Quote:
Originally Posted by SpruceTop
The Electro Harmonix Deluxe Big Muff Pi was fun for a while and would be a worthwhile addition to a pedalboard but now I'm back to just plugging the Gretsch into the Fender and enjoying the nice tones the Filter'Tron pickups are putting out.
Steve, I'm wondering if Fender, after acquiring Gretsch, has returned the latest version of the Black Top Filter'Tron pickup to alnico magnet construction after the Baldwin years of owning Gretsch used ceramic magnets in many Gretsch pickup designs as a cost-saving measure?
When Fender took charge of Gretsch recently, many of the Filter’Tron specs attempted to return to the original ‘50s models, such as with the return to alnico magnets...
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Yeah, I'm not surprised - my Big Muff is in near-mint condition and, while it sounds OK for some of those slow moody Santana leads, IME guitar-cable-amp is
the way to go with a Gretsch...
As far as the exact construction of the newer blacktops, to be totally honest I'm not really sure as I've never seen one disassembled; bearing in mind, however, that the driving force of the '70s/80s was raw power rather than refined tone - and Gretsch had fallen into general disfavor among pro players - the use of ceramic magnets would have been a logical move (FWIW Gibson did much the same with some of their period humbuckers). With the post-2K move back to an appreciation of traditional Gretsch tone, I'm thinking they adopted one of the early-70's transition-period designs - the official description states "
Baldwin-era pickups...[which] exhibit incredible punch and twang" - with a different-spec alnico magnet than the ones used in the early-60's Brooklyn-style "High Sensitive" Filter'trons; again I'm not certain, but I suspect that the Super Hi-lo'Trons used in the discontinued MIK 5600-Series E-Matics (my favorite of the new-generation Gretsch pickups BTW) used ceramic magnets with a single set of exposed polepieces - they're unquestionably Gretsch in tone but with a less glassy top end, IME better-suited to a broad variety of styles than the Brooklyn-derived designs (Dynasonic, "split-top" Filter'Tron, '60s Hi-lo'Tron) Fender is using in the MIJ Professional Series...