Article: Eastwood Announces Crowdfunded Airline H35 Batwing Electric Mandolin

**Mandolin Cafe** · Mar-23-2023, 11:15am

You can view the page at https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/c...ctric-Mandolin

**mrmando** · Mar-23-2023, 11:21am

Oh my oh me!

Gonna feel a lot different from a Harmony original, since those have floating bridges. But you can't deny that this is a looker.

**Verne Andru** · Mar-23-2023, 2:16pm

Looking good. Nice take on a classic.

**tmsweeney** · Mar-23-2023, 4:12pm

well it is somewhat less expensive than a vintage harmony batwing, and I really don't like the bridge/tail piece setup on those (I have a non electric one) already satisfied with Eastwood quality (I have the octave) so I ordered a green one.

**Mandolin Cafe** · Mar-23-2023, 9:56pm

In case someone is looking for a left-handed model, also a similar program but they only need eight pre-orders. Those are found here.

**EdHanrahan** · Mar-25-2023, 11:54am

I bit... Yes, green! They're already over the minimum subscription for right-hand. Still need 5 more left-hand (as of 3/25 @ 2pm).

**stevemo** · Mar-26-2023, 10:07pm

Wasn’t the pickup one of the elements that made the Batwing cool?

**MikeEdgerton** · Mar-27-2023, 7:29pm

Originally Posted by stevemo

Wasn’t the pickup one of the elements that made the Batwing cool?

The only things that made a Harmony Batwing cool were the way they looked and who played them. If you were looking for sound or playability you might want to go elsewhere. This looks to me like you could get the best of the old part and a chance at a decent instrument while you were at it.

**Mandolin Cafe** · Mar-30-2023, 7:04am

Here's a related project being crowdfunded: the Eastwood Teleolin, mandolin and guitar. Someone on Instagram commented this should be mandolin and octave or mandocello to which we can only concur.

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**Verne Andru** · Apr-06-2023, 7:29pm

Originally Posted by MikeEdgerton

The only things that made a Harmony Batwing cool were the way they looked and who played them. If you were looking for sound or playability you might want to go elsewhere. This looks to me like you could get the best of the old part and a chance at a decent instrument while you were at it.

The main thing going for Batwings was they were an electric mandolin that was relatively available and affordable when there were few choices. Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones using one live certainly helped it's legacy.

The pickups were typical of the era and likely from Valco - under-wound single-coils without wax potting. They were electronically noisy with low output that squealed with any amount of gain.

These Eastwood's look to have a mini-humbucker, which is a definite step-up.