Anyone-Lindy Fralin Strat Blues special or Vintage hot P-ups

[gbsmusic]

I'm putting a Strat together and I'm looking at the Lindy Fralin Blues or Vin. hot pickups. I really what a true Stat quack sounding Pickup but I want it a little hotter than stock Fenders. I've read all the info and I still can't make up my mind. If any one has an opinion and heard either of these please lay your opinion on me, the last thing I want to do after I get this thing all together is wish I would have went with the opisite of what I end up using. Thanks for any help!!!!

 

[Don]

The Vintage Hot set has vintage wound middle and neck pickups with a slightly hot bridge pickup. They're not very hot at all. I have a set and actually unwound them a bit to be even less hot. They have a great traditional Strat sound. Nice and chimey.

I can't compare them to the Blues Specials, though I have one in the bridge of a Tele and it sounds great, it's a completely different pickup.

 

[gbsmusic]

Does the one in your Tele clean up crystal clear? I want the best of both worlds, a SRV sound with a little grit but also nice and clean. Who knows, I may have to be happy with one or the other. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Don]

Yes, it does clean up nice. It's on the high side of the specs for a vintage pickup.
It sounds vintage through a tweed Deluxe and is good for any kind of rock with my 5:50.

 

[edgarallanpoe]

I have owned both and both sets are spectacular. You really cannot go wrong with either. I happened to like the blues a little better, but to be honest there wasn't a *huge* difference. The one thing I will recommend is that you get the baseplate installed on the set that you get. It really helps the bridge pickup. Both of those sets will give you that authentic quack you seek. IIRC the blues were a little bit darker..but again, it wasn't a huge difference.

 

[Zug]

I put together a partscaster strat starting with a Fender body (single piece alder) and a Warmoth neck. Used mostly Callaham hardware - which I highly recommend.

From Callaham I got a loaded pickguard with Fralin pups and a blender pot circuit. Callaham gets a special H/SRV (Hendrix - Stevie Ray) set from Fralin, which they then cryogenically treat. (Don't ask me why but freezing electronics is supposed to do something good...).

All I can say is the result was fantastic. Fralin pups are amazing. Great clarity and very sweet tone. The blender pot allows you to mix the neck and bridge pups with the middle off. Lots of great sounds.

 

[flieger67]

That blender pot is very cool. I first encountered those on Don Grosh's guitars and it really is handy for dialing all sorts of subtle shading.

gsbmusic - if you put in some Fralins, definitely consider adding a blend pot in the second tone pot position. I think you'll like it and if you don't, it's easily reversible.

 

[gbsmusic]

The pickup set that I bought has the blender pot with it, the blending part sounds good but can you single each pickup out? I'm really not sure how that works. Thank You!

 

[edgarallanpoe]

The pickup set that I bought has the blender pot with it, the blending part sounds good but can you single each pickup out? I'm really not sure how that works. Thank You!

IIRC the way the blender pot works is this...

1. You swap the 5 way switch for a three way.
2. Position 1 is bridge, pos 2 is bridge and neck, pos 3 is neck.

The blender pot adjusts how much of the middle pickup you want to use. I really dug it because it let me use the neck and bridge together which is something a 5 way normally does not do. It also allowed me to get all three pups going at the same time which led for some interesting tones. The only thing you lose is the "middle only"..which to be honest is not a big loss considering the uber cool tones you can get from the neck/bridge combo.

 

[gbsmusic]

Thanks for the info, my pickups will be here tuesday and I think I will go ahead and use the blending pot. Thanks!!

 

[flieger67]

IIRC the way the blender pot works is this...

1. You swap the 5 way switch for a three way.
2. Position 1 is bridge, pos 2 is bridge and neck, pos 3 is neck.

The blender pot adjusts how much of the middle pickup you want to use. I really dug it because it let me use the neck and bridge together which is something a 5 way normally does not do. It also allowed me to get all three pups going at the same time which led for some interesting tones. The only thing you lose is the "middle only"..which to be honest is not a big loss considering the uber cool tones you can get from the neck/bridge combo.

I have a blender coupled with a 5-way switch on my Grosh Retro Classic that is an H-S-S pickup layout. The blend pot rolls in either the bridge or the neck pickup in the positions where either of those pickups would normally be off. With the pickup selector in the middle, the blend pot has no effect.

So there are different ways to wire up a blend control.

 

[edgarallanpoe]

I have a blender coupled with a 5-way switch on my Grosh Retro Classic that is an H-S-S pickup layout. The blend pot rolls in either the bridge or the neck pickup in the positions where either of those pickups would normally be off. With the pickup selector in the middle, the blend pot has no effect.

So there are different ways to wire up a blend control.

Obviously. But he is using a S/S/S config. Having a 5 way in your setup makes sense because pos 2 would probably split the humbucker. The setup that I listed is standard for a S/S/S setup but obviously there are about 1 million ways to wire it.