http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Carbohydrates02/Eastwood%20Airline%20Map/airline004.jpg

I'll open with a confession: when I initially purchased this guitar, it was 100% due to its looks. I'd never played one or heard one before, though I could reasonably surmise what it would sound like based on the specs - the chambered mahogany body was particularly appealing. I could only find red and green ones for sale used, so I ordered it straight from Eastwood.

When I got it, I realized three things very quickly: One, the nut is cut pretty poorly. No biggie, it has a zero fret so I can chop away at the nut all I want. Two, this thing sounds AWESOME acoustically. Three, this thing sounds like ASS plugged in.

So! New pots, new wire, Fender 3-way switch, and a pair of GFS lipstick tube humbuckers. Absolutely awesome.

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Carbohydrates02/0airline001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/Carbohydrates/AirlineMap/newpu002.jpg

Then, one day, I bought a '69 SG on eBay and one of the pickups in it was one of those 50's fake humbuckers, the one that's really just a single coil in a humbucker shell, like from an old Supro. Measured to something like 3 or 4kΩ. I stuck it in the neck and decided I needed a bridge single coil to match, so I made one out of a Melody Maker reissue pickup and a junk humbucker!

Here it is today. Double single coils, upgraded electronics... and Grover Imperials, because they're classy as hell. I think it looked better with the tubes, but it sounds great either way. Hell, I may go back to the tubes. I'm constantly messing with my guitars!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/Carbohydrates/AirlineMap/6131wmap001.jpg

"GFS lipstick tube humbuckers. Absolutely awesome."

so Steampunk! very nice...

Love what you have done to the Eastwood.

I also am intrigued by Eastwood's offerings.

Your mod with the dual lipsticks is soooo kick ass! They just look right on that guitar!

I would have never thought of that particular mod, either!

I am sporting lumber for the Ichiban and all of the Supro/Airline models.

The thing about those re-issues is that they are made of wood instead of the "res-o-glass" bodies of the originals. That does have an effect on the sound.

Yeah, the original Nationals are really hot, but surprisingly Eastwood makes a fine guitar, especially for how cheap they are. My bassist played one of those Eastwood hollow body basses the other day and it sounded great.

Aw man is that just gorgeous! Congrats!!!

That is a very cool guitar to begin with, and your mods make it even cooler. Nice choice waiting and getting a black one.

super cool!

Nice guitar, The lipstick should do well for you in that guitar.

Your mod with the dual lipsticks is soooo kick ass! They just look right on that guitar!

I would have never thought of that particular mod, either!
Thanks! They sound great in it - very crisp. I may pop 'em back in with a coil split, too.

I actually found it kinda hard to find pickups that work well with the guitar. The chambered body and maple neck make it not geared particularly well for your average 8-10 humbucker. I think it really sounds best with a low output pickup.
The thing about those re-issues is that they are made of wood instead of the "res-o-glass" bodies of the originals. That does have an effect on the sound.
Oh, absolutely. It sounds closer to the original than I would have predicted with the double single coils in it, but it's still pretty far away from its visual inspiration. Eastwoods LOOK like guitars of olde, but don't really sound like them.
That is a very cool guitar to begin with, and your mods make it even cooler. Nice choice waiting and getting a black one.
Thanks! I really wanted a black one because of the white headstock - I love that tuxedo look.

Eastwood's slogan should be" "We reissue all the guitars from your past that you wouldn't be caught dead playing as a kid."

I think it really sounds best with a low output pickup.

I've got a Sea Foam Green Map coming to me as I type this, and I also confess that I also bought this guitar solely for its looks and the fun-factor I'd get from it. Generally I'm not much of a regular-humbucker fan (Teles are my first love) so I bought it knowing that a pickup swap would probably be on the cards if I want to gig the guitar from time to time. Your comment that I quoted above really caught my attention. When I was buying the guitar I had (and still have) a plan in mind to upgrade to either the genuine Eastwood single coils or TV Jones Classics, both of which would fall into your category of low output pickups and would hopefully suit the guitar better based on your comments. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the guitar arriving next week. Should be a blast :D

I've got a Sea Foam Green Map coming to me as I type this ... When I was buying the guitar I had (and still have) a plan in mind to upgrade to either the genuine Eastwood single coils or TV Jones Classics
Nice! Be sure to shoot some shots when you get it. I love these guitars and they look amazing in any finish. Also, I think I'd have stuck TV Jones Classics in my own by now if they made the English Mount Gibson-style bezels in white, but you can only get 'em black or cream (https://tvjones.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=02-006-). :(

Say, anyone know a good way to paint those white and have it look good and not flake off?

Carbohydrates,
Can’t believe I missed this thread! That Eastwood is insane! Usually similar gits seem interesting to me, but don't usually get the GAS going. What you did to get that guitar to where it is now is phenomenal. Great, tasteful choices.
Its's now classy and way out. Great job!

