My latest guitar saga. It began like this-
"For a year now I've had my eye out for a Paul Reed Smith Singlecut Goldtop, preferably a good used oeiginal Singlecut model, and preferably with P90s although regular humbuckers would be fine as well. The problem is I should have done this a couple of years ago, as prices have gone through the roof. I was looking to spend around $2K. Probably not going to happen in today's climate.
Recently I've been able to peruse the Eastman SB-56 Goldtop. 50s neck, Lollar P90s, retails around $1900 brand new. Interesting....
I seriously doubt I'm going to stumble upon a suitable original or core PRS in my price range any time soon. I'd look at an S2 McCarty if they did an actual Goldtop (older models were offered in solid Gold, but not Goldtop).
So I guess I'm asking for someone to tell me about Eastman, por favor."
Then on Monday I made a trip to Rockdale to visit my mom, and stopped at ma few shops on the way-
"So on the way to visit my mom and sister in East Texas, I went on a guitar roadtrip yesterday and today.
I had seen an Eastman SB56 online at a store in the San Antonio area. A store I had never been in, about 5 hours away from my house. The store was pretty cool, lots of stock. But the SB56 wasn't there. Was told it was in a seperate off-site warehouse. Oh well, moving on for now. Stopped at Sam Ash and Guitar Center in San ANtonio but nothing piqued my interest.
Today stopped by Guitar Resurection and South Austin Guitars. Both cool stores. Guitar Rez was down in stock (as many places are) but they had some interesting specimens. A Hamer Sunburst in great shape, and a Grosh Retro T Classic caught my eye. Also had a 1992 PRS CU24 in dark cherry sunburst that looked a lot like my first PRS from way back when. I did get lucky and snag a dark cream LP pickguard from a 1960 Classic that they just happened to have laying around.
From there to South Austin Guitars. They still had an Eastman SB56 that I had originally seen a couple of weeks ago. The only snag is they're asking a couple hundred dollars more than what everyone else seems to be trying to get. I decided to eat lunch and then hit the road.
About 20 miles out of town I got to thinking maybe I should have offered to buy it for what other places are asking for them. Should have thought of that while I was there.
Then, I get the wild idea to call the first place I went to yesterday and tell them if they can get that guitar from their warehouse, I could come back through there in a couple of hours and I'd be interested in taking it home. Salesman said he thought he could get it in the store but it may not be till the end of the day or definitely tomorrow morning. Sorry, I can't stay overnight to get it. Oh well, I guess the shop in the San Antonio area didn't want to sell me a $2000 guitar."
So today I got online and pulled the trigger-
NGD incoming
About This Listing
Make: Eastman
Model: SB56/N GD
Top Wood: Solid Carved Maple
Body Wood: One Piece Mahogany
Neck Wood: One Piece Mahogany
Fingerboard: Ebony
Fingerboard Inlay: Pearl Crowns
Radius: 12"
Nut Material: Bone
Nut Width: 1.7"
Depth at 1st Fret: 0.87"
Depth at 12th Fret: 0.99"
Color: Gold Top
Pickups: Lollar Custom Aged/Wound Soapbar P-90
Bridge: Gotoh GE103B-NI
Case: Hardshell Case
Weight: 7lb 10oz
now we wait......
TL/DR
I got a new guitar.
