@@ZundfolgeI’m not that old, about to be 30, but I remember friends have cheap guitars that looked and felt absolutely terrible, and they still cost a few hundred back then. Now you pay 300 and get beautiful instrument. We are lucky.
this is identical to my Gibson Studio. Mine has the same exact finish. I paid a grand for mine back in 2014. Love the guitar, but this video proves that other companies are producing high quality affordable instruments. Cool guitar.
If I was a newly intermediate player looking to upgrade my guitar, I'd go nuts for this. Total no brainer. It seems like it has 1,000 dollars worth of features.
So riddle me this, when you see inexpensive guitars like this with fret jobs like this, you start to wonder about a company like Gibson who essentially differentiates levels though finish, binding (and with binding comes a decent fret job). To me, don't differentiate a guitar by playability. If they can give you an almost 10 out of 10 fret job on a cheap guitar like this, I would advise a new player to go to this every time, even if they had the money for an SG Special. They can always make an investment in some nicer pickups or tuners but wow this one looks decent!
The Gibson, Fender, and PRS's of the world intentionally hold back on spec sheets, as they know the brand name will make up for the lackluster spec sheets. Look at what a company like Sire gives you for the money and compare that to the "big boys".
For pure playability I completely agree, especially for kids, or beginners who don't have a lot of money and generally don't become lifelong players anyway, but there are a few caveats. Collectibility, resale and quality of materials are more of a concern to long time players. I like the idea of a cheap guitar for just playing daily, but I lose sleep over wood selection and the drying process of cheaper brands. I remember cheap guitars from the 80s/90s would more often than not develop twisted or buckled necks in a few years and would just generally start falling apart. I know cheap guitars have come a long way with better CNC machining and manufacturing methods, but there is no fix for bad material. Also, a Gibson(for instance) can always be sold for something even with a lot of wear. A cheap guitar will inevitably end up in the trash. I think it's more a question of budget vs realistically how long the player will be in love with playing. It is great that we have the option of cheap guitars with such good playability, but I don't think it's the default solution for every student.
@@clutch1141 Yes people don't make the point enough that cheap guitars are not meant to be played for 20+ years, and even passed down to your kids. This cheap Chinese guitar look and plays nice enough for someone just starting out, but most of them are going to have problems in 5 years related to cheap materials, especially if they are getting any kind of serious gigging use out of them.
Hi, just wanted to mention that the Harley Benton SC-550 II actually has Stainless Steel frets at $269, although the SC-Custom II you showed doesn't, because it's an older model. Cheers.
I don't know if you've done so already but as a nerdy experiment you should get your hands on a set of Gibson 57 classic plus pickups and compare them side by side with the ones in this guitar, see how close they got. At first glance I thought they were Gibson pickups 😆
I was amazed at how “Gibson-like” those ‘57 humbuckers sounded. Really impressive. I kind of like the satin finish. The aluminum knobs were interesting.
I have a Harley Benton SC Custom ll and it is a great value guitar (277USD) Heel carve, comfort carve, coil splits and Grover tuners. Such a comfortable guitar to play and the Tesla pick-ups sound pretty good. They will be my first upgrade
I got a left handed Harley Benton MR modern Mosrite copy two weeks ago and was blown away! It was so good I thought that it was meant for some reviewer and they sent it to me by mistake. Never had a guitar at that price point that had no issues till now, the neck and fret work is perfect, no buzzing, fantastic setup right out of the box. These budget makers are really raising the bar!
Someone overseas has been listening, and it's just a matter of time before this fretwork is common in name brands as well. It's promising to see innovation after all the saturation.
I think your channel is great! I learn so much from your descriptions. Each time I watch your reviews and wonder if I really need to spend so much more for a name brand guitar. After playing for 57 years and down to 6 guitars I doubt I can even hear the subtle differences at this stage of my life.
This guitar looks very much like my Ibanez Art90 which was sold for two years in 2012-2013. It even has the hinged truss rod access. The MSRP was $383 but usually sold for $300 at the big box stores. It doesn't have the stainless steel frets but otherwise very similar. It was the least expensive carved top, set neck guitar Ibanez sold at the time. This Eart looks like a good deal.
I have a ART700EQM and it is very similar. Upgrade the tuners, and wiring and pots, drop in your favorite pickups and you have a fantastic guitar for years and years.
I find it hard to believe your demo guitar wasnt 'Cheery picked', or modified with the pickups presented. It sounded amazing. So much so that I ordered one. I'll let you know what I recieved. Thank you for this fantastic episode and review. Kurtiss (Citizen Joe)
The reviews I've seen of this guitar have all been really good. But all I watched in this video was the S2 594 Thinline in the background. That is a great value guitar for the money. As in one you won't ever get rid of.
