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Mandolin

Eastman MD305

Name: Eastman MD305
Brand: Eastman

Eastman · MD305 A-Style Mandolin

Price: 663 EUR – 839 EUR

Price history

Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

Availability: 6/10 (Common)

Eastman's entry point into hand-carved mandolins: a solid spruce top over solid maple back and sides in the simpler, pear-shaped A-style body, hand-built rather than pressed or laminated.

Where available? Go to the best price – 675 EUR About this instrument

About the Eastman MD305

The MD305 sits at the bottom of Eastman's mandolin range, but shares the same construction method as the company's pricier models: a solid, hand-carved spruce top over solid maple back and sides, rather than the laminated or press-molded tops common on beginner mandolins from other brands. It uses the A-style body - a plain, pear-shaped outline without the scroll and points of an F-style mandolin - which is simpler to build and keeps the price down without changing the tonewood quality underneath.

The maple neck carries an ebony fingerboard with a 12-inch radius at a 13 7/8-inch scale, joined to a bone nut 1 3/32 inches wide. Ivoroid binding runs around the top with pearl dot position markers, and the hardware is nickel-finished with Eastman's own cast aluminum tailpiece and an adjustable compensated ebony bridge - the same bridge type used on far more expensive bluegrass mandolins, letting intonation be fine-tuned rather than fixed.

Where to buy

Platforms

eBay 3 Reverb 3

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Reverb 675 EUR Best price View details
Reverb 677 EUR View details
eBay 699 EUR View details
eBay 734 EUR View details
Reverb 775 EUR View details
eBay 839 EUR View details

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Source: https://reverb.com/item/33668937-eastman-md305-a-style-mandolin

Sound character of the Eastman MD305

The solid hand-carved spruce top over solid maple back and sides gives a bright, articulate tone with real sustain and headroom under a pick - the same tonewood combination used on far pricier F-style mandolins. The plain A-style body doesn't meaningfully reduce the vibrating top area compared to an F-style scroll, so this sounds close to Eastman's costlier F-style models; the price difference is mostly carving labor, not tone.

Bright Resonant Crisp

Technical data for the Eastman MD305

Top	Solid spruce, hand-carved
Back/Sides	Solid maple
Body style	A-style
Neck	Maple
Fretboard	Ebony, 12" radius
Scale length	13 7/8"
Nut width	1 3/32"
Bridge	Adjustable compensated ebony

Price history for the Eastman MD305

Cheapest seen: 663 EUR · Most expensive seen: 839 EUR

Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

The history of the Eastman MD305

Eastman Music Company, founded in 1992, builds its string instruments in its own Beijing workshop using traditional hand-carving methods overseen by Western luthiers, and the MD305 is commonly recommended as the first mandolin where a beginner gets genuinely solid tonewoods rather than laminate.