Guitar Repair Services in Australia is an up to date list of guitar repairers, luthiers and guitar tech services in Australia.
A lot of Mr Glyn’s Pickups go to Australia. I have compiled this list of guitar repairers aka luthier in Australia to help my Aussie customers find a good guitar tech to fit their new pickups.
But also if you need a guitar set up, a re fret, guitar wiring or any other luthier service this list will be of help.
If you have any information on a repairer or guitar tech or luthier in your area or you are a guitar repairer please get in touch. I will add them to the list.
I have primarily compiled this list as a resource for my customers but it is a useful list for any guitar player in need of help.
Please feel free to share this list if you think it may be useful to other players.
It isn’t easy finding a good repairer and hopefully this list gives you a few options.
I was a full time guitar repairer for 25 years in both the UK and New Zealand. I have seen a lot of guitars and helped very many guitar players. A big part of the process is communication, don’t expect your guitar tech to be able to read your mind. Do your best to articulate what you need. Once they have done a couple of jobs for you they will know what you like and the process will become easier for both parties.
Some jobs take time, they just do. Sometimes urgent jobs come in for touring bands, sometimes people get sick. Please be patient with your guitar tech, they want the job finished and get it out of the door too.
Please feel free to share this post far and wide on your social media. Let’s all help to promote guitar repairers across Australia and New Zealand. They deserve our support.
I once saw a sign in a guitar repair workshop that said- “We charge $100/hour for guitar repairs, $120/hour if you want to watch, $150/hour if you want to help”.
The Playmaker humbucker set is a clear sounding guitar pickup set made for genres from classic rock to heavy blues.
Designed for its dynamics, this humbucker set reacts to your playing style and volume settings. They clean up when you back off. They give you the grit you’re looking for when you dig in. The perfect pickup for classic rock or dirty blues. Whether you’re pushing an amp, using pedals or using amp modeling.
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The Playmaker was designed for players who need a guitar pickup with a little more than a PAF. But without being an over the top rock pickup set. They have a little more power and bite than a traditional PAF. The Playmaker’s dynamics and touch sensitivity help you stand out from the mix.
A big part of the testing process involved playing through various classic overdrive pedals as well as amplifiers. Both neck and bridge pickups had to work well with a Tube Screamer, Klon, Blues Driver and fuzz. Not to forget amp modelling, it’s a big part of modern playing.
Here Warren Mendonsa shows the dynamics of the pickups change when he uses the volume controls. The Playmakers respond to his pick attack, that creates huge possibilities for varying your tone and feel. Back off and the Playmaker backs off with you. Dig in and they sing.
Playmaker bridge pickup
The Playmaker bridge pickup was designed with pedals in mind. A part of the testing process was about voicing these pickups to be used with various overdrives. Tube Screamer, Klon and Blues Driver as well as natural amp overdrive were all used as test sounds.
Overdrive stacking is a big part of a lot of player’s sound. The Playmaker set was tested with this in mind.
The bridge pickup is wound asymmetrically and powered by an alnico IV magnet. This gives it better tonal balance than the slightly scooped alnico V magnet. But there’s more power than the alnico II in a PAF. The alnico IV delivers just the right amount of power. It is designed to respond well to variations in pick attack giving the dynamics that blues players need. It maintains its transparency and clarity when using the guitar volume giving you great onboard control.
Playmaker neck pickup
The neck pickup is also wound asymmetrically and uses an alnico 2 magnet to maintain a mid range balance.
The reason for the asymmetry is to give greater mid range clarity and that neck pickup chime. It loves clean funky rhythm lines as well as singing leads. This is a neck pickup that wants to be played, not just an ornament. It’s great for rhythm parts that stand out in a mix. But it’s not shy if you’re having a Gary Moore or Santana moment.
Here’s another example of the bridge and neck pickups.
Here is a short video showing some of my thoughts on the Playmaker and how they sound.
The Development of the Playmaker humbucker set
The idea behind this pickup came originally from Ben Sargent. He’s a well respected guitar repairer in Wellington NZ. He has fitted many sets of my pickups as well as using them himself.
He called me in late 2024 with an idea. He’d been thinking I should make a pickup between my Integrity PAF range and the Cloud Nine rock pickup set. Something that would react to changes in the player’s attack. A humbucker set that would be equally happy played clean or dirty.
It seemed like a great idea. We agreed it needed to be something different, not just an over wound PAF. So that summer the idea was churning around in my head.
Spending time thinking can often be more productive than time spent winding coils.
In February 2025 I got down to work making prototypes. As for all my pickups when I felt I was close I swapped the pickups into different guitars. Testing with various scale lengths and body woods is essential. I need to hear them in different situations.
I tested them with many different amps and overdrive pedals and with the band. At that time the band was auditioning for a new drummer. It was the perfect environment to try the pickups in different situations. The drummer makes a big difference to how the pickup’s low end responds in a mix. Within a month I got to test them with 2 different bass players and a half a dozen drummers. Its important to play next to a drummer and bass player. You just don’t know how a pickup will react until its up loud in a mix.
Playing live is an essential part of my testing. That is when you hear how the bottom end sits in a mix. It is easy to make a pickup too boomy. It is only in a band situation that you really know how it sits. A lot of makers skip this stage. It certainly makes the design process longer but I intend to use this design for the rest of my life. I don’t care how long the prototyping stage takes, it needs to be right.
When I was happy I sent a set down to Ben in Wellington to get his take on them. He’s a very different player to me so his contribution really mattered. He was happy with them – so I was too.
These pickups are happiest with 500k Ohm volume and tone pots and 50’s style wiring in Gibson type guitars. The choice of capacitor is up to you but I like 0.022microfarad. Great with either modern wiring or 50’s wiring though my preference is 50’s.
The bridge pickup is great in HSS Strats alongside either my Kokako or Tui single coils. The neck pickup is ideal as a neck humbucker with my Cruel Mistress or Duchess bridge pickups.
To celebrate NZ Music Month in May ’25 I recorded a riff every day for a month. Every riff was from a New Zealand artist. and they were all recorded using a Playmaker set in a Les Paul. I wanted to show the versatility of this pickup set. Here are all 31 riffs. I think you’ll agree this set of pickups will do just about anything you ask of them.
Cover options
Here are some options for the look of your new pickups.
Don’t forget, if you want your pickups aged you just have to ask. I’ll ask you for some pictures and do my best to match the ageing of your guitar. Here is some more info on guitar pickup ageing.
The Warwolf is a brutal, hard hitting guitar pickup set designed for extreme metal in drop tunings.
Immediate, punchy bass, smooth mids with plenty of character and a present top end give these pickups the ability to cut through the mix no matter how low your tuning. The combination of brutality and clarity make the Warwolf essential both on stage and in the studio.
The bridge humbucker has the bite and grunt to power your riffs and bring them out in the mix. The neck humbucker has a bell like clarity perfect for clean passages or fat lead tones.
There is plenty of power to push the front end of a 5150 but with a frequency response to work with amp modeling.
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The Warwolf doesn’t have the spec you might expect from a powerful pickup but this has been a re-think of the requirements of pickups for metal guitar and a re-working of what is actually needed to produce a crushing tone in both sound and feel.
At the beginning of the process I had assumed I needed coils with high dc resistance but I discovered that was not the case. To get the maximum punch, clarity and dynamics this pickup has a lower powered coil but big magnets. The coils produce clarity and a balanced frequency range. Big magnets give a big punch. It’s all about the immediacy of the note. To achieve that brutal feel the note needs to start and stop instantly, that comes from the magnets.
Warwolf
The Concept
The oversized ceramic magnets in the bridge pickup are asymmetrically mounted to emphasize one coil over another, the idea is to reduce the magnetic window to give the pickup character and focus.
The neck pickup has a more conventional magnetic symmetry.
Although this style of guitar pickup needs a certain amount of power that is not the whole story. Without clarity and punch itโs worthless. Ceramic magnets give a dryer, more immediate attack than alnico. We donโt want a warm smooth, soggy bass – it needs to react instantly, have an immediate kick.
Ceramic can be guilty of sounding scooped but with the coils providing mid range thereโs a balance. The treble is present but not harsh. The winding method provides clarity- itโs all about clarity.
Sound Sample
Here is the Warwolf in a mix:
Warwolf in a mix
And the guitar tracks isolated:
Guitar Isolated
The Design
Here is the design concept of both neck and bridge pickups described in my own words:
The Backstory
The design of this pickup set started back in August 2020 when I approached Raj Singarajah from Dynamic Rage Studio to be the ‘test pilot’ for this project. Some musical genres need expert ears and I knew I needed someone with taste and experience to steer my designs.
