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REVIEWS

FILTER’TRON

SHOOTOUT

WORDS HUW PRICE

There was a period when
Filter’Tron pickups were found
only in Gretsch guitars but these
days they appear in everything

from Cabronita Telecasters to
boutique offsets and plenty more
besides. Here, we take a look at
the aftermarket options and see

how they stack up with vintage
and modern Gretsch pickups,
as well as popular units from
the likes of TV Jones

n the hands of players as diverse as Eddie
Cochran, Brian Setzer, George Harrison,
Malcolm Young, Pete Townshend, and
IJohn Squire, the Filter’Tron has shown
that it can handle everything from 1950s
rockabilly and hard rock to indie jangle.
They’re not as powerful as Gibson-style
humbuckers and P-90s, and not as bright
as most Fender pickups, but they fuse hazy
clarity, twang and midrange growl in a way
that’s endlessly alluring.
For a long time, if you wanted to buy
a set of Filter’Trons without a Gretsch
guitar attached to them, TV Jones was the
only game in town, with founder Thomas
Vincent Jones having dug deeper into the
work of Ray Butts and the history of these
pickups than anybody else. However, that
hasn’t stopped almost every other pickup
brand throwing their hats into the ring too.
With so many Filter’Tron clones to
choose from, it’s time for a buyer’s guide to
the best on the market. For testing purposes,
we’re using a modern Gretsch G6118T-135
135th Anniversary model loaded with its
modern High Sensitive Filter’Trons, and a
1960 Anniversary/6120 conversion with
a set of vintage units.
People with vintage Gretsch guitars are
not likely to ditch their original pickups, so
our focus is how the aftermarket replacements
compare both with current Gretsch pickups
and the vintage benchmark. We’ll be keeping
the G6118T stock throughout and swapping
the pickups in the 6120 conversion.

GUITAR MAGAZINE 103