Eastman AC122-1CE-DLX (Price inc. £225 Custom Pro Setup Package)

The staff at Richards Guitars gave me great service and Eastman make very good guitars.
The chaps at Richards sorted delivery of an Eastman E20 OM-MR-TC to their showroom to suit my travel timetable and arranged an appointment for me to check it out and to part exchange my E10. The E20 was perfectly set up by Chris ant Richards and I even got a discount because he noticed a slight cosmetic flaw on the guitar. All done painlessly. Many thanks.
I had my E10 OM as a working guitar for five years or so and was very pleased with it, but came to realise I prefer the sound of rosewood guitars to mahogany - neither is better or worse, it’s just personal taste. But this E20 is in another league - I don’t know if it’s the Madagascar rosewood or the torrefied Adironak top or something else, but it seems to have all the best features of rosewood and mahogany. It plays like a dream too. I have a forty year old Martin M36 and a 30 year old Gibson Advanced Jumbo and I can assure you this brand new Eastman is already playing in the same league.

Really happy with both the guitar and the service. Richard’s Guitars kept me in the loop the whole way through with updates and good advice. They actually listened when I had questions. I sent over some bone bridge pins I wanted fitted and they installed them without any fuss.

The setup is spot on. It feels great to play straight out the case. No factory buzz or clunky action. It plays exactly how it should. The guitar itself is stunning. Honestly I cannot fault them. It felt like they genuinely cared about getting it right rather than just boxing it up and sending it off.

Would definitely go back for my next one.

I bought this guitar just over a year ago and posted a very quick review within hours of owning it so I thought it might be helpful to post a few more thoughts in greater detail after owning it for a year.

This is actually the second guitar I have bought from Richard, the first being my first proper acoustic, a Faith Venus, back in 2007. A while back I started trying to master fingerstyle blues guitar on a Vintage V300MH guitar, which is a surprisingly good all mahogany parlour considering it is under £200. Even though this guitar was probably more than sufficient for my skill levels I had a significant birthday coming up and decided I wanted a quality acoustic to mark the occasion. Initially, I was looking at an Auden parlour but after having a telephone conversation with one of Richard's staff he convinced me that Eastman might be a better choice for the style of music I had in mind. Most of the Eastman range are, if I recall correctly cheaper than the Auden I was looking at so this was clearly a recommendation based on my needs rather than an attempt to upsell.

The E20p TC that they had on their website looked ideal and at a price that was almost too good to be true. Actually after ordering it online it it turned out the price was an error on the website! The price quoted was for the non-TC version (torrified top) which was the one they had in stock. The TC version was not in stock and a bit more expensive. Well, mistakes happen but it's how they are handled that is important. In this respect, Richard's guitars get five stars. They gave me three options: a full refund, The non TC version that they could despatch immediately or if I was prepared to wait they would order a TC version for me at the lower price I had already paid. Given that I was in no rush for the guitar this is the option I went with! They did warn me that it could be quite a long wait and it was indeed several months but when it did arrive Richards Guitars even gave me a £120 Walsall leather guitar strap as a thank you for waiting so long. What with the reduced price and the free strap Richard can't have made much money out of me in this instance (sorry Richard).

But what of the guitar? Well it's said to me a copy of a Martin Marquis Collection 000-28VS. A guitar I am probably never going to be able to play in real life because it is now discontinued (or 'retired' as Martin prefer to call it) and even second-hand examples are going on Reverb for between £3600 - £4800. I'm led to believe that the Martins just have a sitka spruce top as well whereas the Eastman has the superior Adironack Spruce. When I think of Chinese guitars I think of the cheap Gibson copies (or Chibsons) with overly bright colours and varnish and cheap-looking components. All a bit tawdry. The Eastman is the exact opposite. It is the most restrained and tasteful guitar I own with beautiful, flawless inlays and binding, a superb satin neck with ebony fingerboard and such a beautifully resonant tone. I cannot yet do justice to the guitar but every time I pick it up I am blown away by the sheer quality and inspired to try harder.

I am aware that many people are wary of buying Chinese guitars but I would urge you to set aside such doubts. If the name on the headstock is really important to you (and I'm not saying that's wrong) then by all means buy a Martin but be prepared to pay at least double for a second-hand guitar (I believe even now Richard is only asking about £1600 for the Eastman). All I would urge you to do is at least try an Eastman before you make that decision. I am sold on Eastmans and looking for to my next purchase from Richard which will probably be a T186 or T59/V

This is an unbelievable Guitar for the price point. Highly recommended even for experienced players.

Lovely looking and sounding guitar!

The team at Richards Guitars was brilliant from start to finish, from the initial advice to meeting my set up and delivery requirements. The Eastman really punches above its weight and sounds great. Couldn't have asked for more.

Super good service, very happy with my mandolin

Great guitar & great service.

Dear Jake
I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your care and help with me buying my first guitar. I really love it and I think I'm doing really well and enjoying my moments with it. But I just wanted really to praise you for being such a good guy in helping me, never pushy, always making sure I made the right choice. I think that shows the person you are and Richard should be blessed with you.

Waited for 2 and half months but it was wort it.
Majority of Eastman guitars are brilliant but some od them come really unsightly with bad wood choice and blemishes I was worried for mine. I explained my concern about
Quolity control and at the end got beautiful guitar
Frets are smooth,action low and spruce soundboard AAA+
Very
pleased