A customer brought in his 1964 Gretsch Anniversary for customization.

This guitar is originally equipped with Hilotrons. But the customer needed something with a bit more punch and growl. So I suggested making these P-90 style pickups that fit in a customized filtertron housing.

The bobbin consists of a fiberglass base, teflon bushings and a vulcanized fiberboard for the top. Just like on a standard P-90, each pickup gets 2 big Alnico V bar magnets under the base plate.

For the neck pickup I’ll do 7200 winds of awg 42 and for the bridge 8400 winds of awg 43. The extra winds on the bridge pickup will balance the volume between the neck and bridge pickup. The bigger wire gauge in the neck position will keep it from sounding muddy, while the thinner wire gauge for the bridge results in a rounder and smoother bass responds in this position.

Once installed these brand new pickups blend in really nicely on this vintage 1964 guitar. By the way, the bridge is also custom made by yours truly, as a replacement for the original wooden bridge that seemed to suck up all the sustain of this guitar.