TV Jones Guitar Pickups Blog

Introducing an all-American made answer to the modern DynaSonic/DeArmond pickup. The TV Jones T-Armond uses all American-made magnets and an improved design that makes this pickup look and sound much better than a modern DeArmond. With adjustable cylinder magnets, each string can be dialed in for the perfect, sweet DeArmond tone.

Many players of modern DynaSonic pickups complain that the neck pickup has too much output and is too boomy, and the bridge pickup is too thin and bright. Our answer is the T-Armond, which has a clear, transparent and balanced tone in the neck position and a thicker sounding bridge version that has wider pole spacing, which places a magnet directly under each string, resulting in optimum string separation and output. Traditional DeArmonds (as well as most pickups) have the same pole spacing at the neck and bridge. All TV Jones bridge pickups are designed with this wider pole spacing and the T-Armond is no exception.

Another innovation is the T-Armond in a P-90 soapbar mount. You can now replace a stock P-90 with a DeArmond style pickup without having to modify your guitar. A really cool combination is a P-90 in the neck and T-Armond in the bridge. This combo can add unmatched versatility and texture to your guitar.

The T-Armond comes with 2-conductor “switchable” wiring to solve any out-of-phase issues, and is available in Chrome, Nickel and Gold cover. Click Here to order.

We get a lot of calls from folks who want to improve the sound of their Gretsch Pro-Jet by replacing the stock Gretsch mini-humbuckers with TV Jones pickups. The level of difficulty of this mod is somewhat high. Not terribly difficult, but it does require many steps. We’ll go through each step with accompanying photos.

Step 1.
Measure neck cavity depth.
Some of the newer Jet pickup cavities are shallower than other models.
The neck pickup cavity may need to be routed if it is at 1/2″ depth.

Step 2.
Measure the bridge cavity.
With the bridge cavity depth at 7/16″, a short bridge pickup is needed.

Step 3.
If necessary, route the neck cavity to proper depth.

Step 4.
Check the depth of the neck pickup.
The top of the pickup should be level with the pickup ring.

Step 5.
Insert the bottom shim into bridge cavity.
This is needed so the mounting screws have something to bite into.

Step 6.
Screw bottom shims into bridge and neck cavities. Then wire-up your pickups.

Step 7.
Place compression rubber over the bottom wooden shims.
These are needed for fine height adjustment.

Step 8.
Make sure both pickups are centered with both E strings before the
pickup mounting screws are installed.

Step 9.
Use pin vise with .078″ drill to drill pilot holes for mounting screws.
Notice angle of drill bit — Perpendicular to E stings for proper pickup angle.
Screw in the mounting screws.

Step 10.
Screw in the side filler-blocks.
Use mounting screws from stock pickups to mount filler blocks.

Pickup ring mounting screws will now have something to bite into.

Step 11.
Install pickup rings.

Step 12.
String it up!

All of the parts needed for making this mod are available HERE.

When choosing a TV Jones pickup there are two main choices you need to make:

1. The type of pickup you desire (eg; TV Classic, Power’Tron, Magna’Tron etc.) and
2. The mounting option that is needed for the pickup to fit correctly into your guitar

This article deals specifically with a very popular mounting option called the English mount. This mount refers not to the country in the UK but is named for the guy who inspired the design, Mister Jim English.

EM-1 (side view)

EM-1 (front view)

EM-2 (side view)

EM-2 (front view)

The English Mount is one of our most popular mounting options because it allows you to easily drop the pickup assembly into an existing humbucking style pickup cavity. The pickup mounts to the ring itself and does not need to be screwed directly into the body of the guitar.

The EM-1 is suspended on a Gibson-style pickup ring (or bezel). This is a great option for many Gibson and Epiphone guitars (Les Paul, Flying V, Epi Sheraton) as well as the Ibanez Artcore.

The EM-1 fits into most standard humbucker cavities and is available with a cream or black ring and chrome, nickel or gold cover & screws.

The second style of English Mount is the EM-2. This mounting option is suspended on a Gretsch pickup ring (or bezel) and is the ideal solution for switching out stock Gretsch pickups on the Electromatic 5120 / 5122 series guitars. No routing is necessary, The EM-2 will drop right into your existing cavities. You will need to drill small pilot holes for the new Gretsch pickup ring (no big deal). The EM-2 is not designed for use in 6120 series guitars. For the 6120 you would use a standard mount which screws directly into the bracing of the guitar.

When swapping out TV Jones EM-2 English mounted pickups in the 5120 series you will be able to wire them directly to the stock wiring harness. However, if you wish to upgrade your  wiring harness, for higher fidelity and trouble free operation,  you can order a prewired TV Jones Wiring Harness which includes higher quality CTS pots, and a Switchcraft switch and input jack.

The Gretsch 5129 series guitars come with metric components made overseas. You can greatly enhance the tone of your 5120 series guitar by replacing the stock pickups and wiring harness with American-made TV Jones TV Classic pickups in the DeArmond mount.

These videos show step-by-step how to make this modification in order to transform this mid-level guitar into a screamin’ tone machine.

Factory Gretsch guitars come equipped with wooden “shims” under the pickups. This couples the pickup with the guitar body and can sometimes move the pickup too close to the strings, which is not desirable. You can replace these shims with compression rubber. You can order a set of compression rubber here or use computer mouse pad material. Filter’Tron style pickups are extremely sensitive, so having this compression rubber underneath allows for much more control over the height of the pickup.

You will now have much more flexiblity on the height of your pickup and will be able to get the height “just right”.