solid guitars (and plenty of laminate b&s too), including dreds and OOs with 12 and 14 frets. I assume these are available in US under the other name Steve referred to. 

here's the site:-
https://www.sigma-guitars.com/custom-guitars/

[sleigh]

Alan -- FWIW, from what I can seem there are only 12 acoustic models listed on AMI's website, and none of them have solid wood back and sides.

[AlanSam]

Alan -- FWIW, from what I can seem there are only 12 acoustic models listed on AMI's website, and none of them have solid wood back and sides.

Steve - yep, clearly only a few of Sigma/AMI guitars are marketed in US. Thanks!

[cfranchi]

Thank you everybody for all your answers, I guess I’ll stick with Eastman for my next OM guitar