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.
Seth Lover
The Eastman company builds more arched top instruments than anyone else, and they apply their expertise to thinline archtop electrics like the Eastman T186MX. This model seems largely based on classic thinline hollowbodies like the Casino and ES-330. Featuring solid wood construction, the Eastman T186MX has a solid, carved flame Maple top, solid Mahogany sides and solid mahogany carved back with a support block under the bridge and tailpiece.
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MORE →Once in a while we come across significant instruments like this, almost entirely original, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard in Sunburst. Often regarded as one of the Grail treasures of the guitar world, this is an instrument that hardly needs introduction. This 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard was purchased new in 1960, and has had one owner until recently. Decades ago it suffered a headstock break, which was solidly repaired at the time. We have cleaned up the aesthetics of that repair.
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MORE →The Jon Perry CS is a single cutaway, thinline guitar built in Toronto using a Maple top and back set on a Mahogany core. Jon Perry builds in the south western part of downtown Toronto, and builds three basic styles – the CS series, a chambered solidbody creating the impression of a traditional thinline; the AT series, a small bodied archtop guitar; and the S Series of solidbody guitars, often in a ‘T style’ design. He has run his shop since 2014.
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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).
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MORE →The Heritage H575 is a take on the classic single-cutaway Maple laminate archtop electric, and clearly draws from the Gibson ES-175 that originated in the building Heritage now occupies. Heritage was formed by former Gibson employees who did not want to leave Kalamazoo when Gibson completed its move to Nashville. This Heritage H575 dates to 1990 and was built at the Parsons Street plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Like every other Heritage we’ve seen, it is very well built and finished.
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