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You can use the F‘tron the hotrodway- bypassing the Tonecontrol.
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04-11-2021 04:09 PM
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I have put together a Warmoth Tele 3 years ago (my second one, the first was made in '93) and decided on 2 TV Jones Filtertron pickups. The body is Korina/Limba with an Ebony top, the neck came from Musikraft and is a one-piece construction out of torrefied/baked maple. The guitar un-amplified sounds nicely balanced and quite loud, resonating strongly with a surprising sustain, it really rings like a bell. Amplified with a clean sound this becomes even more apparent and the pickups give out a bright but warm tone, the "Gretsch-y" overtones are very apparent. What came as another surprise to me was the effect of the tone-control : dialed down, the tone looses character and becomes quite bland. It's mellow alright but the tonal fingerprint disappears, for lack of a better description. I've experimented with various different cap-values, pot-values etc. but the changes were neglectable. The guitar sounds best with volume and tone wide open - outboard eq (on the amp and/or with a pedal) works much better, keeps more of the timbral core.
The guitar tone in the above clips reminded me of my quest back then ; for that type of tone IMHO a true single coil pickup (whether it's a P90 or a Tele/Strat model, Goldfoil, CC type, DeArmond, what-have-you) is my preferred choice in a Tele-type guitar. Must have something to do with resonating frequencies in pickups - I'm quite ignorant in these electronic matters so maybe an expert can chime in....
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I'm planning to do it this week too. I have the pickup already, just waiting for a pre-cut pickguard I ordered from eBay. I'll pay for a tech to do it for me, since I don't fancy drilling into the body myself and definitely don't want the pickguard-mounted option.
Did anybody solve the 250k vs 500k pot dilemma? My Tele came with a Shawbucker in the neck and despite Fender saying it requires a 500k pot, it came stock with a 250k. I put a Lollar J-Street in the bridge because it's a fantastic pickup for taming the treble and adding more bass and mids, so I definitely don't want to suddenly introduce more high-end on the bridge again by adding a 500k pot.
But I guess these are problems I'll be paying a tech to solve anyway...
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For what it's worth, Fender sells a volume pot for just such a situation; it has both 500k and 250k on a dual-ganged pot, and might be a good idea for those who use a humbucking neck pickup:
Fender Dual 500k/250k Split Shaft Potentiometer | Sweetwater
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Originally Posted by unfunfionn
Now- you can modify the tone coming from the pickups with capacitors and/or resistors. On a neck pickup, if you wire in a capacitor on the hot lead (pickup>capacitor>switch/pot), you can remove some of the low end. If you google "neck pickup de-mud mod" you'll get some reading.
You can also remove high end from a pickup with resistors. For example, a bridge pickup that you feel is too harsh, you can wire in a resistor from the pickups' hot lead to ground, and that will remove some high end. In both cases you will need to experiment with different values of caps and resistors to get exactly what you want, and again if you google you'll get some good recommendations on that.
Which Filtertron did you buy? I've played alot of them, in teles, and might be able to help you out if I knew which one you were installing... since you have 250K pots already... you might find the neck Filtertron lacking high end, but maybe not, because it has so much of it! The problem you may run into (like I did), was Filtertrons have alot of bass, and frequently the neck pickup can be woofy. I fixed this with the capacitor mod I mentioned above, and it worked quite well. You could EQ the amp around the neck pickup, but then then bridge may not have enough low end for your liking. It's actually good you have the bridge pickup you do... I think the more low end from it will help the 2 pickups balance better, and you may not have a problem at all...
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Thanks so much for the extremely helpful and detailed reply! I went with a TV Jones Classic. While I was curious about the Powertron and Supertron pickups, I can't try them out anywhere and it felt best just to start with the most authentic, plain version.
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Originally Posted by unfunfionn
If you LOVE the way the bridge sounds now, if it were me, I'd do the capacitor trick on the neck pickup. It's very easy, and it's easy to change the capacitor value as well. Let me see if I can find my notes, I can give you a capacitor value to start with. All it does is remove some bass.
