West Coast Ramble's Mini Biography Of Ray Butts
- Thread starter ZackyDog
- Start date
Teledriver
Country Gent
Nice video, thanks for the link, I didn't know anything about him. That amp, because of the caliber of players that bought and used one, must have been killer! I'd love to be in the same room as the amp!
Superedubb
Electromatic
Thanks for posting this.
What he did not tell is that Ray Butts was massively ripped-off by Gretsch because he only had a hand-shake contract with them. After the company went to Baldwin he did not get a penny from them for using his pickup-design.
afire
Friend of Fred
Interesting. As the patent holder I would assume he could have prevented Gretsch from making FilterTrons without his permission in the absence of a formal agreement. At least until the patent expired, which I believe would have been the beginning of 1974. I never thought about it before, but it makes me wonder if the switch to HiloTron covers for "black top" FilterTrons was for the purpose of getting rid of the patent number.
El Kabong
Electromatic
Interesting video! I didn't hear anything about a patent one way or the other. Do we know who actually applied for it? Maybe Gretsch owned the patent? Maybe he sold the idea to Gretsch for a paltry sum and Gretsch owned the rights? Wouldn't be the first time that situation ever happened. This makes me wonder if Seth Lover owns the patents for PAF pickups.
This might be a possible explanation.
No, it was Butts who filed for patent. He was given an unknown sum for each humbucking pickup that Gretsch built.
I am not sure about the Gibson/Lover-deal, though.
6187LX
Gretschie
I'd always assumed that Gretsch went to the HiLo style cover in the '70s to simplify necessary parts (four to two),but slicing off the patent for legal reasons could certainly be a new twist. Perhaps a case of two birds, one stone.
afire
Friend of Fred
Exactly what I was thinking.
dmunson
Synchromatic
Just out of curiosity, if Mr. Butts and Mr' Lover were both working toward the same goal, the humbucker, was the patents office ever involved on the legal side?
afire
Friend of Fred
Both patents were granted and as far as I know there never was a legal dispute. Neither of them came up with the concept of hum cancellation with multiple coils. That had been around for a long time. My guess is that both parties accepted that while similar, the pickups were different enough to not infringe on each other.
