The Nordstrand Music Man-style humbuckers unsurprisingly provide tones that veer toward StingRay territory. The functions of the La Gitana’s control knobs seem conventional at first glance, with the first two dials being volumes, and the back knob being a master tone. But the third knob flips the traditional formula with what Teye calls the mood knob. It shapes the frequencies to emulate the characteristics of popular bass tones. According to Teye, dialing mood fully clockwise delivers the punch of a StingRay, rolling it all the way back achieves the smoothness of a Jazz bass, and settings closer to the center position enhance either sound with extra lows.
The La Gitana’s neck has a few surprises for the eyes and the hands. With a 1 3/4" nut, it’s one of the widest-feeling 4-string necks on the market. It’s constructed of walnut, a wood used most often for stringers or neck laminates, but rarely for the entire neck. A bound ebony fretboard acts as a backdrop for the mother-of-pearl inlays. And we’d be remiss to not mention the headstock, which boasts a deftly designed aluminum top and a sexy, leaf-like truss-rod cover.
The La Gitana’s nearly 10-pound body isn’t surprising—mahogany and walnut generally yield a heavier instrument. But it’s nicely balanced. It held its position at multiple playing angles, whether I was sitting or standing. The beefy strap buttons work extremely well, providing nearly straplock-quality support and security. And the proprietary hardware is both beautiful and functional—from the thick, smooth knobs to the decorative bridge and tailpiece. While my personal preference leans towards individual saddle-height adjusters, those who prefer Gibson-esque bridges will appreciate Teye’s improvements on the design. With all of this customized hardware, it’s interesting that Teye opted for Hipshot tuners that did not perform very smoothly on our review bass. In fact, two of the tuners felt too tight, almost to the point of immobility.
Jugando La Gitana
The La Gitana’s body has very little contour
in the area near your picking hand’s
forearm, so players who prefer wearing the
bass higher may find it somewhat uncomfortable.
Further, as a bassist who normally
gravitates to tapered Jazz-style necks, I
found the La Gitana’s wide neck required
slight adjustments to hand positioning. A
bassist with a foundation in double-bass
technique or an electric player with a proficient
left hand will most likely find the La
Gitana’s neck a nice fit. After getting used
to the size, it felt quite comfortable, and the
satin finish facilitated smooth transitions up
and down the neck.
Ratings
Pros:
Elegantly unique aesthetics. Impressive array of
tones—from powerfully punchy to warm and expressive.
Cons:
Expensive. Somewhat heavy. Not as ergonomic or
comfortable as some might hope.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$4,400
Teye
teye-guitars.com
The Teye Guitars website lists some of the builder’s “bitchings”— prevalent guitar designs he deems less than favorable. Towards the top of the list is a gripe about difficult-to-reach upper frets. Ironically, this was actually a concern I had with the La Gitana: The conservative cutaway required significant stretching and hand repositioning for access.
Acoustically, the La Gitana’s voice has a resonant, warm timbre that highlights the astutely selected woods and hardware. The unorthodox back-to-back positioning of the Nordstrand pickups—combined with Teye’s unique, passive circuitry—produces a wide variety of tones that are practical for many styles of music. Plugged into a Phil Jones D-600 head and a Glockenklang 112 cab, the La Gitana delivered woody walking bass lines when soloing the neck pickup and rolling the mood knob almost all the way back. Though it didn’t necessarily replace the sound of an upright bass, this setting worked very nicely with a jazz quartet. For Latin tunes, a roll of the mood knob to its noon position pumped enough lows to create a deep, beefy tone that was perfect for samba, Son, or bossa nova. Soloing the bridge pickup and rolling mood knob fully clockwise transformed the bass into a punchy, crunchy monster. Though its looks probably won’t call out to many slap traditionalists, the La Gitana has plenty of space available near the fretboard for complicated thumping and popping. And while it may not quite capture a genuine Jazz-bass vibe, if your preferred bass tone is on the warmer end of the spectrum, Teye’s La Gitana may really work for you.
