Magna'trons!!!
I have a pair of Powertrons in my Epi dot, loved the tone for awhile but found it to be a bit dark for that guitar...so, I just put in an order for a pair of Magnatrons the other day and I'm really excited. Any other Magnatron owners out there that would like to pump me up even more by bragging about how great their tone is?! Ha...I knew this forum would be a bad idea for me. -Mike :D

I recently tried a cheap modded solid body guitar with a Magnatron in the bridge position - sounded amazingly well for that instrument. I was wondering if you could describe how the pup sounds in the neck position (say, comparing to TV Classic or the others). Thanks!

I haven't gotten the pickups yet, they should be here Friday, so as soon as I get them in I'll let you know how the neck pickup sounds.

Andre, I just installed the Magna'trons in bridge and neck positions. They sound great! Just what I was looking for. The neck position is obviously not as 'hot' as the bridge, it has a single coil quality to it, almost like a telecaster, but with more body, and definition. Also, it remains clear not muddy, unless of course you add some drive to it. Compared to the Classics they are overall brighter and gritier, which is best for me because I'd rather have plenty of treble than not enough, you can always adjust your tone accordingly. The Powertrons are much darker than all the other models. They have a great midrange quality to them, but I found them to lack clarity for my guitar. So, after three attempts (Classics, then Powertrons, and finally the Magnatrons) I have found my sound! TV Jones has been a big help and Tom was very helpful on the phone, if you have any questions about what you're looking for call them up, they can talk you through it. Every guitar is different so you may want something different, but for me it's Magnatrons all the way. Hope this helps Andre.

Mike, thanks a lot for sharing your observations! This was very descriptive and helpful! I think I'll get my Fat-Tele a neck Magnatron :-) Looks like this is exactly what I needed... Thanks again and all the best to you!

You're welcome Andre, after playing around more, I actually found the Magna'trons a bit too bright in the bridge position, so I'm considering what many people seem to have done...getting the classics or classic plus in the bridge. I love the sound of the Magna'tron neck and I think the classic will be a better match with it. However, if you don't have the option of exchanging the Magna'tron bridge you installed, you can back off the tone of the bridge and leave the neck as is (that is if you have a tone control knob for each pickup). After doing that, I found that the Magna'trons as a pair had a more cohesive sound. I am kind of a tone freak and prefer to have a pickup that needs no tone adjustment on the guitar itself, thus bringing out its true tone. But, I'm sure you'll be VERY happy with the two together, also my guitar is quite dark sounding and this could be a reason the two didn't mesh together well. Like I said, every guitar is different. Good luck Andre and let me know how it sounds! -THANKS AGAIN TO TOM JONES for spending about 25 minutes on the phone with me yesterday talking about how to achieve the tone I've been spending years trying to achieve. I'm 75% of the way there! and I'm more excited than ever!!!

This subject of what works best where, with what guitar, with what amp with which styles of music is FUN!:D I've been bouncing from TVJ sound clip to TVJ sound clip and back again so many times I've darn near worn out my keyboard! Every time I think I got it figured out I read something on some forum and I'm back to square #1 again!:roll: I know my requirements; I just don't know the answer! Simple; really. Been a fan of Chet and Duane since about 1958. Between '58 and '62 bought seventeen Chet LPs and six of Duanes. Prefer earlier Chet rather than later. Fiddle will be a 5120. Amp will be Vox DA5 and will spend most of it's time on the clean channels. Gonna have two big holes under the strings of my new guitar and need to find what's best to fill them!

After listening to the sound files umpteen million times myself I finally bit the bullet and ordered the mags. They sounded way too cool.

I've been doin' more sound clip surfin' this morning trying to finalize things myself. Almost have it down to maybe Maggie at the bridge and Classic at the neck. Wish there was a way on the site to combine a bridge of one with the neck of another to get an accurate "both". I normally play clean on the neck pup with Chet as my hero, unless I wanna do some Duane stuff; so a brighter Maggie on the bridge shouldn't be a problem as long as the two different pups are compatible on the "both" setting. The ideal would be "Duane" through the bridge; "Early Chet" from "Both" and "Later Chet" through the neck. The plan is to get a DA5 modeling amp with a goodly number of different amp selections and sound options available. Hopefully I can mix and match with the various built-in sounds to get a reasonable representation of my three target tones. I just hope that the inexpensive guitar and even less expensive amp won't conspire together and knock the socks offa the pups. ...some folks are suggesting that cheaper GFS and off-the-shelf Filter'trons would be good-enough, considering the level of rest of the rig that will be used. I dunno....TVJ just has such a good reputation. EDIT: Yeah; the more I think of it the more I lean toward the Magnetron at the bridge and the classic at the neck. The practice amp may be a limiting factor if I play through the speaker, but if I play through my earphones it should help considerably. .....Alessandro MS2i, great with guitar. Then there's the wiring harness inside the 5120....from what I read; it's just gotta go. If I back up the TV pups with a TV harness, I'll have a fiddle with an all American voice, playing through all American earphones! Tom; ya outta put out some US flag decals suitable for installing near the guitar S/N with country of origin, saying something like"Made in USA/voiced in USA"!

I got the mags last night and installed them. A definite step up from those crap stock hummies that come in a S101. I am going to go with a slightly thicker strings and have been messing with different height adjustments on the pick ups and the strings to get the sound I want dialed in. I also found I had a crapped put tone pot so I need to pick up one of those also, so I cant give a definitive sound review until then. That being said I can tell you they still sound very nice. :D

Congrats dude! There was a Gold Magnatron Engligh Mount for sale in the Christmas sale that I wanted to buy for my Les Paul Gem (P90s originally), but it was sold before I got the money. Kinda sucks. I still might get one though. I'm really interested in the Magnatrons. They look incredible.

Is that the exact one you bought?

lol Congrats bro! Well if you ever get tired of it, I've got a beautiful Gibson that wants it badly. :) Have fun with her.