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SKU: GS20425
This is the set that Fralin built his reputation on. The name comes from the Vintage neck/middle, and Hot bridge. The hot bridge helps to alleviate what Fralin feels is a traditional Strat's Achilles heel, which is the weak (thin) bridge pickup. The neck and middle pickups are ‘50s specs, while the bridge is as hot as possible with this wire (42-gauge Heavy Formvar). Beveled Alnico 5 magnets, with cloth leads.
We stock this set with or without a baseplate on the bridge pickup, or with a Steel-Pole 43 bridge pickup. We also offer the set with a hybrid stagger rather than the vintage stagger. The baseplate is a steel plate that is attached to the bottom of the bridge pickup, then wax potted to eliminate microphonic feedback. Its purpose is to fatten up the pickup a little by inserting a ferrous metal plate into the magnetic field; it's a good choice for those people who find a stock bridge pickup to be a little too bright. This option adds $10. The Steel Pole 43 bridge pickup is Lindy's hottest single-coil pickup for Strats. It is built just like a Gibson P-90. It will add mids and hit your preamp harder than a stock Strat pickup. It works perfectly when combined with other Fralin Strat pickups in terms of hum-canceling. It is a great upgrade if fat bridge tone is your thing! This is a no-cost option.
If you're putting these pickups in a guitar with a fretboard radius of 10" or flatter, you may want to consider Fralin's hybrid stagger. Fender's original stagger pattern was devised at a time when all Fenders had a 7.25" radius. There are still plenty of guitars out there with a 7.25" radius, so pickups with the conventional stagger are still the norm. However, guitars with a 10" or flatter radius will probably benefit from the flatter hybrid-stagger.
Pickup Covers: We order Fralins with white covers. If you want other colors we have Fender covers available, and we have knobs to match them.
more information »
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SKU: GS20333
Gibson’s classic double-coil pickup. All of Fralin’s humbuckers, with the exception of his High Output models, are wound with 42-gauge Plain Enamel wire like the old PAFs, and are available with black/black or black/cream coils, or with nickel or gold covers. Vintage Guitar Magazine compared Lindy's humbuckers to Tom Holmes humbuckers and Gibson PAFs (both old and new - '63 humbuckers; '78 reissue PAFs; and '57 Classic and Classic Plus PAFs), and had this to say:
"All of these pickups are pretty cool, and each has it's own personality. The old Gibsons were great for reference, but believe it or not the panel preferred most of the new pickups to the old ones. This may sound unbelievable, but the opinions of the panel were very consistent and differences in the pickups were very substantial. This is what we heard... Grand Prize: Lindy Fralin PAF in a unanimous decision. This pickup had the most output, most character, and most pleasant compression. It has smooth response and great overdriven tones. Biggest and smoothest, hands down. This was the obvious favorite. Double fat!"
As with all pickups, more turns of wire gives more power, thicker mids, and less highs. When ordering a set, we recommend a stronger bridge pickup (for instance, 8K neck / 9K bridge). All models are designed to be hum-canceling when the tapped humbucker is combined with a Strat RWRP middle (Single-Single-Hum or Hum-Single-Hum). We order all our Fralin humbuckers with 4-conductor leads so they can be tapped. Black, zebra, or with nickel or gold covers. more information »
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SKU: GS20503
Calibrated set of killer Strat pickups from the legendary John Suhr, creator of the renowned Pensa-Suhr guitars built for the likes of Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, and many others.
Hand wound winding technique is reproduced on a computerized winder for consistent hand wound tone of the early '60s, using heavy Formvar wire. The V60-LP pickups are very popular and work the best of Suhr's pickups with overdrive and fuzz pedals. They've been used by Mike Landau and Scott Henderson, so you'll be keeping good company. They have more of a vintage vibe than Suhr's regular V60s (which are more modern sounding, being a little brighter and louder). Alnico 5 magnets, with a typical DC resistance ranging from 6.4K (neck) to 7.3K (bridge). Suhr has sourced his Alnico magnet rods from the same vendor that Fender used in the '50s and '60s.
All Suhr Strat sets have a RWRP middle pickup for hum-canceling in the 2 and 4 positions. If you want to use the set with Suhr's BPSSC system, please select the non-RWRP option at checkout. This will substitute a second neck pickup in place of the RWRP middle (no additional charge).
