Eastman OM - a one-month review

[meow-n-dolin]

Are you using the EJ72 or EJ76 mandola strings?

The J72s. I haven't tried the '76s -- I think they would be a bit too heavy for this scale length.

[Marcus CA]

I just picked up a MDO305. It sounds very thin to me. My mandola (Collings) has a much deeper and richer sound.

That might also be because you’re comparing two companies that produce instruments of a significantly different caliber (and price point), which could offset the size difference of your OM and mandola.

[tmsweeney]

I don't actually own an Eastman octave, but I did recommend that to a friend as a good - mid tier octave. He (actually bought it for his wife) let me play it the other day and I thought it was a great octave, while the tone was strong, it was still somewhat nasally and not as deep as either of my Webers, but still a very good quality instrument, punchy and fairly loud, easy to play. So I would surely recommend an Eastman octave to anyone interested in octaves.