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Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
I just released my new Eastman MD305 from Covid19 isolation, tuned it up, and had a plunk for an hour or so. I'm completely happy with it, which doesn't happen with many of the many musical instruments I've owned. Thanks to all here who recommended it, you were absolutely right!
What I wanted was a value well made plain looking woody sounding and easy playing mandolin, and that's exactly what this is - but there's more than that. I didn't expect this to have a three piece neck, but there it is - a narrow sandwich of some visibly 'other' wood between the outer layers, maybe that will add some stability. Then there's the alloy tailpiece common to a number of Eastmans and now even on this base model. What they don't bother telling you in the spec. is that this tailpiece depresses the strings slightly, and has a rubber or foam plastic piece on the inside which (I think) has a harmonic supression effect. The machines are, as someone else said on another thread, stiff, but they seem to work OK and don't stick and slip.
Straight off it sounded a bit hard with a brassy G, but after maybe 20 mins playing it started to loosen up and sound more woody, with more 'pop' to each pick stroke and the initially tight sounding Es opening up. By that time I'd messed with picks and settled (for now) on a 1.0 Dunlop Ultex Sharp - I''ve ordered a selection of thicknesses of these to see what works best. It also sounds like it's starting to sustain longer than straight off - of course it may be playing me in :)
I intended to get a Tone-Gard device, so for the moment I fitted a Wolf 'Forte Secondo' viola (not violin - much wider) shoulder rest I have, and I think that's doing the same job. It stays on the mando surprisingly well, it keeps the mando back maybe 1.5" off me and (I think) improves the sound.
This one's a keeper - even if I get a better mando sometime in the future, this is a good honest instrument that works well, that you can leave on a bar table while you get a drink without worrying about it. Thanks again for the recommendation!
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Your happiness is what matters.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Pictures or it didn't happen :grin:
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2 Attachment(s)
Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Pictures?...well, a brown mandolin, just like every other Eastman MD305 :) If this picture attach works, though, it'll show the viola shoulder rest, which surprisingly, enables me to play it standing up with no strap. Why would you do that - because you can?
Attachment 191735
Attachment 191736
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Don’t confuse short term “settling down” with long term “playing in”. You’ll likely experience the former with every string change.
There are about as many people who say Tonegards don’t work as there are who claim that the sound of mandolins don’t improve with time. I now have 3 of them so you can tell which side of the fence I’m on; just make sure you buy the right size. I think an Eastman will need the larger “vintage” one but you need to check. There was a UK one for sale in the classifieds the other day but the seller wasn’t clear about the size. (They also said that it originally cost $35 postage - mine was $25 at the end of November).
Play the hell out of it!
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
I am amazed As to how the Eastman 305 is keeping people sane during these Covid times. I take my hats off to the luthiers in the Eastman factory who are making such quality instruments for so little money. They deserve a pay rise even if the price of the Eastmans go up a bit
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ray(T)
Don’t confuse short term “settling down” with long term “playing in”. You’ll likely experience the former with every string change....Tonegards... There was a UK one for sale in the classifieds the other day but the seller wasn’t clear about the size. Play the hell out of it!
Good point about strings settling down vs instrument playing in. I saw that ToneGuard on Ebay, but at £80 I could order one from the US maker with a guarantee for about the same. If the viola shoulder rest works out for me instead (depends on how much it falls off), they're something like £30.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
If you order direct (as I did) don’t forget to factor in VAT and the £8 Royal Mail commission. I don’t think ordering 1 will take you above the duty threshold.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Congrats... Glad you like it..... enjoy. And start putting money away for your upgrade. The more you know, the more you know you don't know. Enjoy the journey. R/
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
You summed up my feelings towards my Eastman 305 very succinctly. Glad you like it. I've had my for about 1.5 years now, and still think it is a very adequate mandolin. No plans to upgrade, yet.
Enjoy!
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Congrats Maxr, I loved my 305!... great little mando!
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
I love the chinrest as a tone guard! That's brilliant
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Canoe Captain
I love the chinrest as a tone guard! That's brilliant
That's a shoulder rest he's using in place of a tone-gard, not a chin rest, says this unrehabilitated violinist.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Time will tell whether the shoulder rest will stay on well enough to do the job of a Tone-Gard. So far as sound goes, it works.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
I have an Eastman also, and I really like it (also!).
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Congrats, maxr! And, nice bit of ingenuity with the shoulder rest...
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CES
Congrats, maxr! And, nice bit of ingenuity with the shoulder rest...
Cheapniss is the father of ingenuity...and I'm Scottish.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Ingenious idea about the shoulder rest.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
J Mangio
Your happiness is what matters.
In addition to his happiness mattering, it also matters that he's found a good mandolin at a reasonable price, which others on the board might also enjoy.
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
I just opened mine up as well yesterday. The figuring on yours is more pronounced than mine, I think. Congratulations! :)
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
I got my MD 305 in late September (or early October?) of last year, and by December I added an MDO 305. Yeah, I like mine.
Congratulations to both of you!
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Re: Eastman MD 305 unbox - thanks all, I'm a satisfied customer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
neverenoughtea
I just opened mine up as well yesterday. The figuring on yours is more pronounced than mine, I think. Congratulations! :)
Might just be the photo. Mine has some figure on the back (none on the neck), but it's not bookmatched, so I think it's just chance rather than design. It also has a bunch of narrow vertical lines running up and down the back, which I suspect might be toothed plane marks which haven't been completely taken out with a scraper before being filled with stained filler then varnished. The joins in the three part top are easy to see also. If this was a $3000 mandolin that might be some cause for concern, but hey, this is a budget instrument for the sound quality, so for me it's all 'character'. Have fun with yours, I expect they all sound as good as each other.