White pickup covers are included, along with mounting hardware. more information »
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SKU: GS20330
Gibson’s classic double-coil pickup. All of Fralin’s humbuckers, with the exception of his High Output models, are wound with 42-gauge Plain Enamel wire like the old PAFs, and are available with black/black or black/cream coils, or with nickel or gold covers. Vintage Guitar Magazine compared Lindy's humbuckers to Tom Holmes humbuckers and Gibson PAFs (both old and new - '63 humbuckers; '78 reissue PAFs; and '57 Classic and Classic Plus PAFs), and had this to say:
"All of these pickups are pretty cool, and each has it's own personality. The old Gibsons were great for reference, but believe it or not the panel preferred most of the new pickups to the old ones. This may sound unbelievable, but the opinions of the panel were very consistent and differences in the pickups were very substantial. This is what we heard... Grand Prize: Lindy Fralin PAF in a unanimous decision. This pickup had the most output, most character, and most pleasant compression. It has smooth response and great overdriven tones. Biggest and smoothest, hands down. This was the obvious favorite. Double fat!"
As with all pickups, more turns of wire gives more power, thicker mids, and less highs. When ordering a set, we recommend a stronger bridge pickup (for instance, 8K neck / 9K bridge). All models are designed to be hum-canceling when the tapped humbucker is combined with a Strat RWRP middle (Single-Single-Hum or Hum-Single-Hum). We order all our Fralin humbuckers with 4-conductor leads so they can be tapped. Black, zebra, or with nickel or gold covers. more information »
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SKU: GS20413
Great for any humbucker-equipped guitar, and Strat-style guitars with a single-single-hum or hum-single-hum configuration. We have also sold these to Tele players who like a humbucker in the neck. Fralin has devised a humbucker that looks normal but sounds brighter on the wound strings than two single coil Pups side by side.
Fralin Unbuckers have their two coils wound with different amounts of wire. While a typical 8K humbucker would have each coil wound to 4K, an 8K Unbucker would have a 3K coil and a 5K coil. This makes the pickup brighter. A typical 8K humbucker would have one of its 4K coils combined with the single coil, typically closer to 6K. There is somewhat of a mismatch between the two pickups, with the 4K humbucker coil being thinner sounding than the 6K single coil. If an 8K Unbucker is used instead of an 8K humbucker, the Unbucker would have its 5K coil combined with the 6K middle pickup. This is a much better match, and more closely approximates the sound of two single coils combined.
The second benefit of the Unbucker is that some people think they sound better when used as a humbucker (when both coils are on in series). Lindy is in this group. He says that his personal PRS McCarty never sounded so good as when he replaced the stock humbuckers with a pair of his Unbuckers. He thinks that the mismatch between the coils yields a more complex humbucking tone than two matched coils provides. So the Unbucker is not just for use in a Fender-style guitar where a humbucker is being used in conjunction with a single coil, they are also a great upgrade for any guitar that uses humbuckers.
Downside: the hum-canceling is slightly compromised. While an Unbucker is still hum-canceling to a large extent, it is a little noisier than conventional humbuckers.
Available models:
Gibson pole spacing - black, zebra, nickel, gold
Fender pole spacing - black, white more information »
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SKU: GS20501
Calibrated set of killer Strat pickups from the legendary John Suhr, creator of the renowned Pensa-Suhr guitars built for the likes of Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, and many others. Suhr has sourced his Alnico magnet rods from the same vendor that Fender used in the '50s and '60s.
All Suhr Strat sets have a RWRP middle pickup for hum-canceling in the 2 and 4 positions. If you want to use the set with Suhr's BPSSC system, please select the non-RWRP option at checkout. This will substitute a second neck pickup in place of the RWRP middle (no additional charge).
White pickup covers are included, along with mounting hardware. more information »
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SKU: GS20492
SSV = Single Screw Vintage
Suhr's classic humbuckers, with one screw coil and one slug coil. 50mm pole spacing on neck pickups, 50mm or 53mm spacing on bridge pickups. The DSV+ bridge pickup is a hotter version of the DSV.
