[Gtrmaker]

Hi All,

Considering a 5120 PU change. Does anyone know what the noticeable differences are between the High Sensitivity and the Hot Rod Filtertrons? I know the TV Jones are the rage for 5120 mods, trying to justify the cost. I'm not a gigging musician, just play at home, but even playing through Garage Band on the computer and being able to play through many amps and pedals, all comes back to a "muddy" sound that I have to try and tweak out with tone control from everywhere.

Dave

[Carson]

Hi Dave

There are lots of discussion on thie forum about Filtertron pickups just look back to find them. I too have been thinking about changing my pickups on my 5122 but have not got round to it yet, I recently bought a Line 6 Spider Jam and I must say the Gretschbuckers sound a whole lot different, its clean and Blues setting take away all the mud. I also have Line 6 ax2 linked to my computer and the clean setting with come of the early amp combinations also highlight the rich sound from the existing pickups. I had thought about changing the ceramic magnets in the existing pickups to Alnico 2 or 5 the take away to harshness in the neck pickup.

The magnets can be bought for a few £ or $ on the internet. The process of opening the pickup and slipping out the ceramic magnet is also on the internet.

Before you dash out and spend lots of money try a good amp and clean settings, these pickups are not that bad!

John
______________

Scotland the brave

[Synchro]

TV Classics are designed to be very close to vintage Filtertrons. I have a set on one guitar and must say that I like them a lot. The seem a little less bright than HS Filters but some of that may be the guitar they are mounted in, a 6120 DC.

I'm actually working my way through the same decision right now with another guitar. I think I'll spring the extra dough to buy the TVs. For one thing, the string spacing on the TVs is different between the neck and the bridge pickups allowing better alignment of the strings over the pickup screws on the bridge pickup. I also find TV Classics very touch sensitive. They seem very responsive to how hard it is that I pick.

HS Filters are great too. I have a set on my Country Club and I doubt that I'll be replacing them with TVs. It sounds wonderful right outta the box.

[HypotenusLuvTriangle]

I use Garageband for recording and I can't get anything but muddy/crappy tone with it. And I have a G5120 with TVJ pups, a Falcon with HS Filtertrons, and other middle-of-the-road metal guitars with fantastic pups. I play through a 15 year old DSP Crate Amp when not plugged into Garageband. I don't think its very good. But I do get good sound through it. However, whenever I go to the music studio I take lessons at, I plug into their amps, mostly Line 6 amps, and I hear nothing but amazingness coming from my guitars.

I think with regards to Garageband and amps, its important to figure out how to use them Or maybe that's just my personal problem. My Classic Neck TVJ pup in my G5120 has waaaaay to much bass or I need to EQ it properly.

As for filtertron pup upgrades, HS, HotRod, or TVJ Classics would sound fantastic in your G5120. Also, a very important part of your sound is your bridge. We love Comptons here and getting one of those will take your sound to the next level. And even if you don't gig, you will be extremely happy with it.

[rickvox]

I use Logic and I have used Garage Band with my 5120 with TV Jones Classics into a Apogee one interface . Believe me if you use the amp sims and pedals in those programs you can get incredible sounds recording with them . they act just like the amp you are seeing on the screen . Make sure your not going in to hot (peaking or clipping) when you are recording .

[HypotenusLuvTriangle]

Originally Posted by rickvox

I use Logic and I have used Garage Band with my 5120 with TV Jones Classics into a Apogee one interface . Believe me if you use the amp sims and pedals in those programs you can get incredible sounds recording with them . they act just like the amp you are seeing on the screen . Make sure your not going in to hot (peaking or clipping) when you are recording .

Yeah, I know people can get awesome sound from the amps n stompboxes but I just can't seem too. I must be doing something wrong. I even spent half the day searching for Tutorials on the Amp controls. Ie difference between VOLUME & OUTPUT knobs. They seem to do the exact same thing to me. I will be playing with Garageband and get a sound I like. I record it thru my firewire Saffari 24 Pro, save it, and open it up the next day with all the same settings but it doesn't sound great because I'm listening to it with a fresh ear. And it sounds worse when I export the stuff to iTunes to show people. The sound is either overdriven or lacking of any punch or balls. And I make sure I'm not clipping the master volume at the bottom of the application.
And to stop you before you ask, I've watched all the possible tutorials and instructions on how to use it and I can't seem to get a good sound out of it. And I know I'm not that stupid... and I'm not that bad of a guitar player...

