Clip 1: Fender P with tone at 2 o’clock, clean 1 o’clock, mean 2 o’clock, and gain at 1 o’clock.
Clip 2: Orange O Bass with tone at 2 o’clock, clean 10 o’clock, mean 4 o’clock, and gain at 4 o’clock.
RatingsPros:Warm, pure-sounding overdriven tones. Tube can be swapped for additional flavors. Cons: Coughing up $300 for an OD pedal might sting a bit. Street: $295
crazytubecircuits.com | Tones:  Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value:  |
Clever marketing terms such as “tube-like” and “tube-sounding” abound while shopping for an overdrive. Rather than clipping diodes, Greece’s Crazy Tube Circuits opted to keep it real for the true-bypass Locomotive: The heart of the purple pedal’s drive circuit is a 12AY7.
The control set includes gain, tone, clean (unaffected signal), and mean (drive level). I plugged in a P bass converted to B-E-A-D stringing/tuning and set all the dials to noon for starters. The pedal expressed a convincingly natural and warm breakup out of the gate, and with a bump of the tone dial to 3 o’clock, I was quickly in a happy place. The Locomotive, however, delivers a wide range of gain flavors, and I found plenty more to like with both its raunchier and subtler sounds. The pedal paired well with my pushed solid-state G-K, and I was impressed with the sensitivity of the tone dial and overall dynamic response and clarity. Though things naturally thinned out when I maneuvered the pedal into “meaner” grind-y territory, it still maintained its natural and warm characteristics to a relative degree.
I didn’t have a different tube on hand to swap in, but a cool thing about the Locomotive is just that. The 12AY7 can be replaced with any standard dual triode (like a 5751) to explore more tube flavors. If your OD tastes lean more classic than modern, the Locomotive is a train journey worth exploring—provided you can afford the ticket.
Test gear: Fender Precision, Gallien-Krueger 800RB, Orange OBC212, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4
The Gibson EH-185, introduced in 1939, was one of the company’s first electric guitars.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of electric guitar in shaping American popular music over the last half-century. Its introduction was a revolution, changing the course of modern musical styles. Today, when we think of the guitars that started the revolution, we think of the Stratocaster and the Les Paul, guitars held against the body and fretted with the fingertips. But the real spark of this musical mutiny was the lap-steel guitar.
In the early 20th century, guitar music was moving out of the parlors of homes and into public spaces where folks could gather together and dance. Guitarists needed to project their sound far beyond where their wimpy little acoustic instruments could reach. Instrument manufacturers began experimenting with larger body sizes, metal construction, and resonators to increase volume.
Around this time, George Beauchamp began experimenting with electric guitar amplification. He settled on a design using two U-shaped magnets and a single coil of wire. Beauchamp was in business with Adolph Rickenbacker, and they decided to stick this new invention into a lap steel.
If we put on our 1930s glasses, this decision makes perfect sense. The most popular music at the time was a blend of Hawaiian and jazz styles made famous by virtuosos like Solomon “Sol” Hoʻopiʻi. Photos of Hoʻopiʻi with a metal-body resonator abound—one can imagine his relief at being handed an instrument that projected sound toward the audience via an amplifier, rather than back at his own head via resonator cones. Beauchamp and Rickenbacker were simply following the market.
As it turned out, the popularity of Hawaiian music gave way to swing, and electric lap steels didn’t exactly take the world by storm. But Beauchamp and Rickenbacker had proven the viability of this new technology, and other manufacturers followed suit. In 1937, Gibson created a pickup with magnets under the strings, rather than above like Beauchamp’s.
“When I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christian’s smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatier—closer to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y.”
The first page of Gibson’s “Electrical Instruments” section in the 1939 catalog features a glowing, full-page write-up of their top-of-the-line lap steel: the EH-185. “Everything about this new electric Hawaiian Guitar smacks of good showmanship,” effuses the copy. “It has smoothness, great sustaining power, and an easy flow of tone that builds up strongly and does not die out.”
Picking up the 1940 EH-185 at Fanny’s House of Music is about as close as one can get to traveling back in time to try a new one. It is just so clean, with barely any dings or even finish checking. Overall, this is a 9/10 piece, and it’s a joy to behold. Speaking of picking it up, the first thing you notice when you lift the EH-185 out of the case is its weight. This is a much heavier instrument than other similar-sized lap steels, owing to a length of thick metal between the body and the fretboard. The catalog calls it “Hyblum metal,” which may be a flowery trade name for an early aluminum alloy.
This 1940 EH-185 is heavier than other lap steels in its class, thanks to a length of metal between its fretboard and body.
Photo by Madison Thorn
There are numerous other fancy appointments on the EH-185 that Gibson didn’t offer on their lesser models. It’s made of highly figured maple, with diamond-shaped decorations on the back of the body and neck. The double binding is nearly a centimeter thick and gives the instrument a luxurious, expensive look.
Behind all these high-end attributes is a great-sounding guitar, thanks to that old pickup. It’s got three blades protruding through the bobbin for the unwound strings and one longer blade for the wound strings. When I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christian’s smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatier—closer to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y. It was just crying out for a little crunch and a bluesy touch. It’s kind of cool how such a pristine, high-end vintage instrument can be so well-suited for a sound that’s rough around the edges.
As far as electric guitars go, it doesn’t get much more vintage than this 1940 Gibson EH-185 Lap Steel. It reminds us of where the story of the electric guitar truly began. This EH-185 isn’t just a relic—it’s a testament to when the future of music was unfolding in real time. Plug it in, and you become part of the revolution.
Sources: Smithsonian, Vintage Guitar, Mozart Project, Gibson Pre-War, WIRED, Steel Guitar Forum, Vintaxe
