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Topic: Has anyone ever used a Filtertron pickup in a lap steel? |
James Mayer
From:
back in Portland Oregon, USA (via Arkansas and London, UK)
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Posted 12 Sep 2008 5:07 pm |
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If so, how did it sound?
If not, why wouldn't they be desirable for lap steel? |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 12 Sep 2008 6:11 pm
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I had to look up what a Filtertron pickup was to be able to contribute to this discussion. (It's a pickup made by Gretsch.)
I would guess that the sound that most steel players were trying to get was the sound you could get from a Rickenbacker, Fender or Gibson steel guitar. The Gretsch lap steels I've seen were made by Valco and almost certainly sounded just like Supros of the same era. If Gretsch wasn't going to use their own pickup on their own line of lap steels, I doubt anybody was going to do that for them. 
I am not familiar enough with the Gretsch Filtertron pickup to know whether or not it would sound good on a lap steel.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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James Mayer
From:
back in Portland Oregon, USA (via Arkansas and London, UK)
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Posted 12 Sep 2008 11:34 pm
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| I've read up on them and the general consensus is that they sound like a very clear humbucker. Hum canceling qualities, but with less beef and more twang. |
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Fontaine Burnett
From:
Germany
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Posted 13 Sep 2008 2:32 am Gotta love them filtertrons!!
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Hi James!
Of all the Gretsch style pickups, filtertrons are definitely my favorite. They have a warm yet chiming quality that I just really dig. Kind of like a really warm single coil sound. You don't quite get that heavy humbucker "chunk" but its still got plenty-o-balls. You don't see them used in lap steels very often. I'm not sure why, because I personally think that they would work great in a lap steel. A couple of days ago I got to try out the new Duesenberg Pomona 6 lap steel (look for a mini-review on this forum real soon) and that happens to have a two filtertron type pickups in it. If you are looking to experiment with the filtertron sound a little, I would suggest taking a look at the pickups from GFS. They offer some great filtertron pickups for a lot less than the original Gretsch or T.V. Jones pickups.
FB
_________________
www.fontaine-burnett.de
www.myspace.com/fontaineburnett
"...when it hits, you feel no pain!" |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 13 Sep 2008 2:42 am
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| Ray Butts invented the Filtertron working with Chet Atkins and Chet used them on his guitars in the 50s. |
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