The Verdict
At $4,400, the Teye R-Series La Gitana
commands a hefty sum and puts itself in
some stiff competition in the high-end bass
arena. Its wide neck and contour-less body
won’t appeal to some players, but its warm
tonal palette and beautiful looks will likely
please a number of others—from professionals
to weekend warriors. After decades
of performing, building, and absolute
dedication to stringed instruments, Teye
has discovered the formula that works for
him—perhaps it will work for you, too.
Streamlined Reinterpretation
Like the original, the Eastwood Airline
Espanada features a hollow 16-inch body
with a Venetian cutaway. The top and back
are made from laminated maple, the sides
from laminated mahogany, and the set-neck
is solid maple with a rosewood fretboard. The
Fender-like 25 1/2" scale (just a hair longer
than the original) and Gibson-ish 1.6875"
nut make for a comfortable, spacious-feeling
neck that works well for complex chords.
Many of the design details that endeared the Espenada to collectors remain intact, including the black glossy finish, white binding and pickup rings, diamond-shaped toggle plate, and cupcake-style knobs. The pickguard retains the original’s shape but is spruced up a touch with a black pinstripe and the Airline coat-of-arms logo. Eastwood happily deviated from tradition when it came to several critical pieces of hardware: Instead of an unreliable wooden bridge, the Espanada features a TonePros Tune-o-matic-style bridge, and it’s also outfitted with modern Grover-style tuners. Vintage-spec sticklers might argue that vintage-style, open-geared tuners with smaller buttons would look a bit more authentic and not add significantly to the bottom line. They may also wish Eastwood had reproduced the original harp-style tailpiece instead of throwing on a conventional trapeze, but it’s likely the latter would have been prohibitively expensive.
The Espanada is built well where it counts, but it could use more attention to detail in a few areas. The finish is irregular in spots, especially around the f-holes. Similarly, the plastic parts—especially the pickguard—are not as neatly cut as one would expect them to be. And inside the guitar there’s sawdust left over from the manufacturing process.
To be fair, original Harmony guitars were far from impeccably built—you still see sawdust inside some originals!—but we’ve grown accustomed to improved quality on imported guitars. Given both the Espanada’s $999 price tag and the quality work we usually see from Eastwood, it would be nice to see tighter quality control.
Dressed up Like a Player
Eastwood describes the Espanada as a light
guitar, but at 7.3 pounds (which might be
light for some solidbodies) it isn’t exactly
featherweight. It is, however, well balanced
and very comfortable to play either seated
or standing. The neck feels great—neither
too skimpy nor too ample—and the action
is sleek and easy right out of the case. It’s
easy to zip around on the neck playing
single-note lines and barre chords alike,
which is something you can’t say about all
vintage Harmony instruments of this type.
But though it’s outfitted with fairly light
D’Addario .010s, the Espanada (like many
big hollowbodies) isn’t an instrument that’s
conducive to deep string bending.
Ratings
Pros:
great playability and tones in a guitar that’s dressed
to the nines.
Cons:
Craftsmanship should be much better at this price.
Tones:
Playability:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$999
Eastwood Guitars
eastwoodguitars.com
Plugged into a Fender Deluxe Reverb, the high-output P-90-style pickups sound great. The guitar has a robust, transparent voice with excellent clarity and fairly uniform note-to-note output. The bridge pickup’s tone can be quite aggressive and responds well to everything from a hot, hybrid-picked rockabilly solo to punk-rock downstroked eighth-notes.
The neck pickup is a bit more subdued and lends itself nicely to jazz explorations. It’s easy to dial in a warm but cutting tone for single-note lines in a Grant Green mold, or something darker for chord-melody-style work in the manner of Joe Pass or Wes Montgomery. In any of these styles, it’s a very fun and responsive guitar to play.
The Verdict
The Eastwood Airline Espanada is based on
a sound premise—to build a new guitar with
the playability and quality of a good modern
instrument and the appealing aesthetic of a
vibey vintage specimen. Eastwood falls short
of this goal on a few counts—mostly cosmetic—
and some of the cool and unusual details
found on the original were too hard to include
without making the guitar too expensive.
