TV Jones Magna'Tron

magnatron bridge installed in the bridge pos. of my ibanez artcore 105 replacing the stock one i had in there. im using a marshall tsl601 amp. the stock pickup just didnt have the "hard rock" tone im after.

quite high output. need to play around with the height to get the right amount of twanginess required. need to find that balance where the low strings are responsive enough but the D string isnt too aggressive.
it responds very well to how much you attack the strings, for a hard rock sound (acdc, darkness etc) attack those strings aggressively and you ll have a nice cunchy distortion, strum them lightly and itll be quite clean. even on the high gain channel on my amp, the twanginess really can add that extra tone and attitude to the distortion. The best sounds come from playing strings indivually but playing full open chords also sounds nice. screaming lead solos sound pretty great on it. i played it on my friends Laney combo tube amp and it sounded even better. my friends all like the sound :)

i think the only problems with the sounds come from my amp.

havent really explored the clean sounds on this pickup much sorry...

next time ill probably go for a classic plus, this was sort of an impulse buy but it worked out pretty good after all.

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.

I installed this pickup in a recent Korean Gretsch Electromatic Corvette. I used it in the neck position. I kept the original pickup at the bridge, but it was modified a bit. I replaced the ceramic bar magnet in that pickup with an alnico pickup.

I was looking for a cleaner, more articulate sound from the neck pickup.
The Magnatron does this very well at the neck. My best description would be that the pickup hum cancels, but has a lot of the tone characteristics of a single coil. Bright, clear and snappy. Mid-scooped
with a healthy output.

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.

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.

Pastilla de guitarra humbucker pasiva con sonido de single-coil y con la misma apariencia y tama??o de una filtertron de Gretsch. La impedancia es de 3,95 K en la pastilla del mastil y 7,66 k la del puente. Tv Jones tiene distintos modelos de esta pastilla para que pueda ser montada sin hacer ninguna obra en la guitarra ocupando el lugar de una Humbucker, una P 90, diferentes tipos de Filtertrons de Gretsch - por el a??o - y de DeArmond DynaSonic.

Gretsch Duo Jet Elliot Easton 6128 japonesa. Hab??a tocado con varias antiguas, Nashville, Viking, Chet Atkins, Country Gentleman, Corvette de los 60s y 70s ocasionalmente y andaba buscando una Duo Jet c??moda y con el twang de Duane Eddy. Encontraba mucho mas c??modas y de mejor calidad las nuevas, y despu??s de probar durante unas horas unas 10 Gretschs - Brian Setzer, Hot Rod, Rev Horton, Country Club, ... - , me decid?? por la Gretsch Duo Jet Elliot Easton 6128 y la Duo Jet Roundup G6130, por est??tica, comodidad y sonido.
La 6128 me gust?? mas al tacto, por el m??stil mas largo - tipo Fender, de 25.5" - y con m??s twang y por su sonido sin enchufar, y de la 6130 me gust?? sobretodo el sonido de la pastilla DynaSonic.
Compr?? la Duo Jet Elliot Easton 6128 y despu??s de probarla en la banda de surf instrumental con la que toco, me convenc?? de que deb??a conseguir una pastilla con el sonido de las DeArmond DynaSonic de la Roundup y que cupiera en el hueco de las Filtertron High Sensitive que ven??an originalmente. La guitarra ten??a Twang, pero no todo el que quer??a.
Encontr?? en la p??gina de TV Jones que las Magnatron estaban dise??adas para este prop??sito y no lo dude a la hora de encargar el juego de dos. Le envi?? un par de mails a TV Jones pregunt??ndole mis dudas y me contest?? personalmente.

Al cambiar las pastillas encontr?? exactamente el sonido que andaba buscando, realmente cercano a Duane Eddy, muy limpio y con mucha pegada. Mucho Twang, mucho tono, con un agudo limpio y un grave muy controlado. Al principio puse las pastillas muy altas, sonaban cojonudas ??????, nada que envidiar a mis fenders, luego las baj?? un poco para saturar menos y ??ltimamente he vuelto a subir un poco la del puente, mas que a ojo a o??do. La guitarra mejora mucho con el cambio de pastillas, de un 7 a un 10.
La pastilla del puente es capaz de conseguir un ataque cortante a lo Link Wray de los 70 con Robert Gordon, menos arm??nico grave pero con un agudo mas bonito y una presencia aguda mezcla entre P90 y Telecaster. Es una pastilla bastante potente, comparada con la del m??stil, y es necesario jugar un poco con la altura hasta conseguir el sonido y el ataque deseado.
Si se combinan las dos pastillas y se juega con los vol??menes las posibilidades y los buenos sonidos son enormes, pero que quede claro, son pastillas que suenan muy bien limpias o semi saturadas. No considero que sean realmente buenas para meterlas super distorsi??n - a no ser que vayas de arty o quieras emular a My Bloody Valentine -, o para tocar Metal o derivados, son otro rollo. No son muy vers??tiles, pero para lo que est??n dise??adas son insuperables.
Las utilizo con un Fender Showman de mediados de los 60 y un Bogner Shiva - con EL 34s - y una pantalla Bogner con dos Celestion Vintage 30. Uso un tanque de Reverb Fender y especialmente un Space Echo 201. Los pedales que utilizo son un compresor Carl Martin y un Booster Hao Rumble Mod.
Para el rollo surfero/r'n'r/SpaguettiWestern que toco con ella, es perfecta. La utilizo junto a Fenders Stratocasters & Jaguars ant??guas y nuevas y no desmerece jam??s. Puedes pasar de rollo 50s twang a 80s psicobilly cambiando simplemente de una pastilla a otra.
Para rockabilly primitivo es inmejorable. Consiguen una muy buena mezcla entre Duane Eddy y Brian Setzer.

