Excellent value for money

The humble acoustic guitar is actually quite a complex beast - so many factors influence the way each and every guitar sounds, from the bracing inside the body, to the material that the nut/saddle/bridge is made from, to the types of wood used for the top.

However, one thing that acoustic players do definitely seem to be unanimous on is this: if you’re in any way serious about the tone of your acoustic guitar, you should look for a guitar that is made entirely from solid wood. Cheaper budget acoustics have improved enormously since the 1970s/80s, and most these days will have at least a solid top (usually Sitka spruce). In terms of how the guitar projects, the top material is the most important component, and a laminated top acoustic, especially a young one, will almost always have that tell-tale ‘cardboard box’ tone: thin, lacking bass and projection, and lacking in harmonic texture. However, if only the back and sides are laminated, this too reduces the richness of the sound quite considerably. The difference can be quite subtle, especially in older guitars, which tend to mellow as they age, but even newer players will be able to tell the difference between an all-solid and part-laminated acoustic when played side by side. The solid guitar will have a depth, richness, and a sort of ‘three dimensional’ quality, it will speak more clearly, and it will, in short, sound more like an acoustic guitar.

The problem: solid body acoustics are expensive. Everything seems more expensive these days, but to be honest, you’ll be hard pressed to find an all-solid wood acoustic for less than about £800 at least. Most of the major manufacturers (Martin, Taylor) don’t start offering all-solid acoustics until you hit the £1000 mark, or nearby.

That’s why this no-frills dreadnought from Eastman is such a revelation. What we have here is an extremely well-built, all-solid wood guitar for under £600. Given that it also has a bone nut and saddle, excellent ‘gear’ tuners, a clean ebony fretboard, and selected sitka and sapele tonewoods - features you’d expect to see on a guitar at three, four times the price - this is astonishing value for money. And it sounds wonderful; it compares favourably to almost any Martin or Taylor. The instrument is very plainly, but tastefully finished; it’s an open-pore satin, so you won’t find any shiny lacquer here. This also seems to help the guitar ‘breathe’ naturally. It’s dynamically responsive, and can go from delicate fingerpicking to huge piano-like chords - an impressive range. It’s just a lovely-sounding guitar. The intonation is spot on and the neck is quite comfortable. The factory action is slightly higher than I’d like, but I think this is easily adjusted by a luthier (and going from 12s to 10s will make the guitar less fatiguing to play too).

Martin and Taylor dominate the market. There’s little doubt that their legendary, high-end guitars sound marvellous, and they’re famous for a reason. But consider this: for the price of the Eastman E1D, all Martin can offer you at this point is a guitar with High Pressure Laminate sides; a guitar on which they’ve actually tried to disguise the plywood back and sides by scanning a real wood texture and laser-printing this on to the guitar. That’s what £600 from Martin will buy you. I’d love a Martin D-35, as that’s what Gilmour used on ‘Wish You Were Here’. The problem is, I don’t have £3,400 to spend on a basic acoustic six-string dreadnought.

Many are put off by the fact that Eastman are a Chinese manufacturer, based in Beijing. When you look into the company, you realise that it’s a family business with many years of experience of building mandolins. The staff are skilled handcraftsmen and women who take pride in their work, and they seem to be well-treated. Buying Chinese doesn’t have to mean buying unethically.

I cannot recommend this guitar highly enough. Essentially, the Martin or Taylor tone is within reach for mere mortals here, leaving you £2,800 better-off than you would have been. Ok, so the E1D doesn’t quite sound as nice as a Martin D-35. But it’s very much in the same general sonic space! That’s incredible value for money, especially when you consider that the tone of the instrument will also improve with age and playing. For context, the E1D sounds nicer even than my Takamine TAN15c, a custom workshop Japanese acoustic. My budget Epiphone doesn’t even really sound like a guitar compared to this, the difference in sound quality, volume and ‘voice’ is huge.