The upside is tone and playability. On both counts, the Espanada is a fine performer, and roots-rock players, punks, rockabilly cats, and country and jump-blues players will all be hard-pressed to find a hollowbody that can deliver this combination of faithful vintage aura, sounds, and smooth playability.
Watch our video demo:
Birds of a Feather The Stormbird's design is influenced by both mid-to-late ’60s Thunderbirds and the Firebird guitar. Deviating from traditional bursts, Eastwood spices up the instrument’s basswood body nicely with a metallic blue finish. Outfitted with dual humbuckers, the Stormbird’s passive electronics system consists of a 3-way toggle switch for the pickups and a pair of knobs for volume and tone. A rosewood fretboard tops a set maple neck that’s crowned with Eastwood's vintage-looking headstock, which, with a little imagination, visually suggests a profile of bird's head darting at its prey.
Ornithology
Aware of the weight and balance issues that typically plague Thunderbird-style basses, it was refreshing to lift the Stormbird out of its case with little effort. The use of basswood for the body is certainly a slimming solution.
Bassists who ride their instrument low, or those who carry a John Entwistle-like posture will be pleased with how the Stormbird hangs over the shoulder. Supported by a strap, the bass rested nicely with a slight tilt, though it tend to tip a bit when played at a higher angle. The Stormbird is just a tad heavy in the neck, so it tips slightly when in the seated position too, but the blue ’bird sits comfortably in the lap overall.
Prior to plugging in the Stormbird, it needed a bit of a setup. While the bridge is reminiscent of Gibson hardware, the inability to raise or lower the saddles creates a challenge in accurately setting the string height. The solution is to adjust the three screws that support the bridge, but doing so can result in a tilted bridge. And because the fixed saddles varied slightly in height, there was some slightly inconsistent feel when crossing from string to string.
Anytime one inspects a production instrument at a price under $500, it’s relatively normal to encounter minor construction issues. So, it was no surprise that the Stormbird wasn’t totally exempt. I found some of the frets to be higher than others and some nut slots were cut a bit too wide—all issues that can be easily corrected, especially by those who like to tinker or mod.
Riding the Storm Out
Construction concerns aside, the Stormbird's strength is in its sound. Plugged into a Phil Jones D-600 and a Glockenklang Quattro 410, the neck pickup delivered an aggressive, mid-centric voice, cawing with plenty of punch. While the bridge pickup was a touch thin on its own, it conveyed a throaty growl with crunchy highs. Engaging both humbuckers provided the best characteristics of each pickup, and created a tone capable of appeasing the rocker in all of us.
Ratings
Pros:
Cool looks. Satisfying tones.
Cons:
Potential construction issues. Lackluster bridge design.
Tones:
Playability:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$469
Eastwood
eastwoodguitars.com
I took the Stormbird out for a gig with a classic-rock cover band and paired it up with a Peavey Tour 450 head and 4x10 cab. The Stormbird impressed with just the neck pickup engaged, particularly when recreating John Entwistle’s solo in “My Generation.” Wielding a pick for Yes classics like “Roundabout” and “Yours Is No Disgrace,” I got close to Chris Squire’s tones with both pickups engaged and an overdrive pedal in the signal path. While the Stormbird won’t necessarily cater to every playing style, the tones were quite satisfying overall and its metallic-blue body and vintage look brought instant smiles from both onlookers and bandmates.
The Verdict
Those who fly with an original Thunderbird are rewarded with pterodactyl-size sounds, but run the risk of weight problems, an arguably awkward design, and a hefty price tag. Eastwood has created a budget-friendly alternative that offers comparable—if sometimes relatively thinnish—sounds in a cool, nostalgic package. The Stormbird is a solid choice for the beginning bassist, as well as the player who wants an instrument they can bring to a gig without having to hire an armed guard to protect it. And despite the construction issues found with the review model, a healthy Stormbird is a bass of great value that’s able to deliver some thunderous tone.