Bummer about the only choices being black or cream for the TVJ surrounds. This is what my Airline Map will look like...

http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/GTRs/airline-Map/images/AirlineMap-big/airlinemapgreenFINAL.jpg

...The black wouldn't look all that great but the cream would really clash with the pickguard. I think black will be the lesser of two evils, unless I go with Carb's idea of painting them.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise... It's freakin' cool. Especially in Black.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise... It's freakin' cool. Especially in Black.

Haha, I think I've been misunderstood :o

When I said "The black wouldn't look all that great" I was talking about pickup surrounds, not Carb's guitar. These guitars would look cool in any colour.

I like them. Ever since I saw them for the first time I thought they looked awesome and it happens to be that Jack White plays my favorite one.
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When I got it, I realized three things very quickly: One, the nut is cut pretty poorly. No biggie, it has a zero fret so I can chop away at the nut all I want. Two, this thing sounds AWESOME acoustically. Three, this thing sounds like ASS plugged in.


These comments made me laugh out loud when I first read them a few days ago, but they're so true!! Awesome acoustically and ASS plugged in! I read a review of this guitar online somewhere recently that says Eastwood were trying to recapture the character of the originals with the pickups in these modern guitars. I think they should have just put decent pickups in them instead... which is what I'm going to do with this guitar.

Aside from the pickups I LOVE this guitar. My first impressions are that I can't find any quality-control flaws in it; playability is great; and of course it looks fantastic. Current finances mean I can't do a pickup swap straight away, but I can't wait to get the sound to match the looks and start gigging with it.

And now for the porn...

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz92/fenderslash/Random%20Dump/P1000877.jpg


Here it is with its brutha-from-anutha-mutha... my Sea Foam Green Telecaster...

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz92/fenderslash/Random%20Dump/P1000867.jpg

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz92/fenderslash/Random%20Dump/P1000865.jpg

Nice, man! Very nice. Have you decided on pickups yet?

I put a pair of TV Jones in mine yesterday, a Classic in the neck and a Classic Plus in the bridge. It's... very awesome. Absolutely in Gretsch territory now between the chambered body, TVJ pickups, and Bigsby. I ended up using the black mounting rings for now, but I also got a pair of cream ones and some white plastic spray paint, so I'll see if I can't make something work there. Pics later!

TV Classics are Plan A for me, so I'm really glad to read that they're working well in your guitar.

A couple of nights ago I was doing a lot of research on the TV Jones site. They show dimensions of the pickup rings there and it seems that none of the holes to screw the TVJ "English Mount" mounting rings into the body are going to match up with the original Eastwood mounting rings. Did you have to drill new holes in the guitar for these rings? Even though the old holes would probably be hidden by the ring I'd have a big psychological barrier to overcome taking a drill to my brand new guitar!! But it looks like there's another option. TVJ also sells their pickups in "Humbucker Mount", which appears to have a pickup casing built to the exact dimensions as a normal Gib-style humbucker. So I'm assuming that they would drop straight into the Eastwood and still allow me to retain the Eastwood's original white pickup mounting rings. TV's Humbucker-Mount pickups look very bland compared to their proper Gretch-looking ones, but if I'm right about them being a straight drop-in with no drilling then I think they'll be my first choice. They'll still have the sound, but shame about the looks...

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz92/fenderslash/Random%20Dump/TVTRON-mt.gif

No drilling was required with these:

https://tvjones.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=02-006-
https://tvjones.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=02-006

The holes are just eeever so slightly farther apart on the new rings than on the stock ones (maybe a millimeter?), but not enough to necessitate drilling. The screws will still drop in the original holes. If I'd used these (https://tvjones.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=02-002), then yeah, I would have had to drill, and even then it wouldn't work because there isn't enough room between the neck and pickguard to fit that ring, so you'd have to grind the edges of the ring.

The HB-mount Filter'Trons are a great no-mod option as well, but they just look so ugly to me. I couldn't bring myself to put 'em on such a pretty guitar. ;)

Like I said, I'll shoot you a photo or two when I get home!

Ahh, that's great news! I just rechecked the screw hole spacing dimensions on the site against my guitar and they were actually closer then I thought, so I must have got it wrong initially...

Long side:
TV = 81mm; Eastwood = 83mm

Short side:
TV = 36.5mm; Eastwood = 37mm

With differences that small I'm sure I could slightly elongate the holes on the long side of the pickup mount and have everything screw in without any dramas.

