Eastman stops using Nitro switches to Truetone

[donovantyler]

..yeah.. i'm not used to these switch-ups.
But the pluses far outweigh the drawbacks with Eastman.
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I feel a lot better about what I have after talking with Mark.  I just don't like surprises like this on a $2,130 purchase.

For a long time the pluses have outweighed the drawbacks.  You were getting a no-excuses handmade instrument with a nitro finish at a steal of a price.  The adi came from "the same place Colling's sources their's", the rosewood was plantation grown in "SE Asia", and I'm pretty sure that's Khaya for the mahogany.  

Now though, the prices have gone up enough that I'm personally looking at Larrivee's as a similar-priced alternative.  Although I'm sure the new finish will sound great, but it's going to be another compromise from what they were doing last year.  It was pretty cool to play some of those alpine tops, but I think it's ridiculous that I had to let my local shop know what they were.  

I say this as the owner of 4 four fantastic Eastmans that are going nowhere, but I think the increasing price and sacrifices to what made them special will hurt them.  Of course the market will let them know.   

What are the "Alpine" tops?  

Eastman substituted Alpine (probably "moon") spruce for sitka in the tc models earlier this year with no documentation (at least for a few months).   I emailed eastman a serial number on a very pale e6om-tc and they couldn't tell me what wood they used.  It's ostensibly an upgrade that they should have noted, but dealers were selling them as sitka since that was what came on the box. 

So, Mark Herring (lead Eastman string instruments technician/manager) is pretty certain that the change to Truetone started last December and for a certain period this year it will be almost impossible for even Eastman to determine which guitars have Truetone and which have the old finish. Mine he said is 90% certain to be Truetone.. and it has the smell too hehe.
Days ago I submitted a question about my guitars finish to Eastman using their Ask Us Anything form on their website. I included purchase date, date on the card and serial number, store I bought it from, etc.
The day i talked to Mark I got a reply from Eastman telling me that my guitar is Nitro.. haha!
I'm believing Mark at this point.  At this point I've got to laugh.
I do love the guitar and the finish seems really nice.

On another note: Somebody said that they were going to be looking at Larivee as an alternative.
I'm not very familiar with their guitars but those don't look competitive against Eastman cost-wise and they don't use nitro.