The History of PU and the Brands That Define It
Ray Butts
The man who created another humbucker, the "Filter Tron"
Today, when you think of the mainstream humbucker pickup, you probably picture that Gibson shape.Gibson began installing humbuckers in 1957. Around the same time, the Filter'Tron pickup appeared. This Filter'Tron, sharing the humbucker structure like Gibson's P-490, is known as "the other humbucker" that emerged in the 1950s. The man who developed this groundbreaking pickup was Ray Butts.
Ray Batz worked as an artist alongside Seymour Duncan and Bill Lawrence, though he was an accordionist rather than a guitarist. While building his career as a performer, Batz brought it to a close following his father's death and began working as an appliance repairman. Shortly thereafter, he launched "Ray Batz Music," a business selling and repairing instruments and amplifiers.
The Development of the Echasonic Amplifier and the Encounter with Chet Atkins
In 1952, his friend, guitarist Bill Goltony, asked him, "Les Paul was playing with an echo effect during a live performance, so I want an amp that can achieve that." So Batz created a prototype by embedding a wire recorder into a Gibson amp.However, a problem arose where noise would occur when the wire crossed its own connection point. After much trial and error, he settled on using tape.
The completed amplifier was named the "Echosonic." Considering that amplifiers with built-in reverb first appeared in the early 1960s, this was an exceptionally early development. The Echosonic is also said to have served as a reference for the later EchoPlex.
In 1954, Batz met the legendary guitarist Chet Atkins. Atkins liked the Echo Sonic and bought it immediately. It is said to have been used in recordings of numerous famous songs, including "Mr. Sandman." This was the fateful meeting between Ray Batz and Chet Atkins.
Development of the Filtertron Pickup
In 1954, Gretsch released the 6120 as Chet Atkins' signature model. This 6120 featured the "Gretsch Dualmond Federatone Pickup" (later known as the Dynasonic), developed by Dualmond.
In 1957, the 6122 Country Gentleman was released. This model was co-developed with Atkins, and its name was derived from a song by Chet Atkins. This model would feature the newly developed Filter'Tron pickup by Batz. The development of the Filter'Tron pickup was significantly influenced by the Echo Sonic amplifier, which had appeared earlier.
Atkins was troubled by hum noise when using the 6120 and Echo Sonic combination at the time, so he consulted Batz. Thus, Batz coincidentally arrived at the same solution as Gibson: hum cancellation.
The pickup thus created featured a humbucker design and was named the "Filter'Tron." Batz pitched the Filter'Tron to Gretsch, and with Atkins' backing, it was installed on the 6122. From then on, more Gretsch models came standard with the Filter'Tron, and it became the signature model for Gretsch pickups.
The Filter'Tron, like the Gibson, features a humbucker configuration, but it is constructed smaller than the Gibson. This results in a narrower pole piece spacing compared to the Gibson. Additionally, it employed Alnico magnets or ferrite magnets that were approximately twice as thick as those used in the Gibson. Consequently, it produced a pickup with a sound characteristic that was easier to project in the high frequencies and possessed a crisp, clean tone.
Had the Filter'Tron not been developed, other Gretsch pickups like the Hi-Lo'Tron and Super'Tron would never have been created, and Gretsch guitars' standing in the modern era would be entirely different. Considering this, Ray Batz's contribution was truly monumental.