I’ve never been a big fan of Statocasters, or Strat like guitars. While I do appreciate their fine quality,  overall I always found them lacking personality.

I’ve always gravitated to unusual guitars like Vox’s, or my Tokai Talbo Blazing Fire, a cast aluminum guitar from Japan that I picked up for a steal way back in the late 80s. (I’ve been playing a rare 1972 Ibanez Artist bass I found used at Capsule Music, it was only in the catalogs for about 2 years).

That’s why I was so pleased to stumble across Eastwood Guitars, a company recreating the more unusual vintage axes from the 60’s and 70’s. Many of these were carried by Sears or Woolworths. If you’ve ever tried any of the originals, you’ll know that many of them were, uh, less than “the creme of the crop” in terms of playability and quality.

Eastwood crafts their reproductions with a careful eye to detail, but also makes their guitars to the highest quality modern standards – so you wind up with a killer vintage guitar that plays like a modern, high end instrument. Best of both worlds. (Oh yeah, surprisingly they don’t cost an arm and a leg either, although once the word gets out, I’m sure they’ll bet a bit pricer, especially at this level of quality, so get your’s while you can.)

What was better was when I found out that they were Canadian. Even better, they’re just up in Georgetown Ontario! just outside Toronto (and where Mark C calls home).

The past Friday I decided to stop by while on my way up to Stratford ON for some theatre. The kind Sales Manager Peter McCracken let me poke around their workspace and let me try out some of the models on hand.

Some great stuff at Eastwood

Absolutely brilliant stuff. They even spec custom pickups to reflect the sound of the originals, they don’t just plug in standard Humbuckers everywhere.

nice work if you can get it

Each guitar is hand set up and checked by the staff at Eastwood, so you’ll get something great right out of the box.

Not sure which one I’ll get, although I will be getting at least one. Probably the Wandre or the Airline Town & Country, although the Breadwinner is kinda cool as well, and the Messenger is really cool.

So stop on by Eastwood Guitars on the web (some local music shops carry them as well) and take a look at the variety of models they offer. They’re even holding a contest where you can win over $10k of Eastwood products. Considering what the guitars cost – that’s one heck of alot of guitars!

So which one would you get?

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