Acme stocks Suhr's exposed-coil humbuckers with two screw coils (DSV), in black, white, and zebra. We stock Suhr's covered humbuckers with one screw coil and one slug coil (SSV) in chrome and gold. All neck pickups are 50mm spacing. All bridge pickups are available in either 50mm (Gibson) spacing, or 53mm (Fender) spacing, with the exception of white bridges, which we only stock in 53mm. Other options available by special order. more information »
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SKU: GS20308
For the Strat player who can't live with single-coil hum, we stock these pickups. Here is Fender's description:
"With the special design combination of traditional magnets and new Samarian Cobalt magnetic material, the illustrious spank-and-clank Strat sound roars forth from these pickups with eight-cylinder dynamic and magnetic response that actually dusted most of our coveted Kennedy-era test pickups. Standard equipment in our American Deluxe Strats."
Available in White, Aged White, Parchment, and Black more information »
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SKU: GS20502
Calibrated set of killer Strat pickups from the legendary John Suhr, creator of the renowned Pensa-Suhr guitars built for the likes of Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, and many others.
The V60 pickups are very popular. They're a little more modern sounding (a little brighter and louder) than Suhr's Low Peak pickups. With Alnico 5 magnets and typical DC resistances ranging from 6.3K (neck) to 7.5K (bridge), these pickups are strong and punchy. Suhr has sourced his Alnico magnet rods from the same vendor that Fender used in the '50s and '60s.
All Suhr Strat sets have a RWRP middle pickup for hum-canceling in the 2 and 4 positions. If you want to use the set with Suhr's BPSSC system, please select the non-RWRP option at checkout. This will substitute a second neck pickup in place of the RWRP middle (no additional charge).
White pickup covers are included, along with mounting hardware. more information »
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SKU: GS20336
Gibson’s classic double-coil pickup. All of Fralin’s humbuckers, with the exception of his High Output models, are wound with 42-gauge Plain Enamel wire like the old PAFs, and are available with black/black or black/cream coils, or with nickel or gold covers. Vintage Guitar Magazine compared Lindy's humbuckers to Tom Holmes humbuckers and Gibson PAFs (both old and new - '63 humbuckers; '78 reissue PAFs; and '57 Classic and Classic Plus PAFs), and had this to say:
"All of these pickups are pretty cool, and each has it's own personality. The old Gibsons were great for reference, but believe it or not the panel preferred most of the new pickups to the old ones. This may sound unbelievable, but the opinions of the panel were very consistent and differences in the pickups were very substantial. This is what we heard... Grand Prize: Lindy Fralin PAF in a unanimous decision. This pickup had the most output, most character, and most pleasant compression. It has smooth response and great overdriven tones. Biggest and smoothest, hands down. This was the obvious favorite. Double fat!"
As with all pickups, more turns of wire gives more power, thicker mids, and less highs. When ordering a set, we recommend a stronger bridge pickup (for instance, 8K neck / 9K bridge). All models are designed to be hum-canceling when the tapped humbucker is combined with a Strat RWRP middle (Single-Single-Hum or Hum-Single-Hum). We order all our Fralin humbuckers with 4-conductor leads so they can be tapped. Black, zebra, or with nickel or gold covers. more information »
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SKU: GS20519
Van Zandt Tele bridge pickups are available in stock or hot wind models with staggered or flat polepieces. Please note: Van Zandt doesn't supply covers with their Tele neck pickups, so you'll need to add a cover or tape the coil. Or, you can take your chances with the exposed coil wire, but we wouldn't if it was us. more information »
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SKU: GS20427
This set has plain enamel wire as used in the '60s, instead of the Formvar wire used in the earlier pickups (and in Fralin's Vintage Hots). These are ideally suited for use in late '60s and early '70s Strats where the gray bobbin and enamel wire are "vintage correct". The Woodstocks have the same number of turns of wire as the Vintage Hots, and the same Alnico 5 magnets which yields a similar output. This follows Fralin's logic of having vintage neck/middle pickups, but with a hotter bridge. We also stock this model with reverse staggered polepieces The reverse-staggered magnets also makes this set ideally suited for use in left-handed guitars when a Vintage Hot output level is desired.
Regarding Pickup Covers: We order Fralins with white covers. Lindy actually makes his own covers in four colors, but we don't have knobs to match so we don't stock them. We used to, but kept running into problems with disappointed customers whose covers and knobs didn't match, so now we order Fralin's pickups in white, and if you want other colors we have Fender covers available, and we have knobs to match them. more information »
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contact: Acme Guitar Works
PH: 302-836-5301
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