Gibson EM-150 Charlie Christian

[Ransolo]

Hi all, first time poster long time listener. I am in the market for this EM-150. I work just up the road and have been able to go in and play it. It has a repair at the jack (looks like it caved in) that seems nicely done. Listed at $2500.

I've only played this EM 150, never played a post 41 with the p-90. Does the P-90 pickup get a steady volume across all strings? I have an amateur builder's electric with a p bass and my A string soars so loud it makes it nearly impossible to play. Just any input on the differences between that make the CC pick-up model more expensive. Is it just that it's older, or does it flat out outperform it.

www.myspace.com/ballhogmusic
www.myspace.com/randyrussell

[Ransolo]

Sure is pretty and plays nice too...

[mikeomando]

Hi and welcome to the cafe. I haven't played an EM-150, so I can't answer your specific pick up questions, but I can tell you that $2500 is pretty expensive for one, especially one with obvious damage and repairs. There is a 1938 EM-150 on Ebay right now for $1995, and I think that price is still high, but more in the ballpark. It looks like the tuners have been replaced on the one in your pictures (compare them to the ones on the Ebay auction), but I could be wrong about that.

I do own a Gibson em-200 emando with a p-90 pick up, and it has a very nice, even response across the strings and up and down the fretboard.

[mikeomando]

I think the CC pickup being older and more "collectable" is the price difference. Look up Gibson in the builders section of emando.com for more info.

[Ransolo]

Yeah I looked at that one ebay, it's finish is pretty dinged up with some unspecified repairs in the text as well.



It's the "Gruhn" effect happening with the price. Clean models I'm finding online are going for around the $2500 range to even higher though. I did read the emando page on them as well and all it said was, "the charlie christian models are more desirable and therefore more expensive". Doesn't ring out on performance by any means.

I figure the P-90 must work well too or they wouldn't have used it all those years. I might should save the 1,000 bucks or more.

[Mike Bromley]

That one above has a mighty nice brace installed across the back....wow.

[mrmando]

Some joker in Hawaii wants $5K for his '37 EM150 on Craig's List, so it's all relative. $2.5K is not bad for one with the CC pickup. I haven't had the pleasure, so I can't tell you how it compares to the P90. I seriously doubt there's $1K of difference in performance between the two pickups; I'd have to guess that rarity/collectibility accounts for most of it.

[brunello97]

A side question, and hopefully not a distraction....were the P90s used exclusively on the EM150s following their initial launching?

Mick

[mandroid]

FWIW P 90's have magnetized screws in the poles [as I recall], so can be screwed in/out
to be closer to weaker sounding strings, farther from strong ones.

[mrmando]

A side question, and hopefully not a distraction....were the P90s used exclusively on the EM150s following their initial launching?

Launched in 1936 with the Charlie Christian.

1940-43 were transitional years. The "EM-125" appears in this period; it uses a blade pickup with rounded ends, a little different than the CC. In 1941 the EM150 is fitted with an early version of the P-90 that has four screw poles mounted in a chrome cover. By 1943 the P-90 is using the black cover we're familiar with today. P-90s were used for the rest of the run.

[earnest]

I have a 50's EM-150 with the P-90. IMHO, the p/u is in the wrong place. Should be nearer the fretboard, but there's not enough clearance there, so they put it in between the bridge and neck position, with so/so results. I also think it sounds better with 4 strings, as the double strings get out of phase and cause dropouts and/or peaks in pickup response. I've always loved the tone of a CC p/u, if is working well and plugged in a good old tube amp. They're noisey though. The guitars are highly valued and that trickles down to anything from that era with a CC p/u.

[allenhopkins]

Not to hijack ("Hi, Jack!"), but if you'd consider a solid-body with a P-90, Bernunzio's reduced the price on this EM-200 Florentine to $1,800.

Oops, I see it's now marked "on hold"...

Later: and looks like Jeff L bought it (see this adjacent thread).

[mrmando]

Well, I can think of a place where there's a couple of EM200s for sale...

[jefflester]

Later: and looks like Jeff L bought it (see this adjacent thread).

Yep.

[Ransolo]

I got an EM-200 guys thanks for the input!

[mrmando]

Ah yes, the '68 from eBay. Great price. I'm willing to shave the price on mine, but not by that much. Congratulations!

[brunello97]

Way, way nice. What a beauty. I love that droopy, Dali-esque pickgaurd. I may be iconoclastic, but I prefer the way the two-point Gibson design works with the classic headstock rather than the F style scrolls. You owe us a finely detailed description of how it sounds and plays.......

Congratulations! I hope you really love it.

Mick

[Ransolo]

Looks and plays great. Plugged it straight in to my Fender Vibra-lux (97 reissue). And it sounds warm on the low end and punchy on the top. Love the 8 string electrics, to me that gives it a little distinction from an electric guitar (besides the register). REALLY cool looking too. Looks better than in the pictures to me, maybe it's just cause it's hanging on my wall now . Ordered some flatwounds so I'm gonna have to suffer with the 8 year old strings until they arrive, but over all I'm very pleased.

[Rick Proctor]

I've got a '69 EM-150 that I absolutely love. For a little more info on the P-90 used in them, check out the following YouTube video from Searcy String Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iedQSE8ppMI. It shows pictures of a rebuild of one of the pickups by Clint Searcy.

[mrmando]

What's with the headstock logo on that eBay EM150?

[Rick Proctor]

Mine looks more like this:

[mrmando]

That's because yours is a '69. A '30s instrument should have a script "Gibson" logo; it's just that the script on the eBay one looks a good deal clumsier than, say, the one from Gruhn's earlier in the thread.

[EdSherry]

There are far more P-90-equipped EM-150s out there than there are CC-equipped ones. You'll be paying a significant price premium for collectability/rarity.

I've never had the opportunity to play a CC-equipped EM-150, though I've played a number of CC-equipped Gibson guitars. IMHO, they're very much "one-trick ponies." If you like that sound, they're great (though they do suffer from hum). But I find the P-90 a more versatile pickup generally. Of course, YMMV.

I have two P-90-equipped EM-150s. I agree that the pickup placement is not optimal. But they're nice alternatives to solid-body EMs.

[journeybear]

Hi mandoplayertoo

Do you know what year yours is? Mine looks exactly the same except for the knobs but there's no label so I haven't been able to date it.

Thanks!

[mandroid]

To my eye the CC with those 3 screws thru the top to mount and adjust the pickup
surrounding the bridge. is not doing good to the resonance of the top.

And the 2 pots one on top and one on the bottom confine your right arm to being between them

or have playing activity move the knob at the wrong time..