Eastwood Jetstar Bass

[Pow Barabajagal]

Eastwood Guitars are crowdfunding right now for a run of 24 Jetstar II replica basses. (TBird shape body/4 in line headstock). 12 will be Sunburst and 12 in Cherry. To put in an order, a $150 deposit is needed. Street price-$849.

Jet Star Bass

The 1960s saw a flurry of experimental designs, but the eccentric stylings of the Jet Star Bass set it way apart from the crowd. Even now, more than half a century later, the design holds up as one of the most unusual (but cool!) production instruments ever made. Our recreation of this...

eastwoodguitars.com

 

[Harp Tail]

Not interested in this particular model but it would be fun if Eastwood would crowdfund other runs of rarer Guild replicas in the future.

 

[vates]

That's nice!
I'm more into earlier version: 2+2 headstock, single Hagstrom pickup.

 

[Pow Barabajagal]

I think they are open to suggestions, which ones? I’d love an M-85 II.

 

[Default]

Honestly, would it be anything other than an oddly shaped J-bass? I remember when they briefly made an Astro Jet. I have a real Astro, and the reproduction wasn't anything but a mod platform.

 

[Pow Barabajagal]

That may be true, but I have specifically been considering their repro of an Epiphone Newport after the recent Epiphone Newports were poorly received. A pickup swap in that case wouldn't be a deal killer if I had to. I love the 4 in line Guild headstock, and the Eastwood Hooky 6 that I got to mess around with was a fantastic unique bass and was well-built, so I'd be up for this model. I bought one of their Burns Flyte repro guitars last year, and enjoy it. On those the original pickups usually get panned, so I'm fine with the humbuckers that came with it.

 

[mellowgerman]

Hmm interesting that they chose this model, since the 90s/2000s Dearmond version is relatively easy to come by on the used market, was of excellent build quality, had USA Dearmond pickups, and a more authentic bridge. One could argue for the Eastwood though if the 4-in-line headstock or sunburst finish are a personal preference, but also with that cheapo/plain bridge at least normal short-scale strings could be used (as opposed to requiring medium scale strings to accommodate the extra string length past the saddles on the Dearmond).

Aside from those thoughts though, I've owned a few Eastwood basses and guitars over the years and typically felt that if you buy them at a good used price, you can get some great bang-for-the-buck. The Eastwood Newport bass was of very nice build quality with a comfortable neck and was an excellent mod platform for some ideas I had bouncing around in my head. The only thing I could think of that might bother some, was that the body was made of several pieces of wood that really weren't matched in the least, with clearly varying grain patterns visible through the transparent finish. So if that sort of thing bothers you, this may be one to steer clear of -- luckily I don't mind mismatched grain on budget basses, but some get super worked up over that.

 

[Minnesota Flats]

As far as "Guild-ish" solid-body basses, I'm more inclined towards the "SG-ish" JS. The "Gumby"? Meh...

 

[lungimsam]

No JS coming from Guild this year. I guess vintage is the way to go for now.

 

[ukulelelab]

Gumby is cool

 

[mavuser]

Gumby is cool

nice, welcome back! show us yours again

 

[ukulelelab]

Thanks, here it is:

 

[Walter Broes]

Honestly, would it be anything other than an oddly shaped J-bass? I remember when they briefly made an Astro Jet. I have a real Astro, and the reproduction wasn't anything but a mod platform.

Yep. Eastwood's renditions of rare, quirky and odball guitars are very superficial cosmetic interpretations of them that very rarely share any real construction details or electronics with the guitars they're based on.

The hardware and pickups are usually very generic cheap-ish stuff, and the solidbodies tend to be on the heavy side.