according to legend, were hated by
Chet Atkins, but loved by Duane Eddy.
By 1958, however, Gretsch had replaced
the DeArmonds with its own design, the
now-iconic Filter’Tron humbuckers. These
pickups have a near ideal combination
of warmth and bark, exhibiting some
of the fatness and sustain we associate
with Gibson-style humbuckers, while
also having the bell-like chime and snarl
we associate with single-coils. These
days, Setzer outfits his guitars (even the
vintage ones) with precisely recreated
Filter’Tron replicas from the TV Jones
company. TV Jones was launched in
1993, when Thomas V. Jones, a California
luthier who had done quite a bit of
work on Setzer’s growing vintage guitar
collection, built a set of vintage-spec
pickups for Setzer’s forthcoming Gretsch
signature model. At the time, Gretsch
was using poor-quality parts and ceramic
magnets which resulted in pickups that
sounded nothing like the original 6120
Filter’Trons. The TV Jones TV Classics
nailed the vintage sound, and Setzer has
remained faithful to them ever since.
ToneReport.com
27