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I put the stock pickups (Seth Lover) back in my Eastman T186SM yesterday because, as much as I love the p90 style pickups that were in there, I get too much hum where I rehearse. Anyway, I wanted to share something while I had the pickup out. Look at the size of that top - that's a giant chunk of Spruce. I really like this design from Eastman. The guitar isn't a semi-hollow, but (1) it has a maple block under the bridge that's carved from the same piece of wood as the back, and (2) along the center of the top, where the pickups rest, the spruce is carved extra thick.
This keeps the guitar feedback resistant while maintaining the qualities we love about spruce tops on hollow bodies.
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07-23-2018 11:57 AM
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Maybe you should try a Fralin p92
Supposed to be p90-esque tone with no hum. I'm going to pick one up for my T146SM soon.
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Funny I didn’t mean for this to be a thread about pickups but I’ve been thinking about the p92. The other one that looks great is the Fralin Big Single. However the Seth lovers are also great pickups.
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I still have the stock pickup in my T145. I've tried some others, including a VV HBCC, and they sound fine. But I decided to sell the guitar because I just wasn't playing it much, and put the stock Armstrong back in. In the process, I looked at the wiring, and it was miswired according to the mfr's diagram. It seems it was wired as a split coil, using only one of the humbucker coils. I rewired it the way it should have been, and it blew me away. I've been playing it instead of my Benedetto Bambino because it sounds so good. I took it off Reverb and I'm going to keep it. The top is much thinner than in the pic above, and it's remarkably loud acoustically for a 1.75" thick thinline, but no feedback problems.
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Another option is getting a set of P90s with one wound RWRP so in dual pickup mode, and with the volumes matched, there is no hum. I have two guitars set up like this with pickups from Lollar and Wolfe. Works great on other guitars too. One of my Teles has a RWRP Fender CS bridge pickup (Texas Special). Maybe there is a downside but I haven't noticed one, it is nice to lose the hum when desired.
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Compared to a solid body how do find this guitar compared to solid body when considering:
Sustain?
Consistency of attack / decay?
Predictability?
Any weird notes or surprises?
I have been thinking of another solid body, however from an ergonomic point of view I like thin 16" archtops.
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Good questions!
Originally Posted by DanielleOM
I can't speak for the production model, the T186MX, since I've never played one, but for my Spruce one, I'd say the following.
The sustain is more than a standard archtop but less than a solid body. Part of this has to do with the tone block and the thick top, but it also has something to do with the metal bridge. The sustain reminds me of something like a Gibson ES225TD.
The attack/decay profile is also similar to the ES225TD. You still get a bit more attack than on a solid body, since the resonant top is absorbing some of the energy from the strings. So the response across the fretboard is also somewhere between a solid body and a hollow body. With an archtop, there's typically some degree of difference in the response across the different strings and places on the fretboard. That's part of the charm of the archtop, I think.
I'd say the Eastman is somewhere between a 335 and an archtop in terms of tone. This one has a pretty thick/dark sound, more like an archtop than a solid body. The 335 is closer to the solid body side of the spectrum. I think these Eastmans are probably close to that sound but have a little more archtop character. It's hard to say because a lot of what we define as archtop character has to do with the acoustic sound of the archtop that we hear in the room when we play. I imagine the electric tone from this 186 would get really? close to an archtop sound if I put a wooden bridge on it, but I've never seen anyone do that with a stop tailpiece.
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I'm a huge fan of Fralin P92s.
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I found myself debating if a 186 would feel the same as the Eastman AR503CE from a body shape ergonomic point of view. When I look at photos of both guitars I get the impression the neck join to the body on the 186 might be at a higher fret. Is there a substantial difference? Wondering if you would have the feeling that you need to reach out further.
Danielle
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I don't remember the exact fret, but I think the joint is at the 16th or higher. Upper fret access is definitely better on this than on a standard thinline archtop.
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I know this isn't a pickup thread, but it kind of is. I emailed Lindy Fralin, and I think I'm going to get a big single for the neck and a p92 for the bridge. This guitar already has a dark tone, so I am hesitant about a p92 in the neck position, based on clips I've heard. I'm going for completely unpotted, because that's the kind of reckless jerk I am.
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Omphalpsychosis-
I really appreciate your summary of the 186 spruce ...
I like the idea of a thicker semi with more body to the tone but more sustain than most Archtops.
Usually the 335 types sound more like a Solid Body to me [ including a 347 I had long ago ].
So a thinner Archtop with a Stoptail for more sustain ...or a thicker semi hollow with a stoptail and very little or no center block might be really really cool..
Seems like you have a nice middle ground.
The Metheny PM 120 despite no stoptail seems in this area too based on some demos...never played one.
Guess it's safer for Builders to just copy 335's generally ...it's almost part of the definition of a Semi Hollow...to make it 1.75" thick unfortunately and ES 137's never caught on big.
Did you find the Eastman at 1. 75" nut width to feel odd - I wonder why they chose that and if I would feel a big difference but never played an Eastman ...
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For me. 1.75 is ideal. Before playing electric guitar, I played exclusively classical and Flamenco for several years. I find 1 11/16” nuts tolerable, but anything narrower than that is impossible for me to play.
a lot of people accustomed to 1 11/6” nuts come to appreciate the roominess of the wider necks. A good way to compare is to play some drop two chords on the first couple of frets.
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Eastman uses 1.75" wide nuts on almost everything, it's their standard. AFAIK they got it from Benedetto, like everything else. I like it, as long as it isn't too thick, and the Eastmans I've tried aren't thick, actually very slightly thinner than I prefer, but good enough.
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I don't like narrower than 1.69 either ..
I just don't want to have to adjust ..they use the size and type of frets I like though....taller than Gibson frets.
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The MX series are fine gits. My T165 MX with (PO replaced) Fralin HB pups is excellent, I don't get why so few MX models especially the 165 were made.
I saw this (quoted) on another site regarding 2017 MX production:
"I was curious to find out how many of these T18x solid body thinlines have been made, so I decided to ask Eastman. Last year, they sold 52 in the U.S. — all three models combined. And I’d have to think the T184MX is at least half of that number, since I see more of them online, so probably about a dozen of this model."
If you have a burning need to fill a sound niche with a single coil vibe P94's do that pretty well, and the ES-195 I have with them is not noisy. But your tolerance for noise may be lower than mine so IMO single coils may be an expensive crap shoot to keep investing in.
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