TheMODSQUAD
Why is the Gretsch Filter’Tron such a unique-sounding pickup? Sunbear’s Stuart Robson offers his view
“ Avery big part is the larger, double height magnet – it’s actually not quite double the height, but that’s what they get referred to as,” Stuart tells us. “The standard Sunbear BearTrons that you have there, internally, have more modernised parts, but I keep the magnet the same as the vintage ones. (I also do a full replica version for the people that maybe need a pickup for a vintage Gretsch or they have a very vintage-spec Gretsch and want to keep it accurate down to the stamped covers and everything right under the hood.) It’s still rough-cast Alnico V that’s charged to the same degree as some vintage Filter’Tons I’ve had on my bench; it’s not quite a full charge, but it’s getting up there. So, because of that big magnet, the pickup has a higher inductance, bearing in mind its [relatively low] resistance reading.
“On top of that, the actual coils are quite small, there’s not an awful lot of space on the bobbin, and they’re a little bit taller than aPAF coil. I tend to think of it in a semilinear way: taller coils have a lower resonant peak. So that kind of ‘flutiness’ you get out of a Strat single coil in the neck, which you don’t hear in a humbucker, is that lowered resonant peak from the taller coil.
“The combination of the Filter’Tron’s slightly taller and slightly smaller coils and the big magnet gives this really specific midrange out of the pickup, which almost nothing else has. For me, that’s the joy of a ’Tron: it’s all in that midrange thing. Yes, they have chime and sparkle, but as a more bluesy/rock guy, that midrange thing is just so vocal. That’s what I love. I actually have a Patrick James Eggle Macon, one of the Junior styles, and I run a ’Tron at the bridge and a Firebird-style [Sunbird] at the neck and it’s one of the best pickup combinations I have in any guitar. It takes gain really well, but when you back off it has all that chime and high-end clarity, which you just don’t get from too many other pickups.
“I won’t state the standard BearTrons you have there replicate a specific vintage set. Actually, the vintage sets are way more consistent than equivalent-period PAFs, so once you know the resistance, the wire used and the general build, you’re in the ballpark providin
