Please note - all items are currently marked as out of stock as I progress my current order book and while I am away during March. Please check back during April when my books should reopen. Thank you so much for your understanding and support.

The GRIZZLY BearTron - The SUNBEAR BearTron Standard Pickup – More Brown-Bear Grizzle!

Our BearTron pickups are the SUNBEAR take on the much-loved Filtertron Humbucker designed by Ray Butts in the mid 50s. Indeed, it is often argued that while Gibson got the required paperwork in order before Butts, it was actually the Filtertron that takes the mantel as the first production Humbucking guitar pickup. Differing from Gibson’s version in numerous small but absolutely essential ways the Tron offers a much narrower, taller, and low wound coil geometry twinned with a larger, more powerful magnet. This seemingly contradictory approach leads to a notably “twangier”, grittier character and a huge presence that very much proves that there’s a whole lot more to a pickups power than its resistance reading.

From the Country, Rockabilly foundations that served as the birthing place for the Tron, they are now appreciated for the truly flexible, multi-faceted design they really are. They can be found in everything from doom-laden metal to hard rock, indie, blues and right back round to country once again. The common factor being that, when done right, they just sound so fantastic. As with all our pickups, we take great care in every area of production of the BearTrons to make each version as musical and appropriate for the player as we possibly can.

· BRIDGE AV +/- 7k: A genuinely overwound Tron with the correctly sized magnet and rather than dropping to a thinner wire gauge to reach this output, we simply take great care in the winding process as we build the coil. The final tone bridges the gap between a classic PAF-type humbucker and the tonal signature of the standard BearTron. Sweetly restrained high end clarity is twinned with a massive, punchy lower midrange push. These are absolutely monstrous fun with gain or a full on fuzz tone.

· NECK AV +/- 5K: Only mildly overwound in comparison to the standard version for the sake of balance and maintaining the irrepressible character. A neck position Tron is so charming. It works beautifully for rootsy blues bars and chewy, evocative lead work. Clear and very open sounding with a nice balanced frequency response. An ideal tonic to the wild-eyed edge of the bridge model.

This set is offered as standard with two-conductor vintage braid wiring and thin nickel covers. If you like four-conductor wiring for splitting this pickup etc, please let us know when ordering. If you would like your set aged or virtually any other tweak please do get in touch; various contact options are available here.

• CURRENT LEAD TIME FOR WINDING AND ASSEMBLY BEFORE SHIPPING: 39-44 WORKING DAYS.