After about 6 months of prototypes we had what we were after. That time taught me a lot about designing pickups for this extremely demanding style. It was then that I realized that I had to manufacture so many difficult parts for this particular pickup that is just wasn’t going to be practical for me to make in any quantity. The project got put on hold. But I had learnt a lot about what a pickup was required to do to work in this very difficult environment.
Then at the beginning of 2022 I was contacted by New Zealand band Alien Weaponry to make a signature pickup for guitarist Lewis DeJong. I thought this was where I could use my design ideas. But one of the design requirements for Lewisโ pickup was it needed to have a sound similar to their last album so they could tour with it. My ideas about lower impedance werenโt going to work. Lewisโ set up is old school using Marshall heads powering 4×12โs so I took a more traditional approach to his pickup. You can find out more about the signature pickup for Lewis DeJong from Alien Weaponry here.
The idea for my extreme metal pickup was still churning around in my head but I needed help to get it off the ground.
Then in July 2024 I saw a post on Facebook by Richie Simpson. Richie is an award winning artist and producer of New Way Home and City of Souls. He had been a customer of mine when I was repairing guitars. I remembered he had been for ever swapping pickups in his many guitars searching for a tone.
He had experience of all the metal pickups out there, he’s a great player, knows this genre intimately and is a top human being. So I messaged him and he said yes. There followed a long phone conversation to establish what the brief was. It really felt we were on the same page.
A week later I was at his studio with a guitar loaded with the first prototypes. I was quite prepared for these first pickups to be a total failure, I just needed to sound him out. I needed to find out what sound was in his head and the best way to do that was to have an example with me. But I also wanted my idea to work.
When I got to his studio Richie was tracking guitars. We listened to one of his guitars with a โboutiqueโ pickup in the bridge position, then plugged in the Warwolf to A/B. I could tell from his face he was โfeeling itโ.
The neck pickup was right first time and the bridge was close. Iโd won round 1 on clarity and punch. It turned out that was his #2 guitar.
So now for the #1.
It was pretty obvious this was no longer just a concept- this was the real thing.
He kept that guitar for a week to get a feel for it and to make sure it was exactly right. It was close but not quite there. We had a chat, I made another.
Then he came to my workshop and I fitted a set into one of his guitars to see how that worked.
A week later we talked. He was completely happy with the neck pickup but the bridge needed more mids. That’s how it proceeded for a few months.
I tweaked the design. Time passed and he wanted that pickup in his number one guitar just to eliminate the difference in the guitar bodies.
Whenever I collaborate with a player Iโm very aware that each guitar sounds different. My test guitar for this genre is a very neutral sounding basswood body 25.5 inch scale LTD guitar. Itโs got a very even frequency response so ideal for testing.
The plan is to get the pickups sounding good in this guitar and then transfer them to the playerโs guitar to compare.
The body wood does make a difference – I find it unbelievable that debate is still going on. I swap a lot of pickups and the guitar theyโre going into matters, I wish it didnโt. Just listen to two electric guitars played acoustically, thatโs the sound the pickups are hearing.
A Player’s Perspective
Here it is in Richie’s words:
August 2024
The Warwolf is much more than your average over compressed, one dimensional metal pickup. Through a fastidious back and forth phase over the course of 6 months, using multiple guitars and amps, a balance was struck.
The brief: “Classic, punchy nineties heavy tone. Attack, tightness, aggression and detail while retaining balance, bloom, string separation and weight to chords. Ideal for alternative or groove metal, thrash and heavy rock.
If mid nineties Jerry Cantrell, Steph Carpenter and Dimebag Darrell had a baby with Terry Date”
Using more robust rails and larger powerful ceramic magnets has allowed for a more open wind while still maintaining the snap and mid range aggression required for heavy music. Avoiding the brittle harshness often associated with ceramic rails.
The Warwolf punches when it chugs, steering away from clanky single coil-esque pick attack and the upper mid bias cliche of many metal pickups. It’s open, organic and balanced nature gives size to a mix, width and note separation to chords under high gain while retaining excellent tightness, a commanding mid range bark and muscular thump during palm muting.
Response to your playing feels natural, without the sense you are fighting with a loose, low output pickup or conversely like the pickup is doing all the driving for you and hiding nuance or preventing clean up. Just enough compression for a mean high gain rhythm tone while still letting your right hand do the talking (Or yelling).
Leads are clear and liquid. Mid gain and clean tones are full and balanced but if you play aggressively, the Warwolf will tear your face right off and drop it back at your feet.
“This is what I’ve been after for a LONG time”.
When you bend a note on these pickups you don’t get strings dropping out as they pass over different bobbins, or if other strings are ringing out they’re not cutting through the bending string signal and vice versa. That’s the beauty of Glyn’s rail design.
The magnetic field is balanced more evenly across the strings and that opens a lot of doors to ideas that might only translate with this kind of pickup. The Warwolf design does something to the mid range that I really dig too. Like a harmonic overtone smearing that is really pleasing for heavy riffs. With each strings signal being represented in a more evenly powered way you can almost get the feel of a boost pedal or active pickup while retaining the more expressive dynamic range of a passive.
That feel responds well to a boost pedal if you are so inclined and doesn’t squish out or lose definition like a super hot pickup can.
I genuinely love how these things feel and sound. They’re unique and alive, translate well to a mix and most importantly they make me want to play! (Not to mention they look cool as hell) Glyn has absolutely nailed it.”
The Warwolf name
Itโs always hard choosing a name but this one comes with a story.
I wanted a name that would represent a heavy crushing force, something fearful and powerful.
The Warwolf was the largest trebuchet ever made. It was built in 1304 for king Edward I of England during the siege of Stirling Castle in Scotland.
It took so long to build that the siege was over by the time it was completed. He used it anyway.
The Blue 90 is a dynamic, clear, balanced P90 pickup set. It has a little less low end push than a traditional P90 but with clearer highs. They’re designed for the player wanting a clean sounding P90 tone but with the ability to push an amp when asked. Ideal for clean tones, jazz, funk and blues.
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Blue 90 Tone
The phrase ‘fat single coil’ is really the essence of this pickup set. They have a full, chiming tone but with the dynamics of a true single coil pickup. They have that distinctive P90 tone but with more clarity. If you ask them they will push your amp into overdrive but less than my Sassy P90 set. They have the magnetic and coil geometry of a P90 but the under wound coil gives a clearer, more dynamic tone.
The Concept
I had been thinking for a while about making another P90 set. Something a little less powerful than the Sassy P90 pickup but with more sparkle than the smooth Cool 90 pickup.
I had experimented a little with under winding the Sassy and really liked the results. I liked the dynamics and how well it worked with modulation effects and delays giving a well balanced platform for these effects to shine. With my prototypes I had reduced the lower mid range ‘clonk’ that traditional P90’s have. It seemed like a pickup with a definite place in then World..
It felt to me like a very useful set of tones and I needed to investigate more. Like with many designs I hadnโt done much about it other than making a prototype, playing around with it, taking it to a gig to hear it next to a drummer and leaving it at that. I always liked this design, I just didnโt get around to putting them up for sale.
The Blue 90 story
Then in September 2024 I received a phone call from guitarist Nick Granville.
Nick has a few of my pickups in various guitars and I have huge admiration for his playing. He knows guitars and he knows tone.
The reason he called was that he had a problem with a P90 loaded guitar (not my P90’s). He wanted a cleaner P90 tone.
Like many pro players he’s very good at describing sound and his requirements. I felt my Sassy P90 set might be a bit grunty for him so after a little think I decided my new P90 idea might suit his needs.
For me this is a great situation where I get to borrow the ears of a top pro player to test out a new pickup. Although I had done a lot of testing myself already I knew that if Nick liked these pickups it would push it over the line and I’d have a new model. I always have prototypes on the go, sometimes it just needs a nudge.
I wound a set, sent them to him and a few days later got a message which read:
“They really do sound good. Have a nice sparkle but still sound like P90โs, and enough push to get it driving enough and vintage in vibe. I like them a lot.”
So that was it, a new pickup set was born. Iโm very pleased to welcome this new P90 set to my website.
Available in dogear or Soapbar, black or cream. If youโre ordering Dogear (or even if you arenโt) Iโm happy to send you a 3D printing file for height shims.
I was contacted by a customer recently wanting a 2 string pickup. Was it for a 2 string guitar? Maybe some other instrument…
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Why would you want a 2 string guitar pickup?
