Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

[St_Genesius]

I'm looking for something different to throw in a new project and it's basically down to a Filter'tron clone or a Phat Cat. I know what a P90 sounds like, so that side of the equation is known. But I don't really know what to expect from a Filter-tron style pup. I did a search here and found a little info, including one person claiming that Filter'tron pups are wired in Parallel normally. Is that true? If I choose to go that route, I was planning to include parallel wiring as a switchable option, but I was surprised to read that such a setting might be the default.

 

[Artie]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

That makes sense. I was just looking at Stew-Macs TV-Jones Filtertron replicas, and they measure 4.1k. That would be consistent with parallel wiring.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

So do Filter'trons just tend to sound like a humbucker in parallel mode?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Trons have a tone that no other pickup ever has...thay are kind of bright and a little on the twangy side for a bucker...they have a chime that is not like a Strat chime but it is a chime in the tone...

 

[dani]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

in a word, jangly.

 

[jony]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

And brightish... Yet not thin.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Filtertrons are wired in parallel if I remember right? I read in a article in GW years ago and they said it was parallel. Part of the mystique of filtertrons is that both coils pole peices could be adjusted as well as their relative height in the mountig ring. Four screws versus two screws?

Parallel is very 3D sounding. It gives the guitar a unique woody sound that is very touch responsive almost like a hollowbody. I find that parallel is much better than split coil if going for a clean sound. You don't have the weak and noisy split sound plus the 3D effect. Even if you load a filtertron with massive distortion it still jangles. Listen to Nudeswirl for an example.

A testament to the filtertrons virtues is Malcolm Young's sound. Both bright and punchy versus his brothers warm and midrange sound. Listen to the song Riff Raff off of "You Want Blood" and there's your answer.

Snowdog

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Hmmm. Well, I was thinking of doing a single-HB guitar, wired with a three-way selector offering series, parallel and split and using a less traditional style pup like the Filtertron (or the TV Jones or GFS knockoffs) sounded like a cool way to go. Bright, airy and twangy are definitely things I'm looking for as I'd like this to be a nice, simple, mean Psychobilly guitar.

Or I might just slap in a Phat Cat and be done with it. Too bad there's not a Tapped Cat available...

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Just noticed that the TV'trons (and presumedly the original, real Filtertrons) only come in two-conductor wiring. The (much) cheaper GFS pups, however, come with 4. So it sounds like GFS would be the only -tron option that would allow for the switching I mentioned.

 

[hellatone]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

which gfs pups are the filtertrons?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Listen to just about any of George Harrison's Gretch guitar solos with the Beatles...especially on the first 3 or 4 albums. "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", "Act Naturally", etc. Kind of a plunky twangy sort of tone. Brian Setzer uses Filter Trons in his Gretch guitars I believe...any of the Stray Cats stuff and most of the more recent stuff too. Chet Atkins' older albums on RCA is going to be mostly Gretch guitars with Filtertrons too.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

The Retrotron series. There are four models, I think: the Nashville, Hot Nashville, Liverpool and Hot Liverpool. The Nashvilles use Ceramic mags and the Liverpools use A5. There are clips on the Guitar Fetish site. I prefer the clip for the Liverpool, but since I'm looking at putting it in a basswood body, I think I might prefer the brighter Nashville.

which gfs pups are the filtertrons?

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Or I might just slap in a Phat Cat and be done with it. Too bad there's not a Tapped Cat available...

There is if you unwind about 1,000 turns off it.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Listen to just about any of George Harrison's Gretch guitar solos with the Beatles...especially on the first 3 or 4 albums. "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", "Act Naturally", etc. Kind of a plunky twangy sort of tone. Brian Setzer uses Filter Trons in his Gretch guitars I believe...any of the Stray Cats stuff and most of the more recent stuff too. Chet Atkins' older albums on RCA is going to be mostly Gretch guitars with Filtertrons too.

How do you think Filter'trons would sound in an ES-335?

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

I LOVE the sound of a Gretsch with Filter-trons. It is one of the most unique and beautiful guitar tones in the universe.

Also check out "Bargain" off Who's Next for an example of Pete Townshend playing a Gretsch given to him by Joe Walsh. The guitar in that track has a ringing, singing quality to it that you don't hear on the rest of the album.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Oh, now I KNOW I need to get one of these things. You said the magic words: WHO'S NEXT. I'm sure it will sound drastically different in a solid piece of basswood than in a hollowbody, but AndyZ (InstituteOfNoise) posted some clips of the Liverpool model in his Squier '51 and it sounds pretty darn good. I'm aiming for something a bit brighter and janglier, so I'm leaning towards the Nashville model (and I'll be keeping the maple neck...).

Also check out "Bargain" off Who's Next for an example of Pete Townshend playing a Gretsch given to him by Joe Walsh.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

I liked the sound of the Nashville Hot the best from the GFS site.

Snowdog

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

I didn't care for either of the hots, but my tastes tend to run very much towards pups that have open sounding highs. The Liverpool is, I think, the more musical sounding clip, but I think the sharper highs and lows of the Nashville might work well in basswood. My only concern is that the harshness I hear in the Nashville might be less a product of the highs and more a product of the upper-mids, a frequency point at whcih basswood often also has a bit of a push. I'm aiming for shimmer, not honk.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Describe the Filter'tron sound to me

Question: I read in a couple of places recently that the Hilotron pickups are essentially "half a filtertron." Would that mean that a Filtertron would sound like a Hilotron when split?