Although more popular for their affordable archtop jazz boxes, Eastman has also been producing some well received acoustic flat tops, including this elegant looking “blues box” – the E20P Parlor.
It is said that the company carried over their violin building experience into their guitar production, resulting in guitar that has the same handcrafted feel and quality as classical stringed instruments. And I will have to concur, based on what I’ve seen and heard from the E20P, simple yet elegant and more importantly it has an amazing ringing voice that you wouldn’t expect from a small bodied guitar. You don’t have to take my word for it, check out the demo video below:
The E20P is a bonafide all-solid wood acoustic instrument, with its small body crafted from some fine tonewoods. It has a solid Adirondack spruce top, which is supported by hand carved scalloped X bracing and paired with solid rosewood back and sides. It sports a premium wood combination that is usually only found on guitars that are far more expensive.
This traditional wood configuration along with its small size (13 3/4″ lower bout, 4 1/8″ depth) and short scale length (24.9″) give this parlor guitar a very articulate tone with ringing sustain. Fingerstyle players will definitely appreciate the note separation while strummers will also find the E20P to be punchy and loud enough for the job.
The guitar’s mahogany neck is topped by an ebony fretboard that has a 1 13/16″ nutwidth with 2 11/32″ spacing, designed to provide enough space for your fingers to dance over. It has 19 nickel/silver frets and meets the body at the 12th fret, following traditional parlor guitar design.
Other features of the guitar include a vintage style slotted headstock with open-gear Gotoh tuners, bone nut and saddle, ebondy bridge and herringbone binding for the body.
The Eastman E20P is currently retailing for only $1,639, which is quite affordable for its premium specs. It will now be quite harder to justify other more expensive parlor guitars that does not even have the same premium wood combination! For the complete specifications and to check out their other instruments, head over to Eastman.
