My E20D knocks most others out

“Why not just buy a Martin”? There is no doubt that Martin guitars ARE great guitars. BUT Martin’s are absolutely WAY OVER PRICED and there are MANY guitars that I would say are EQUAL in PRICE AND QUALITY. Honestly, I have played for 50 years and have played virtually every brand that I could find. I just cannot let myself pay the prices Martin and Taylor charge. I dont give a rats butt where in the world an acoustic guitar is made. A human being that takes great pride in the building of a quality acoustic guitar will take great pride in the building of a beautiful instrumental. For Example; 4 years ago I discovered “ZAGER” guitars. I decided to purchase a ZAD 900 E Dreadnought. It is built of solid East Indian Rosewood back/sides with a solid Sitka Spruce Top. The electronic pickup is a top L.R. Baggs or with the Fishman Aura top of the line pickup. The neck is Mahogany and the nut and saddle are bone. The guitar tuners are Grover. This model also comes with a cut away model like many other brands, to aid in playing further up the neck as most other brands offer. They also provide a decent hard shell case, and 20 ft cord included and a number of picks and extra sets of easy play coated strings and a quality leather strapI purchased a standard dreadnought and a cut away model and honestly could not be happier. Their customer service stands by each customer and provides top notch service 2nd to none. My point is, I paid approximately $2500-$2600 for each guitar and they have both performed beautifully out of the box and have played, sincerely good or better than any models Martin or Taylor or Matan or Eastman ,Takamine any or any other brands. While the Martin D-41, D-42, and the famous D-45 models with all the abalone inlay will set you back about $6,000 - $9,000. I am not saying ZAGER makes “BETTER” guitar, my feelings are they make an EQUAL guitar at a much more affordable price. If you want to pay 2-3 times the price and you can feel good about that by all means. Go ahead. Just remember playing a much more expensive guitar will not make YOU the next Eric Clapton or Tommy Emmanuelle. Long hours of practice and determination will bring the success you look for. Make sure you are determined to play well and put in the time and effort and buy a quality guitar you can afford before overspending on a guitar you know you can be happy with. Even Yamaha manufactures a decent quality model at a reasonable price that they wont need to bury you with. Many models are out now with new models hitting the market that may make you happier than you think. Evaluate what your objectives are and don’t let debt make you feel overburdened. Zager also gives you a free 30 day home trial period and a full one year home warranty. How can you beat it? And that includes shipping both ways👍😳😇🇺🇦🇺🇸🇮🇱Play on and keep music bringing joy to the world. We certainly need it in today’s world full of war and so death. Music has a way of soothing our lives and acoustic guitar is truly able to bring that blessing!

Build in China...thanks but no thanks..

@@ross9581 understood…. I have no love for the “Party” either. But, this is not an American or Japanese company building cheap guitars in China, while their high end stuff is built in the homeland. These are only built in China, the owner is an accomplished musician trained at Berklee School of music, and these are not “factory” instruments.

I agree 100%. I was debating between the e6d and e10d and I like the sound of the e6d better for the exact reasons that you listed.

They really are. Best Pac Rim guitar company imo.

I have a e20d MR TC it is a killer sounding acoustic guitar 😅😅😁😁😁

Thanks so much for supporting us and for the feedback!

Thanks so much for supporting us!

Thanks for the feedback! We're glad we could help you in the decision making process, that's our goal when we make blind tests. That guitar will be worth the wait! 😀

Good point!

Thanks so much for the feedback, we really hope these videos help folks decide which models they prefer! As far as exactly how we pick the instruments, it's honestly just what we have in stock. We can't carry Martins so when we get one used like this case, then we try to jump on the opportunity to film a comparison. The Eastmans are definitely just picked at random, in general, we also don't really overstock Eastmans but rather keep a variety of their line in stock. I believe these were the only E10s and E6s we had in at the time. So they kinda are random but that can be a test of the manufacturer. I can compare it to secret shopping or an undercover boss situation, you should always put out your best quality because you never know when your product might be put to the test. These videos are meant to help those deciding which model to buy and they can in general show which direction they should lean. But of course, in a buying situation, you should always listen to or play the exact model you're looking at. Kind of a long answer but I just wanted to cover your questions. Thanks so much for watching and for the feedback - truly! If we have the choice, we do try to put the best vs the best.

exact model I mean

One day you’re gonna wake up and think “man this guitar just doesn’t sound like such and such sound I’m going for” and you will then begin a journey of why people can become so nit picky. Then there’s also the fact that environment and style of music plays a big role. That said you’re absolutely right that it’s way more important to just play the dang thing. Also it doesn’t take thousands of dollars to have a great sounding guitar. I have cheap and expensive and love all of them.

same!

We're gonna answer this on today's Shoppe Talk Livestream at noon central!

Martin is a 16" and Eastman uses a 12"

@@AcousticShoppe Thanks! 🍺

I have owned many high end acoustics and sold them for years. I was also thinking B was the 18. But, I love Eastmans too.

You still have to come up with the difference and maybe you can't budget it.

John says he always likes to pick an adirondack top (E10D), that's just his opinion. But of course our favorite choice is the E10D-TC for the upgrade!

Here's the timestamp for the reveal: 12:24 . Those are also just some chairs from FB marketplace!

I’ve owned an Eastman (E10D) a while ago. They don’t hold their value in the used market compared to Martin and other USA built guitars.

Def buy used. That’s the real value. Just bought used Martin d18 and the new price of the Eastman was too close to go with Eastman. Great value used but if goin new pay a little more for the used martin

Overall John's favorite strings are the GHS Americana's, or D'Addario EJ17's or XS Strings if you prefer them lasting longer. All of these instruments we sound much more open the more they are played and guitars typically just get better and better over time. Hope this helps!

Ear Trumpet Labs Mics

Same that depth is hard to miss

It can be great to build your collection, even with very similar instruments because they do still sound different. If it encourages you to play and create more, go for it! In our opinions, the E6 is a great step up from the E1 (Dread or OM).

@@AcousticShoppe : Thanks! 😊

Unfortunately no