Eastman E1D dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Review

The good, the bad and the ugly

If you’re reading this, then like me you may have come across the glowing reviews this guitar has received since it was launched. 

I’ve been after a solid wood dreadnought guitar for ages but didn’t want to spend silly money on it. I wanted a pure acoustic instrument.  This guitar fits that bill perfectly.

Because of lockdown and family illness it was a long time before I was able to venture out to test drive one of these guitars. Sadly this meant I missed the first release which came with nitro gloss finished tops. The second release has a thin satin poly finish. To be honest I’m not totally  unhappy about that as my fingers do tend to make nitro go sticky.

The good. 

These guitars are amazing value for money. The cash is spent only on what really matters. Solid tonewoods and a lightly built guitar produce a tone that will just make you smile as you play. Full range sounds for fingerpicking and the dreadnought roar as you strum hard. I tried both the cedar and the spruce topped versions and I personally much prefer the spruce. 

Don’t believe the hype! The woods used for the back and sides of an acoustic guitar make very little difference to the final tone. Check out this research if you don’t believe me. http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/hearing/the-guitar-experiment/ 

The use of sapele on back and sides of this guitar is a sensible choice. It looks good and is hard and resilient. It's supposedly more environmentally sustainable than mahogany or rosewood, but of course a lot will depend upon how Eastman source their stock. I like the open pore finish, no filler to add weight or deaden the sound. The woods are all where they should be. Ebony on the fretboard and bridge, spruce for the soundboard and bracing, and mahogany on the neck. The neck is sensibly scarf jointed at the heel and under the plate of the headstock to save wood and add strength - I much prefer this 'hidden' approach rather than having the scarf joint like a Frankenstein scar on the neck under the fretboard.  The nut and bridge are made of well cut bone. All this comes at a price range where other manufacturers can only offer guitars full of phenolic resin (read up about it - and please be really careful if you work on guitars with it) or plywood or both.

My guitar was set up by the shop I bought it from and plays really well.  The fretwork is excellent. It sounds huge and well balanced, and reminds me how much I love dreadnoughts and their range, volume and versatility.

The ‘tortoiseshell’ binding is a really nice touch, as is the total minimalism of the guitar’s finish.  You get the impression all is focused on tone not bling.

The gig bag this comes in is also worthy of a mention - it is surprisingly robust.

The bad.

The worst thing is trying to find one of these guitars in good order. I don’t know what Eastman are doing, but in my experience in the UK in 2021, the quality control has been sadly lacking. I found this quite upsetting as friends who have Eastmans have always spoken so highly of them. However I have to say that the dealers who I’ve worked with have been absolutely outstanding addressing  issues as they have arisen.

The first example of this guitar that I bought was a lovely playing guitar, but when I ran my hand over the top it felt very rough, and on closer inspection it looked as if the top been sprayed in a non-sterile environment and there was a considerable amount of dust particles under the clear coat finish on the top of the guitar. This was obviously really disappointing so the guitar went back and unfortunately no replacement was available, so I got a refund.

I then travelled down to one of our major cities and I had a play of another E1D in a major well known store. This one was a lot better but the finish to the back and neck looked almost like a sunburst. I’m not sure what happened but it looked like a stain hadn’t been applied evenly.  I also wasn't totally happy with the fretboard finish so I walked away.

Hoping for third time lucky I stopped off, on the way to see a member of the family, at another well-known guitar shop to check out and hopefully buy a keeper. Sadly after purchasing it on closer inspection, out of the rather dark showroom, I noticed a small crack in the top that had clearly been present at the time of manufacture - the clearcoat finish was applied over the top of that crack.

Crack under clear coat of guitar top

Back it went and I had a bit of a wait for the fourth example of this guitar to arrive. It was probably the best of the lot but sadly still not right. The woodgrain had the best figuring of the four, but the binding between the top and the sides of the guitar had not been finished properly and was extremely rough to the touch. Fortunately I have some basic luthiery skills, and in the end I was so fed up with the back-and-forth that I smoothed this off myself. While not totally perfect, no one who didn’t know of the fault would ever now know it had been there. Why wasn’t this done at the factory?

I don’t know what to make of all of this, whether Eastman are giving these guitars to trainees to finish, or if they’re trying to cut costs because of the very competitive pricing of these guitars.  Satin finish is certainly more prone to problems because there is no buffing after application.  Whatever the reason it’s depressing to see such poor quality control on the finish of such an amazing guitar.

The ugly.

All this leaves me totally torn as to whether I can recommend this guitar.  I hate these sorts of dilemmas! There is no doubt in my mind that the final guitar I have ended up with, while not perfect, is a superb guitar regardless of price. I think it would sit quite happily tonally with guitars costing four or five times as much. Eastman have really thought through where to put the money into the materials of this guitar, and have produced a beautifully light, resonant and enjoyable instrument. 

However the guitar is totally let down by poor quality control and I have had a frustrating time of chasing around different shops and being disappointed, and at several points thinking of just giving up on Eastman altogether.  I'm glad I didn't and IF you can find a good example of this guitar I would really highly recommend it as a lovely instrument at a great price.