The idea behind this pickup is for it to be mounted to a conventional electric guitar for it to just ‘hear’ the E and A strings. Then that signal is sent out separately from the main guitar pickups and put through a pedal to lower it an octave. The octave down sound can be amplified separately or combined with the signal from the 6 string pickups. It’s one of those ideas that the more you think about it the more uses you find for it.
I came across this idea before back in 2014. Here is a blog post on 2 string pickups I wrote back then. The ones I made then were a little different. One was for a bouzouki and another for an acoustic guitar. The overall idea was the same. The idea is to only hear one or two strings and to lower the signal by an octave.
Design
I had a lot of questions for the customer. In the end I concluded the pure signal from a single coil pickup was needed. And that pick guard mounted mounting would be best.
So I got on the computer and designed what was essentially a cut down Strat pickup.
2 String CAD drawing
My plan was to design the pickup using a CAD program and then laser cut the top and bottom plates. It is constructed the same way as a Fender.
The advantages of using a laser cutter are simply accuracy and repeatability. The customer wanted 2 pickups and, well, I have been asked before, maybe I will again. Spending time on the CAD drawing means I’ll only have to do this once, next time it will be a lot easier.
Laser cutting
Pickup Construction
The bobbins have a top and bottom plate laser cut from Forbon (like a Fender) and held together with the magnets. I have my magnets specially made for me, these are the two middle magnets from ‘Tui’ pickup. As extra security I always super glue the magnets and flatwork together as well as insulate the magnets from the windings – I want to be sure. I haven’t shown that in this picture.
bobbins
I chose the Tui design and winding count because of its strong clear signal. The bass strings need to have a big clear chime if they’re going to be lowered an octave. I don’t want them to sound mushy or undefined.
Once they were wound I potted them in hot wax to prevent micro-phonic feedback. It’s turning out to be a really cute little 2 String Pickup.
The finished pickup
I did consider designing and 3D printing a cover for this 2 string pickup. I think it will be something I’ll do in future but there isn’t the budget for that this time. To finish the pickup off after wiring it up I taped the coil for protection. It’s ended up looking more like a mini Tele bridge pickup.
And there’s the perfect space on the bottom for one of my stickers.
A few weeks later I received an email from the customer saying – “It’s sounding great – I’m noticing much better string isolation then what I was getting with the cheap cigar box pup”.
He included this picture of his rather cool looking guitar:
2 String Pickup
If you have a project in mind please get in touch. I’m not always going to say yes but sometimes I do.
Pickup Height
The base plate is designed with the intention of a pick guard mounting like in a Strat type guitar. There is always going to be some modifying needed to fit this pickup.
Remember, you’re aiming at a pickup height of 2mm. That’s from the top of the magnet to the underside of the string. That measurement is taken when fretting the last fret.
This diagram should help:
Measuring Pickup Height
That measurement is not super critical but you need to be close. If the pickup is too far away you will not get a strong, clear signal.
From its humble beginnings the Musicmaster Bass has become a classic. Beloved of Indie bands, studio engineers and offset fans. The Musicmaster Bass has begun to make its way in the world and leave its mark on music.
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Musicmaster Bass Pickup
The Problem with the Musicmaster Bass Pickup
Designed originally to be a โstudent modelโ short scale, Fender cut quite a few corners to reduce the cost. This was the 1970โs and the accountants had a big say at Fender. This was an instrument made down to a price not up to a standard. But despite the obvious cost cutting I still have a soft spot for the Musicmaster. They were cheap but that doesnโt mean they werenโt good.
The basic bones of the Musicmaster are good. Short scale bass with a small body makes a lot of sense. But there was a problem with the pickup.
Rather than design a pickup specifically for this guitar Fender instead used a Stratocaster. Then they hid it inside a blank cover.
Here is the problem with using a Stratocaster pickup with a 4 string bass. The red lines are the strings and the black dots are the pickup magnets.
Itโs pretty obvious that the magnetic pole pieces just donโt line up with the middle strings.
The pickup wasnโt visible under that blank cover and they decided it didnโt matter on a budget bass anyway. So thatโs how it was.
The Solution
In July 2024 I was contacted by my Neville Claughton from Nelson. He had an original โ73 in need of a new pickup.
Nev is a legend in NZ, heโs been well known in the music business for ever and I have huge respect for him.
His request got me thinking so I decided to make my own version of the Musicmaster pickup but with 4 poles that line up with the strings.
I got on the computer and designed this pickup flatwork to be laser cut. As you can see itโs simply a 4 pole Strat pickup.
The only difference is those pole pieces.
And here is the spacing of the poles on the Mr Glynโs Pickup. You can see how the magnets line up with the strings.
Iโm happy with that.
Winding the Musicmaster Bass Pickup
So how was I going to wind this pickup?
Thereโs nothing wrong with the windings of a โ70โs Strat pickup. With the reduced string tension of a 30inch scale bass there is a tendency for it to get boomy, so having a pickup with less inherent bottom end can help with clarity. It really isn’t a bad sound. My personal preference for these instruments is to have the Strat pickup specifications but with, of course, the correct string spacing.
But there is scope for having different winding options.
If you want more fatness in your tone I also offer this pickup with my โ51 Telecaster Bass wind. This gives a bit more power but also more bass. This option still has the same Strat footprint and fits inside the same cover.
Strat Wiring must be the most modded wiring of all. It’s not that the original wiring isn’t great, there are just so many other possibilities. When I worked as a guitar repairer I re-wired a lot of Stratocasters. There are so many options, so many things that can be changed. A lot of players have their favourite versions of wiring up these fantastic guitars.
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What I did find when I as modifying other peoples guitars is they would often come back to something close to standard wiring in the end. After trying multiple switching in every combination, series, parallel, coil tapping, humbuckers … it goes on, they often returned their Strat so something very close to the way Leo Fender originally did it back in 1954. There is a lot to be said in favour of simplicity.
Here I’m simply going to show you the standard way of wiring a Strat and add one simple and useful modification – that cheeky little red wire. I can’t recall ever being asked to remove this modification to a Strat’s wiring, there’s simply no disadvantage.
Here is the diagram using the colour code for my own single coil pickups.
Strat Wiring Diagram
Strat Wiring
How Strat controls work
The heart of Stratocasters is the 5 way switch. Interestingly it wasn’t until 1977 that Fender fitted them as standard. Before that it was a 3 way switch and players had to ‘balance’ it between 2 positions to get that famous in between Strat tone. We’ve got it easy these days. Position 2 or 4 on a 5 way is such an iconic Stratocaster sound – you can spot it anywhere.
Here is a Stratocaster control plate. It looks straightforward but why are there 2 tone controls? Must be treble and bass yeah? Well no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is a passive system (no battery) so the tones just cut treble giving your sound less highs, they can’t boost bass. The middle knob marked tone is the control for the neck pickup and the end one for the middle pickup.
With the switch in the position shown the neck pickup is selected and the middle knob acts as a tone. If this 5 way switch was 2 clicks on it would select just the middle pickup and the end tone know would be engaged.So you can pre-set a tone setting for a pickup. I guess it was considered a step up from the Telecaster’s single tone control for the whole guitar.
Strat controls
That’s great but it means with a standard stratocaster there is no tone control for the bridge pickup. If ever there was a pickup that needed a bit less treble its the strat bridge pickup. If you refer back to the wiring diagram you can see a little red wire on the switch connecting 2 legs together. Adding that little wire with mean that the tone control for the middle pickup will also work for the bridge pickup.
It’s the simplest of all Strat Wiring mods but a very useful one and a good place to start if you’re new to experimenting with wiring.
What is SSS, HSS and HSH?
SSS – means 2 single coil pickups so a simply a standard Strat configuration.
HSS – That’s a Strat but with a humbucker (H) in the bridge position. The reason you might want a humbucker is for a fatter bridge pickup sound. Standard Strat bridge pickups can sound a bit weedy. All the Strat bridge pickups I make have a little bit more power to offset this but a humbucker may well suit you better anyway. This makes for a very versatile guitar but retaining the simplicity of the original design. On stage there is so much going on that complicated switching options can often work against you.
HSH – You’ve guessed it – there’s a humbucker in the neck and bridge positions. This is often used with coil tapping. The idea is to have both Gibson and Fender sounds in one guitar. Usually positions 1 and 5 of the switch will give either bridge or neck humbucker on their own. Positions 2, 3 and 4 will be combinations of the middle single coil pickup and the humbucker with 1 coil switched off (coil tapping) or series/parallel etc. There are so many options and combinations possible and some spectacularly complicated wiring to figure out to make it work.
