This podcast is no longer making new episodes but their back catalogue is well worth a look. I really enjoy taking part in podcasts, always fun chatting about guitars and great to make new friends around the World.
The Cultured Guitarist is dedicated to exploring the cultural zeitgeist surrounding the instrument that has been the most moving instrument of the last 100 years. Join us for the ongoing conversation of what it is to be a guitarist. We tackle everything from new gear, old gear, songwriting, playing, gigging, practicing, collecting, modding, building, etc. If itโs related to the guitar, weโre gonna explore it. With a lot of humour and some stellar guests, Al & Kasper tackle the topics in the unending quest to be six string gurus.
I’ve just published a couple of videos on YouTube entitled Eat My Packaging. The idea is to demonstrate that our packaging is compostable and to have some fun at the same time.
I’d love other businesses to think about how they send their products and maybe make some changes.
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If you think this is a good idea I’d love it if you could share it on your social media and maybe ask a business to do the same and post a video or pictures on #eatmypackaging
Here’s the short version of Eat My Packaging :
And there’s a longer talky one:
No pickup makers were harmed in the making of this video.
Eat My Packaging is not something I recommend you try and do – you’ve got way more sense than that.
Mr Glyn’s Pickups is a small manufacturer operating from one of the more distant corners of the planet sending delicate products all over the World. If we can manage to use fully bio degradable packaging then there’s no reason why others can’t. You don’t need bubble wrap, you don’t need plastic bags.
I’m going to use this video to encourage my suppliers to do the same. Too many of the parts we use arrive in plastic bags. We do our best to re-use these and some can be re-cycled. It isn’t perfect but we’re working on it.
The products we sell contain plastics and metals but our pickups are designed to last at least 50 years and after that are repairable. Again not perfect, but we’re doing our best.
If you think this is a good idea please share on all your social media, tell your friends and maybe challenge a business to #eatmypackaging
Mr Glyns Pickups Jazzmaster vintage pickup set is intended for the clean player needing a low powered Jazzmaster set with full tone, warmth and clarity.
These pickups have smooth a jangly treble , always present, never harsh and distinctively Jazzmaster. The bass is clean, clear, woody and full of character and with the warmth of the original Jazzmaster pickups. The mid range is smooth and well balanced. Alnico II magnets give these pickups a clear, very musical quality.
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Wound RWRP they hum cancel when both pickups are on.
Their clarity makes these pickups suitable for many musical styles and lend themselves well to pedals with the personality of the pickups shining through. Drenched in reverb and delay, grinding fat fuzz tones or even clean Jazz.
Jazzmaster vintage pickup design
This pickup set was designed around the standard 1MegOhm pots though work equally well with 500KOhm or 250KOhm. It’s really up to you which tone you prefer.
I’ve always had a fondness for offset guitars and Jazzmasters in particular. Is it the look? The smooth, clear treble? The versatile electronics? Probably all of those things. Jazzmasters are not like anything else, you either get it or you don’t.
I hope you enjoy these pickups, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed designing, and especially testing them. This time the rigorous testing that I put all my pickups through re-kindled my love of Jazzmasters. The sound of a pickup and the way it reacts to pedals and your amp change the way you play. I really like the direction these pickups have steered me in. I wish it was possible to demo the feel of a pickup not just the sound because the feel is a huge part of it.
Sound Samples
The sound samples are a CIJ Jazzmaster into a NZ made old Jansen amp – ECC83, 6L6. With a Celestion Hot 100 12″ and using an SM57.
Each riff goes from neck pickup to middle to bridge using the treble circuit. The 4th riff compares the neck pickup on the treble circuit to the neck on the rhythm circuit, then the middle, then bridge.
I repair quite a few old pickups and thought you might be interested this โ68 Telecaster bridge pickup repair.
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’68 Tele Bridge Pickup
Assessing the damage
As you can see itโs looking pretty tired. I quite like seeing pickups like this – itโs clearly given great service for decades. This is just wear and tear and the sign of a happy life, and although it isnโt working now thereโs no reason why it canโt be made good for a few more decades.
One of the first things I noticed is the black tape. Underneath it is the original waxed protective string. Iโm not sure why someone added that.
The plate underneath has aged fantastically but as you can see the earth wire is missing from it. I re-solder the connections just in case there is a dry joint but the pickup is still dead.
I suspect this is the fault- the top plate has warped over time and the corrosion has got in and damaged the windings. That top plate looks like a skateboard deck – it should be flat! This ’68 telecaster bridge pickup is going to need a re-wind.
Removing the windings
With the back plate off you can clearly see the date.
And here it is, this is the problem. With the windings cut away you can clearly see that the corrosion on the pole piece has spread into the winding. Thereโs a bit of wax in there too from when it was potted originally.
So hereโs the plan. I need to flatten that top plate back. Then clean up the pole pieces. I need to do something about the corrosion. And finally re-wind the pickup to original spec. And most importantly make it look like nothing ever happened.
Repairing this 68 Telecaster bridge pickup
Cleaning the poles is easy, then I flatten the top plate and glue it in place with super glue. Originally it was just a push fit. Then I treat the rust with some anti rust stuff. Here you can see it masked off so I can give the poles a couple of coats of lacquer.
Next I wrap the poles with thin tape. I want to protect the windings from future corrosion. I want this pickup to play hard for another 50 years.
Then itโs re-winding and wax potting and finally replacing the original string.
Of course, I forget to take a photo of it with the string on.
If you want a Telecaster pickup set similar to an old 68 Telecaster bridge pickup take a look at my “Silver Lady” set. The Silver Lady is wound to very similar spec to the old Fenders.
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:
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/
The wire in guitar pickups is pretty thin. Numbers like 0.063mm diameter are hard to imagine so I thought I’d put it another way – here’s an Amazing Fact About Guitar Pickupsโฆ
