So after nearly a year I'm back playing and maybe gigging, thought I would look at getting an R8 as a Christmas pressie to oneself and nearly fell off the floor at how much they have gone up, 3800? Ouch.
Noticed on Codas site these guitars, Chinese made apparently but look very good, also noticed other respected shops are selling them.
I did do a search and those previous threads came up, not very helpful at all really!
So has anyone tried the new solid body types? I love relics and the antique varnish looks very interesting, I can't quite stretch to the 7k for a murphy R9.
I know the residuals are going to be poor but that is not my driver, more are they any good!
Comments
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it was this one I tried
https://www.coda-music.com/electric-guitars/eastman-sb59-v-antique-classic-amber-18607.html
It will be interesting to see how well they do. As someone who does not give two hoots where a guitar is made, I wish them the best of luck!
And then they've just expanded into doing 335 type guitars, laminate top archtops, and now it would appear solid bodies too. So they do have a bit of a different background to most Chinese guitar companies. I recently tried a second hand T186 semi acoustic, and liked it.
Have never played an electric but they look really interesting, particularly the thinline hollow body with P90s and Bigsby.
One thing that concerns me is the 1 3/4" nut width, which seems very wide. This seems to be standard on all the non-solid electrics but is something I'd only expect on a fingerstyle acoustic. Anybody got any comments on how they got on with the wide necks?
The one I haven’t tried yet but want to is the thinline with the Antiquity P90s and the Bigsby - seems a far more sensible price point and looks really nice.
(There is expectation bias in build quality on these which is generally exceeded, save for the aforementioned issues on the one guitar, but an expectation bias on the price which seems to remain fully ingrained... funny that...)
Mainly I dig them - I think trying before buying is essential though - the semi and hollows are not absolute like-for-like subs for their inspirations.
I've had a T486 for about 18 months now and I'd say it took round a week or two to get properly used to the nut width. Never had any problems since then and it's a nice difference to my other guitars, so don't be put off if it feels a little strange at first. I don't ever think about having to adjust between guitars due to the nut width so it's not a problem for me, it might bother some folk though.
I have tried a SB59 with the same SD59 PU's as the 184. I thought it was lighter than I expected and it played nicely, but the 184 gives a little more in the way of different tones and had a slimmer c neck that suited me.
Id definitely give one a try if you can. If you want the SB59 to sound as good as an R8 (which I know you have owned) then it’s not going to but if it’s to get back in to gigging and not have something that’s TOO high value then they are a decent punt.
I will say though I’d rather have even a Standard production run Gibson over them though.