For some of the more complicated wiring options the conventional 5 way switch just isn’t enough. There is a type of switch commonly called a ‘super switch’ that gives these extra options. It looks the same from the outside and is the same to operate but under the hood there’s a lot more going on. This switch allows you to wire up just about all the options imaginable. Maybe I’ll write more about them some other time.
Do I turn it all up full?
A lot of players do but I feel they’re missing out on a lot of tones. Try backing off the volume and tone to about 8 and setting the amp sound to that. It really is worth trying it. As you turn the volume down your sound looses a little treble. This can really smooth things out and give you an easier tone to work with. With your volume at 8 you also have somewhere to go if you need that bit extra for a big solo.
Now I’m at the end of this blog I realise there are a lot more diagrams to draw and a lot of wiring options to discuss. Not just for Strats, there are modifications that can be done on any guitar.
Pickup string spacing is something you need to be aware of when you’re buying guitar pickups, particularly humbuckers. Guitar bridges come with different string widths so pickups need to match that. In this blog post I’m going to explain what It’s all about and how to measure it.
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What is a Pole Piece?
Pickups have pole pieces, think of these as magnets mounted in the pickup listening for string movement. Sometimes they are actual magnets, sometimes pieces of steel directing magnetism towards the strings. In this case they are steel screws.
Humbucker Poles
This is what we mean by ‘pole spacing’ its the distance between the outer most poles, centre to centre.
Humbucker pole spacing
What you don’t need to know
Here’s how a pickup works. A the string sitting inside the magnetic field actually becomes a temporary magnet. When the string vibrates it disturbs this magnetic field. This creates an electrical signal in the coil of wire around the magnet.
It’s a tiny signal but enough to get through your guitar’s on board circuit and down a cable. It’s hard to imagine that such a small amount of electricity can produce such a lot of sound. Have a think about it next time you’re at a big gig. What you’re hearing is just that small amount of electricity generated in a coil of wire. It’s really cool stuff and I find it fascinating. But you don’t really need to know all that.
Pickup String spacing – what you need to know
The string needs to align with the magnet to get the best signal. Magnets are, however, not lasers, they generate a magnetic field and not a precise beam. If the string isn’t in perfect alignment it’s fine. If the slightest misalignment made a difference then string bending would cause a drop in volume. Have a look next time you bend a string how far the string moves away from the pole.
String Alignment
As you can see, a little bit out of line makes no difference. Eddie Van Halen used a vintage PAF on Van Halen I with a Fender type bridge. PAF ‘s were 49.2mm (1 15/16″) spacing and Fender bridges are usually 52mm. If there had been a problem he would have noticed. So don’t get too hung up on this stuff. There are many more tiny details involved in guitar playing that you’ll be much better off worrying about.
Please remember that if a humbucker has 49.2mm spacing or 52mm spacing it’s outer dimensions are the same. The overall size of the pickup doesn’t change. So if you take out a 49.2mm humbucker and replace it with a 52mm it will still fit. It’s just the pole alignment to the strings that will be different.
As the poles can be further away the distance the winding wire travels to get around the bobbing is also longer. A 52mm pole spaced pickup will have a slightly higher Ohm reading than a 49.2mm spaces pickup due to this extra length. It is possible to under wind a longer bobbing to compensate for this but the result is a pickup that sounds thinner. Its the number of turns that is important not the Ohm reading. You don’t really need to know that either but it’s an interesting fact.
Guitar bridges come in various sizes giving different string spacing. A Gibson ABR Tune-o-matic your string spacing will be narrower than a Fender Strat bridge, for instance. It can get confusing when dealing with different Tune-o-Matic bridges. The older style ABR has a narrower spacing than the more modern Nashville bridge. Either could be fitted to a Les Paul. If you’re thinking of buying some Mr Glyn’s pickups and you have any doubt just email me. Yoiu can always send a pic and I’ll tell you which bridge you have.
By the time the strings get to the neck pickup the spacings are just about the same. So neck pickups don’t vary in width. We’re just talking about bridge pickups here.
Ideally we want the strings to line up as best as possible with the pickup’s poles. But we’re not getting too hung up on it.
How to measure string spacing
The measurement is the distance from the first to the sixth strings centre to centre at the bridge pickup. This diagram should help:
Strat Bridge
You can simply do this with a ruler, like I have.
As you can see this ’89 Strat bridge has 52mm string spacing. If you wanted to choose a bridge humbucker to make it a HSS Strat then choose the 52mm option.
If you’re buying a Mr Glyns Pickup and have any doubt just send me a pic of your bridge. I will be able to advise you.
What is F spacing?
F spacing simply means a wider spaced bridge humbucker – 52, 52.5 or 53mm. The F stands for either ‘Fender’ or ‘Floyd Rose’. It isn’t clear which and doesn’t really matter.
Why 49.2mm not just 49mm? You may well ask! It’s the metric equivalent of the pole spacing for a Gibson PAF. That is the pickup most humbuckers are based on. The original measurement in imperial is 1 15/16″ – which if you ask me is no less silly a number that 49.2. But we’re stuck with it.
If you have any questions about which pickup is right for you please get in touch.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please contact me if there are any pickup based subjects you would like me to write a blog about. I’m always looking for new subjects.
I came across a blog I wrote in 2010 about a repair on an old Hofner pickup, thought you might be interested:
I had a visit from Paul Crowther the other day (always a pleasure to see him). He’s rather a legend for amongst other things his ‘Hotcake’ overdrive pedals and the ‘Prunes and Custard’ (my favorite for theremin).
He wanted to know if my coil winding machine was up and running – he had an interesting pickup for me to wind.
Its an old Hofner pickup which I guess is from the 50’s. The guitar has 3 of them and this one has a break in the windings so needs to be re-wound. This would normally be a straight forward job except for the design of this pickup.
This is the inside of it. The windings (around the outside) are not wrapped around a bobbin. They are just sitting in the pickup and have been wrapped in tape to protect them. In the middle you can see the magnets sitting in a hard putty. There are incidentally only 5 magnets. So the problem Paul left me with was how to wrap about 5000 turns of extremely thin wire into a coil and therefore make a pickup. After a long brainstorming session with Sheena we came up with a plan.
Very tricky re-wind, Hofner pickup
We figured that the wire had to be wound around a bobbin and then somehow the bobbin removed.
So I made this bobbin. The sides are plastic from a Strat pickguard (white) and the centre has been carved from candle wax.
The bobbin bolts together and is attached to another plastic plate which in turn fits to the winding machine. The idea is to wind the pickup on this and then warm the completed coil up and melt the wax. The wax should seep into the coil thus potting it as well. Then the sides can be unbolted and voila a copy of the original coil.
Winding the coil wasn’t any different from any other pickup – so now for the tricky bit.
I warm the coil ever so gently with a heat gun. I put my free hand next to the work to judge the temperature – if it gets too hot the plastic will melt and I’ll be starting again.
When I see some wax oozing out I ever so gently remove the top plate.
With the wax exposed I can apply more heat and watch it flow into the coil and as it cools becomes solid.
Then I wrap tape around it to hold everything in place. I cannot emphasize enough how fiddly this is. There are a few stray wires and if any of them break I’m starting again.
It may not be much to look at but its taken hours of quiet patience. The slight curve is to match the shape of the pickup casing. I’ve tested it and I’m pleased with it at 5.5Kohms. ย In the background you can see the magnetic lugs – I had to dig them out of the putty.
ย I put the whole thing back together using ‘friendly plastic’ instead of putty then fill the casing with wax, solder the back on and its finished.
ย Its been quite a task fixing this old Hofner pickup but I’m happy with the result.
It was so satisfying breathing new life into this old Hofner pickup, it should be good for another 50 years.
ย ย Glyn
Hofner Pickup – an interesting repair
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Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955Integrity -vintage humbuckerGretsch Filtertron 1961
In this short video I look at what guitar pickup phase is, what it isn’t and why you need to know any of this.
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I use a Strat to demonstrate the ‘out of phase’ sound and how it would sound if it really was out of phase. There’s no maths, no diagrams. Just a simple explanation with a guitar to demonstrate.
Pickup Phase Explained
Busting the Out Of Phase myth
Positions 2 and 4 on Strat switches are often referred to as ‘out of phase’ when they really aren’t. Those positions are the sound of 2 pickups in parallel (a humbucker is in series). Out of phase is quite different as you’ll hear in this video.
As part of my series on How Pickups Work here is How To Test Pickup Phase – The Easy Way.
