After...

[GrindCustoms]

I had'nt thought i'd have a new guitar today...

2 days ago a friend sent me picture of a guitar he was selling, i was quite interested as it had Filtertrons... ...and i LOVE those pickups, a bigsby and chambered body.... but with a center block and mainly because it was a Gretsch!

I thought that one would allow me to make dirtier Gretsch things... so i picked it up for a try today.... ...and now she's on the bench receiving the welcome treatment.... 

My buddy bought it in 2011 and changed the string on it one time and she've seen barely no use, stored in its case. He was already asking a reasonable price for it but i worked out a pedal trade plus cash.... so the unexpected event is not heavy as having a R9 dropped at your door step

So here's the before pics as i'm doing couple simple mods to it...while cleaning it up and doing basic maintenace on it.



The strings where'nt passed under the trem roller bar, she kept her tuning but i could'nt really use the trem, still sounded damn good!





The control cavity is a bit depressing... 

[Cortexturizer]

Raunchy looking thing is raunchy.

Can't wait for the "after" pictures with them EMGs 

[GrindCustoms]

Raunchy looking thing is raunchy.

Can't wait for the "after" pictures with them EMGs 

I ain't an EMG guy at all... ...still changing a pickup tho!

[Cortexturizer]

I know you're not I was trying to think of something that wouldn't go with that sort of guitar in a million years, just teasing ya! Looking forward to seeing what you're gonna put in there. Rad looking guitar that's for sure, everybody needs a Gretsch in their lives.

[Muadzin]

The control cavity is a bit depressing... 

Interesting. They seem to follow the engineering principle of 'Why cut cables off to length when you can use tie wraps?'

[blearyeyes]

Filtrons and a Gretsch are very interesting indeed. When you chipped in on another thread about loving your 6000 series I looked at them but they were a little more than I could spend at the moment... If a used one crosses my path though...

[culturejam]

She' a real looker, Rej. nice!

[m-Kresol]

I've got only four words:
I AM SO JEALOUS!

[cooder]

Cool cool guitar...!

[rullywowr]

I had'nt thought i'd have a new guitar today...

2 days ago a friend sent me picture of a guitar he was selling, i was quite interested as it had Filtertrons... ...and i LOVE those pickups, a bigsby and chambered body.... but with a center block and mainly because it was a Gretsch!

I thought that one would allow me to make dirtier Gretsch things... so i picked it up for a try today.... ...and now she's on the bench receiving the welcome treatment.... 

My buddy bought it in 2011 and changed the string on it one time and she've seen barely no use, stored in its case. He was already asking a reasonable price for it but i worked out a pedal trade plus cash.... so the unexpected event is not heavy as having a R9 dropped at your door step

So here's the before pics as i'm doing couple simple mods to it...while cleaning it up and doing basic maintenace on it.



The strings where'nt passed under the trem roller bar, she kept her tuning but i could'nt really use the trem, still sounded damn good!





The control cavity is a bit depressing... 

Now If you only knew someone that could solder a new pickup in...I heard it's really complicated.

Bitchin guitar Rej!  The color is awesome as well. I'm sure you can play some Meschugga and Earth Crisis riffs on it

[GrindCustoms]

Interesting. They seem to follow the engineering principle of 'Why cut cables off to length when you can use tie wraps?'

It's the neck pickup that i'm changing, the wire going directly to Toggle, they still kept a good 8inch of wire.

Seeing the 16mm pots turned me off and that greenie cap, that ain't per my standard/favored setup, will remedy to that. But the wire dressing and soldering are top notch, shielded wire going from switch to controls, keeping that, looks like good quality and the capacitance is very similar for the length compared to what i would have used.

Also, now that the stock neck pickup is out, i measured it's DC resistance being at 5.33K, the replacement that i thought would be way below, as i thought those 'Trons would yield a greater output... worried that it would unbalance the output levels, but it turns out the replacement is 5.61K so it should keep it well balanced.

Filtrons and a Gretsch are very interesting indeed. When you chipped in on another thread about loving your 6000 series I looked at them but they were a little more than I could spend at the moment... If a used one crosses my path though...

I had a killer deal on the 5122, with shipping to CAN from NewYork it came at a grand total of 550$CAN... value of our dollar was greater at that moment, would be around 630$CAN right now. The guitar was in pristine condition, grabbed it from an add on Craigslist and good friend Rob went out to try and buy it for me as he also grabbed the Epi Casino that guy had for sale... so yeah.. we snagged killer deals on both. I think the best thing you can do is keep those guitar funds available and be patient... there's always a deal out there to be caught.

Now If you only knew someone that could solder a new pickup in...I heard it's really complicated.

Bitchin guitar Rej!  The color is awesome as well. I'm sure you can play some Meschugga and Earth Crisis riffs on it

This one ain't complicated compared to a full hollow arched top where you need to use a *Fish* to pull all wires and pre-assemble the whole assembly and then swear, swear and swear a bit more again. haha

And YES!!! It chuggs effortlessly.... running it into the comp, klone, hitting the MKIV lead channel like a rocket launcher... and.. GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH... quite awesome to hear that coming out when looking at aesthetic of the guitar hehe.

[blearyeyes]

Hey Rej,
How do you get the fish to grab the wire with its mouth after you slide him in there?

[GrindCustoms]

Hey Rej,
How do you get the fish to grab the wire with its mouth after you slide him in there?

He's well trained

[GrindCustoms]

Aftermath...

New pickup in! as stated before the P90 variant have 5.6K output while the 'Tron had 5.3K... should keep the balance in output levels.





I've come to the conclusion lately that i was prefering single coils at neck position, i had this pickup laying around that i thought i'd put on the Troncaster.. but turns out it would'nt look as nice that i thougth... and was a direct drop in for this one. Keeps the look of the guitar intact and adds a nice touch...

Onto the control cavity now!

[pickdropper]

Congrats on the new score, Rej.  Those are cool guitars.  Great for the money.