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You asked, we listened! Please note that User Reviews are back! The Home page has returned to an editorial focus, with an emphasis on Articles and Industry News. The drop down menus are gone and simpler navigation has been implemented, and the forum landing page structure is going back to a more familiar layout. This transition is being performed "live", so some things may be moving around temporarily as we complete the process. Thanks for your patience as we implement these changes that our Community Members have asked for.


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My Recent Kudos Received
Subject Kudos Posted

Re: Wanna nice Vintage 1956 Gretsch 6120?

Electric Guitars
1 ‎02-19-2010 07:46 AM
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guitarcapo's Reviews
TV Jones Magna'Tron Magna'Tron
Magna'Tron

‎11-12-2008 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: This pickup is great for the neck position. I notice that Gretsch uses this pickup at the neck of its Spectrasonic baritone guitar. If you are looking for a neck Filtertron with high output, humbucking and more of the character of a s...
Overall Rating: This pickup is great for the neck position. I notice that Gretsch uses this pickup at the neck of its Spectrasonic baritone guitar. If you are looking for a neck Filtertron with high output, humbucking and more of the character of a single coil...this is the pickup. It also mixes well with more conventional design Filtertron pickups at the bridge. Gives them definition. By dialing the pickup's volume control, you can get great tonal variations.
Features: This is an original design pickup by TV Jones. It's based on a Gretsch Filtertron. It is housed in a Filtertron-shaped case so it can be used as a replacement for any guitar using a Gretsch-shaped pickup like the Supertron, Filtertron, Hilotron etc. It uses magnetic individual polepieces which is an original feature. Most Gretsch pickups use non-magnetized steel screws to direct the magnetic field from a bar magnet that sits at the base of the pickup. By using individual magnetic polepieces closer to the string, the pickup takes on its unique tonal characteristics. Like a Filtertron, it uses two coils so that it hum cancels. The polepieces are set into the pickup and aren't height adjustable, but are staggered in such a way as to balance the string volume.
Sound Quality: This pickup isn't muddy at all. The bass notes are very defined and round. I play this guitar mostly through blackface and tweed Fender design amps. This pickup shines when you are playing clean. It's got a mid-scooped character that really doesn't sound great overdriven. But I usually use the bridge pickup for that. I mainly use the neck pickup for lead guitar and clean so and it's great for that.
Purchased From: Ebay
Gretsch Supertron Supertron
Supertron

‎10-30-2007 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: I hope it's never stolen I paid 80 bucks for it off Ebay and they usually sell for 200 bucks nowdays. Snap these up if you can find one. It's not easy. Features: 4.45 KOhm Humbucking Filtertron but with blades instead of polepieces to...
Overall Rating: I hope it's never stolen I paid 80 bucks for it off Ebay and they usually sell for 200 bucks nowdays.
Snap these up if you can find one. It's not easy.
Features: 4.45 KOhm Humbucking Filtertron but with blades instead of polepieces to
concentrate the signal. This particular example was built in the 60's by Gretsch and featured in guitars like the Viking, Astrojet, later Chet Atkins models, and a few other guitars. It was probably the last innovative pickup design Gretsch created. I'm not sure what position it was made for but It sounded best in the bridge position.
Sound Quality: Higher output like a Powertron but with more mids. Perfect bridge Filtertron pickup. I play mostly clean to mildly breaking up in various Fender Blackface amps. Tone is bright but not twangy. More of a Setzer style crunch. At the neck it was a little muddy. I'm ordering a TV Jones neck Supertron for that position but if it's too muddy I might leave a Hilotron there. But in my experience a vintage Supertron is THE bride pickup for a Gretsch guitar for me.
Purchased From: Ebay
Lindy Fralin Un-Bucker Un-Bucker
Un-Bucker