There is, of course, a hard way and that’s putting pickups into a guitar and having a listen later. That’s fine if you get it right first time but a pain if you have to re-wire the pickup again later.
In this video I demonstrate how to use a cheap test meter to identify which phase your pickup is in out of the guitar.
Its a very simple test using an analog (needle type) meter. It’s simply a case of hooking the pickup up to the meter, setting the meter to Milli Amperes and tapping the poles of the pickup with a screwdriver. The needle will “kick” to either the right or left. This indicates the phase.
Traditionally, Gibson style and Fender style pickups are in the opposite phase to each other. This is just how it is. I doubt it was done on purpose, there’s a 50/50 chance.
So it’s really useful to know how to wire your pickups especially if they have an unfamiliar colour code. In my line of work I often repair pickups. I need to send them back to the customer in the correct phase. This is the simple test I use.
Every new pickup I make is tested in this way just to make sure. Especially with humbuckers, if the final signal from the coils is out of phase the output can be tiny.
While on the subject of humbuckers it might be worth watching this video where I explain how humbuckers actually ‘buck’ hum. It’s a bit of a side track but interesting stuff if you’re getting into this whole phase thing.
The most useful application of this test is when wiring or repairing a HSS (a humbucker and 2 single coils) loaded guitar. With a HSS guitar you have to make sure the humbucker is in phase with the single coil pickups. Remember, humbuckers are usually in the opposite phase to single coils.
If it is out of phase you’ll find position 2 of the 5 way switch (bridge and middle pickups combined) sounds very quiet, thin and has an odd ‘quack’. Either bridge or middle pickups will be fine on their own but the phase really matters when they’re on together.
It is surprising how many guitar repair people don’t know about this.
In this second video I demonstrate the sound of pickups out of phase so you can hear the difference which is, of course, the whole point. Although on the whole we try and avoid the sound of pickups out of phase it can be a useful tone in some situations. No sound is bad, just good for different stuff. The most famous example is the famous ‘Greenie’ Les Paul.
There is also a demonstration of the Strat ‘out of phase’ sound and how it isn’t out of phase at all – yeah really! The sound of positions 2 and 4 on a Strat are 2 pickups in parallel. I have no idea how it was ever called out of phase but we seem to be stuck with it.
The Cool 90 is a P90 pickup available in both Dogear and Soapbar. Designed with Jazz and Blues players in mind it produces a clear, full, well balanced tone. Never harsh, always full and musical.
The bridge pickup has an organic sound with a lower mid push ideally suited to dynamic lead lines and tight rhythm playing.
The neck pickup is clear and chiming with enough clarity to always be heard in the mix. It has that lovely woody tone especially in an archtop.
Thanks to Brett Kingman over in Melbourne for this great demo.
Brett has played a few of my pickups and in May ’25 got in touch looking for a dogear P90 for his Tokai Les Paul Junior.
Here is what he said about it:
“I love my little Tokai Junior. It was relic’d by my friends Joel and Colin at Nepean Music and they fitted a Dimarzio Phantom in it.
That’s not a bad pickup but I really wanted a lower output affair – more of what a traditional P90 offers.
I had this conversation with another friend, Glyn Evans of Mr Glyn’s Pickups, who are located in the smaller paddock across the creek (New Zealand) and he said I should give his Cool 90 a shot. I did and I’m really impressed!
He even shipped it with a selection of 3D-printed height spacers so I could nail the nominal pickup height. Nice touch, Glyn! So, here it is – This one’s a keeper.”
Here’s a demo of the Cool 90 sent to me by one of my customers. Go check out his band – The Bull Kelp Surfers
Why Alnico II?
I use rough cast alnico II magnets in my Cool 90 set for its smooth, well balanced tone. My other P 90 pickups use the more conventional alnico V giving them greater attack and power but I didn’t want that with this pickup. Alnico II has a very balanced tonal range, the lows aren’t to boomy, mids are present but not too far forward and the highs are smooth. It is a magnet with less power than the alnico V so suited for less aggressive playing.
The Cool 90 Story
Like many of my pickups the this one started with a repair job. A customer sent be a faulty Gibson P90 out of a 1955 Les Paul Junior. Naturally, I took measurements and completely analyzed every detail of it. Unlike the information in the books (and internet) it had less windings and Alnico II magnets instead of Alnico V.
And what a great sounding pickup it was.
I decided to make my own version of it to compliment the ‘Sassy” P90 pickup I was already making. The Sassy has the classic “full fat” P90 tone, plenty of growl and cut through.
The idea was to make a lower powered version for the cleaner player. Still keeping the classic P90 character but with less grunt.
I experimented and tested and eventually came up with this design.
You may have heard of Series Parallel wiring in guitars, here’s how to do it.
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There are numerous ways to wire a humbucker. The standard way is in series, its the sound we all know, with that pushy lower mid tone.
Some players like to coil tap their humbucker to get the option of a thinner more Fender type tone. That is essentially switching one coil off.
A less well used way to thin the sound is with a series/parallel switch. A humbucker wired in parallel with itself is more single coil like than in standard wiring, there’s less volume drop than coil tapping and it still hum cancels. I much prefer it.
So what is Series/Parallel all about?
The standard way of wiring a humbucker is in series. PAFโs are wired this way and it gives the traditional full sound with plenty of mids and bottom end. Its simply one coil following the other, the end of one coil connected to the beginning of the next.
Wiring a humbucker in parallel is quite a different sound. It’s much more similar to a single coil sound but the pickups is still hum cancelling. There is a drop in volume though not as much as with a coil tap (switching one coil off). And the pickup is still hum cancelling. It’s like taking away the lower mid range push that a series wired humbucker has and being left with more clarity.
This humbucker series parallel diagram shows how to do it with a push/pull switch. With the series parallel switch down and the humbucker is wired in series (normal), pull it up and it’s in parallel. The wiring colour code is for Mr Glyn’s Pickups (I use the same colours as Seymour Duncan).
Series Parallel diagram
Not such a hard diagram to follow is it? I’m not sure why this modification isn’t more popular. Maybe it’s a little harder to understand than coil tapping, maybe it’s because its a little more complicated to wire up. I certainly prefer it in my guitars to give an extra tonal option without taking anything away from the original sound.
Another example of 2 pickup coils wired in parallel is a Strat on position 2 and 4 of the switch. That sound is often incorrectly referred to as ‘out of phase’ but it actually is the sound of 2 coils wired in parallel with each other. So think of the chimey clarity a humbucker would have wired that way and that will give you an idea what a series parallel switch might do for you.
As with all guitar mods its worth having a play around and see if it suits you. It certainly works for me.
It would be great if you could subscribe to this blog (below) so you don’t miss out on any other pickup related articles.
I’m going to be posting a few more wiring diagrams in the near future. Keep an eye on this blog or my social media:
Mr Glyns Pickups is a small business which means I can communicate with my customers one to one. Iโm always happy to discuss your requirements, answer questions and give advice. I want to know about the guitars my pickups are going in, send me pictures, send me recordings.
Was great to see this Brett Kingman demo using a Tele Cabronita with Mr Glyns The Tron pickups to demonstrate some really cool pedals the other day. He’s got dozens of guitars to choose from, so chuffed he chose my pickups.
TheTron is the perfect pickup as a Gretsch upgrade, for the modern player wanting something other than Gibson style humbuckers, rockabilly players after that traditional tone, jazz players or, like me, Malcolm Young fans. Thereโs so much you can to with The Tron.
Itโs always interesting to see where my pickups end up, in this case Hamurana Guitars NZ.
Hamurana Guitars
Hamurana are world class combining looks, playability and tone. Iโve played a few – they are outstanding.
Hamurana have used my pickups in a few builds and itโs always great to see what he comes up with. This time heโs used a pair of my my Black Sand humbucker size P90’s.
You can get in touch with them and order your dream guitar here:
I always enjoy working alongside professional guitar makers to achieve what their customer needs. Feel free to get in touch if you are a pro luthier and we can talk.
The ‘Mini’ is inspired by the Gibson mini humbuckers of the 70’s used in the Les Paul Deluxe.
The ‘Mini’ is a clean clear sounding mini humbucker with the warmth and clarity from an alnico II magnet combined with low winding strength. This gives them a full, smooth, chiming bass, clear mids and an almost jangly treble, present but never harsh.
Great for jazz, funk, blues, pop or any genre that requires a clean, low powered humbucker set.
Mini humbuckers are great pickups, lower in power than their full size sisters their clarity comes from less windings around a smaller bobbin. The smaller size of the pickup means they ‘hear’ less of the string length than a full size humbucker. The result is a clearer tone with less of the lower mid range push that you get from a PAF.
