Tosin's Eastman El Rey 7 string Hollowbody

[animalsasleader]

I didn't know if anyone of the 7 string hollowbody players out there were aware of this guitar. It's by a company called Eastman Strings and was introduced sometime last year. It's completely hollow (solid wood construction,carved spruce top flamed maple back and sides) This model has a single Kent Armstong humbucker in the neck position.
I was drawn to it because there aren't many acoustic options for the extended range player. I also appreciate the smaller dimensions of the body compared to the average jazz box.
They build all of their instruments by hand in China (there is a cool video tour of the facility on youtube) The interesting thing is that they mainly build Mandolins,and Violins. I think this may be the reason this thing has such beautiful acoustic tone.
Anyway, here is a clip of me using mine with the AxeFX Ultra and the boomerang to make some sounds.
Enjoi!

Tosin

 

[technomancer]

These looks awesome, but strike me as a little pricey for a Chinese built guitar.

Damn nice playing, I'm really looking forward to see AAL on the 31st \m/

 

[rew]

Nice guitar, nice playing, and nice jacket! Do you have a favorite designer? Can't wait to hear some more new stuff!

 

[BigPhi84]

Nice.

 

[evilmnky204]

Nice guitar, nice playing, and nice jacket! Do you have a favorite designer? Can't wait to hear some more new stuff!

holy tits, that really is a nice jacket, just saying.

also, the playing is superb, i need to get me a 7 string hollowbody one day..

 

[Arminius]

It has a really nice low end to it, I like!

 

[Dyingsea]

Their finishes are too fragile and chip too easily. I've yet to find one in a store that doesn't look beat to hell. Otherwise they are good mid-range hollowbodies.

 

[Xiphos68]

Cool guitar. Do they play well Tosin? Are they worth it?

 

[ellengtrgrl]

Looks and sounds good. But I still want this (in spite of its scarcity):

It's a Gretsch George Van Epps. They haven't been made since the 70s, and the last one I saw, cost over $2500. But, I like Gretsches (I've had a few of 'em), and to the best of my knowledge, it's the first production 7-string.

 

[Dei]

Man I love your style, creates so many atmospheres for me, and that jacket is like something straight out of final fantasy! ME WANTSSSS!

 

[xwmucradiox]

Their finishes are too fragile and chip too easily. I've yet to find one in a store that doesn't look beat to hell. Otherwise they are good mid-range hollowbodies.

One of the big deals about Eastman guitars is that they are french polished rather than sprayed with a urethane or nitrocellulose finish like most jazz boxes and other guitars. Its a traditional finish for instruments in the violin family and a lot of pre-war acoustics as well. Eastman does all their raw construction in China but its not like these are on the assembly line with Squiers and $100 cheapo electrics. Picture your local string instrument maker, but moved across the globe and speaking a different language. The people building these instruments are still well trained luthiers doing loads of careful woodwork by hand in relatively small factories. The raw instruments are then shipped to Cumberland, Maryland in the US to the Eastman shop where all the setup and finish work is done by super skilled people. The French polish is pretty labor intensive so they have to do that all by hand one at a time. Then they go out into the world. French polish isn't a super durable fnish so it will mark easily. They are also spruce and maple instruments so the underlying wood isn't super hard either. Most of their guitars are traditional jazz boxes (sixes and sevens) and some flat top acoustics as well. They also have a line of electric jazz boxes that are a lot like a 335. For what you get they are very well priced but I can see why people see Made in China and write them off immediately. Its unfortunate that entry level electrics have done that to people.

 

[splinter8451]

Their finishes are too fragile and chip too easily. I've yet to find one in a store that doesn't look beat to hell. Otherwise they are good mid-range hollowbodies.

That's weird cause I just saw 3 Eastmans in a store last week, one being the 6 string counter-part of Tosin's in another color, and 2 bigger jazz boxes and they had no flaws whatsoever.

And Tosin's is just badass

Can we expect new Animals As Leaders anytime soon?

 

[SPBY]

Love everything you write man, your stuff inspires me a lot. Nice guitar, cool jacket

 

[Apophis]

everything is just awesome - playing, guitar

 

[paintkilz]

hey tosin! this is dennis, Dustins buddy, my girlfriend and i played the 2/18-des moines date with you! i also got to jam on navenes 8 when you were drumming at dustins studio..

heres a few i snapped of your Eastman, i was curious about these guitars after seeing you play..

on a side note-
my 8s almost done, and i promised you i would learn a REAL meshuggah riff for the next time you guys came through-working on bleed, and combustion! good luck with teh dillinger tour, dustins talks about it alot and seems like it could be really good for you guys!

dennis

 

[dpm]

Eastman make some fantastic instruments. Great quality and really well priced

 

[Dyingsea]

That's weird cause I just saw 3 Eastmans in a store last week, one being the 6 string counter-part of Tosin's in another color, and 2 bigger jazz boxes and they had no flaws whatsoever.

Were they just out of the box and weren't letting people just grab them off the hangars? Maybe I should say if you never take the guitar out of your house you'll likely be fine if you want to keep it pristine. Otherwise be prepared for it to take finish damage with bumps and handling that other guitars would be able to take.

 

[yacker]

Wasn't there an entire thread of people trying to guess what brand that guitar was recently?

 

[Andromalia]

That kind of finishes usually are no issue since they were designed for instruments you don't "bump" and "scratch", ie, classical instruments. Although most of us are a bit careless with our guitars, I can show you 10 year old classicals that are use daily and have not a scratch. Ok, their owner when playing live is just sitting on his orchestra chair, not running and sweating on a rock stage. ^^
Violins make it though centuries with those finishes, no reason an guitar wouldn't in itself.

 

[synrgy]

Looks like you made out better than I did with my Raines semi-hollow. I've had it for several months and only *just* got it to *playable* condition last week.