new Eastman mandocello model?

[mrmando]

Anyone know more about this?

https://reverb.com/item/5671198-east...ello-black-top

[NotMelloCello]

Interesting!!!!!!!

[foldedpath]

Eastman has been marketing an AR400 for a while as an archtop guitar, but all the references I've found indicate that it's a laminated top, not solid:

http://www.soundpure.com/p/eastman-a...11145312/16113

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrvzvbqmeqY

If it's a laminated top and not solid as a new mandocello design, that ad should say so.

[Martin Jonas]

If it's a laminated top and not solid as a new mandocello design, that ad should say so.

While I would agree with this, by the deplorable standards of instrument advertising the ad does actually say this: generally, any factory-made instrument described as having "Top:Spruce, Side & Back:Maple" is laminated unless the word "solid" also appears.

Martin

[Tom C]

width at nut is 40mm which is just over 1 1/2" which is narrower and more correct than the 805 that has 1 3/4"

[Steven C. Antonelli]

Anyone know the string gauges? My biggest complaint about my Eastman is thinner strings than the Gibsons etc.

[NotMelloCello]

Anyone know the string gauges? My biggest complaint about my Eastman is thinner strings than the Gibsons etc.

Easily changed, of course.

[colorado_al]

Easily changed, of course.

Not always. I went to put .075 C2 strings on my mandocello and they wouldn't fit through the holes in the tuning peg posts. I had to settle for .065

[Mandobart]

Not always. I went to put .075 C2 strings on my mandocello and they wouldn't fit through the holes in the tuning peg posts. I had to settle for .065

Hmm...I am able to use J78's with .074 for the C' s on my MDC805. They fit in the tuner posts but are very tight in the tailpiece slots. Of course I have to put a ball in the loop to work on the Eastman tailpiece. Dropping down to .070 is a better fit. I get a discount at my local music store on single strings since I buy so many (I've got several custom 8 and 10 string instruments using ball end strings that no one makes pre-packaged sets for). You can get ball end sets for your Eastman from Martin at emando.

[zoukboy]

Not always. I went to put .075 C2 strings on my mandocello and they wouldn't fit through the holes in the tuning peg posts. I had to settle for .065

There is a hack for that. That .075 is almost certainly double-wound, so if you remove a few inches of the outer winding from the part of the string that has to go through the tuner post it should fit. Make sure that you only remove what you have to, so that the trimmed end of the outer winding is between the tuner post and the nut (if you unwind it past the nut then the string is useless). You should be able to trim it and leave the end but if it looks like it wants to unravel further you can tape in down.