Would love to see you compare this to, also from Amazon, the Latitude NW-1915, which also boasts a similar thin body, PAF-style pickups, ultra rounded and polished frets, and only &10 difference in price. I think many of your viewers would also welcome this. Great job, Phil.
I can't believe this guitar. How can they make this at this price? Maybe i just got a real good one. I got it for grins after reading McCarthy's comment. Maybe its the holidays talking, but..... Wow! Thanks Phil for the review.
They have a more expensive model Eart EGLP-620 with flame maple veneer top, locking tuners and coil split. They normally costs $599, but they are at $419 right now on Amazon. I took the plunge on one, since Amazon has easy returns, and I was blown away with the construction quality at that price. The frets are perfect, no fret buzz, neck relief at .006 in., medium-low action, right out of the box. They are even shipping them in custom molded styrofoam cases to protect them during shipping. The guitar is beautiful and plays great, the only slight con would be that the online pictures are really over saturated to make the colors pop. I bought the orange fade and it looks a bit darker and dull compared to the picture. It still looks really great though and it is more of a personal preference.
I bought the Tele style EART off of Amazon a few months ago. Incredibly playable right out of the box and sounds nice, I raised the action ever so slightly to eliminate some buzz. The pickups are fine to my ear, and tuning and intonation are splendid. I love the blade 3 way switch design on this guitar. I have an Epiphone LP and another Chinese import LP and the switches have driven me nuts on those. Satin finish looks very nice to me on this guitar w/o the binding, some Gibson LP tribute models are similar for +/- $1,000. At $359 for this guitar another steal from EART. I will be ordering shortly lol
Nice sounding pups. I have some 57 Classics in my blue sparkle Gibson Les Paul custom shop. Best Gibson pickups I’ve heard. I usually yank the Gibson pickups out of my Les Pauls. I usually replace them with EMG’s or Seymour Duncan’s. But when I dumped some gain on those 57 classics they sounded incredible. Most Gibson pups get muddy with heavy gain. The 57’s are stellar. And these pickups on this Eart guitar sound a lot like the real deal. Pretty impressive for a 300$ axe. I’d probably buy one if I wasn’t already a badass with 5 Gibson’s and 4 ESP’s 🤣
Phil I think Squire and Epiphone might have to step up their game. These Eart guitars at those prices and quality are really a bargain. My lord Stainless frets and the sound of those pick ups! This was a great demo you showed all the good stuff.
Sounds great for the money, really impressed. Would love to see a version with body/neck/headstock binding and block inlays for a little more. And that name... Damn, I thought Cort was bad, but these guys left them in the dust 👀
I have their Suhr super Strat copy, bought it used and already upgraded. It has Iron Gear pickups, better, Korean pots and capacitor, graphite nut, Wilkinson bridge/Trem unit and locking tuners. Now the guitar plays amazingly and sounds superb, although I don’t know how much of an improvement the mods have made as I bought it already modded! I have however removed the “EART” headstock transfer, sanded it off!
As with most things, the difference between the low end and the high end is only something that's going occur to the much more experience player and gear specialist. To an average person it's going to sound good, to a very experienced player or gear tech or engineer they're going to hear the difference pretty immediately. Still, most people are average players.
If only you could also do a review on a Latitude guitar, which is very close to Eart, also sells through Amazon and could potentially be a slightly better looking...
I would say the looks is a Pro! I really like the understatement, the colour looks great and I don't need more"bling" - I find this guitar absolutely impressive.
Timing is everything. The finish is virtually identical to the recently issued $2999 Fender Michael Landau "Coma" guitar, one of several guitars in Fender's "Stories" series. So maybe that "cheap looking" finish just got a status upgrade lol.
Figured I would bug you through your most recent channel. Super cool to see you have such a killer channel going cuz. Cool to see people in the family doing something positive. Ive remembered that funkapotamus guitar since you showed me and dad in your house.
Phil as always thanks for service, since checking you out a few years ago, your playing has improved exponentially. Nothing worse than a cool piece of gear and person on the end of it playing like a bell end. Between you and that pedal show, not too many stand up your quality Cheers Rik
Looks and sounds great! What amazes me the most is just how good affordable guitars have become. Growing up the guitars I played for that same price (substantially more if you account for inflation) were riddled with problems. Bad frets, garbage electronics, terrible fit and finish, the list goes on.
