Eastman basses

[adriansmith247]

Any opinions on these? 
The new prices look really good and I have read some good things. If you have one and like it let me know

i am looking out for a good loud bass for jazz and possibly gut strings and eastmans are on my radar

thanks

[Hellzero]

These are excellent instruments made by real luthiers and worth every penny.

[NickA]

There are many many models from boiler plate plywood up to some rather nice fully carved "master series" Which one are you looking at?

 

All decent workmanlike basses tho not terribly special at the price.

 

Lady at my orchestra has a plywood vb80 which is built like a battleship but frankly pretty awful ( despite £250 strings ).  I tried a vb503 at bass bags and it was pretty good, but also a bit bland and also £8000

 

You'd likely get better value 2nd hand, but yes, they're ok and certainly won't fall to bits.

[adriansmith247]

1 hour ago, NickA said:

There are many many models from boiler plate plywood up to some rather nice fully carved "master series" Which one are you looking at?

 

All decent workmanlike basses tho not terribly special at the price.

 

Lady at my orchestra has a plywood vb80 which is built like a battleship but frankly pretty awful ( despite £250 strings ).  I tried a vb503 at bass bags and it was pretty good, but also a bit bland and also £8000

 

You'd likely get better value 2nd hand, but yes, they're ok and certainly won't fall to bits.

i was looking at the hybrid bass 

I think I would need to try one though 

8000 is by out of my price range 

thanks for the info 

 

[Paddy Morris]

I have a fully carved Eastman Strings bass.  A VB200 with violin corners and a single Yamahiko pickup.  It was very well set-up by Neal Hepplestone with spiro weichs on it, and it sounds absolutely luscious.  It sounds like a bass 5 times what I paid for it and the action is like butter.

 

It has a lovely dark thump to it and plenty of sustain for jazz.  But it's not particularly loud compared with my plywood slapper. It's not really viable unamplified at anything beyond a small acoustic set. But give it a few watts of amp and it's incredible.

[Burns-bass]

8 hours ago, Paddy Morris said:

I have a fully carved Eastman Strings bass.  A VB200 with violin corners and a single Yamahiko pickup.  It was very well set-up by Neal Hepplestone with spiro weichs on it, and it sounds absolutely luscious.  It sounds like a bass 5 times what I paid for it and the action is like butter.

 

It has a lovely dark thump to it and plenty of sustain for jazz.  But it's not particularly loud compared with my plywood slapper. It's not really viable unamplified at anything beyond a small acoustic set. But give it a few watts of amp and it's incredible.

Good set up is the key to unlocking most basses.