Lindy Fralin Blues Special

Great sounding vintage style pickups for Strat, just a little overwound.

Installed in a Warmouth partsocaster. Warmoth body and neck, Callaham bridge.

A little more output than a vintage pup, but not a lot. I play through a Carr Vincent amp. Some pedals, mostly analog stuff. Classic Rock, Blues, Americana music. These pups work for all this and more, I'm sure. Great sounds in every position, including the bridge pup alone. I generally keep my tone controls backed off to about 7, or else things are a litle too bright.

I have had Fralins before, although not this model. I had the Vintage Hots in two Strats a few years ago. Lindy's stuff is top notch.
I am nearly 60, been playing professionally and semi-professionally for decades.
If you want a killer Strat sound, these will give it to you.

Single coil passive

* What model guitar or bass did you install this in?
1985 american strat
* What position is it in?
neck, middle, bridge
* What pickup are you replacing?
Fender noiseless jeff beck
* Other pickups installed on the instrument?
none
* Any artists using this pickup?
a few i'd imagine
* Reason for changing the pickup?
many

* What's the output level like?
Very, very good
* What amps and effects are you using it with?
Tubeworks 410 combo, Fulltone OCD
* Tone - Bassy, middy, muddy, trebly, balanced?
Perfect. they Wail like a son-of-a-gun
* What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
jimi, stevie, freddie, bb, clapton, mayer beck thats about it lol
* For which positions is this pickup (un)suitable?
none. bad-A$%

They take your playing up a notch. I play 3-4 nights out a week. and practice on my days off. Its killer, nice sparkle and chime through most amps. they came with the blender pot and Angela instruments.047 uf cap. I installed them as well as a 500k tone pot. Well worth it. I had it with the stock wiring and it was a little weak. Since I made the change the sound is flawless. I've been playing for 20+ years, music school and teach private lessons. IMO they are higher quality than the texas specials. They do fender better than fender does lol. a little price, but a good overall value. thats it.

how many features are there in a set of single coil strat pickups?

Passive -- hand wound -- wax sealed -- specialized neck, middle and bridge in the set -- cloth covered wiring.

The instructions that came with the pickups were weak, but I did not care because I used a non-standard wiring with one volume and one tone (the second tone control is not wired)

The Lindy Fralin pickups were installed on a late '80's Fender American Standard Stratocaster. It is midnight blue (looks blue/purple). It came with the standard stratocaster pickups. The stock pickups were really nice. That was the problem; I did not want my strat to sound nice. I wanted it to have an edge. The strat hung on the wall for about 15 years without being played. Finally I tried a set of SD Tall Texan pickups. They had an edge and were hotter than the standard pickups, but the sound was not right. So the strat hung on the wall for another five years. One other thing I changes was to remove that funky stacked pot for one of the tone controls. I bought new pots and switch and rewired the pickups to run through one volume and one tone (not the stacked pot).

The stock strat pups were nice but a little weak. The SD pups were strong and loud, but did not sound right and had a little shrill edge no matter what I tried.

The Lindy Fralin Blues Special absolutely nailed the sound I was looking for from my American Standard Strat. It can be sweet. It can have a rough edge, it can have a smooth edge. For the first time, the neck pickup in my Strat actually has a great sound too.

I have a Fender Blues Jr amp. It has different power and pre-amp tubes than the stock tubes. I also pulle the Fender speaker and put in a Celestion Century.

My other amp is a Fender Blues Deluxe 60th Anniversery Reissue. It also has different tubes (power tubes - baised by a pro) and a Celestion Century speaker. I use a Line6 PODxt for a pre-amp.

On the instrument, all volume settings are great, from low to high. It is all good.

The tone from the Lindy Fralin Blues Specials pickups provides exactly the tone I wanted from my Strat. It has amazing presence, a sweet midrange without the duck quack or shrill edge. Ok, I can make it quack, but it only quacks if I want it too. From sweet, mellow, too edgy and nasty, too crankin' hard rock, with the Lindy Fralin pickups the strat does it all. It does a mean dusty texas blues shuffle and really digs in for some solid blues. It even rocks.

The Lindy Fralin Blues Special have made my strat what I wanted it to be. Finally...

The only problem is that my Gibson Custom Shop 336 sounded perfect the moment I picked it up. It is my #1. At least the Strat now has a place as #2 instead of hanging on the wall doing nothing. MY old tele has moved down to #3.

Single coil or humbucking? Active or passive?

Single coil

What model guitar or bass did you install this in?

Fender Mexican Strat

What pickup are you replacing?

Stock


Reason for changing the pickup?

Stock pickups leave alot to want

What's the output level like?

