The Chetboard

I recently saw a pair of special design Ray Butts pickups (split string outputs similar to CGP pickups) for sale for around $4000.00 - $5000.00 (I think this price is in the ballpark). Since Ray has passed away, is this the going price for his pickups now, or were these that high due to the special design output? Gruhn Guitars recently had a Gibson CG with Ray Butts pickups for sale for about $200.00 - $300.00 more than one with stock pickups.

Does anyone know if Ray's family will continue offering Ray's pickups for sale? If so, do you have any contact information?

Thanks,
Jeff Stovall

Greed rears it's ugly head. That is a hideous price for pickups.

If you want Butts style pickups I would look into having some gibson humbuckers rewound to 4K and I think you'd come pretty close since that is the main difference between Humbucking and Filter Trons. I think that would get you pretty close even though you only have one set of poles to adjust.

The other option is to go to the TV Jones site and look into Gretsch pickups made to fit Humbucking cavities

I tried to find a way to get hold of Randy Butts (Ray's son) to inquire about the Echo Sonic amp but have come up dry so far.

I agree with Norm....that price is ridiculous. It is just magnets and wire. I bought one a year or two ago for...I think $200....which was still pretty expensive, but I thought is was acceptable as they are scarce. They are nice pickups, but they aren't anything that special.

Thank ya'll for the information. I agree, $200-$300 should be plenty for pickups of any kind.

Norm,
I emailed Tim at midnightbowlersleague@yahoo.com recently concerning the Echo Sonic amp. He worked with Randy Butts making the reisuues, and he is still planning to make them. He might be a source for you to contact. He also suggested rewinding my neck pickup to 4k as opposed to purchasing another pickup.

Thanks,
Jeff Stovall

A friend just told me that Randy Butts passed away a couple of years ago.

Tom (TV) Jones is a very bright young man. He has torn apart about every pickup imaginable, and I'm sure he could duplicate the Ray Butts design. They are very good sounding pickups.

Richard Hudson wrote:Tom (TV) Jones is a very bright young man. He has torn apart about every pickup imaginable, and I'm sure he could duplicate the Ray Butts design. They are very good sounding pickups.

Richard,

I ran into Ray Butts' daughter in 2011, and told her that I had picked up one of her dad's pickups. She said that she and TV Jones had talked about making a replica, but she can't find one of his pickups that hasn't been sealed with epoxy. I posted about it on the Chetboard back then, but nobody had one that wasn't sealed up.

If it ever gets done, I assume it will take some serious solvents....

George, thank you for that response. That makes sense. Tom was just fresh on my mind since I just saw him a few days ago and spent quite a lot of time visiting with him. But, you're right, describing things the way you did, it would be very difficult for him to find out about that particular design.