Eart are making some great guitars, like Harley Benton just avoid the entry level ones. I bought a mint unplayed E-3S last year and it was great out of the box with no fret issues. Since i bought mine the prices and increased a lot, strange thing is that they are cheaper on Amazon UK than buying direct, and much faster delivery. If you are looking for a decent quality guitar with good stock parts, buy one.
I am a huge fan of this brand. I bought their TL and ST at a combined of less than $450. For my LP, it will be either this or the Latitude. U R THE BEST AT WHAT YOU DO, Phil.
There are so many great budget guitars out there these days, that we really are spoiled for choice. My Agile AL3200-MCC single cuts (yes I liked the first so much I bought a second) comes with nickel hardware, Grover tuners, Tusq nut and resomax bridge, ebony compound radius fretboard, neck-through construction (with a great heel carve), full thickness maple cap and mahogany wings with a belly cut and great build quality and finish, all for $500. The only area where I felt the need to upgrade was the pickups, although the stock ones fitted are perfectly good for the price point in truth. That’s a lot of guitar for not a lot of money and so that’s where my dollars will stay sorry Gibson and Fender.
I'm really interested in their headless guitar, just for travel. Seems like EART make good quality stuff for a good price. I don't want to get something expensive like a Kiesel or Strandburg to carry around on road trips or whatever in case it gets damaged, lost, or stolen. I'd feel better with something like the EART, since it's under $400.
No one is suggesting a cheaper guitar is as good as a Gibson, Fender, PRS etc but the difference in price is staggering. Its market forces in action as always. The well-known guitar manufacturers could sell for a hell of a lot less and still make a tidy profit but if customers are stomping up thousands they are going to take it. As always, an expensive guitar will sound like crap in the hands of a beginner and a budget guitar with a few tweaks will sound fine in the hands of a good player.
Hey Phil, not sure if you take gear suggestions, but the Mitchell MS450 looks like an interesting guitar. It's currently on sale for $219 USD before tax from GC and MF. Les Paul style guitar, string through body, Alnico 5 humbuckers, with split/coil taps on both neck and bridge. The guitar also has locking tuners, and a tusq nut.
I've heard both good and bad about Mitchell guitars. I'd like to see Phil do a video review on them. Maybe he could just walk into a GC and buy a MD and MS guitar, take them home, unbox both and do reviews straight out of the box?
Once again...a NICE guitar at a WAYYYYY better price point that can hold it's own for the $$ ya paid !!! those pick-ups totally BLEW ME AWAY with how they sounded. I wasn't expecting that AT ALL... Makes me want to buy one, but sadly a bad accident has left me unable to work and have a substantial income...but maybe somehow I'll be able to get one in the future IF things go my way ! SADLY as well, I had to sale my EPI I had to help pay bills, so the band is in a bit of a "Lets take a break" moment...AND IT'S JUST NO FUN AT ALL not being able to do what ya LOVE to do. !! I LOVE PLAYING MUSIC,PLAYING OUT LIVE, AND RECORDING as well.... But will have to do acoustic sets if I do play out....which COULD be ...ummm...shall I say "DIFFERENT" ...LOL...ANYWAYS...STAY SAFE ALL...ROCK ON ...and PLAY SOME MUSIC and JAM with some buddies IF YA CAN !!!! I need to win a giveaway....AND ASAP too.......PEACE...
Bought an Eart GW-2 (headless fixed bridge) after your last video and I honestly feel like I got something that another brand would sell at no less than 800$ for 380$ shipped. Absolutely insane considering that a lot of those chinese brands don't have european divisions since operating here is way more expensive due to significantly higher taxation and lower median income of customers compared to the US. This brand actually has European distribution so that means I didn't have to pay outrageous shipping fees and could have returned it for reasonable price if the guitar was defective. I basically got my dream practice guitar (headless, lightweight, good looking, smooth fretwork and i'll never have to worry about fret deterioration) for less than half what I would have normally have to pay for something like this in Europe. Possibly getting in the ballpark of 1/3. Still hard to believe, after following cheap guitar brands for 15+ years I've never seen something with this kind of value that you could get shipped from Europe. Honestly I think they will have to eventually raise the prices like Sire did because it doesn't seem like it could be sustainable forever.
When I started to play youd be lucky to have a good guitar for cheap...today there is so much competition that they need to make a good cheap guitar or else to be out of busines
Cool review, thanks. You are right on about the finish. My Epiphone Les Paul Special II (a great guitar that I love despite it's low price) has a nice flame maple top with a gloss finish that gives it a more high end look even thought it's one of the least expensive models they offer. Cheers!