Beautiful, its balanced and very warm, it allows your guitar to sing just like SRV. Its a very hot pickup and can allow you to get a warm blues sound without the $1000 tube amps

What amps and effects are you using it with?

Fender Blues Junior NOS Tweed

Tone - Bassy, middy, muddy, trebly, balanced?
Orgasmic

Rich and high in balance. Its amazing you will never want to change

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?

Slow Blues, Blues, Rock Blues.... ***** this pickup is amazing for blues!

If it was destroyed or stolen, would you buy it again or get something else?

Buy it again for sure!

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?

About 2 1/2 years Fender blues Junior NOS Tweed, and a TS

What do you love about it? What do you hate?

I love all of it. I hate nothing

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?

I did some shopping around, but the guy at Steviesnacks.com (Anthony Stauffer) said that these are the way to go.
I asked him about the Fender Texas Special Single Coil, but he said that this pickup will take your guitar playing to a whole new level. I agree.

Are you satisfied with this pickup or still searching for <b>that</b> sound?

Im satisfied with the pickup, but I'm still searching for a clean John Mayer solo tone. I think a Keeley's Katana would be a great clean boost for my tone and for solos.

Single coil, RWRP on Mid pup, bass plate installed on bridge.

I put a set of these in a 2008 American Stratocaster. I own 3 strats, all American. Stock pickups in any strat you get off of a shelf are going to leave a lot desired, unless you get a Custom Shop. Fender makes a hell of a guitar, but they need to do a little Research and development on their pups.

Very hot. I didnt know when i got them ( my second set of fralins, i have a set in the tele) that they would have such an enormous amount of output in them. But, i will never take these out of this strat. Clear as a bell, very responsive, and very accurate. I think there is a lot to be said about hand wound pickups, i know Lollar has a hell of a lineup, and i have been using primarily his, but Fralin has a lot to offer. These are one of the best sounding pickups i have thrown in a strat ( and the tele pickups are fantastic as well). I play primarily through a Crate Palomino V32 ( hell of an amp, that is one company to keep an eye on. Their am made amps are to die for) and the cleans i get out of these pups will melt your heart. The gain on the amp is a little weak, i play through an original TS808, and these pickups are made for dirt. Warm as hell. Great sounding set. Get them now.

Great pickups. I will be checking a couple more of his sets in the near future, and i hope they are a match for these. Dont hesitate, they are a little pricey, but anything worth a damn is. GET THEM NOW!!!!

Single coils for Strats. A little hotter than their vintage set.

I've had an American made Fender Strat I bought new in 2000 or so that I have never really liked. It had a thin sound with the fender pickups, and as a result, didn't play it much at all over the years. Hung onto it cuz I liked the look of it, but it was the least favorite of all my guitars. I've got some nice ones ... Les Pauls, Strats, Tele's Gretsch and some handmade guitars as well including a couple of Melancon Strats (Gerard Melancon makes some of the best guitars in the country) that sound absolutely out of this world.

I was at Truetone in Santa Monica and asked about pickups and they recommended the Fralin's. I put em in and crossed my fingers. When I plugged that Fender strat with the Fralin's into my Boogie StudioPre which feeds a Mesa 20/20 I was absolutely astounded. In one minute, that strat went from being my least favorite (out of a dozen or so guitars) to perhaps my favorite. What a difference. The sound is big and pure strat. Notes ring like a bell. All five positions sound fantastic. The cluck on 2 and 4 is as good if not better than the Melancons and that's saying something. When I clicked on some distortion ... WOW! Those pickups sound sweet and smooth. I'm telling you, if I hadn't have heard it myself, would never have believed that guitar could sound this good just with a pup change. Fralin's are the real deal.

The blues specials sound so clear and transparent. It's like bells going off. It sounds exactly like the guitar but with a level of clarity you just don't hear out of other pups. There's something special about these pups.

BTW, they aren't particularly high output, as Fralin has pups that are. I don't really like high output pups anyway as that's what amps and pedals are for. But if you want a sweet, singing tone that absolutely lets your guitar shine through and rings clean tones out like bells going off and gives the pure signal for a super sweet distortion, then these pups are great.

Nothing else to say. They're the best pups I've ever heard.

3 single coils installed to replace Fender Custom Shop 69's.

Original guitar is a 2005 Deluxe Strat that came with noiseless pickups. After recently purchasing a custom shop strat with modern classic PU's I realized how much I was missing in the tone department with the noiseless PU's. I went to the Fender 69's which were super cool sounding, but not too practical as the pickups weren't well balanced with each other. I felt that these (69's) pickups belonged on a studio guitar and not on a heavily gigged strat. So I purchased the Blues Special Pickup set with the bass plate and I'm quite pleased.