Las comprar??a otra vez sin duda. Durante una temporada estuve tentado de pillar una Filtertron para el puente, pero cambiando la altura de la pastilla consegu?? el sonido que quer??a y cambi?? de idea.
Hace poco toqu?? con una Gretsch Country Gentleman del 67 con Filtertrons y qued?? muy satisfecho comparandola con mi guitarra con las Magnatron. La Country Gentleman sonaba muy, muy bien, y aunque era complicada de tocar por el m??stil, las pastillas me encantaros, nada que ver con las filtertron que tra??a originalmente mi guitarra. Con las Magnatron y la salida extra de la pastilla del puente, es posible hacerla sonar realmente bien y totalmente a Gretsch cl??sica.
Sigo buscando una gran Telecaster o un Vox realmente cojonudo, pero mi b??squeda de buen sonido Gretsch se ha acabado por ahora.

Humbucking pickup with staggered, alnico pole pieces, just like Fender single coils but no hum.

I use this pickup in the neck position of a heavily modded Strat. I feel that the sound of a great Strat neck pickup is one of the classic tones in rock music. This pickup nails all of those tones without the hum.

The other pickup is a TV Jones Powertron at the bridge.

The output is a little less than the bridge PowderTron pickup but with some height adjustments they can be matched to suit my tastes.

As I said above this pickup nails all of the Strat neck tones. It has the soft airy transparency of a great single coil. A round smooth bass tone and chimey top end sparkle. Playing up around the 12th fret gets you that tubey, hollow tone. Clear, clean tone with no muddiness.

Mr. Jones has done an incredible job with this pickup.

Not only do I love the tone of this pickup, the Filtertron style cover looks really cool to boot.

I've been playing for over 30 years, semi-pro for some of it and have owned Gibson, Fender and PRS guitar along with a long list of others. I would re-buy these pickups without hesitation and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a single coil sound without the hum.

Workmanship and service were top notch.

They may look a bit pricey but are worth every cent.

Single coil or humbucking? Active or passive? Filtertron style - Passive paralel Mini-humbucker

Impedance or other specs? DC rest. 7.95K Inductance 2.9H

What model guitar or bass did you install this in? Ibanez AFS 75T

What position is it in? Bridge

What pickup are you replacing? Ibanez Artcore

Other pickups installed on the instrument? TV Jones Supertron Neck

Any artists using this pickup? Brian Setzer, Me?! lol

Reason for changing the pickup? I wanted a guitar with a brighter
and punchier Gretsch sound without the Gretsch price.

What's the output level like?

Like a low wind PAF. In my setup little less than a TV classic.

What amps and effects are you using it with?

Tweed Champ with Jensen P10R.

Tone - Bassy, middy, muddy, trebly, balanced?

Hi mid focused without ice pick. Nice attack, much closer to a sigle coil sound than a TV Classic. Never played a Dynasonic. To me sounds like a louder and bolder 52' Tele pickup or a brighter P90. Perfect!

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?

The style my band plays (Amps & Lina: www.myspace.com/ampslina) falls in the alternative category. This pickup works great to the 50's R&R and brit pop side of my playing. The lighter MPB side and the heavier overdrives tones are covered by the supertron neck also in this guitar (my #1). This pickup is great to achieve 50's R&R, Rockabillie, country, brit pop, funk and lighter punk/garage rock - anything a that works with a tele bridge, only better, louder and without hum.

For which positions is this pickup (un)suitable?

Unsuitable to none I guess. I heard Setzer using it on neck, and for his style was great. For me, I would use a neck pickup with more output, better bass and less attack - Superton , PAF, Fender Wide Range.

If it was destroyed or stolen, would you buy it again or get something else?

I would buy it again...

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?

10 years of guitar playing. Also own a MIJ tele 72 custom and a korean ES 355 (with TV Classic at Bridge), a Tweed Champ, few pedals (analog and digital delay, Moog Ring Modulator, Barber LTD) and a sampler/computer/drum machine/synth rig wich is the major part of my live setup.

What do you love about it? What do you hate?

Love its sigle coil caracter, its attack and unique voice. Don??t hate anything, but it could use a tad more bass only on the havier strings - but thats may be the way how the pickup is setup in the guitar.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one? Well, for gretsch sound the only way is the actual gretsch pickups (ceramic), Seymor Duncan (more expensive), GFS (not right) and TV Jones. I Already had a great experience with TV Calssics on my ES 355 copy, such that I dicided to have a gretsch clone with TV Jones only in it. Liked so much that this guitar is my #1 now!

Anything you wish it had?
Nothing.

Are you satisfied with this pickup or still searching for <b>that</b> sound?

Very satisfied. Search is over for this guitar. lol