Pickups for GR1

[Flypast]

Hi,

I am about to order new pickups for my GR1 that is arriving tomorrow..

Wondering if i can ask for some advise and direction as i am new to this and a bit naive in these matters.

I am thinking of either Filtertron or Lollar pickups.

With the Filtertron they come in "vintage" and "hot"....do you install both pickups either "vintage" or "hot"...or one of each?

As i said im still learning and really have no idea how to choose the right combination.

Thanks for any advise.

Jay

[wazkelly]

Hi Jay, don't know much about those brands but it seems to be advisable to buy a matching set. Also depends on the style you want to play as 'Hot' may be a bit too raucus if you want to explore more of the mellow tones that a big bodied axe could produce. Hopefully the manufacturers web site has sound demos so that you can hear the differences between what they have on offer.

Only blunder I made many years ago as a newbie was when I bought a 2nd hand Gibbo style axe that had a genuine PAF in the neck and a DiMarzio Super II in the bridge. Dumb me thought the PAF was too weak in signal and had to have a matching Super II in the neck. The truth of the matter was that I mostly used the bridge PUP and would have had more tonal options available if I had kept the PAF. It was only many years later that I realised what could be done with a sweet neck PUP.

Hope this helps a bit as there are so many choices that it can become confusing. As I mentioned before, try and find pickup demo's on the web, either manufacturer sites or public demos on youtube to help figure out what you like the sound of.

[Simon Barden]

Most non-vintage Gretsch owners that I've known on forums would probably fit TV Jones pickups (http://www.tvjones.com/)as their pickup of choice for a vintage sound, especially as upgrades to Electromatics. They are supposed to be closer in sound to old Gretsch pickups than the current Gretsch models. Following the dealer links on the site to the Australian importers, and then follow their links to find a retailer near you. They were also a very popular choice for fitting to Cabronita-style Teles

By Filtertron I presume you mean the Gretsch own-brand pickups? They are about half the price of TV Jones pickups in the UK, so represent better value for a similar sound. I'm not a Gretsch person, so have no experience of my own, but the reviews I've read of the latest Filtertrons said that they might not be quite as authentic a vintage sound as the TV Jones, but it was a very similar sound. They might be a bit more 'rounded' in sound, slightly less 'spikey' than the TV Jones, but that's not always a bad thing.

Lollar make some very good pickups indeed, (especially vintage PAF and P-90 styles) but are correspondingly pricey, maybe a bit more than the TV Jones pickups over here (and there is only one source in the UK). As a result I haven't heard that much about them being fitted as replacements or standard pickups except to very expensive builds, and I have heard no reports of their Gretsch style pups.

If you want a classic vintage rockabilly sound, jangly with lots of slapback echo, then I really suggest sticking to vintage voiced pickups. If necessary you can add some extra clean gain or dirt via pedals - though with a big hollow-body guitar you don't want that much gain because of body feedback issues. I'd suggest the 'hot' models would best be used on solid-bodied guitars to achieve a cleaner but still pokey alternative to Gibson style humbuckers for more rocky styles.

But Waz's comment about uisng a powerful bridge pickup and a less powerful neck pickup can produce some great wide-ranging sounds, though it's probably not what you need at the moment. For example, the Gibson BFG, with its humbucking bridge pickup (especialy if replaced by a better one) and neck P-90, produces a great mixture of sounds. It just wasn't given the right level of care in the looks department by Gibson IMO and is rather unloved (though I do know people who really rave about them).

[Flypast]

Thanks for the detailed resposes...great info.

At first i was considering these :

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/...n-for-gretsch/

But after some further reasearch i think the TV Jones may get the nod...

http://www.tvjones.com/brian-setzer-pickups.html

As i grew up listening to The Stray Cats..and all things rockabilly, there is really no other choice

Thanks again for your advise fellas.👍

[Simon Barden]

Glad you could make a decision. It's always hard choosing pickups, there's so much choice, and there are rarely any bad sounding pickups these days. The online demos help a little, but they are never on the same guitar as yours or using the same amp and you don't know what processing they've done to the recording and you can never really easily A/B two different pickups. And then there's the post-buying angst. 'Did I buy the best ones?' 'Did I pay too much?' 'Did I pay too little?'

But whatever you do buy, I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

[stan]

Both are great choices , but TVJones Brian Setzers in a Gretch, that's got to be a winner

[Flypast]

Thanks Simon...

And....

Both are great choices , but TVJones Brian Setzers in a Gretch, that's got to be a winner

Exactly what i thought...