The Eastman T59 V is a take on one of the most successful and influential of Ted McCarty’s innovations, the thinline, semi-hollow archtop electric guitar. Around 1957, Gibson was looking to update its product line to address a number of issues, one of which was the rise in amplified stage volumes causing feedback. While the engineering team is credited with most of the design, it was apparently president Ted McCarty’s idea to put a solid Maple block through the center of the guitar.
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The Eastman SB59 V reflects the classic late 1950s design for a single cutaway, Flamed Maple on Mahogany solidbody with humbucking pickups. While it follows the formula, it’s not a precise copy and Eastman uses their own designs. As a ‘Vintage’ style model, this guitar has undergone an treatment process to simulate the wear of decades of use – except for fretwear.
Drawing from the late 1950s double cutaway models, the Gibson Les Paul DC Standard features a heavily figured Maple cap on a Mahogany slab body, and Maple neck with bound, 24 fret Rosewood fingerboard and gold plated hardware. The hardware on this example is gold plated, with Grover Roto-Matic tuners at the head and an ABR/Stop Tailpiece set on the body. The neck pickup is shifted slightly towards the bridge, compared to a single cutaway Les Paul, to accommodate the longer 24 fret fingerboard. A pair of humbucking pickups feed to a standard 3-way switch, from there to a single Volume and Tone control, and finally to a side-mounted output jack.
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MORE →The Eastman T486B Thinline is an excellent take on the classic semi-hollow design introduced by Ted McCarty, president of Gibson, with the 1958 ES-335. Like most other versions of this design, the Eastman T486B uses pressed Maple Laminate for the top, back and sides, with a Maple block running down the center of the body. The top has a pair of F holes, and here they are bound. On the Eastman, the neck is Maple with a bound Ebony fingerboard sporting Split Block Parallelogram inlays (similar to an ES-345).
Built on the concept of the thin bodied yet fully hollow archtop electric guitar, the Eastman T64V delivers the tone, feel and look of early 1960s models. Gibson produced the first of these in 1959 with the ES-330, and in 1961 extended the design to their Epiphone line as the ES-230 Casino. That model was quickly picked up by British players including Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison who used theirs on many hits.
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