[built4speed]

Both HS Filtertrons and Hot Rod Filtertrons are a nice upgrade. I've always found HS Filtertrons to be a bit muddy though. Not humbucker muddy, but after playing them for a while, I noticed there was a real lack of snappiness and twang on the low strings. Hot Rod filters don't suffer the same problem. Very snappy and twangy. In the neck position of my Hot Rod, with a bit of reverb and tremolo, I can get a very-close-to Dynasonic twang going. Also, just because it usually comes up when discussing Hot Rod filters, they are not a "hotter" filtertron. They have about the same output level as HS filters, perhaps even slightly lower.

If twang isn't your concern and you just want to get a better pickup than the stock Gretschbuckers, the HS Filtertrons are still and excellent choice.

TV Jones are good too, and the popular choice. It's taken me a while to come to terms with Classics, but I do like them. As others have said, they are touch sensitive. I used to think Classics were somehow hitting my amp harder than the HS/HR filtertrons, as they always seemed to give me a dirtier sound, but I realize my heavy handed picking was the problem.

[j.s.c]

Originally Posted by built4speed

Both HS Filtertrons and Hot Rod Filtertrons are a nice upgrade. I've always found HS Filtertrons to be a bit muddy though. Not humbucker muddy, but after playing them for a while, I noticed there was a real lack of snappiness and twang on the low strings.

Hum... just to say the opposite. For me, HS Filtertrons (not classic filtertrons) are brighter and sharper than TV Jones Classic.

The truth is that TV Jones has developped a high standard requirements production lines for homogenize the sound of their pickups. I'm not sure that the PreFMIC Gretsch factory had the same requirements (I don't really know how is the actual filters production).

So you can find some very cool filtertrons from 1983 to 2003 but also some "muddy" mules. I would recommand HS filters if you want to be sharp. Std filter to be fat sound. For instance, I swapped my TVJ Classic for a set of 1993 HS filters set to be closer to C.Atkins' sound.

[cybermgk]

Pardon a Gretsch Newbie question, and pardon to the OP for sidelining his thread. But, where does one purchase new Gretsch pups?

[Synchro]

Originally Posted by cybermgk

Pardon a Gretsch Newbie question, and pardon to the OP for sidelining his thread. But, where does one purchase new Gretsch pups?

Darren Riley might be a good source.

[MacStevenXIII]

Originally Posted by cybermgk

Pardon a Gretsch Newbie question, and pardon to the OP for sidelining his thread. But, where does one purchase new Gretsch pups?

Angela seems to have them a bit cheaper than Darren Riley.

http://angela.com/gretschguitarparts.aspx?page=3

http://www.darrenriley.com/Gretschparts.htm

[MacStevenXIII]

Originally Posted by Gtrmaker

Hi All,

Considering a 5120 PU change. Does anyone know what the noticeable differences are between the High Sensitivity and the Hot Rod Filtertrons? I know the TV Jones are the rage for 5120 mods, trying to justify the cost. I'm not a gigging musician, just play at home, but even playing through Garage Band on the computer and being able to play through many amps and pedals, all comes back to a "muddy" sound that I have to try and tweak out with tone control from everywhere.

Dave

Are you running direct into your computer and through computer speakers?

If so then IMO it will not sound good no matter what pickups you have in it.
I have TVJ pups in 2 of my Gretsches and they sound like poo in Garageband going direct into my computer and through my speakers, even though they're really nice high end monitor speakers.

There's just no comparison to playing through my Bassman and DynoBrain. Hell, even my G5222 amp sounds better.

[cybermgk]

Originally Posted by MacStevenXIII

I have TVJ pups in 2 of my Gretsches and they sound like poo in Garageband going direct into my computer and through my speakers.

Such an image

[Gtrmaker]

Originally Posted by MacStevenXIII

Are you running direct into your computer and through computer speakers?

If so then IMO it will not sound good no matter what pickups you have in it.
I have TVJ pups in 2 of my Gretsches and they sound like poo in Garageband going direct into my computer and through my speakers, even though they're really nice high end monitor speakers.

There's just no comparison to playing through my Bassman and DynoBrain. Hell, even my G5222 amp sounds better.

Have to agree with you all the way! It is for that reason, that I'm probably not going to spend $3-400 on the TV Jones stuff. I just got Garage Band 11 and there are more amps and pedals to play with. I think I can get it to sound acceptable just for playing at home. I do have an external driver and speaker set coming out of the computer and can make it as loud as I want. Thanks.

Dave