Not a fan of the inlays or the neck pickup through the Fender amp. Sounded great in all the other combinations though. I have a feeling that it could do some great Angus Young sounds.
One thing I always wonder about is if a guitar will stay in tune, and part of that may be the tuners. Also, on a 2-pickup gibson copy, I would want to be able to blend the volumes for the middle position, so that is probably the upgrades I would be looking for, and perhaps a pickup upgrade.
The very first thing my eyes were drawn to was the inlays as I do not know how I feel about them as I think they look kind of silly but that's just me...
@@mal2ksc You are correct but I also could get a guitar that sounds good and looks good (Just personal preference of course) That is why we have many choices if I am not mistaken? Just because I do not care for the inlays the next person could love them...If you think looks has nothing to do with a purchase sorry but I think that's kind of funny! From your house to your guitar from your watch, car and down to the clothes that you wear looks have just as much to do with it as anything else. Just because I personally do not care for them means nothing as the next person could love them... When I first met my wife I did not know she was a kind person with a good soul as the first look was more like Damn she is sexy as hell and I want to get to know her correct? So looks due matter and you might even think my wife is ugly as all hell and that's ok with me as I was the one that married her at the end of the day....
I think the visual simplicity is a conscious choice. Start with the LP Studio and work their way up the line. They'll make it look nicer if you want to pay a bit more, but first they had to prove they had a pig worth putting lipstick on.
I can't get over seeing "EAR" on the headstock. For me that's a deal breaker until the logo is updated, lol. Petty, I know, but that logo just sucks, haha.
I really like the look of that guitar. I find it has a very clean looking body and the controls fit it well; kind of classy for the lack of a better term. The fretboard inlays are quite unique. I am more of an acoustic guy but this guitar temps me. Nice review Phil. Thanks for posting.
If you check the serial numbers on the back of the pickups, you'll find that the ARE Gibson 57 Classics!!! Gibson put some of those in some Epi models and I bet they had a case or 2 left over that got sold to EART...
I bought Gibson custom shop gold top replica from Indonesia for 300$ and it maded better than original Gibson, painting and frets especially good. There is no dead notes, and neck is not deforming
Single-cuts just never look right to me without binding... Well, whatever, major props to Eart, they're coming out swinging with this one. I love hunting for the companies that make instruments on par with the big companies but cut the middlemen/branding cost. I just don't wanna pay for that stuff. I want a $250 build cost guitar for $350, not for $600. Right now Eart seems to be leading the pack in that regard.
Hiya! First time commenting after watching several videos and finally subscribing. Took me a minute to get used to your way of doing things but I've come to appreciate your openness to utilitarian solutions (i.e. cheap stuff) to setup and repair issues. Especially love the string and sandpaper thing as a makeshift nut file! As for this guitar, I agree with everything you say here: the pickups sound amazing, and I'm not generally a fan of Gibsons, those frets are insane, etc. The aesthetics are awful though, as you say. Looks like the most basic stripped down Les Paul copy. Even with this shape and slab/flatness, you could perk this up with some colors. I'd love one in that bright yellow Epiphone uses, but I'm funny like that - I like the inlays too, a lot. Anyway, love the channel and keep playing at least a little clean stuff in the demos. That's so much more informative as to the actual tone of the guitar/pickup(s).
Thanks Phil. Don't like the name and don't like the looks of this particular model, but they certainly appoint this guitar very well for the price point.
I have the exact Epi you showed. I love it, but the frets are some of the most poorly polished frets I've played. This seems like a better buy. I like the look of my Epi much more, but those frets.... Great vid as always, rock on man.
Really nice affordable guitars Phill, the pickups and the specs look and sound very good, odd inlays, Oh man and the riff in 12:09?, I can't recall the song and it is stuck in my head trying to remember it
Yeah I have that sizzle on my G string. My guitar is set up *stupid* low cause that's how I like it. as long as I don't hear the sizzle amplified I'm good. Also, Phil: Dadgad it!
The shielding (or lack of) is interesting. I have a 2013 Les Paul Studio (from Gibson) and although the cavity is painted black, the paint is not conductive. The back plate is plain plastic and not shielded either. Maybe Gibson shields some of their more expensive LPs, but I haven't seen shielding in any guitars at all that I didn't put there. But I would expect to see it more in Strat type guitars since they have single coil pickups.
Did you change the name of this video? I remember the title was, “ This guitar surprised me” Has anything changed in your opinion, or you just wanted to change the title? Seems like a great guitar option; the spec’s, features stainless steel frets etc
