Magnatrons & overdrive
Hey! A question about Magnatrons: How do they respond to overdrive? I've been thinking of getting an Electromatic Double Jet, and refitting it with some TV Joneses, possibly Magnatrons -- their sound clips on the TVJ site are awesome in clarity and string separation. That's really what I'm looking to bring to an overdriven sound; lots of sparkle and excellent string clarity married with some serious low-end growl. I play rock music, but the sound I'm looking for is very different from typical distorted tones. I use distortion, but no high-gain tones. However, all I have to base my decision on are the sound clips (which admittedly are pretty great) but there's only a dirtied clean sound available. I've been having to resort to my imagination in trying to make a decision between Magnatrons, Powertrons and Classics... Perhaps some of you can help? Thanks, Markus

I run mine through a Roland Cube 60 with all the different effects. IMHO it sounds really cool. From Buddy Holly to Sabbath to Jimmy Page's growling blues it covers it all and sounds great doing it. :D

From Buddy Holly to Sabbath to Jimmy Page's growling blues it covers it all and sounds great doing it. - Thanks! Excellent news...I was a bit concerned with the low-end, knowing that the sound is somewhere in the single coil-ballpark. Not that I'd desire any nu-metal farty tones - my main attraction with the Magnatrons (and TVs in general) is the clearly pronounced, sweet highs and mids. But if Sabbath is in the menu as well, I'm definitely gonna order. :)

i looked for almost a year to find a single coil-like hb for the neck position of my '61 ri lp/sg. i even tried that dimarzio eric johnson pup, which was alright, but not anywhere Near to what i was looking for, nor did it sound like a filtertron. i finally settled on putting the bridge maggie in it (in the em-1 " english mount"), and it is to DIE for!, pretty much NO flub with overdriven tones, using both pedals and my amp's (soultone 45/plexi/jcm) drive, both pre & power (YES!!). it's phenomenal sounding! it gets both the jimi/beck/strat response & dynamics. ridiculously so with amp drive (or a ped/boost into a slightly driven amp), it responds REALLY well to touch & fingering, allowing you to squeeze out all the vowels of the alphbet! in order to use the bridge maggie in the neck, i did have to do a little bit of extra routing underneath to accommodate it's depth, and on the sides so i could angle it for neck pole & string line-up. it also mixes beautifully with the harmonic design z-90 in the bridge. for all i know, the neck version mighta been fine, but i wanted the extra brightness for glassiness in my clean sound, as well as a little extra oomph to better match the volume of the z-90 without losing any clarity in that position. i can't say enough good things about this pickup, and i am SO bloody glad i didn't go with the gfs's just to save $! this particular setup of mine is great for getting strat like tones out of a gibson/mahogany body, while still getting leslie west's creamy tone. now i understand why akkerman had the filtertron in the neck pos of some of his paul's, back when he played in focus! just listen yo "sylvia." ml

Thanks for your input, Muddy! I definitely have a soft spot for strat-like single coil sounds...however, what usually puts me off is the somewhat nasal quality in the strat/tele bridge pu's. Nasal mids in bridge tones are what've turned me away from les pauls as well. As for Gretsches, it's only a matter of time 'till I get me a good one. My first experience was a duojet I came across in '99. Didn't get it at the time, and I've been clamoring for the perfect one ever since. What I've done with my main guitar, and intend to do with all my electrics, is to replace the normal 3-way pickup switch with a balance pot. I love this modification; it really helps bring out all the variations of different pickup combinations. Plan to do it with maggies as well.