Post by antigua on Nov 24, 2016 4:50:42 GMT -5
www.tvjones.com/supertron-pickups.html
This pickup fits TV Jones' TV Classic foot print, except that rather than using bobbins with twelve screws, the bobbins have rectangular centers, through which relatively thick steel "blades" recess, and flank an AlNiCo 5 bar in between the coils. The layout is essentially the same as most common "blade" or "rail" pickups on the market. The "blades" are only secured by the wax used to pot the pickup, the blades can be pull out from the top, especially if the blades are heated and the wax is loosened.
These are certainly hotter than TV Classics, but for an interesting reason: the steel blades jack up the inductance, for the fact that they fill the coil's core far more completely with a permeable medium. There is virtually no air in the core. If you look at the DC resistances, they are very close, and in fact I see 200 ohms less for the Super'tron bridge, that says they have roughly the same amount of wire on the coils, but the inductance in roughly 35% higher: 2.1H to 3.3H for the bridge, and 1.5H to 2.4H for the neck. As a result, the loaded peaks of the Super'trons are well over 1kHz lower than the TV Classics.
The neck and bridge pickups are also unusually close together in terms of output, probably on account of the dominance of the steel blades, of which the neck and bridge share the the dimensions.
My personal feeling is that these hot Filter'tron get a little too far away from the ultra-bright Filter'tron roots, leaning towards a PAF tone, I guess responding to market forces. I with TV Jones might have under-wound these relative to the TV Classics, so that the loaded peak would not be quite so far south of the TV Classic. 500Hz? OK. 1,500Hz? That's a bit much. Lowering these pickups seems to tame or tighten up the low end, but they remain thicker, darker pickups all the same. They're great for rocking out, maybe not so ideal for rockabilly.
TV Jones Super'tron Bridge
Resistance: 4.75k ohms
Inductance: 3.263H @120hz
Gauss: 350G - 375G
Unloaded: dV:0.4dB f: 7.72kHz (black)
Loaded (200k & 470pF): dV:0.1dB f: 3.24kHz (red)
TV Jones Super'tron Neck
Resistance: 4.04k ohms
Inductance: 2.356 @120hz
Gauss: 350G - 375G
Unloaded: dV:-0.4dB f:8.85kHz (green)
Loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 0.0dB f:3.85kHz (gray)
Bode Plot:
It can be seen that, compared to Filter'trons, the Q factor is a tad lower, due to the larger conductive core. It has slight 1 to 2dB dip in the upper mid range, but is overall fairly transparent ahead of the resonant cut-off. I suspect that an under wound Super'tron, with an extended frequency range, would sound really nice.
Pics:
This pickup fits TV Jones' TV Classic foot print, except that rather than using bobbins with twelve screws, the bobbins have rectangular centers, through which relatively thick steel "blades" recess, and flank an AlNiCo 5 bar in between the coils. The layout is essentially the same as most common "blade" or "rail" pickups on the market. The "blades" are only secured by the wax used to pot the pickup, the blades can be pull out from the top, especially if the blades are heated and the wax is loosened.
These are certainly hotter than TV Classics, but for an interesting reason: the steel blades jack up the inductance, for the fact that they fill the coil's core far more completely with a permeable medium. There is virtually no air in the core. If you look at the DC resistances, they are very close, and in fact I see 200 ohms less for the Super'tron bridge, that says they have roughly the same amount of wire on the coils, but the inductance in roughly 35% higher: 2.1H to 3.3H for the bridge, and 1.5H to 2.4H for the neck. As a result, the loaded peaks of the Super'trons are well over 1kHz lower than the TV Classics.
The neck and bridge pickups are also unusually close together in terms of output, probably on account of the dominance of the steel blades, of which the neck and bridge share the the dimensions.
My personal feeling is that these hot Filter'tron get a little too far away from the ultra-bright Filter'tron roots, leaning towards a PAF tone, I guess responding to market forces. I with TV Jones might have under-wound these relative to the TV Classics, so that the loaded peak would not be quite so far south of the TV Classic. 500Hz? OK. 1,500Hz? That's a bit much. Lowering these pickups seems to tame or tighten up the low end, but they remain thicker, darker pickups all the same. They're great for rocking out, maybe not so ideal for rockabilly.
TV Jones Super'tron Bridge
Resistance: 4.75k ohms
Inductance: 3.263H @120hz
Gauss: 350G - 375G
Unloaded: dV:0.4dB f: 7.72kHz (black)
Loaded (200k & 470pF): dV:0.1dB f: 3.24kHz (red)
TV Jones Super'tron Neck
Resistance: 4.04k ohms
Inductance: 2.356 @120hz
Gauss: 350G - 375G
Unloaded: dV:-0.4dB f:8.85kHz (green)
Loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 0.0dB f:3.85kHz (gray)
Bode Plot:
It can be seen that, compared to Filter'trons, the Q factor is a tad lower, due to the larger conductive core. It has slight 1 to 2dB dip in the upper mid range, but is overall fairly transparent ahead of the resonant cut-off. I suspect that an under wound Super'tron, with an extended frequency range, would sound really nice.
Pics: