Info on Eastman

[Sweetpea44]

My husband surprised me with a used Eastman MD804 yesterday for my birthday! He had it set up and it plays nicely! My question is, on the label it says Maryland, but I always thought Eastman instruments were made in China. Did they have a hub there are some point? The manufacturing date is 2004. Thanks!

[MikeEdgerton]

It was made in China. They had/have an office in Maryland.

Here is a past discussion on the subject.

[Sweetpea44]

Thanks for that info!

[Willie Poole]

I called their Md. office one day to see of I could take a look at some mandolins and you would have thought I cussed them out the way they treated me...A friend of mine was/is their east coast rep and he tried to get me in also and no go.....I am not sure if it was just an office or they actually had instruments there.....No big loss on my part, I have never seen one that I liked but I was hoping that if I could see and try a few more and that they would be better at this time ...I have read that many years ago a person could have a mandolin custom made and get it right from the factory but I guess those days are gone, now they want every one to go through a dealer and I am sure there is a reason for that and they can run their business any way they like...

Willie

[Timbofood]

That does not surprise me, virtually all the distributors I have ever worked with in any business do not want to talk to the "end user". It's not that they don't care but, that's not what they do. There is usually a warehouse, sometimes a lobby or some business space but, the representative has the job of interfacing with the dealer, who in turn works with the end user. It's not like some places that take real pride in face to face service with the guy who bought a guitar or whatever in 1975 and wants to talk to someone about it. Eastman is not the CF Martin company they simply are not set up for that kind of thing. St. Louis music isn't set up that way either, I bought my mandola from them when I worked at a dealer, they simply sent a box with my "stuff" in it. Don't take it personally Willie.

[allenhopkins]

Another perspective: the tailpiece on my MDC-805 Eastman mandocello broke (there was a design flaw, others have had the same experience), and the Eastman representative went well beyond the call of duty to replace the part, including taking a tailpiece off a "B stock" instrument that had just arrived from China, and sending it to my repair guy to install -- at no cost, of course.

The Eastman staff in the US are to some extent at the mercy of whatever gets shipped to them, and "oddball" low-volume instruments like the MDC-805 are lower in the pecking order, when Eastman's shipping tons of guitars, mandolins, orchestral instruments etc. The rep told me that he's lucky to get a half-dozen mandocelli every six months or so, to cover the entire US. And parts are scarcer even than that; there was a whole box of tailpieces shipped, but all for arch-top guitars, none for mandocello.

Seems to me that Eastman has basically only a trans-shipping facility here in the US, now in California, I guess. No showroom, no direct interchange with customers, only dealing with dealers. Eastman has had several "road shows" at Bernunzio's here in Rochester, with the representative bringing in several dozen instruments to sell at discount; quite a few are "B stock," but the blemishes are really minor, and the prices are quite attractive. Seems like the company would rather use one or more of its dealers as a place to showcase its instruments, rather than doing it directly at their office.

[Bill Kammerzell]

I purchased my 1st Eastman, (MD 305) at a music festival in Gettysburg, PA, May 2013. The guy who sold it to me was an Eastman representative from Maryland. He lived in southern Anne Arundel County, not far from me, as it turned out. Name of Tim Finch. Going to see him and his Eastman String band play in Annapolis, MD this coming February 2016. Glad I met him. Just bought a Eastman MD 515 store demo model, and its the nicest mandolin I've ever played in the $1000.00 dollar range. In fact it prompted me to auction my Loar LM 600, because I'd stopped playing it.

[Sweetpea44]

So far I've really enjoyed the Eastman .... it has a nice bright tone and the oval hole is beautiful.

[Timbofood]

Very cool that Bernunzio can do a "trunk show" from time to time! The really cool part of having those shows is as big an opportunity for the rep as for the store! The store can have far more selection from one distributor than would normally be practical and not tie up cash flow. Customers have the ability to see, hear, and feel a great sample before making a serious purchase.
Minor correction from my earlier post, that should read mandolin not, mandola. Back then, nobody made mandolas, other than special order things from talented individuals.

[mandroid]

Many Importers have Offices in one Place , and the warehouse for the products,
somewhere closer to the Actual Port of Entry.

or say in the middle of the country for distribution cost to both coasts
though the Maritime Container was trucked from Long Beach.. US #1 container port.