The Eastmans have been on my radar for some time now....haven't tried one yet though
Finally got the Hagstrom today, and WOW!!! Prettt blown away by how monstrous this thing sounds!!!
I don't usually do first impressions, usually I take a week or two to get to know the piece of gear, but I did promise, so here's just a couple 'first impressions'. The last time I played a Hagstrom was maybe 7 years or so ago, and some things are the same, some different.
-Monstrous sound!! Pretty amazing!!! Quite different to anything else.....it definitely has it's own sound......same thing when I tried it years ago.....very unique, very ballsy, very bright and chimey. I'd compare it to something like a PRS crossed with a tele and gretsch.....hard to describe but that's the closet description I can think of right now
-Sustain!!! On this alone I'd pick it over a Les Paul anyday!! This is better than the sustain of the best gibsons I've played, and it naturally sustains VERY well. Notes just sound immediately and just sing out on their own after.
-Setup was great out of the box! No adjustments and the intonation was spot on!! Gretsch also does a killer setup if you wanna rip right out the box-they are much closer to a Gibson alternative than this is...this is definitely it's own animal.
There was buzz on the low E string, but I'll give it some time to settle in before I fix that....the frets had a couple sharp-ish ones...nothing noticeable, but I actively look for these things. Not bad enough to cut or even notice really, but if you are looking out for it, a quick buff with some steel wool will fix that right up
-Thin neck.....not as thin as the one I remember them being famous for, but I could be very wrong there as it has been quite a while since i played one. The neck is not much thinner than the average guitar, but going up the neck where the neck joins to the body it's the same width, where a lot of other guitars get thicker here.
-Weight-not as light as I remembered.....this one is heavier than I remember.....probably cuz of all the brass blocks.....it's not les paul heavy, but it's not strat light either. Heavy-ish guitar for the relatively small footprint.
-Great aesthetics!! One of the things that caught my eye was the gorgeous pearloid binding....including the fretboard
Now aesthetics mean little to me, but hey, who doesn't like to oogle at a pretty girl or guitar?
Bottom line is that through the axe it is a wonderful guitar! I had a Hagstrom back when I had amps and it was too bright and in your face and bold for me...and with amps I could NOT make it work.....and I got rid of it.....now with the axe, I can make it work!! All that uniqueness really shines with the Axe fx. I don't think it's a guitar for everyone......if you are looking to do say country or pop or reggae I'd probably look elsewhere.......but it can definitely turn some heads with the rock/neoclassical crowd.
If you want, I can try to do up a short vid maybe Friday to show what I mean, but you get the general idea