But for that cost, the Eastman DT30D rewards players with a snappy, loud guitar with the powerful bass-heavy tone of a rosewood dreadnought that punches above its weight and also dishes up oodles of visual appeal. How often do you leave an instrument for a few days and return to find it still in perfect tune? That happened often during my time with the Eastman and it was an endearing trait to be able to pick up a guitar and start strumming without being greeted by sour notes.įor some shoppers, nearly $2,000 might be a lot to spend on a guitar made in China (albeit by a team of dedicated Eastman luthiers). And the tone was more like one from a guitar that you’d have to pay more for than the Eastman’s entry fee will cost you.Īfter using the DT30D for a few weeks, in a variety of environments, I also found that it needed retuning much less frequently than most guitars. The setup made playing easy on both hands, while the neck’s C-shape and satin finish made it a delightful place to spend time working on new material. But that’s beside the point, because no amount of technology matters if the guitar doesn’t sound and perform well. Given that the double top is something we’re to think of as an exceptional feature, it would be impossible to attribute any of this guitar’s strengths to this one component. The immediate responsiveness of the Eastman was really fun to explore and made me feel more confident with a thumbpick than I usually do. This carried over to fingerpicking when I played in standard and open-D and -G tunings with bare fingers and a thumbpick. The lower notes poured out like a thick foundation under the melody parts. The DT30D has a lot of headroom, which certainly makes it a guitar for those who want to be heard in a group situation where some low-end thunder might help establish you in the mix, but it’s more than that, as I found when I played more delicately. The Eastman’s low end was incredibly punchy, with a tight and defined clarity that encouraged me to both push it hard and go easy. Typical of Eastman’s attention to detail, the body’s finish is flawless, as are all of the instrument’s constructional aspects.Īrmed with a few of my favorite picks, I dug in hard with garden-variety open-chords and was rewarded with the powerhouse tone typical of an HD-type guitar-bass-heavy with scooped mids and lacey highs. The faux tortoiseshell celluloid pickguard has a bit of orange and yellow in it, giving it a distinctive look over the more reddish varieties. As a visual package, this guitar shines, looking familiar and also unique with its “hallelujah pattern” headstock and fingerboard inlays. When I did, I was hit with the aroma and shine of the nitrocellulose lacquer finish the eye candy of the body’s herringbone purfling and the pearlescent shimmer from the fingerboard, headstock, and rosette inlays. Eastman DT30DĪll that double-top technology would be meaningless if the guitar didn’t engage the senses, and my tester made me want to play it from the moment I first opened the case.
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(Read more about this in the sidebar below.) Double tops were first seen in high-end classical guitars, but if our review model is any indication, Eastman’s use of this constructional technique shows great promise for the steel-string world.
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Eastman acoustic guitars specs series#
With these players in mind, Eastman created a bold new dread, the DT30D, which is part of the company’s recent Double Top line, also featuring grand auditorium ( DT30GACE) and orchestra ( DT30OM) models.Įastman’s series is among the first to use the boutique-maker idea of a double top-a soundboard incorporating two outer wooden layers over a synthetic core, for enhanced sound and responsiveness-in a production steel-string model.
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Some power-hungry pickers want more clarity and rafter-shaking bass response-and they want to be heard. The mighty dreadnought has been an immensely successful guitar shape for decades, and it continues to be capable of great tone, feel, and volume. So we're asking you to give just $1 (or whatever you can afford) right now.įrom the November/December 2019 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY GREG OLWELL Hey, fellow guitarist! Did you know 99.9% of visitors to this site will scroll past this message without making a contribution? Many plan to pledge later, but then forget.