The neck pickup has a clear voice ideal for funk or jazz. The neck and bridge pickups together have a perfect balance when used together, ideal for clean rhythm playing. The bridge pickup alone has a cheeky โcut throughโ quality pushing you to the front of any mix.
Although he Les Paul Deluxe was a short lived guitar in the Gibson range the mini humbucker has lived on. It is a very popular pickup in custom guitars particularly the neck pickup and is a great match for Mr Glyn’s ‘Cruel Mistress’ telecaster bridge pickup.
This isn’t really a demo but it shown you how the ‘Mini’ neck pickup sounds in the hands of a pro:
mini humbucker
If you’re looking for a pickup that is clearer than a PAF, has a less prominent lower mid spike with an even balanced tone then the mini humbucker could be the pickup for you.
Been having some fun making a pickup demo using a P90 skateboard lap steel.
It’s a fun instrument and pretty easy to make. Skateboards are surprisingly resonant.
P90 skateboard lap steel
The Mr Glynโs โSassyโ P90 is a pickup set influenced by the Gibson P90โs of the late 50โs. The โSassyโ have a distinctive woody aggressive tone, full of character. The highs are smooth yet punchy, thereโs a chiming bottom end and a very obvious mid range that pushes through the mix. If you tickle the strings theyโre clean and clear but dig in and thereโs no shortage of power to drive the front end of your amp.
Iโve grown to love P90โs over the years, itโs the sound of those early Gibson Les Paul Juniors. Itโs a pickup that needs no extras, just straight into a good amp. Theyโre happy to power pedals but thereโs a fullness and balance that seems to need nothing else.
I wanted the โSassyโ P90 set to live up to its name and have the dynamic range that I love about P90โs. The wide flat coil of a P90 gives a richer, less percussive tone than other single coil pickups and this is where the full tone comes from. Iโve sat both neck and bridge pickups on top of a pair of Alnico V magnets to give the power this pickup needs and help add that bit of grit when played hard.
Iโve made the neck pickup smooth and fat but with clarity and chime enough for jazz. The bridge pickup has the dynamics, pushy mids and aggressive highs when pushed but cleans up when you ask it to.
This is a pickup set that would be happy in almost any situation, blues, rock, punk, reggaeโฆ If itโs a full bodied, dynamic P90 youโre after look no further.
Iโve named this set the โSassyโ P90 set to reflect these pickupโs attitude, theyโre bold, spicy, disrespectful and a bit cheeky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtZkIbaCZU
Take a Squire Affinity, give it to luthier Ramsay Phillips, add some Mr Glyn’s pickups Clear View humbucker set and see what you get? Superb demo from Jason Herbert – all 3 of him.
The Clear View humbucker set is something different. Itโs a humbucker for players that donโt like humbuckers.
This pickup set is all about pure clarity. There are no pushy lower mids that make your clean sound a mush. The highs are clean and clear but not harsh, the bottom end is clear but with none of that humbucker woof.
If single coils are too harsh and unforgiving, conventional humbuckers too powerful and muddy then hereโs the solution. The โClear Viewโ humbucker is low powered and balanced, designed for the textural player, great with reverbs and modulation, sits its the mix without getting in the way.
The Tron pickup set is based around the legendary Gretsch Filtertron pickups of the 50โs and 60โs. To say To say it has character is an understatement. It is full and rounded with a well balanced mid range. It has that distinctive โClankโ that separates it from other pickups. The neck pickup is clear and fat and the bridge stands out from the mix without ever sounding harsh.
This is a unique style of pickup and quite distinct from its Gibson cousin the PAF.
Available in standard size with traditional ‘through cover’ mounting. 2 or 3 screw humbucker style mounting. P90 size.
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The Tron demos
Here’s the full demo from Brett:
Who is it for?
The Tron is the perfect Filtertron pickup as a Gretsch upgrade. For the modern player wanting something other than Gibson style humbuckers For the rockabilly player after that traditional tone. For the jazz player or, like me, Malcolm Young fans. Thereโs so much you can to with The Tron.
Cabronita
As you can see from the demos it’s not just Gretsch guitars, the Tron are great in Telecaster Cabronitas. or any guitar for that matter.
For the modern player with one foot in the past.
Strat Tron
P90 size Tron
The Tron is now available in P90 size. This is the same pickup, same bobbins, same magnet. So if you need some Tron goodness in your P90 guitar this is the set for you.
P90 Size Tron
As the Tron pickup fits inside a P90 cover there are no compromises. This is the true Tron tone for your P90 guitar.
The P90 version has its own base plate. These are designed and made in house. This has an extra earthed shielding layer for that bit extra noise reduction.
Base Plate
The mounting screws are located at each end of the pickup. They come with screws and springs.
They are available in 49.2mm or 52mm spacing and with either cream or black covers.
Tron P90 set
There is a a link to the shop at the top of this page.
Development
Over the years Iโve repaired a fair few old Gretsch Filter-tron pickups. I have noticed the best sounding ones are at the upper range for ohms. Iโve taken that design and tweaked it until I got the fullness I was looking. But paying attention not to loose the essential clarity and clank.
Most of my pickups are made in collaboration with a professional player, but not this one.
I started playing guitar at the age of 16 when I first heard Malcolm Young. That’s the sound of a Filtertron through an almost clean valve amp. I didnโt feel I needed another set of ears for this one, I knew exactly what I wanted.
I needed this pickup set to be crystal clear with a clean amplifier but to come into its own when pushing an amp to clip.
I think that’s what it’s all about with this design – how it makes an amp clip.
The neck pickup needed to be clear, full and chiming in both a big archtop and in the neck position of a Telecaster. The bridge pickup needed to have no shortage of character, a clean almost jangly tone when played gently but with enough go in it to push the front end of a valve amp to clip when you dig in.
The design of The Tron Filtertron pickup
Here are my thoughts on the design of this pickup set. In this video I talk about the differences between Filtertron pickups and Gibson PAF’s.
In summary, the filtertron has a big magnet with low dc resistance. The PAF had a smaller magnet and higher dc resistance. Filtertrons get most of their power from their large magnet giving them a distinctive ‘clank’. They have an immediate feel under your fingers. An instant attack.
The magnet is very important. I get mine specially made for me to my spec. I am very fussy about my magnets.
In comparison, a PAF is smoother and less percussive sounding.
Mounting options
I’ve made this one to fit what you play.
TheTron pickup comes with the standard mounting screws for the โsoapbarโ style mounting known as the โuniversal mountingโ.
If your pickup is mounted on a humbucker style ring, you can fit it using one of my adapter plates.
I’ve developed two adapter plate options: 2-screw to mount to Gibson-style humbucker rings,
or 3-screw to mount to the ring found on some Gretsch guitars.
Adapter plates are $10 each ($20 with a set). Ypou can find the options to order tham at the checkout.
And as for the name “TheTron”? – I think you have to be a Kiwi…
Dimensions
The Tron Filter-tron pickup is a slightly different size to its ‘Gibson’ style humbucker cousins.
It is 71.5mm x 35mm where as a Gibson shape humbucker is 70mm x 38mm. It is possible to get adapter mounting rings to fit a Filter-tron type pickup in a Gibson type humbucker loaded guitar. I don’t sell these.
The P90 Tron is standard P90 size so 35mm x 85.5mm.
The Tron is available with a 52mm pole spacing to fit with Fender style bridge spacing.
The Gretsch FilterTron is something rather special. Originally designed in 1954/5 by Ray Butts for guitarist Chet Atkins who wasnโt satisfied by the DynaSonic pickup he was using. It has become a classic but often misunderstood pickup.
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What is the Filtertron sound?
It has left a distinct mark on the sound of RockโnโRoll. Itโs the sound of Malcolm Young, Brian Setzer, Billy Duffy and plenty more. That unmistakable โClankโ on the attack of the note is the essence of the FilterTron.
I started playing guitar because of the sound of a Gretsch FilterTron. Listen to Malcolm Young on the intro to โJailbreakโ – thatโs what Iโm talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRo2m6RYJpI
But you donโt only find FilterTrons in Gretches, thereโs the rather cool Fender Cabronita Telecaster for instance.
So what’s inside a Gretsch FilterTron?
So how does it make that distinctive sound? What makes it so different from a PAF?
Hereโs a vintage Gretsch FilterTron from 1961, letโs take a look under the hood.
