NAMM 2023: Eastman Guitars has debuted the Juliet LA, which is a serious rival to Guild’s Surfliner Deluxes when it comes to the show’s finest retro-influenced electric guitar design.
A product of the (clearly, indecent) mind of the firm’s head designer Otto D’Ambrosio, the Juliet LA follows on from Eastman’s 2022 Juliet line. It also has a spiritual partner in the firm’s Romeo LA model – a semi-hollow thinline available in the same achingly gorgeous Celestine Blue finish.
This one is a solid body offset build, carved from a single piece of Okoume and complemented by a one-piece neck, again made from okoume (albeit with an ebony fingerboard), which should make for a relatively lightweight yet resonant construction. There’s also an inlaid black pickguard, which is mirrored on the top shoulder around the pickup selector switch.
Aside from the shape and finish of the Juliet LA, the next thing that catches our eye is the finish on the pickups. There’s a pair of Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P90s concealed beneath the gold foil radiator grille covers and while this will have a negligible impact on the tone, it is absolutely the sort of thing that makes you want to pick it up and play.
Elsewhere, the Juliet LA is embellished with hardware from Göldo – a firm based in Germany and founded by Dieter Gölsdorf (the man behind Rockinger). It specializes in building parts for retro designs, including Duesenberg guitars, and here supplies the Juliet LA’s stylish TLT2N Tremolo, as well as the 3-Point Vario Bridge.
Other geek-worthy components to note include .047 Orange Drop capacitors, CTS 500K pots and a Switchcraft output jack. At the other end of the instrument, you’ll find a set of Gotoh tuners and we have to reserve a special mention for the black and blue finish of the matching headstock.
The Juliet LA carries a list price of $1,999. Let’s hope it doesn’t play as well as its predecessors, the Juliet P-90 VR and PB, or we’re all in trouble...
For more information, head to Eastman Guitars.