I've been running this strat through a Victoria Deluxe for 3 years now. The output on these pickups are high, but they're still nice sounding with plenty of chime and overall balance. To me they sound just like the modern classic PU's that came with the custom shop strat, but just hotter. What I really like about these pickups is that the bridge postition is well balanced with neck and mid position. With the custom shop 69's I felt like I couldn't switch pickup positions without adjusting my amp settings whereas with the blues specials this is not an issue. To me these pickups are very practical for day to day usage whereas with the 69's I could get great Beatles vintage tone in the bridge position and then get overzealous Hendrix tone in the neck postion, but in a real life band situation I found them difficult to use.

I will definately stick with these pickups going forward as they get that great strat tone and are highly usable on a day to day gigging basis. I play blues influenced roots rock and personally believe it will be hard to find a better sounding strat PU. It seems to me that the typical fralin setup which has the bridge pickup overwound in comparison to the neck and mid positions and with the steel bass plate is very similar sounding to my custom shop strat with the modern classic PU's. I would bet that the fralin vintage hot pickups sound nearly identical to the modern classic pickups. Please note: you can't buy the fender modern classics as a replacement set. Tonally speaking, I feel these pickups brought my deluxe strat to the same level as my custom shop strat...I no longer favor the tone of the custom shop strat anymore due to these pickups.

I think these pickups will be best suited for texas type drivin blues and rock players. These pickups would also work well if you want to play heavy music with single coil tone. Think Tom Morello and Toni Iommi. If you're looking for a more vintage sound go with the vintage hot's for sure.

To me these pickups have the quintessential strat tone and should be the one's by which all others are judged. These are the reference.

Highly recommended.

* Single coil or humbucking? Active or passive?
I've got the blues special set with a bass plate. Vintage cloth wires, and reversed mid for hum cancel in 2 and 4.

* Impedance or other specs?
At the jack, the bridge reads 6.8k.

*What model guitar or bass did you install this in?
2007 Fender Vintage Hot Rod '62 Stratocaster.

* What position is it in?
All 3

* What pickup are you replacing?
The stockies. Supposedly, they are 57/62's with a reversed mid.

* Other pickups installed on the instrument?
All blues specials


* Any artists using this pickup?
Don't know.

* Reason for changing the pickup?
I wanted beefier sound

* What's the output level like?
My other strat has custom shop 69s, and these blues specials are way louder.

* What amps and effects are you using it with?
Laney GH50L & Fender Blues Jr.

*Tone - Bassy, middy, muddy, trebly, balanced?
These are very well balanced pickups. They have more mids than your traditional pickups, but they still have the twang on top. I just love how it sounds in the neck. Perfect for blues.

* What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
These are made for blues

* For which positions this pickup (un)suitable?
I have them in all three, but I use the neck pickup 99% of the time.

These are great pickups if you want more oomph out of your strat while retaining some of the strat twang on top. I have a strat with custom shop 69s, and they're definitely the traditional sounding pickups. The bell tone, or the chime, whatever you call it. But for this guitar, I wanted something that has more bass/mids, and less highs. Something more suitable for riffs and runs. These are pefect for this guitar. Between the Blues Specials, and the Custom shop 69s, I feel I have all the available Strat sounds. I'm glad I didn't go overwound on these. =)

Single coil - 7.2 I believe

Strat bridge

A very balanced pickup for the bridge. I just love this pickup
for the bridge position. I had a whole set in - a bit dark for the bridge and middle. I now have Van Zandts (older ones) in the neck &
middle. For the bridge I have the hybrid model flat poles except
for the D which is raised. The sound is not veiled at all and totally balanced, never ice pick in your ear but this pickup has power to.
The highs are so sweet and the low strings sound really sexy on this
pickup.
This is the sweetest Strat bridge pickup out there.

Get one you will thank yourself.
Compared it to other Fralins, Van Zandt, Fender mid 50's in bridge.
A totally awesome Bridge Pickup.

Pickup features: single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: frankenstrat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar: fralin paf
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): jazz, blues, rock ,r&b, gospel,progressive whatever
Reason for pickup change: i had emg's yuck

Perceived output level: not too hot but a really good ouput
Tone: sweet perfect highs dark lows
Sonic evaluation: frankenstein strat thing with a twin reverb silverface full drive 2 for gain

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: good pickup for single coil styles

Comments: this si the best single coil i have ever heard in my life like srv sound so so sweet and juicy tone, dynamic and has that natural compression when you hit it hard. such a musical vocal sounding pickup you cant really know unless you play one these things are so so good. has that bell like quality int he highs and the lows complement so well with the fulldrive2 watch out. lindy does an amazing job witht hese things, the humbuckers he makes are a little crappy, but these are unreal