WARNING! L-O-N-G post!
Well, the 486 arrived yesterday, and despite my advising the PO to pack it well telling him of a previous problem with receiving a poorly packed git I bought, the git and its case were literally flopping about inside the carton like a live single fish in a cooler without ice. When I opened the box my heart sank. The carton was mostly empty. I took pics with TWO large coffee containers and an equally large animal crackers container I put into the airspace to show the lack of packing. This is a testament to the excellent OEM Eastman case that the git was in such good shape.
Yesterday I didn't have much time to examine it as I was committed to go to out last night.
So, today I gave it the once over, then set it up and have been playing it all morning.
The good and the not so good I guess you have to decide which is which...
Color wise it's lighter than the pic the P.O took, it's more of a light blonde than honey. It's very nice almost a twin of my natural maple Ibanez AS-103.
There was a slight back bow on the neck, and loosening the TR all the way gave the neck just a slight relief, but with the 10 round wounds on it "most" of the neck is fine. The high "E" string has a buzz the entire length of the FB when picked harder than lightly. I've never seen this, and it may be the bridge causing it. Even when I stretch the E to well into the B string area it still buzzes. Luckily I have a light touch and won't hear it and I'll change strings for heavier flatwounds soon anyway. This may give me more neck relief too.
The action was pretty high and the nice screwdriver posts on the bridge made setting it up this way instead of using the thumb wheels a pleasure.
Fit and finish are perfect, something better brands would do well to try to equal :-)
The neck is very much like a 335's "slim taper" very nice if you like the 335 which I do. I'm not fussy about FB wood so other than looking sharp, the ebony doesn't do anything for me.
I use only the neck and neck with bridge pup and as expected the Seymour Duncan "jazz" pickup is nothing like a "jazz" sound. Even on the SD site, those folks call this pickup the worst named pickup in history. It's way too bright, and it will be coming out and thrown in the spare pup bucket with the one that came out of my Epi Sheraton. I have some decent spare pups and I'll likely play around with one of them. I'm very surprised that Eastman put the "jazz" into it. Maybe the "jazz" in a mahogany body / neck like the MX would be a better fit? Anyway in my tube amps it's very, very bright in my Polytone with the dark switch on it's much better.
Despite it being 8-9 ounces lighter than my 335 (8.0 lbs. on my postal scale) it is decidedly body heavy. I have to play it on my left leg, with a strap, or make an effort to hold / keep the neck from rising. This is the only double cut semi I own so body heavy. Every other one (which is more than a few at 7) will lie on my right leg and stay there balanced under my right breast (note NOT a tit... arf arf...) without holding it. The Eastman would crash to the ground if I did that. It's not a deal breaker at all, but someone sensitive to balance might want another brand if this is typical of Eastman double cut semi hollows.
Finally, the rest of the git (tuners, nut, controls) are spot on no issues.
I think Eastman could have a stellar performer if they reduced the length of the center block or used mahogany instead of maple to balance it better, and the Jazz pup would be better off in the SD catalog than in the 486. Also I would put mahogany in the center strip of the neck, it would just look better than the stark white maple, maybe even get a benefit in tone from some different woods in the mix.
