Are Eastman Guitars BETTER Than Epiphone?

[@deforestthornburgh4464]

In my personal opinion there is no comparison. Eastman Guitars are simply amazing. My shop sold Eastman for years. The only other Guitar that you could consider better made were the Taylor acoustics.

[@Dragon_rls]

Hang in there Bro Knows. I am a KZbin addict, and you have the right stuff. Believe me. People know the difference between a sales pitch, and a review. At least I do. SUBSCRIBED. Keep up the good work.👍

[@james-he7xv]

not a fair comparison , Eastmans are far superior than any epi and most Gibsons!

[@georgeargon5113]

I own an Eastman T486B. Short version: There is no comparison unless you compare and instruct Gibson's Murphty Lab Custom Shop to build you an identical ES guitar for thousands of dollars more.

[@bottleneck1100]

hello, best wishes for your videos, and keep posting. My experience with the 'varnish' and 'relic' finished Eastman Les Pauls is that they are ''on-par'' with a gibson custom shop. It's strange therefore to me, to see them compared to Epiphones. Have a great day.

[@barrysayer9751]

I've owned several 335s; Epiphone, Tokai, Heritage, Gibson and now an Eastman and I must say that the Eastman is far and away the best of them all. Excellent fit and finish, appointments, playability and even just to look at. If you can get over the Eastman label I would put it over the Gibson. It's a stunning, totally handmade guitar. As an entry level, the Epiphone is a good place to start though.

[@FRCMoto]

Thanks for the review. I've been curious about Eastman guitars.

[@garypannone7755]

Great Video.

[@mortonwilson795]

No comparison. I have a few Epiphones but bought them with the intention of modding pick-ups, wiring and hardware so I can customise them to my liking - so many excellent boutique pick-up makers out there (Monty's, Bare Knuckles, Lollars etc. etc) and Gotoh hardware strikes me as a premium option. I can get a well made Epi Les Paul / Casino 'perfect for me' and still be well inside the cost of a Gibson LP Standard or the US made Casino. That said after finally having the chance to try some Eastmans last yearI will definitely be buying the SB59.v and a Juliet . . . easily as good as any of the Gibson Custom Shops I have tried.

[@albaxter8711]

The question should be..are eastmans better than gibsons? The answer?...yes!

[@olivercaminos2537]

I had an R8 and another LP ... sold both and have an Eastman SB59 which is a better Les Paul than the other 2.

[@jfiery]

Nice breakdown dude

[@uwedasler425]

About 18 months ago I bought an Eastman T64/v (ES-330/Casino inspired with varnish finish and Bigsby B7) for around 2k Euros (approx. 2,140 USD) as a backup for my Collings IC-30 LC (current price over here 8.6k Euros / approx. 9,220 USD)... I sold the Collings within 6 weeks and got a second Eastman... I had a look at the just released new Gibson ES-330 (around 3.6k Euros) last week and left the shop laughing - it is absolutely terrible... Eastman and Tokai eat Gibson for lunch.

[@MoogerTuber]

Serious question. I understand you looked at the ES-330 in person. Could you please elaborate, what's terrible, etc? I have a T64/TV and since getting it I've been lusting for a US Epiphone Casino, and now there's this new Gibson, but maybe it's just GAS. In other words, talk me out of it! LOL

[@uwedasler425]

@@MoogerTuber Well, of course you should buy what you are happy with... The two samples of the ES-330 that my dealer had did both have issues: The worse one had several cosmetic issues (dust/dirt under the finish in multiple places, the binding was uneven and partially painted over, there was already a blind spot under the pickguard), there were dozens of superficial scratches on the finish (we took it out of a still sealed box), there were clearly visible and tangible tooling marks all over the fretboard, and there was a huge amount of wood chips all over the case, clearly indicating that there was no cleanup and proper work at all - I did not get to take the pickups out, but I am fairly certain they looked as terrible as the ones in Trogly's review video. The second one looked a lot better, it did have a few tooling marks on the fretboard, but they were in ok territory, there was also a huge collection of wood chips in the case and falling out of the f-holes. The worst thing though were the pickups in the second one... whatever the opposite of 'matched' may be - this was it. There was a huge volume difference between the pickups, and the neck pickup was actually louder and brighter than the bridge... No idea how to achieve that... Admittedly, this could well be (and most likely is) related to the pots or capacitors and not the pickups (just because it makes zero sense), but I am expecting a guitar at this price point to be flawless and not require a repair job on day one. As I said, buy what makes you happy, but the two guitars I checked were not even in the class of a Guild, Stanford, Sire, or Ibanez costing less than a third of the Gibson - and they were galaxies away from a Heritage or Eastman.