With the cover off it looks quite different from a PAF. There are 2 rows of adjustable poles and theyโre bigger than on a Gibson. The top of the bobbins are rather neatly hidden by a thin plate.
The Technical Stuff
Hereโs where it gets really interesting. Those are very narrow bobbins and this one measures only 4.2KOhms. Not a lot of coil strength there but look what theyโre sitting on. That is one fat magnet. Itโs an Alnico V and literally twice the thickness of the magnet that youโd find in a PAF. So not only more powerful magnetic material but double the amount of it compared to a Gibson. That makes it quite a different beast.
So that Gretsch FilterTron sound consists of a weaker, thin sounding coil so lots of highs and twang from the windings and getting the aggression, attack and โclankโ from the powerful magnet. A powerful magnet gives an immediacy to tone. You can really feel it when you play a guitar with a larger magnet.
This is the original Gretsch FilterTron, the design didnโt change much through to the late 60โs although there are plenty of inconsistencies. They can have a dc resistance from 4KOhms up to 5KOhms.
By the 1970โs they had changed the design and really they just didnโt sound like Gretschโs any more.
A lot of the modern ones are simply small Gibson style humbuckers with cool looking covers and just miss the whole point of the FilterTron sound. This tone is not for everyone but for some of us it’s simple the best sound an electric guitar can make.
Itโs all about those weak coils and that monster magnet. There is more than one way to make an electric guitar pickup.
The work I did on this original set of Gretsch pickup really inspired me to design my own take on the Filtertron pickup. I call it ‘The Tron’. It has the same magnet as the original to give it that character but with slightly different coils. I have wound the bridge pickup to be on the upper end of the old ones to balance it with then neck pickup. Back in the day the bridge and neck were identical.
The Tron is available with a few different insert colors – for more information follow the link below.
Updated July 2024
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Mr Glyns Pickups
My own version of the FilterTron is now available:
The “Clear View” humbucker is something different. It’s a humbucker for players that don’t like humbuckers.
This pickup set is all about pure clarity. There are no pushy lower mids that make your clean sound a mush. The highs are clean and clear but not harsh, the bottom end is clear but with none of that humbucker woof.
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Demo in a Les Paul
Upgrading a Squire
,
If single coils are too harsh and unforgiving, conventional humbuckers too powerful and muddy then here’s the solution. The “Clear View” humbucker is low powered and balanced, designed for the textural player, great with reverbs and modulation, sits its the mix without getting in the way.
If you want a low powered โVintageโ humbucker with all the character of a PAF get a MrGlynโs โIntegrityโ humbucker. If humbuckers sound too thick and you crave extra clarity then the โClear Viewโ is for you.
And, of course, itโs hum cancelling.
This is not a pickup born to rock, it’s more than that.
Here’s a short video, clean with no effects, to show the clarity and balance of the “clear View” Pickups.
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The Clear View humbucker Story
It started with a phone call from luthier Ramsay Phillips.
I’ve got huge respect for Ramsay, he’s worked all over the world and has a great client list (including Steve Vai). He knows guitars, knows tone and he’s a thinker. So when he calls to talk about a new pickup idea I listen.
He was interested in having a humbucker for people that didnโt like humbuckers (his phrase). A pickup with clear tone and low powered but not like a PAF, clearer than that. He wanted a mid range more like a single coil than a traditional humbucker. At first I thought my โBlack Sandโ humbucker size P90 would suit him but as he talked I realized he didnโt want the grit of a P90. Heโs very well practiced at describing sound so I felt I understood what he meant. He assured me he had customers asking about such a pickup.
He wasnโt in a rush which meant I could have a good ponder over what heโd said before making anything. It’s often best just to let a project sit rather than wade in and make a load of prototypes that don’t quite do it. Thinking time is important.
Then one morning about a week later I was out on the beach with the dogs. There was quite a big swell (the sea is never calm at Muriwai) and I was listening to the sea. When there’s a big swell the sea produced the full range of frequencies, it is pretty much pink noise. I was trying to figure out which frequencies in that sound I would need to remove to make Ramsayโs pickup. I often ponder problems this way and for me it often works. By the time I got home there was a plan.
I made a set of pickups, sent them to him and a few days later he called to say they were spot on. It isnโt usually that easy.
And the Clear View humbucker set was born.
Clear View humbucker
Here are some cover options for the Clear View humbucker set. If you would like your cover relic’ed please add a comment at the time of purchase.
The Sassy is a full fat P90 set designed for that traditional P90 tone. Suitable for styles from blues to rock. Full and dynamic, aggressive but controllable. It has a touch sensitivity that makes this set a lot of fun to play with.
Sassy Demo
Description
The Mr Glyn’s “Sassy” P90 is a pickup set influenced by the Gibson P90’s of the late 50’s. The “Sassy” have a distinctive woody aggressive tone, full of character. The highs are smooth yet punchy, there’s a chiming bottom end and a very obvious mid range that pushes through the mix. If you tickle the strings they’re clean and clear but dig in and there’s no shortage of power to drive the front end of your amp.
I’ve grown to love P90’s over the years, it’s the sound of those early Gibson Les Paul Juniors. It’s a guitar pickup that needs no extras, just straight into a good amp. They’re happy to power pedals but there’s a fullness and balance that seems to need nothing else.
I think the Sassy is best served through ’50’s wiring – it really gives you the dynamic, touch sensitive range that made this style of pickup famous.
Philosophy behind the Sassy
Here’s a short video explaining my thinking behind the Sassy P90 pickup set.
The Sassy P90 story
I wanted the Sassy P90 set to live up to its name and have the dynamic range that I love about P90’s. The wide flat coil of a P90 gives a richer, less percussive tone than other single coil pickups and this is where the full tone comes from. I mounted both neck and bridge pickups on top of a pair of Alnico V magnets. This gives the power this pickup needs and helps add that bit of grit when played hard.
I’ve made the neck pickup smooth and fat but with clarity and chime enough for jazz. The bridge pickup has the dynamic, pushy mids and aggressive highs when pushed. But it cleans up when you ask it to in true p90 style.
This is a pickup set that would be happy in almost any situation, blues, rock, punk, reggae… If it’s a full bodied, dynamic P90 you’re after look no further. I have extensively gigged with a Sassy P90 loaded guitar and loved the woody mids and high end clarity. Back the volume off a tad and there’s a single coil chime, crank it and you have full fat lead tones.
The Sassy for lap steel
The Sassy is available in Dogear p90 and Soapbar P90.
I’ve named this set the Sassy”P90 set to reflect these pickup’s attitude, they’re bold, spicy, disrespectful and a bit cheeky.
If you need shims to adjust the height of a Dogear P90 just let me know, I can send you a file for 3d printing.
I also make a humbucker size P90 set – the “Black Sand” if you need some P90 goodness in your humbucker guitar, here’s a link to them:
I’ve been repairing a few broken old pickups recently so thought I’d share some pictures and thoughts on this classic old Gibson T-Top.
The T-Top is a fairly common pickup on my workbench. Not because there’s and common fault with them but simply there were so many made and they’re all getting quite old now.
The “T-Top” simply refers to the molding on the top of the bobbin. They were Gibson’s standard humbucker from 67/8 until around 1980 replacing the legendary PAF.
Gibson T-Top Mr Glyn’s Pickups
What is a Gibson T Top?
There were a few subtle changes from the PAF but enough to make a difference.
Although the bobbins look different the important dimensions were unchanged and they are still made of butyrate making it impractical to wax pot them. Butyrate distorts with heat.
The wire is poly insulated instead of the plain enamel used on PAF’s. Pretty much all T-Tops have a dc resistance of around 7.5 KOhms, neck and bridge the same. The coils are wound symmetrically and are unpotted so beware of squealing with high gain.
The magnets varied, often Alnico III, V or even Ceramic so not all T Tops sound the same.
Gibson T-Top Mr Glyn’s Pickups
This one came to me with a dead coil in need of a re-wind. the magnet is a rough cast Alnico V and from the good coil the finished dc reading I was after was 7.4 KOhms.
Get in touch if you have any old pickups in need of repair. Although most of my day is spent making new pickups I do enjoy repairing classic old pickups.
I recently had this โ63 Jazzmaster pickup re-wind at the workshop and thought Iโd take the opportunity to talk about what gives them such a unique sound.
What gives a 63 Jazzmaster pickup that smooth, full ring? The simple answer is โcoil geometryโ.
As you can see itโs a very thin pickup. That means that less of the winding is close to the magnet.
A Strat is a much taller pickup, the windings are closer to the magnets and so has a more immediate, snappy tone. You could say a Strat is more efficient.
