Need some Pick up advice

[Lespaul101]

Hi Guys,

Ok, I have just joined a new band and we are playing loads of retro tunes ranging from Swing to Rockabilly. Long story short I want to up grade the pickups in my Guitar to try and cover all bases. I want to have both that 50s Filterftron sound and a nice Jazz Guitar sound.

Si I was thinking of putting a Gretch filtertron in the Bridge and a P90 in the neck or my Ibanez Artcore.

What say you?

Any thoughts or ideas would be gratefully recieved.

Cheers Guys

[barrymclark]

Rockabilly like the 50's or more modern?

[m78w]

I recently switched to a great brand called Sheptone

Guitar Pickups, Humbucker Pickups, Custom Pickups, Sheptone

They're very versatile, really affordable and just sound amazing. I'm not endorsed or anything, but I just love these pickups, everyone who hears them falls in love with them.

check them out, definitely worth at least a listen or two.

[barrymclark]

Originally Posted by barrymclark

Rockabilly like the 50's or more modern?

To back this up, I gotta say you are probably fine with what you have.

If you are going to change to anything, I would recommend going with a pickup that is designed with that era of pickups in mind.

You don't need a filtertron or P90 necessarily. I use SD Seth Lovers in my Heritage to play 20's through 50's stuff and rockabilly.

All I do is set up my EQ to do a decent approximation of the guitar's acoustic tone and bump up the gain to synthetically create the distortion you'd get with the amps and recording techniques of the day.

I suppose if I was bent on changing to a humbucker/P90 combo, I'd probably go with a Fralin Pure PAF in the bridge and a Noiseless P90 in the neck. I have seen some GREAT humbucker to P90 conversions where it looked like that dogeared P90 was factory installed.

Why the noiseless P90? Cause straight up P90's can be VERY noisy and Fralin has a quiet one that still sounds like a P90.

I will stay with my Seth's in the Heritage though. I posted this one other place today but this is a very appropriate thread for this video.

This is my playing Sleep Walk for a Gretsch Forum thing. I am using my Heritage H575 with Seth Lovers installed through my Roland Cube 80x on the Fender Twin setting with the gain up to 75%. Please don't mind the backing track, I did that up very quickly so it is EXTREMELY stiff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDxchYD5jGE

[Vihar]

I suggest you to check out the DiMarzio DP211/212 Eric Johnson models.

From the description: "After getting a new 1959 Les Paul reissue, Eric asked DiMarzio if it could be made to sound like an old Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar, and DiMarzio said, "No problem!""

[spiral]

Your idea sounds just fine. Gretsch pickups and P90's live in the same tonal neighborhood, IMO. A good set of TV Jones Magnatrons will give you the bite of a Gretsch or P90, but with no hum. If you want something bigger and smoother for jazz, the SuperTrons are nice. If you want to experiment on the cheap, try the GFS Retrotrons. At the end of the day, you can play jazz on any pickup, and people have.

[Lespaul101]

Cheers Guys. I kind of going for a most Vintage sound if poss. Thing is I've always played SGs and Les pauls and Im a little bored of that hulbucker sound I want something to gut through more but then still be able to sound sweet for Jazz tunes.

Are there any cheap alternatives you guys would recoment for the TV Jones Supertron? I wanted to get a TVJones Classic and a super'tron but they are a bit Pricey. Hence the Gretch and P90 idea

[Vihar]

Check out Vintage Vibe Guitars. Pete Biltoft can make you whatever you want for a good price.

[Lespaul101]

Or maybe a cheap alternative or decent place to get the lollar P90's?

[mongrel]

Guitar Fetish Surf 90's. Humbucker sized single coils reminiscent of Dynatrons. $40 US or so a piece. Cheap ticket to rockabilly heaven.

[robertm2000]

+1 to what Vihar said. Pete Biltoft will talk with you directly to make sure you get what you want. I was looking for a Charlie Christian type pickup and Pete even offered to wind me one of his CC Rider pickups with 38 gauge wire, the same as the origianl Charlie Christian and the Lollar CC model. I stayed with
Pete's standard 42 gauge winding and it sounds FABULOUS on my Tele copy.

Vintage Vibe Guitars - 541-436-2836

What's so cool about his pickups is that they have interchangeable magnets - Alnico II through V, and Ceramics. You can adjust the tone from soft and smooth to really biting, to really fine points easily.And his prices are very reasonable considering the hgih quality of his pickups. If it sounds like I'm trying to sell them, it's only because I've got his pickups on two of my guitars and they are now my favorites. Eventually all of my guitars will have them

[TruthHertz]

I love these pickups, especially the liverpools

GFS Pickups

Liverpool Vintage Alnico Humbucker Gold

You might say, they're so cheap there must be a catch. Catch is, they're just great sounding pickups that they put a low price point on. I haven't tried them all, but the Liverpool Alnicos I have sound fantastic.
It's an option. They've always been good to me, good customer service. Nice guys.
David

[Archie]

Originally Posted by Lespaul101

Cheers Guys. I kind of going for a most Vintage sound if poss. Thing is I've always played SGs and Les pauls and Im a little bored of that hulbucker sound I want something to gut through more but then still be able to sound sweet for Jazz tunes.

Are there any cheap alternatives you guys would recoment for the TV Jones Supertron? I wanted to get a TVJones Classic and a super'tron but they are a bit Pricey. Hence the Gretch and P90 idea

You can get a new Gretsch HS Filtertron on eBay for around $50. It's the same pickup that comes standard on the new Gretsch guitars. They sound pretty good to me (I have a 2006 6120).