New Eastman Model: E20OM-MR-TC

[TomC]

I talked to LAG last week and still November/December.

[PeteD]

Maybe it will be a Christmas miracle!!

[Pura Vida]

I talked to LAG last week and still November/December.

I'm slammed with work and travel now through mid-November, so anytime in late Nov / early Dec would be good for me, personally.

[Pura Vida]

Someone posted on the FB group that their E20D-MR-TC delivered yesterday, and both he and John Chapman (chapboogie) confirmed this was not the original prototype, so it looks like they are finally arriving!  I heard two things about these MR TCs... (1.) the initial shipments are extremely limited (only 20 nationwide) and (2.) the OM will follow about one month behind the dreads.  I'm excited and hoping to hear from Ted and Helene soon!

[TomC]

Congratulations. I look forward to your review.

[Pura Vida]

Good news! After a long wait, the MR TC are shipping today and will arrive next week.  More to follow.

[sleigh]

Woo hoo!  Bet you can't want to hold it and hear it!

[Vapour]

Ted has a dread in stock as of this post:

https://www.laguitarsales.com/index.php/...16615.html

[Pura Vida]

Perhaps someone had a change of heart, which I can understand, especially this close to the holidays (these were originally due to arrive in the summer).  In any case, these are in limited supply, so I don't expect it to be available for very long.  Ted shared photos of both dreads, and they seemed very comparable.

Front: mine is the one on the left


Back: mine is the one on the left

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Here are all four MR TCs.... posted onto LAGS' FB page yesterday. I believe that mine are the 1st and 4th guitars. While the photos above are better to see the details, the color seems more accurate in the showroom photos, so maybe this will help someone looking at the available dread.

Front:


Back:

[Winfielder]

I received my E20D-MR-tc from The Acoustic Shoppe on Monday; it's the one they used in the video with all their staff playing it and sharing their thoughts.

It's clearly better than my E20D-tc imo.  Seems like some Bourgeois influence filtered in somehow.  Maybe it's just the mojo, but it feels physically different from my E20D-tc.

Sound-wise, the guitar it most reminds me of is the Touchstone dread that I also recently got from The Acoustic Shoppe.  The Touchstone has a sitka top, but has adi braces, so it roars kind of like an adi top; and with the Bourgeois bracing/scalloping/magic, which clears up the potential rosewood muddiness and yields great note definition and precision, the results are pretty astonishing (and perfect for bluegrass imo).  The E20D-MR-tc goes a different route but gets a similar sonic result, thanks to the mad/adi combo.

Overall, both are among the best guitars I've ever played.  I was thinking that the Touchstone would be like the E8D-tc Alpine, but I was totally wrong: it's a completely different animal/beast, and it makes my prized E8D-tc sound like a weak and muddy mess.  The Touchstone does to the E8D-tc Alpine what the E8D-tc Alpine does to my FG830.  The guitar it most reminded me of at first was a Yairi DYM60HD, not any Eastman (I don't have experience with any Bourgois guitars to compare it to).  I have no regrets about purchasing it, even for the $3k pricetag.  I was skeptical before, but I'm sold now.  

The E20D-MR-tc is somewhat comparable to the Touchstone, but is 'only' around $2200, so it feels like a bargain.  And that sound!  It's amazing.  I'm not getting rid of my normal E20D-tc, but it's definitely playing 2nd fiddle to the new MR in town.  My normal E20D-tc is overflowing with overtones to a fault sometimes, but that's not an issue with the madi version.

As great as these 2 guitars are, I find myself now hoping to someday get to play a Touchstone dread with Madi B&S and an E40D-MR-tc; I think those would be the ultimate Eastman models for me. 

I don't own a smart phone, but I'll try and figure something out to share some pics or videos sometime soon.  But really, both of them were demo'd in videos at The Acoustic Shoppe, so all you have to do is watch their videos.  Even with their great audio/video equipment, it still doesn't do the guitars justice; you've just got to play them to experience them.