The gauge of wire and number of turns is very similar to a Strat but this geometry makes all the difference. The further away from the magnet a winding gets the less treble and the less response.
And to accommodate enough wire in such a thin pickup it needs to be wide.
Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (mrglynspickups@gmail.com) or by phone (021 912 678). www.mrglynspickups.com
There’s a lot talked about the original Fender Wide Range humbucker especially now with Fender re-introducing these classics with vintage correct CuNiFe magnets.
For the full back story on what makes these magnets so important here’s a great interview on my favorite podcast with the man who brought CuNiFe back, Tim Shaw.
The Fender Wide Range humbucker was the invention of Seth Lover. He’d previously worked at Gibson and is responsible for the PAF Humbucker
In 1967 he went to work for Fender and was asked to make an equivalent to the PAF to compete with Gibson. He was still obliged under the PAF copyright (even though it was under his own name) to make something completely different and that’s what he did.
So why CuNiFe ?
Fender guitars are known for their percussive treble. A bit part of which is achieved by having the magnet located inside the coil unlike Gibson style pickups with the magnet outside. He was clearly keen to have adjustable poles too so that left the question of – how do I make magnetic threaded bar? The answer is CuNiFe. Other magnetic material needs to be cast where as CuNiFe – an alloy of copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), iron (Fe) – can be machined.
The primary use for CuNiFe at the time was in speedometers where this threaded magnet was used in calibration. But when the automotive industry moved on to better methods of measuring speed CuNiFe stopped being produced. So the traditional Wide Range ceased production in 1979. The re-introduced Wide Range humbuckers of the 1980’s have a Gibson PAF style bar magnet underneath the coils. They might look like Wide Ranges but they really aren’t.
Why is the Fender Wide Range humbucker so big?
CuNiFe does not make strong magnets and has quite a trebly tone. To offset this Seth needed to design powerful coils. The more windings on a bobbin the more power but also the more bass and less treble. The whole eq is shifted to the bass side. Compered to a PAF the Wide Range coils are very overwound. So much so the bobbins had to be made bigger to accommodate them and therefore the whole pickup is bigger. Wide Ranges are wound to around 10.6KOhms where as a traditional humbucker is closer to 8KOhms.
Then there’s the much ignored steel plate under the coils. Putting a steel plate under a magnet will help push the magnetic field up towards the strings creating a bit more power and a bit more bass. This works in the same way as in my Tui pickup – here’s more on that.
The result of all this is a clear, full sounding pickup loved by many.
Interesting eh.
Repairing a Wide Range
A while ago I had a faulty Fender Wide Range humbucker sent to me for repair and took the chance to take some pictures. This one is from 1975 as you can see from the last 2 digits of the serial number. From the underneath you can also see the sneaky way he used the threaded magnets fitting half of the upside-down.
With the cover off we get a good look at these unique bobbins. There’s a small metal tab at each end of them to help with connecting the winding wire with the hookup wire.
With one bobbin removed there’s that steel plate underneath directing the magnetic field and adding inductance to the coils. The black wire connects the 2 coils together in series and it’s tucked away between the coils when the pickup is together.
You can see that even though this is an oversized bobbin it’s full up with wire.
Here’s a really interesting blog post on a Wide Range copy by Tym Guitars in Australia. You can see the difference between an original Fender Wide Range humbucker and what looks like an exact replica.
Just published Ep#7 of MrGlyn Meets Your Maker with Kiran from Firehorse FX in Hamilton. We talk about his range of pedals, how he develops them and what cool stuff is in the pipeline including a Mu-Tron Phaser thatโs got my GAS going. I even have one of his pedals on my own board.
Just posted Ep#4 of MrGlyn Meets Your Maker with Big Noise Amplification. It would be great if you could help support Kiwi made musical gear by subscribing or sharing.
Stephan Gilberg makes a huge range of guitar pedals from his workshop in Nelson NZ.
In this episode he talks about pedal design, the inspiration behind his creations and what drives him.
If youโre at all interested in unique guitar sounds, expanding on the traditional palette or just want something funky on the floor then this episode on Big Noise Amplification is for you
Hi all, some of you will know how keen I am on NZ made musical gear.
We have world class makers here in Aotearoa and the World needs to know about them. Rather than just having a good moan Iโve been trying to think of ways I can help.
After many conversations with other small manufacturers Iโve come up with an idea. Iโm starting a series of YouTube videos where I chat with NZ makers so we can all get to know them a little better. I figure that seeing and hearing the person behind the product, hearing their story, their philosophy, will help promote what they do beyond just their website.
Some of these makers you may not even have heard of. Itโs a very simple format, just recording a Skype conversation. There is some editing mainly cutting out my own waffle but I do try and keep edits to a minimum.
I am not a professional presenter Iโm just an ordinary bloke working with what Iโve got and this is way out of my comfort zone but I hope youโll find the content interesting.
Iโve called the series โMrGlyn Meets Your Makerโ.
In episode #1 Iโm talking with Aiden from Archetype Guitars in Palmerston North who very graciously agreed to go first. If these videos go any way towards you considering buying NZ made then Iโve succeeded.
Please share, link to, subscribe and spread the word, thatโs how you can help. Thanks, Glyn https://mrglynspickups.com/
A couple of weeks back I received this faulty old pickup from a JansenPickup from a stratophonic hollow bodied bass made in New Zealand.
The meter was showing it was โopen circuitโ so after the usual tests for dry joints and removing the top layer of windings I decided it needed rewinding.
I do enjoy saving old dead pickups and this one looks so cool with that โtoasterโ cover.
I just found my pickups on You Tube. These are “Black Sand” humbucker size P90โs in a Les Paul in the hands of a master. https://music.blackstratblues.com/
Warren is a great player and we’ve been friends for years. you can hear him playing with these pickups in his ES335 on the Black Sand product page.
Seymour Duncan JB humbuckers are such a classic pickup, loud and aggressive with no shortage of high end attack. This particular one has had a hard life and finally gave up so it arrived at my workshop for repair. It’s not the first Duncan JB Re-Wind I’ve had to do but this time I’ve taken some pics.
Duncan JB
This one had stopped working altogether. With the tape off the hook up wires are exposed and itโs possible to identify which coil has the problem. Itโs usually just one coil.
It turned out to be the coil with the screws in this case.
The coil with the lugs in fine and showing 8.42KOhms and from that I can figure out what size wire they used and calculate the number of turns needed to re-wind the duff coil.
Pretty routine stuff this Duncan JB Re-Wind but always nice to have a look inside a classic pickup. https://mrglynspickups.com/
Been doing a few pickup rewinds recently. This Precision Bass Pickup from 1974 had one coil completely open circuit. Pretty common for that era. If youโve got an old Fender (not just basses) with a quiet, thin sounding pickup thereโs a fair chance you need a re-wind.
โ74 Precision Bass Pickup
Pickup re-winds are a big part of what I do.
In the early days back in the 1990โs I re-wound a lot of pickups. It was an invaluable introduction into the inner workings of electric guitar pickups.
Back then there were a lot of 60โs and 70โs quality pickups around to practice on, they werenโt as valuable or sought after as they are now. Because of that I got to see how pickups were put together in the old days, the construction, the potting materialโฆ
There wasnโt much information available so experimentation was the only way to learn. I made so many bad pickups back then but made a note of every single one, how Iโd wound it and what the result was. By using that method I got closer and closer to what I wanted. I also made a note of all the re-winds I did and the original spec if I could get it. Iโm still writing in that note book to this day and itโs becoming a fantastic reference tool when I receive an unusual pickup repair from a customer like this ’74โprecision bass pickup.
I still really enjoy re-winding pickups, I think I have a strong instinct to fix things. I would much rather repair a faulty old pickup than sell a customer a new one. Sometimes, of course, the customer wants a different sound that the old pickup canโt give them and a new pickup is the way to go (see the link to our Precision Bass below)
Please feel free to contact me about any faulty pickup by email (glyn@mrglynspickups.com) or by phone (+ 64 21 912 678). https://mrglynspickups.com/ and enjoy some of my demos here
A description of what makes my “Tui” pickup for Strat different.
Iโve wound a lot of Strat pickups since I started in 1995. I started off re-winding cheap pickups and then moved on to repairing old dead Fender pickups. Every experiment was written down in a notebook with tone comments. Back when I started there wasnโt much information available so there was a lot of reverse engineering and a lot of trying things out. That learning time was invaluable to developing instinct for how to change the sound of a pickup. Iโve still got the note book and Iโm still adding to it.