The larger the cap value, the LESS lows are cut. The 3 values that have worked for me over the years, on neck pickups, are:
.0022uf
.0033uf
.0047uf
...I think I used the latter two on a Filtertron. But this way, you can re-EQ your neck pickup, without changing the way the bridge pickup sounds (and without changing any pots)
BUT, as I said. First things first: the 250K may be perfectly fine for the TVJ Classic. Try it and see.
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Thanks again, that's very helpful. I think trying the 250k makes a lot of sense. Although the Shawbucker recommends a 500k, Fender installed it with a 250k and it definitely doesn't sound muddy. Friends are surprised by how bright it is for a neck humbucker. So perhaps there's still enough breathing space in that setup for the TVJ to sound perfectly at home. What appeals about the Jakob Bro sound, although I have no interest in emulating his style (as much as I love his playing), is how much space his tone leaves for the bass player. From a pure utility perspective, that's something I'm really interested in here. I want it somewhat fatter than pure single coils, but definitely not jangly either. For that I have a Strat.
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Sorry to ruin your tech talk but we’ve just released the first full tune :
Have fun!
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Really sounds great. The whole band. Wow.
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Originally Posted by unfunfionn
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Originally Posted by jzjazz
My Old Fender Cabronita Telecaster Thinline
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Originally Posted by EllenGtrGrl
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Jakub, beautiful work - from you and the band as well. I really enjoyed that.
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Originally Posted by unfunfionn
Tim Shaw here, Tim Shaw there!
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Thank you guys for the kind words. The filtertron makes the tele sound bigger in my opinion and since this trio setting is so small, this is what I was hoping for but I wasn’t the first, of course - main inspiration is Jakob Bro and his filtertron tele.
If you want to be up to date with new recording please follow our fb (it’s in English, too):
Jakub ?o?ubak Trio
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Originally Posted by jzjazz
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Originally Posted by Herbie
My bigger gripe is that the stock pot values in the L5 ranged between 300K and 90K!
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Finally, after quite a delay, I got my guitar back last week with the TV Jones. It's a lot more different to the Shawbucker than I was expecting, but it was definitely the right decision. It's like a very punchy single coil. We kept the 250k pot and it's absolutely enough treble without any muddiness. I think I would have been quite unhappy with more treble than this.
Two things especially surprised me. Firstly, it has lot of sustain. It's surprising to hear that on a Tele. It's a Tele sound with Gibson sustain. Secondly, it has an interesting relationship with dirt pedals. It seems to want to turn everything into a fuzz.
Anyway, the obligatory photo:
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Yes, Filtertrons are very mid-scooped pickups, I personally am not a fan of them with very much dirt... altho to add "just a little", I am using a JHS Morning Glory v4 (I bought it because Julian Lage uses one), and it's fantastic. But I have found Filtetrons do not always "get along with" dirt pedals, certainly not as good as my regular tele single coils do, or PAF types.
Last edited by ruger9; 06-04-2021 at 08:22 AM.
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I'd been using a Rat clone (for low gain) and a Tube Screamer clone (for mid gain) until last week. The Rat sounds quite different with the TV Jones, but definitely usable. The Tube Scream not at all. I felt like I lost any transparency and playing on the wound strings just sounded like Grunge. So I spontaneously bought a Smallsound/Bigsound Mini from a classifieds ad, and it's worked very nicely so far. It has a massive range of sounds for a compact pedal and it's quite adaptable to different guitars.
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As your link shows an italian dealer I think you are in the EU. You may get a better price from the german distributor: ONLINE SHOP | No1.Guitar Center
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Originally Posted by guavajelly
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Hi guys,
please find below the thread about my upcoming album recorded with my filtertron tele Have fun and let me know what you think
Incoming: Live album of my trio (played on tele)!
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Hi Jakub! Love your music man! Following on Spotify! Hope to hear more!
Also this thread made me decide against a humbucker in the neck and go with a Filtertron instead! Thanks!
Enharmonics
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