Friday was a New Guitar Dayâ„¢, ending the previous 18-month (mostly) self-imposed moratorium on guitar purchases. I received an Eastman AC710 (now called an AC712) from The Acoustic Guitar in Calgary.


This is Eastman’s take on the Martin 14-fret 000 size guitars that I just adore. The neck is made from mahogany, with a really interesting volute (second picture, above). The beautiful ebony fretboard is a dream to play on. The peghead has a rosewood veneer, a rosewood truss rod cover, and gold-plated Gotoh sealed tuners, which work very well.


The guitar’s top is made up of two pieces of engelmann spruce, which is purported to be ideal for finger picking (while sitka is the ideal for flatpickers). The guitar sounds gorgeous played either way, though. Back and sides are Indian rosewood, with beautiful grain. The guitar is beautifully bound with a five-ply mixture of woods, predominantly rosewood, which is sandwiched on either side by blonde and then black woods. The blond wood is maple, I believe, which is also used in the pinstripe inlay work on the back. I don’t know what the black wood is, though I have a hard time imagining that it’s ebony.


The guitar is finished in a thin coat of deliciously noxious nitrocellulose lacquer, so I think it’s going to age very, very well. I’ll try not to sniff it too much.