DiMarzio New’Tron Filter’Tron Set

The New’Tron neck and bridge Filter’Tron style of pickups are a new thing for DiMarzio. Rest assured this type of pickup is not a new thing to your ears? How so? Let’s take a look.

Heard of a little band from Liverpool called The Beatles? George Harrison played Filter’Tron pickups. How about Brian Setzer? Brian revived rockabilly in the early 80s and resuscitated swing by the mid-90s. Your style is more harder-edged? Have a look at The Cult and Billy Duffy’s alt-rock post-punk playing. And there is no higher street cred to be given than Malcom Young. Yep, he also used Filter’Tron style pickups. I like my metal to flow like hot lava. But my music library is also packed with those players.

What Is A Filter’Tron?

The short version is that it’s a humbucker. Two similar coils put together to FILTER out elecTRONic interference. Development of the original Filter’Tron coincides with the original humbucker pickups as we known them. Two places working on the same idea at the same time with varying results.

For now, one of the most significant differences to consider is the pole spacing from bobbin to bobbin is closer than what we know as a traditional humbuckers. Which is to say the bobbins aren’t a big from north to south… or from neck side to bridge side. As such, the poles are not as far apart. We will talk about that a little more in a second.

Installation

For this application, I am using the handy dandy humbucker-size mounting hardware. Fret not (ha! a pun!), as this comes with the each pickup. If you can install any regular pickup, you can install the mounting hardware.

As such, this set is going into a two-hum guitar. The harness as Bourns 500k pots, a Pure-Tone 1/4″ jack, and a Switchcraft 3-way toggle. Strings are 09-42 with an E standard tuning.

Evaluation

Wow! These are fun pickups.

FIrst off, they are super clean. That’s the thing with the north and south bobbins being skinnier. The closer proximity of the poles affords a more narrow focus. Obviously not as distinct as a single coil, maybe a little closer to a P90 for example. But, again, hum-canceling.

Many people associate jangly clean tones with the Filter’Tron, and that’s definitely a part of the New’Tron tone. Pickup height adjustment goes a long way with the New’Tron, so you can dial in your range of clean from glassy to snappy. Depending on your choice of amps and effects, you can dial in clean tones that are punchy and tones that are ethereal.

Dirty is not so much on player’s minds for this style of pickup. But it should be. We all know how you cannot shake the rock-solid foundation of AC/DC due to the pulsing edgy drive of Malcom Young. Now consider pushing it to full-tilt overdriven saturation. The definition holds true. The clarity is there to be hand under the most demandingly brutal amp tones. The right amp settings and the right playing technique should have no problem using the New’Tron’s precise attack to get some dastardly chugs.

Specs

Demo

Since this article first went live before you smoking hot and hungry eyeballs, Cameron Cooper has produced a most excellent demo video that I’m thrilled to share with you cool cats. Be sure to Like and Subscribe to Cameron’s YT and other social media channels.

Conclusion

The DiMarzio New-Tron set of Filter’Tron style pickups is going to be good for blues, country, funk, hard rock, alternative, rockabilly, garage, grunge, progressive rock, jazz, classic rock, and even metal. They are available with gold or nickel covers with either black or cream inserts. The mounting options are either traditional or you can use the included mounting hardware for traditional humbucker mounting.

For reference, this DiMarzio New’Tron pickup set evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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