New Eastman Mandolin
 

Watched acoustic shoppe at NAMM today. Saw where Eastman is coming out with PCH M-104 A-Style oval hole mandolin that'll sell for $399. Thinking this should be pretty nice quality especially for a home player like I am. Also saw where they'll have some new ukulele's also...Edit: saw it has a 33mm nut width, what size is that compared to? May have gotten nut size wrong, maybe 30MM instead

Mandolin at 6min 40sec mark

33 mm = a little over 1 1/4", so wider than the fairly standard 1 1/8".

That looks pretty nice, and I'll have to keep an eye out for the ukes, too.

D.H.

hmmm I like that tinny bit wider nut and oval hole should have a mellower less bright tone...wouldn't mind trying out this mandolin and uke also

Eastman site lists the nut width as 30mm - which is slightly, but not that much wider than most regular mandolin nuts (usually around 28mm, Eastmans usually have a slightly more narrow 27.5mm nut width).

Also, since it hasn't been mentioned - these are FLATTOP mandolins - great for Irish, or Old Time, but not so much for bluegrass....

old time sounds good cause i am that

Looks good to me - if they give a half-decent setup this sounds like a pretty good beginner option. The 33mm I think is for the ukes below them.

These instruments should also appeal to guitar players with the wider neck and the enhanced bass response provided by the flat top and the oval sound hole. When Tacoma was making its flattop mandolins, it was primarily guitar players who bought them as second instruments, not serious mandolin players like me. Their overall sound and dynamic qualities weren’t as suitable for traditional mandolin roles.


Wade Hampton Miller

So is it less bright, or tinny?

It's a shame flat-top mandolins are associated with budget models, which Eastman have reinforced by placing this model in the PCH range with laminated back and sides. Outside of American makers and styles, Gibson style mandolins aren't the only game in town. As someone in Scotland who got into mandolin through UK and Irish folk styles, I could happily have a good flat top (or domed or canted) as my main mandolin.

I owned a Big Muddy mandolin, and then convinced myself I needed a more traditional one. I bought an Eastman, which is a crazy good mandolin for the money. I also bought one for my gigging partner as a gift.

But then I realized the sound I much preferred was the Big Muddy. And so I repurchased one from Mr. Dulak. So now my partner has an Eastman and I have the much richer melodic sound of the Big Muddy M11 that I enjoy.

https://i.imgur.com/FcKXlwQh.jpg

The BM you sold me is still working out fine!

D.H.

Just like with archtop guitars, there's a lot more work and hours involved in carving the top and back plates of a traditional A or F style mandolin. It makes sense to me that flat top (aka Army Navy, pancake) mandolins cost less.

The difference is there are high-end flat top guitars being built and sold, but AFAIK no high end flat top mandolins. Part of this is probably market share. I've always felt there are something like 10,000 guitar players for every mandolin player (including those of us who play both).

There isn't a big enough market IMO to support high end flat top mandolins.

It depends what you call high-end, and where you draw the distinction between flat, formed and carved tops, but I can think of Phil Davidson, Joe Foley, Nigel Forster and Fylde making non-budget flat top mandolins for celtic musicians.

Believe The Mandolin Store will be the first store to receive these when they're released sometime around July of 2024.

Bought an A-Style f hole Eastman 5-6 years ago and wound up selling it as it had a brighter tone than I wanted and I bought a Pava A-Style Wide Nut that had a nice mellower tone and played great, sold it after 3-4 years to buy another acoustic, just didn't feel like I needed a kinda expensive mandolin at my level of playing

Being just a home player now and not much of a mandolin player I do love the sound and like working on tunes in several genres, I may just check with The Mandolin Store and they'll shoot me straight on tone and playability on this mandolin when they come out...not much $ so I may just try one out.

If I were shopping for a new flattop, it'd be a Big Muddy.