TV Jones Magna'tron, Analysis and Review

[antigua]

www.tvjones.com/magnatron-pickups.html




This set is shares a lot in common with Fender Stratocasters pickups. Based on the Gauss readings, and to some extent the Q factor, it appears that the twelve pole pieces are a lower AlNiCo grade, 2 or 3. The bobbins use fiber flatwork like Strat pickups, and though I can't see it, I suspect the coil wire is wound directly around the magnets.

The bridge pickup appears to be wound quite a bit hotter than the neck, with 3k ohms more resistance, 1.8 Henries more inductance, and a loaded peak that is over 2kHz lower than the neck pickup. I can hear the difference, the bridge is bright, but clearly nowhere near as thin as the neck pickup.

The bode plots closely resemble Stratocaster single coil plots with AlNiCo 2 or 3 pole pieces. The fairly efficient Filter'tron "H" cover combined with the lower resistance AlNiCo and air core make for rather low damping. And where as the TV HT uses lots of thick steel for structural purposes, the Magna'trons use fiber flat work and a wood spacer, non-conductive materials that cause no eddy current damping at all. 

Long story short, these pickups are more like two Stratocaster pickups set side by side and wired together, rather than a Filter'tron.

They are very bright pickups. They should probably be paired with 250k pots, and the guitar should probably have a tone control to bring down the Q factor and restrain the high end response. I used a concentric pot in my Cabronita to get a tone control, and I keep it around 50%.

Though I don't yet know why, it tends to be that higher flux density results in a perceived sharper pick attack, a really abrupt transient, or something like that, and that's definitely the case here. Of course, bright pickups tend to sound sharper, but these are definitely sharper sounding than TV Classics. 

If you are into the lower output pickups, the TV Hilo'trons, or TV Classics, then I recommend trying this set out as another variety of tone that features unmatched clarity. 




TV Jones Magna'tron Bridge
Resistance: 8.01k ohms
Inductance: 3.121H
Gauss: 580G - 630G

Unloaded:              dV: 9.1dB f: 6.21kHz (black)
Loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 4.1dB f: 3.28kHz (red)


TV Jones Magna'tron Neck
Resistance: 5.06k ohms
Inductance: 1.329H
Gauss: 580G - 630G

Unloaded:              dV: 6.9dB f: 9.81kHz (green)
Loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 4.3dB f: 5.36kHz (gray)


Bode plot:





Pics:

[stratotarts]

5.36k - that has to be the highest frequency neck we've ever seen.
When you add together the two ~600 Gauss poles for every string per pickup, isn't that a lot of string pull? Or is the whole string pull problem overstated?

[antigua]

I did test for string pull, but there was nothing noteworthy about it. If I set the neck pickup very close to the strings, closer than you would ever think to set them, and then play high frets on the low E and A, then it did have a sort of chorus effect. It didn't even sound bad. 

Even though 600 + 600 = the 1200 associated with AlNiCo 5 Strat pickups, the fact that the magnets are spaced somewhat apart seems to prevent them from forming a specific node that would cause a noticeable intermodulation. I also didn't observe any noticeable change in the sustain. 

I'd say string pull is a non issue with these pickups, and maybe even further say this shows that in order for string pull to cause an intermodulation, the magnetic pull has to be focus in a particular place, or places. It can be tested further by holding some magnets close to a guitar string by hand and listening to the effect.