Gibson EH 183 Pickup

[Kelvee]

Hi I have an old 1942 Gibson lap steel with the ES300 pickup,somewhere in the past someone has removed the two Alnico magnets from inside the tortoise shell casing and placed them perpendicular externally like a CC pickup
The PU sound great loads of power and chimey rivalling my B6 bakelite horseshoes.
My question what is the point and does it make any difference .
The coil is original and I am reluctant to take the thing apart.
Any thoughts.
You can see the magnets in the photo.
Cheers

[Possum]

Need to see the top of the pickup. If it has the split blade they did that to get rid of the out of phase sound where the blade is split, so they used two magnets instead of one to make each blade the same polarity. But generally those alnico magnets are not magnetized with the ends being the poles, but if they're not alnico 5 they CAN be magnetized in that direction. There were several types of magnets used on those lap steels with various blades. I have one of the split blade ones, pretty strange idea....

[Kelvee]

Need to see the top of the pickup. If it has the split blade they did that to get rid of the out of phase sound where the blade is split, so they used two magnets instead of one to make each blade the same polarity. But generally those alnico magnets are not magnetized with the ends being the poles, but if they're not alnico 5 they CAN be magnetized in that direction. There were several types of magnets used on those lap steels with various blades. I have one of the split blade ones, pretty strange idea....

Its not a CC pickup its the slanted ES300 wichh has adjustable screws it is the pre P90 and is the same construction.
The two magnets may have been remagnetised length wise.

[Possum]

I tried to buy one of those on Ebay, it arrived dead and the guy wouldn't drop the price so sent it back. Anyway, those magnets aren't where they should be. Its hard to tell but they may have been so weak they fell out of the pickup maybe or someone took the base off and they fell out and so some dumb ass magnetized them the wrong way and put them in like that, heck they might not even be magnetized right, theoretically it shouldn't work but guess it does. If it was me I'd remagnetize them, put them in the way they're supposed to go and use some double sticky tape to keep them from falling out.

It kind of looks like someone glued the pickup to the baseplate, possibly the screws stripped out so the magnets wouldn't stay in, anyway, its been messed with for sure, if it works ok leave it alone, but if it was me I'd restore it the way it was.....

Found this video on the long version of those:

[Kelvee]

I tried to buy one of those on Ebay, it arrived dead and the guy wouldn't drop the price so sent it back. Anyway, those magnets aren't where they should be. Its hard to tell but they may have been so weak they fell out of the pickup maybe or someone took the base off and they fell out and so some dumb ass magnetized them the wrong way and put them in like that, heck they might not even be magnetized right, theoretically it shouldn't work but guess it does. If it was me I'd remagnetize them, put them in the way they're supposed to go and use some double sticky tape to keep them from falling out.

It kind of looks like someone glued the pickup to the baseplate, possibly the screws stripped out so the magnets wouldn't stay in, anyway, its been messed with for sure, if it works ok leave it alone, but if it was me I'd restore it the way it was.....

Found this video on the long version of those:

The pickup is original no glue etc ,it appears the magnets have been professionaly done as there are spacers to hold the magnets in position .I think I will leave it alone as it sound so good .
As you said the ends are the poles two south poles going to the pickup with plenty of strength.
Just a mystery as to what someone was trying to achieve.
Thanks for the video thats the same pickup in the long version.
Cheers

[jason lollar]

thats funny i just posted a photo of one of those I had made as a replacement on another thread on this forum.
Other than that I dont understand the question. There should be 4 magnets on the longest version of that pickup

[Kelvee]

thats funny i just posted a photo of one of those I had made as a replacement on another thread on this forum.
Other than that I dont understand the question. There should be 4 magnets on the longest version of that pickup

My pickup is the Lap steel short version only Two magnets my question is why would someone take out the magnets and place them like a CC style perpendicular,is there any benefit.The coil is original and the magnets are original.
I posted a photo at the top of this thread,you can see the result.
By the way it shoud be EH 185 not 183 just a typo.
What post shows your replica.

Cheers

[jason lollar]

the photo is under custom pickup covers thread
A detail I just remembered on the extremely long version was there were celluloid spacers glued in between the bobbin flanges on the long sides after the coil was wound and they were glued in really well so they has to be sawed out with a hand saw- a real mess.

On the sorty if you flipped the magnets up like you mention it would be good to have a steel plate running under the bobbin that the pole pieces could thread into them you would have something similar to an old bigsby blade pickup or a jag pickup but you would have adjustable poles

[JGundry]

This is speculation on my part but I think the winder portion of the Gibson made auto traverse coil winder I own was probably the machine that wound these pickups. The grey winder on the left side of the machine is one of the few winders large enough to handle such a long bobbin. The grey winder in this photo is a hand guided coil winder and probably dates to the period of this pickup. Gibson re-purposed it into this auto traverse machine but it started life as a hand guided coil winder.

[David Schwab]

That's cool that Gibson figured out how to harness the power of a black hole and used it as a traverse!

[JGundry]

That's cool that Gibson figured out how to harness the power of a black hole and used it as a traverse!

Great! Now you know the secret!