Schatten TC Passive Tricone Resonator

Passive pickup for Tri-cone Resonators

I put this in an older 90's Czech/Amistar made Johnson Tricone modified by myself with National cones, Maple/Ebony bridge, bone nut, Fender stainless flatwound strings .013-.054, and some of the internal bracing modifed for better bass response.

I chose to drill the holes and mount a jack in the body of the guitar. This is not a collector instrument. The kit comes with another jack to mount to the end pin with a nylon bushing so that you would not have to drill any holes if this were a more expensive instrument. If you are careful and handy with hand tools and soldering gun you can do it in a couple hours. The pickup itself mounts to the bridge with putty.

Never had a pickup in it before

I got the passive model because i would be playing it through a Marshall AS100D amp i already had which has gain and all kind of EQ settings. They make an active model of this pickup with no EQ but just save your money and buy an outboard preamp with EQ if you plan on playing this much. You're going to have to EQ it anyway to get it to sound right. Remember it sounds good through a $700 Marshall amp but for anything less better get an outboard preamp/EQ box if you're serious about using this thing.


Tone is overall good, maybe a little heavy on the bass side but you can adjust it out. Loud as you want it to be played through a good acoustic amp. Tone is of course not completely accurate but good enough for government work when you just have to plug in and go. It sustains very well and has good clarity. I even played it through a PA today. It works and sounded OK but needs a Preamp/EQ for that. I was pleasantly surprised as i didn't think it would do much going straight into a PA.

I play slide guitar blues type stuff. I just like to goof around, i have a real job.

Yeah i guess i'd get another one(pickup).

Got a lot of stuff and several other resonators.

I compared it to the $$$$$$ Highlander $$$$$$ pickup as far as cost but i've never heard one. I don't think the added realism of the highlander would be worth a couple hundred plus dollars more unless you were using it professionally. The Schatten sounds good enough....but use a preamp/EQ(i warned you). If you got to have that accurate sound reproduction just mic it for chrissakes.

It would be nice if they made one with an onboard preamp EQ like an acoustic guitar but i don't think i'm gonna be carving out a hole in the body for that!!

Very satisfied with the sound reproduction, way better than i expected. I just needed some way to plug in and play, very hard to mic one of these on a stage or small club and get it right yourself.