Eastman Guitars and Eastman Music Company has been hand-crafting guitars as well as other instruments over the past 30 years. Making both acoustic and electric 6-string guitars, Eastman is known for delivering great guitars at an affordable price.
Their guitars can be purchased at many music stores around the world through various dealers. Here, you will find dealers for US and Europe stores, or you can order a guitar online and have it delivered.
Known as a high-quality guitar brand that is reasonably priced across the US, the question begs, are Eastman guitars made in the U.S.A.? Below, we will investigate where Eastman guitars are made.
Who Makes Eastman Guitars?
When you are looking for a great guitar, many people often think of your Fender, Martins, or Gibson guitars. But, for most people, the price point of a lot of these guitars is out of reach. However, there are other guitars companies out there that make good, high-quality instruments at a better price point. One of them is Eastman Guitars.
Founded by Qian Ni in China back in the early ‘90s, Eastman Guitars has grown to also own Backun Musical Services, Brugeois Guitars, S. E. Shires Co., and William S. Haynes. As already established companies, these other companies that Eastman owns also strive to bring the vision of Eastman Guitars to light: to produce hand-crafted instruments at a high quality for a more reasonable price.
Where Are Eastman Guitars Made?
Throughout the years, guitars that are “Made in China” have developed a negative reputation as being cheap and mass-produced. The quality of mass-produced guitars is significantly lower than that of hand-crafted instruments.
Eastman is different. Known for their hand-crafted guitars as well as other instruments, they pride themselves on not being “Made in China”, rather, they are “hand-crafted in Beijing”.
You may be wondering, well are all Eastman guitars made in China? And the answer is, yes.
The Eastman Guitar factory is located in Beijing, China. This workshop is able to produce great-quality instruments by only hand-crafting Eastman guitars and not producing products for any other guitar company. You can watch a short video on the Eastman Guitars factory to learn more about how the guitars are made.
History of Eastman Guitars
To understand the history of Eastman Guitars, we have to go back to 1992 when a young musician named Qian Ni founded Eastman Strings. Qian Ni had moved back to China after studying classical music at the Boston University School of Music, in the United States.
After starting his company, Qian Ni brought in established violin luthiers who still follow 19th-century traditional ways of making violins. Striving to maintain a high standard of instrument production, Eastman Strings became popular after being launched.
The success of Eastman Strings led Qian Ni to use the same business model approach and he created a new company, Eastman Guitars. They began making hollow-body electric guitars and later expanded to acoustic guitars and solid-body electric guitars as the success of the company grew.
30 years later, Qian Ni has managed to grow his business from operating out the back of his car, into a global business, proudly hand-crafting instruments in Beijing, China.
“As a musician, I founded our company with the hope of providing world-class instruments for musicians. I personally enjoy the process of working with our luthiers and production team nearly every day to develop new products and improve what we currently manufacture. Eastman is a family business, and I feel very honored to be able to be part of such a wonderful company.” – Qian Ni, Eastman Guitars
Read more:
- Location of Beijing Eastman Musical Instrument Company: https://panjiva.com/Beijing-Eastman-Musical-Instrument/2704505
- Eastman Guitars: https://www.eastmanguitars.com/vision
