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You know you can always leave the guitar at my place for safekeeping when she starts crawling - its only a 10 minute walk.... it'd be quite safe! ;-)
With regard to the bridge pickup, how close is the bridge pickup to the strings? Can it get closer?
I have hilotrons in my Corvette. They are a very low output pickup, similar in some respects to a goldfoil.
I had mine rewound by Bareknuckle, to 4(neck) and 4.2(bridge) which made a big difference to the output. Some friends had theirs rewound to 5, reporting excellent results
If you like the neck pickup, leave well enough alone. But maybe get the bridge pickup goosed a bit. Doesn’t cost much, and makes a hell of a difference.
Best of luck
Marlin
I’m certainly thinking a bridge rewind is the answer moving forward. I’ve also noticed with both pickups that the pole pieces are massively raised -to an extent that I’ve not seen before, so I may shim the pickups a bit and then adjust pole pieces back to a normal level which may also help. I’ll see if I can get a photo with measurements tomorrow.
Another question for you... Compton or tru-arc, what’s your preference/experiences?
Glad it went to a great person though
Cheers Moss, I must be honest, I’ve felt so much jealousy for competition winners over the years that this feels uncomfortably like inverse karma. I am wondering what it is I have to do to put the universe’s equilibream back...
Thd top surface of the bridge pickup (not the pole pieces, but the pickup itself) should be 5/32nds of an inch from the strings. Unlike many Pickups, Gretsch Pickups have to be right up under the strings for best tone.
On Compton Vs Tru Arc, I’m more of a Compton guy. I find the Tru Arc to be a taller bridge, and it can be hard to set correct string action without sanding the bridge base. The exception to this is the Tru Arc Lowrider Serpentune - which is about as perfect a bridge as I’ve ever had, but more tuned to Electromatics with pinned bridges - intonation for Pro Line and Vintage Gretsches, the Compton is my preferred way to go. Titanium is really worth the extra expense, but aluminium and steel are also excellent. I’ve not tried copper or brass. I’m not really a gold hardware guy.
I’ll dig out something about the pole pieces and get back to you
Dbridge
Db guitar parts should find him on Google.
https://imgur.com/a/xeIuL
Start with the pole pieces all the way down. Non of the pole pieces should be raised more than a full turn of the screw. You’ll see the B is all the way down, the low E is raises a half a turn, and the D a full turn.
This is just string balance. If you need more output, raise the pickup as close to the string as possible. This is a guide, a starting point, trust your ears to make those final tweaks. I find it takes me a weekend of playing to setup and tweak Gretsch Pickups to get them ‘just so’.
If you think it still needs more help, get the pickup rewound hotter. It only costs about £50, and is well worth it. It gives a bit more welly, but you still retain that great tone. I love hilotrons. A very underrated pickup.
Chart my say TV Jones, but this works across all Gretsch Pickups, be they single coil or Filtertrons.
I’d be careful about putting a Fiktertron in the bridge, it’ll be a lot more powerful than they neck pickup.
If if you want something different, Mojo now do various Pickups in Filtertron mount, including a cool Charlie Christian, a bladed Filtertron, a P90, and their spectacular Filterfoil (goldfoil).
@musicman100 I’ll Take a look at those bridges and get myself over to gretsch talk.
@TheMarlin that’s fantastic regarding pickup setting. I’m liking these hilotrons enough having had another 20 mins playing today to want to stick with them. I’ll set the hight and then consider a rewind rather than swapping for filtertrons.
Have you tried the M&S lemon and lime jaffas? Fantastic with a cuppa!