Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ok....HiLo's on the Tenny....that helps. Now if I just knew which recordings he used it on so I could get an idea of the sound. I'll have to read up....

He used it frequently on the "Beatles for sale" and "Help!" LPs.
Although on Help! they used their Stratocasters, too.

Well, thank you all for your advice ... but I must say that it is little help to me at the moment. It would be very nice if somebody could answer my question, how the various TV Jones and Gretsch pickups sound compared to Rickenbacker pickups.

You see, I am planning to have a guitar custom built. And the luthier who is going to do this has a great semi-acoustic model with a perfect acoustic sound. It is a guitar with a huge body similar to a Gretsch - and its construction allows an incredibly fast attack while retaining an impressive sustain. Normally he sells the guitar with P90-pickups. I do not like these and now I am wondering which pickpus I should ask him to put in. Rickenbacker humbuckers? Gretsch humbuckers? Gretsch single coils? TV Jones humbuckers?

Sounds like you're looking for some sort of sonic guarantee, Markus.

On a big hollowbody, P-90s would be my last choice! And that's the plus and minus of personal preferences, too.

I don't know how we could be more specific, especially when you're talking about putting the pickups in a huge hollowbody guitar (which adds more color to the pickups' sound than a solidbody would.)

Big-bodied Ricks (F series) sound incredible with toasters. They've got "more of everything" that people love toasters for.

The same goes for the FTs. Big, juicy sound, and more of it.

What's YOUR preference?

Paul: reading again what I have written, I must say that you are right: it sounds like I was looking for a sonic guarantee ... I know that nobody can give me such a guarantee, of course.

Now, all I know about Gretsch guitars is, that I like their sound on recordings of George Harrison, Chris Isaaks and Brian Setzer. I have never played one of these guitars or held one in my hands.

What irritates me in particular is the low impedance of the Gretsch pickups. So I wonder how these pickups sound and react compared to Rickenbacker pickups. Is there more hum and noise with a Gretsch single coil compared to a RIC single coil? Are the Rickenbacker pickups much louder compared to Gretsch pickups? a.s.o.

I am pretty sure that the guitar in question would sound good with Rickenbacker humbuckers, but I already own 2 guitars with these pickups and I think that I should try something else now.

Just youtube the Beatles playing "Daytripper". GH uses the Tenny in the lipscynh vid. Oh wait, I'll just post the link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2UYRoti-tY

There's a closeup shot that clearly shows the Hilos. Also, if you go to this link and scroll down a few photographs there are two clear shots of GH and his Tenny: http://www.thecanteen.com/harrison4.html

Here's a shot of mine for good measure

Just youtube the Beatles playing "Daytripper". GH uses the Tenny in the lipscynh vid. Oh wait, I'll just post the link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2UYRoti-tY

There's a closeup shot that clearly shows the Hilos. Also, if you go to this link and scroll down a few photographs there are two clear shots of GH and his Tenny: http://www.thecanteen.com/harrison4.html

Here's a shot of mine for good measure

doctorno wrote:What irritates me in particular is the low impedance of the Gretsch pickups. So I wonder how these pickups sound and react compared to Rickenbacker pickups. Is there more hum and noise with a Gretsch single coil compared to a RIC single coil? Are the Rickenbacker pickups much louder compared to Gretsch pickups?

I compared briefly the sound of my '07 660DCM to my '61 6117. The outputs of the toasters and HiLotrons are virtually identical and the RIC seems to have a bit more hum than the Gretsch. Tonally, the toasters have more jangle, as expected, but the sweet mids are what make me pick up the Gretsch far more often then the 660.

Hope this helps you, Markus.

I think trying to put sound into words is very hard. There are better ways to make up your mind on sound. TV Jones has a web sight go to his websight and then go to sound clips. Each one of his pickups can be listened to with some choices either clean or dirty treble or bass pickup or boath. He has even come out with a dynasonic which he just finished making. Recently put to supertrons in my Black gretsch 6120 and that thing sounds great.The supertron idea was based on the charlie christion bar pick up only 2 bars and humbucking. Check his websight out Also seymore dunkin same deal soundclips on websight so you can make up your mind. This will help Ron

I like the Dynasonics.

I wouldn't use Filtertrons unless they were the TV Jones Filtertrons, but I'd still rather have Dynasonics.

doctorno wrote:Well, thank you all for your advice ... but I must say that it is little help to me at the moment. It would be very nice if somebody could answer my question, how the various TV Jones and Gretsch pickups sound compared to Rickenbacker pickups.

You see, I am planning to have a guitar custom built. And the luthier who is going to do this has a great semi-acoustic model with a perfect acoustic sound. It is a guitar with a huge body similar to a Gretsch - and its construction allows an incredibly fast attack while retaining an impressive sustain. Normally he sells the guitar with P90-pickups. I do not like these and now I am wondering which pickpus I should ask him to put in. Rickenbacker humbuckers? Gretsch humbuckers? Gretsch single coils? TV Jones humbuckers?

Markus,

I don't know much about the pickups you're asking about, but I do know a little something about Chris Isaak. Which albums/songs/parts do you like? The reason I ask is that the first albums up through San Francisco Days featured James Wilsey on lead guitar and he played Fender Strats exclusively (and still does on his solo work). So if you like the lead guitar tone on songs like Wicked Game that's not a Gretsch. In fact, Chris plays a one off copy of a Gretsch made by Gibson (check Wikipedia). I wonder what pickups it has? On the more recent albums Hershel Yatovitz plays lead--he uses a Strat among other guitars. Not sure if a Gretsch is among them. Good luck in your quest!

A P

Ok I will try to put into words what nobody else was able to do in one place. Pickup a dvd called chet atkins the early years 1954 to 1974. On that video he plays the whole deal of gretsch pickups. Plays dynasonics,plays filtertrons.plays supertrons all through different years. You will be able to hear the difference for yourself and make up your mind on sound rather then sombodys opinion. Watch the video crank up the volume sit back and take note there is a big difference between all choices of gretsch pickups. Now if you choose gretsch go with tv jones he makes the best gretsch pickups around,you also have the comparison of his web site to compare sound.
Now as far as rickenbacker pickups listen to songs like ticket to ride beatles,birds mr tamborine man take note of the begining of the song first few notes. unmistakable rickenbacker sound. So I hope this helps you in your choices. Ron

Markus: What pickups did you decide on for your custom built guitar?