[@MoogerTuber]

@@uwedasler425 Wow, shocking! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I saw a B-stock ES-330 at Thomann, so I guess that explains how a guitar might have been returned so soon after being released.

[@rockerbuck967]

Nice playing, man! Myself, I like the Eastman better. I have a Peavey JF-1 (Also a semi-hollow body) and it's not leaving me any time soon. I don't know about actual Gibsons, but I know it'd slap Epiphones around any day. I never really had any interest in a semi-hollow body guitar, but someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse and since it was a new style to me, I figured why not? I'm really I took a chance on it.

[@lazvt8469]

As a lefty...I have to buy everything I want to experience...so, I've bought tons of guitars over the years. The T486 (335) is among the best sounding...even better than my Heritage 535. My Eastman SB59GT was very decent...comparable to LP Stnd but not as good in terms of finish QA...Eastman can be a little sloppy with stain/finish but their fret work is second to none. Got my T486 4 years ago for $1100 (normally $1250)...see then now for $1750. The neck is wide...so take that into account. Prefer the 335 neck (60's) shape.

[@khillsy4489]

Not fair at all. Compare the Epiphone to a Sire maybe.

[@nige99]

Got a Eastman E1 omg amazing acoustic for 600 uk pounds

[@dananthony6258]

The new epiphone 345 Gibson inspired has custom buckers.

[@kirkgardner8772]

They both sound great to me

[@57ebartley]

So funny back just a about 5 years ago I bought a Epi Dot 335. It was the worst guitar I ever owned. It was nice looking but it sounded like crap. And I absolutely hated the neck.I sold it like for $180. Last year I picked up a Sheraton with the Pro buckers. Looks Great and sounds alright. I like my Bridge pickup hotter and the it has a slim neck that I love. My only gripe is its so dam heavy.I know its over 9 lbs. When I bought it used I tried it out sitting and didn’t notice how heavy it was. I had to buy a no gravity strap to make it tolerable . Now that I’ve gotten older I really notice the weight of guitars. This last week I had 3 four hour gigs in a row and one of my weekly gigs is a giant Tiki hut built on stilts. The elevator is broken and we have to carry all our gear up the stairs . Then inside We have another flight of stairs to the loft. My back actually went out after I carried my equipment up those stairs Friday. I took 1600 mils of Advil to get through that gig.

[@Dragon_rls]

P.S. Remember, asking price, and purchase price are 2 different things. I see stuff listed on Reverb all the time for new retail list, give, or take a few bucks, but people are just trying to minimize their losses after fees. A lot of people that just don't know how stuff in this world work.

[@freddymclain]

Not a really fair comparison. The Epi would be nicely compared to Sire, or Firefly, or some other Indonesian guitar. The Eastman is killing Gibson. They're handmade, usually come with an ebony board on a 25" scale, nice hardware, finishes, etc. They're cool, and the word is out.

[@dominiquegabille9213]

Of course, Eastman is better than Gibson too

[@CocoKoi321]

eastman used to be incredibly cool.............. then they stopped using nitro finishes..............

[@Jaslj82]

They use true tone now, which is very thin and will wear similar to nitro. I have a few vintage varnish models, which the finish leaves nitro for dead.

[@blueeyephil]

I have a 21 T486. It is highly figured and came stock with Seymour Duncan '59 in the bridge and a SD Jazz in the neck. It is flawless with a very nice case. Picked it up used. I might change out the neck pickup for something a bit brighter but other than that, I'm very pleased. I'd love a Gibson but since it's not my main guitar, I'll stick with the Eastman. I've not come across a Epi that was as nice. But they can be found anywhere unlike the Eastman. If you don't have a semi hollow you should try one for sure.

[@IantaylorCanuck]

Better than Gibson if you believe some people.

[@shanewalton8888]

What isn’t better than the crap Epiphone is making lately?

[@gavriloprincip11]

are you sure its not a "Am-eastman"? ( a cheap counterfit of the genuine quality Chinese Eastman faked by sketchy American factories that sell on Aliexprss with terrible customer service in broken Manderin)

[@ph43draaa]

This like that hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby meme

[@magooinlalouisian]

EASTMAN not worth three time the EPI