‎08-26-2007 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: If you are looking for a PAF sound that's coil tappable this is THE pickup. Very harmonically pleasing and no sacrifices in tone when you coil tap. Features: As you've probably read, these are humbuckers with assymetric windings...bas...
Overall Rating: If you are looking for a PAF sound that's coil tappable this is THE pickup. Very harmonically pleasing and no sacrifices in tone when you coil tap.
Features: As you've probably read, these are humbuckers with assymetric windings...basically meaning that one coil has more windings on it than the other. This was done often by accident with the first humbuckers Gibson made. They were wound by hand and there was little to no control over the number of windings each bobbin had. As a result, the pickups don't "humbuck" or cancel out interference 100% BUT have a little more brightness and clarity associated with single coils. Another happy feature is that when coil tapped, you get less of a volume/output drop-off because the hotter of the two coils stays active. Some other pickups that feature this design are the Gibson made Burstbucker series and Seymour Duncan's "Pearly Gates" pickup.
These come in different output ratings. the particular set I've got reads 9K at the Bridge and 8K at the neck. The way they split is something like 4.5/3.5 for the neck and 4.8/4.2 for the bridge.
Sound Quality: The sound is bright like your typical PAF. It's got some punch but retains clarity. The pickups sound great coil-tapped...not tinny and brittle, but I found that the Bridge pickup coil tapped alone wasn't a versatile sound. Some great tone were to be had from the bridge untapped,the neck tapped and untapped...and also mixing the pickups tapped or untapped. The overall tone seems to be bright humbucker like a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover with some great versatility.
Purchased From: Ebay
Gretsch Hi Sensitivity Filtertron Hi Sensitivity Filtertron
Hi Sensitivity Filtertron

‎07-15-2007 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: I love these pickups and I feel that they best recreate what has been loosely called "that Gretsch Sound" TV Jones also makes a pickup like this called Filtertron Classics. I highly recommend going with either of these pickups and not...
Overall Rating: I love these pickups and I feel that they best recreate what has been loosely called "that Gretsch Sound" TV Jones also makes a pickup like this called Filtertron Classics. I highly recommend going with either of these pickups and not falling into the trap of buying Filtertrons wound too hot.
Features: These seem to have an impedance of about 4 to 4.5K, but really I wouldn't take much stock in what they read. Suffice it to say they are a moderately hot Filtertron pickup. They use alnico magnets.
Sound Quality: On the more solid guitar, the Harm-1, the tone at the bridge is pure greasy rockabilly Gretsch. Played into a clean to mildly overdriven amp, the sound is heaven. Under extremem gain the pickup is a little too bright to get a nice deep crunch. Kind of brash. In the hollow body the clean tone is also fantastic. Lots of depth and character. If you drive the amp a bit you will sound like Brian Setzer, but again not a pickup for heavy metal. But if you plan on playing heavy metal through a jazz box I think you're a bit out there anyway.
TV Jones PowerTron PowerTron
PowerTron

‎12-26-2006 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: Not bad, but forget about vintage Filtertron tone with this one. It probably works better in a hollow body guitar than a solid body. I had to fight the clanky sound a bit by working with the polepieces before I got a good sound out of...
Overall Rating: Not bad, but forget about vintage Filtertron tone with this one. It probably works better in a hollow body guitar than a solid body.
I had to fight the clanky sound a bit by working with the polepieces before I got a good sound out of it. I originally bought it because I wanted to try coil tapping a Filtertron and figured a hotter one would do this better. I can't say I like this better than Hi Sensitivity Gretsch Filtertrons or the Megatrons in my Electromatic gretsch Corvette.
After all the pickup adjusting they sound good and different than a Filtertron, but not better, just different.
Features: High output Filtertron style pickup. I believe this is achieved by extra windings because TV Jones claims to use a deeper bobbin or something. I ordered mine in 4 wire splittable form for a Filtertron solid body guitar. The pickups coils are wored in series. I don't have the impedence numbers but suffice it to say these considered about the same as a PAF on the hotness scale. They don't sound that much like PAFs though.
Sound Quality: People who buy this pickup will need to tweak the height and polepieces a lot to get a good sound. The way the pickup is designed, very slight changes to the polepieces make a huge sound difference.
If you raise the polepieces on just one coil and leave the other down, a sort of phase canceling thing starts happening instead of brightness shows up, probably because of the long bobbins. So I recommend raising both polepieces together, and to do that only to balance string to string volume disparities. If you get too close to the strings, the pickups sound "clanky" A sort of metalic clank sound that isn't pleasant. You get more harmonic complexity if you get these pickups a bit away from the strings. Tapping then creates a clean sterile sound that's a bit "quacky" The output pushes an amp well. On the bridge you get a nice twangy crunch. The neck pickup never gets muddy.
Purchased From: TV Jones Direct
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Date Registered ‎02-15-2003 08:42 AM
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