Gibson EH Pickup Comparisons

[Zachary Dent]

Aloha kākou!

Long time listener, first time caller.

I’m keen on eliciting the vast expertise and knowledge of ya’ll forum members for opinions/info/compare:contrast on the Charlie Christian pickup vs. the ES-300 pickups. Specifically as they were employed in the late-30’s/early-40’s Gibson EH-185 lap steels.

I have experience with the CC pickup in my 7-string Gibson E-150, but have not had a chance to sample the ES-300 alnico. I am interested in acquiring an EH-185 at some (perhaps not too distant) time so I am very curious as to the difference in tone from these 2 pickups in the 185; which do you prefer, and why? If you have both, do you prefer one over the other? Perhaps one excels in your opinion with different genres of music?

Lay it on me.

Mahalo!

-Xak

[Noah Miller]

The Alnico unit (ES-300-style) has fuller bass and low mids, and not quite as much treble as the CC. It also has better string balance - partly due to the adjustable poles, but even with them set flat the string balance tends to be better. It's also less noisy than a CC, though nowhere near noise free.

It's also worth noting that the metal slab at the core of the EH-185 gives it very different attack and sustain from a hollowbody EH-150 (or even the later solidbody version). It also brightens up the overall tone a little.

[Zachary Dent]

Mahalo for your reply, Noah. On my metal body E-150, I haven’t really found the CC pickup to be too noisy, but compared to a post war Rickenbacher B6, it seemed to have a heavier low end (was actually getting a bit more low end feedback through the same setup as compared to the Rick). I haven’t played the solid or hollowbody EH-150s, but my metal body E-150 doesn’t seem to lack in sustain, at least for my taste.

Would you say the Alnico EH-185 are “lacking” on the treble end? It would seem that based on your explanation of fuller low and low/mid that the overall frequency range is a bit more balanced on the alnico vs leaning more treble on the CC.

Aloha,
-xak

[Zachary Dent]

Maybe I should have named this thread, “If you were gonna get a Gibson EH-185, which pickup version would you choose, and why?”

[Noah Miller]

Ah, I didn't realize your E-150 was an aluminum one. Those are quite nice indeed - the only CC-equipped Gibson steel that I really liked. I'm not a big fan of the hollow versions, partly because they have much less sustain.

When it comes to the EH-185, though, I prefer the Alnico pickup. It's not exactly lacking in highs, but it's a mellower sound. It's a matter of what you want; I wouldn't say that either is objectively better or worse.

[Zachary Dent]

Aloha again, Noah. Mahalo nō, I appreciate your continued insights. This aluminum E-150 is the only experience I have with Gibson lap steels (started learning on a Rick model 59 and most recently a T-plate Rick B6) and i do like the sound. My steel guitar kumu (teacher) has an EH-185 with alnico pickup in his hoard, but unfortunately when we went to fiddle with it, it wasn’t producing any sound through the amp. I got to play it acoustically, which was nice but obviously does nothing for insight into the electrified sound. Even more unfortunately, our go-to guitar tech is laid up with an injury and unable to service said lap steel, so I will need to be patient. There is a CC pickup equipped 185 (potentially) available, but I’m holding out till my kumu’s guitar is singing again. Based on nothing more than aesthetics, i am drawn more to the alnico version.

Malama pono,

Xak