I agree with you 100% about the TVJ Humbucker Mount pickups being very ugly, so I have just been doing a bit of quick research on your GFS lipstick humbuckers because they are the coolest thing I have seen for a long time, and I especially love how they suit that guitar to a tee. I actually had no idea that they are as cheap as they are. I'd have to save up for a while to get a set of TVJs, but I could buy the lipsticks now as an experiment and they're cheap enough to be no big issue if they're not to my taste. I have no way of hearing them though, and cheap as they are it would still be silly to buy them if I knew I wasn't going to like their sound. So how would you describe the sound?

To give a quick run-down of what I'm looking for; in my world humbucker guitars definitely have their place for certain songs and styles, but for general use my favourite sound is my Telecasters with overdrive because I can get some great crunch and still have clarity and plenty of string-to-string separation in the overdriven sound. Are the lipstick HBs along those lines? Or do they sound more along the lines of standard Gib-style humbuckers? And just to stretch the friendship a little more, could you describe the difference in sound between the lipstick HBs and the TVJs? I'm mostly interested in how they all sound with crunchy overdrive.

To give a quick run-down of what I'm looking for; in my world humbucker guitars definitely have their place for certain songs and styles, but for general use my favourite sound is my Telecasters with overdrive because I can get some great crunch and still have clarity and plenty of string-to-string separation in the overdriven sound. Are the lipstick HBs along those lines? Or do they sound more along the lines of standard Gib-style humbuckers? And just to stretch the friendship a little more, could you describe the difference in sound between the lipstick HBs and the TVJs? I'm mostly interested in how they all sound with crunchy overdrive.
If you're looking for more of a 'driven single' sound, I think the TVJs are going to suit you better. The lipsticks are very glassy and chimey, I found, more like a strat than a tele. They sounded wonderful for cleans, but lacked in the OD department, which is why I decided to swap them out and keep looking. I know a lot of people would have stopped at the lipsticks because of their wonderful clean properties, but I do like me some crunchy drive as well, and for that, I feel the TVJs are ultimately the better choice.

So what exactly was wrong with their drive? Well, it was very difficult to hit a sweet spot. Either they still sounded clean or they slipped immediately into a sort of imprecise distortion. You know how on a linear taper volume pot, after you turn it down past 8 or so, it just drops off into nothing? I feel like the lipsticks had that same "all or nothing" property, making it tough to get a nice-sounding light overdrive. Of course, your mileage may vary and I'm sure you're running very different amps and effects than I am, but compared to other pickups I play, that's just the way they were for me. :)

Also the lipsticks look tremendously cool. They're very easy to split, too, if you want a nice stratty single coil tone. They actually have one of the more convincing single coil sounds you might get from a split humbucker because they're pretty much two singles stuck together.

There bass looks strangely familiar...

http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/Bass/classic4/images/bass_Orange-classic4.jpg

Carbo, that thing just drips 'cool'.

There bass looks strangely familiar...

http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/Bass/classic4/images/bass_Orange-classic4.jpg
It's not like they designed the Map, either. Almost all of their guitars are tributes to past instruments with tweaks varying from minor to major. Consider the LP Special-alike (http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/GTRs/P-90Special/P-90Special_frm.htm), the Mosrite-alike (http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/GTRs/hi-flyer/hi-flyer_frm.htm), and the Firebird-alike (http://www.eastwoodguitars.com/GTRs/stormbird/stormbird_frm.htm) (non-reverse)!

I don't know how I also missed this thread ? Carbo, I'd buy that guitar too, just based on its looks. Nice chioce. Nice mods. Brad

Thanks for the pickup overview Carbohydrates. I couldn't have asked for a better comparison. It sounds like you've got a handle on exactly what I'm looking for and from your description I think I'd ultimately be disappointed with the lipstick pickups. So it's TVJ Classics for me down the track a little. Cheers.

That bass reminds me of my 67 univox that I bought for 375 http://www.gretsch-talk.com/forum/attachments/other-cool-guitars/4714d1254186767-what-about-vintage-univox-univox_bass-jpg I also have the jag copy. Now I'm looking for the right hifyer then my collection will be complete(not)

TV Jones Classic and Classic Plus:

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Carbohydrates02/Eastwood%20Airline%20Map/eastwoodtvj1.jpg

These two photos show how the new rings fit in. Their overall dimensions are just a hair smaller, not only in screw spacing but also in outer perimeter. Luckily, this doesn't matter at all on a black guitar.

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Carbohydrates02/Eastwood%20Airline%20Map/eastwoodtvj2.jpg

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Carbohydrates02/Eastwood%20Airline%20Map/eastwoodtvj3.jpg

Finally, with the Gretsches. I figure that between the TVJs, chambered body, Bigsby, and (not shown) Grover art deco tuners, it's an honorary Gretsch at this point!

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww278/Carbohydrates02/Eastwood%20Airline%20Map/ftgroup.jpg

WOW, look how good they sound. :)

WOW, look how good they sound. :)
Hah, is that a subtle hint towards something? I don't really have the means to record right now, but I'm working on it!