fralin strat pups
- Thread starter brinton
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the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: fralin strat pups
what is it that you don't like about the velvets...
what is it that you don't like about the velvets...
L
Lewguitar
Guest
Re: fralin strat pups
The Fralin Vintage Hots and the Duncan Antiquity Surfers are my two favorite Strat pickups.
The Fralin Blues Specials are thicker and smoother sounding...not as glassy as the Vintage Hots. I have the Blues Specials in one of my Teles and I had them in a Strat for a while too.
The 54's use alnico 3 magnets and can be very bright. Totally differant than the Blues Specials.
Personally, the Fralin set I like best and that I use myself is the Vintage Hots neck and middle and the Steel Pole 43 bridge pickup. Just awesome...though not better than the Duncan Antiquity Surfers. Differant...not better.
Lew
The Fralin Vintage Hots and the Duncan Antiquity Surfers are my two favorite Strat pickups.
The Fralin Blues Specials are thicker and smoother sounding...not as glassy as the Vintage Hots. I have the Blues Specials in one of my Teles and I had them in a Strat for a while too.
The 54's use alnico 3 magnets and can be very bright. Totally differant than the Blues Specials.
Personally, the Fralin set I like best and that I use myself is the Vintage Hots neck and middle and the Steel Pole 43 bridge pickup. Just awesome...though not better than the Duncan Antiquity Surfers. Differant...not better.
Lew
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Re: fralin strat pups
what I don't like about my velvets is that they sound too compromised. Dimarzio always had this thing about making bright lows and warm highs to kind of even out the sound. mine sound too even and not lively, I really really need to make the sound come alive. I just put new strings on them today and they sound, boring.
The bubbly neck thing (think castles made of sand intro) is what I aim for in the neck, and I come short of that w/ the blue velvets.
Then with distortion they sound smaller than they are clean. I don't know if this helps, but have you ever seen hair or dry grass shrivle up in a fire, that's the idea sonicly. just glassins and shrivles up too much.
The notch tones are the worst part though, I thought I wasn't fond of the whole thing because mine sound sooooooo thin, it's clean but too thin. it looses output, highs, lows, everything in the notch pos.
They did sound better than the stock american standard though, god those were just plain wierd.
what I don't like about my velvets is that they sound too compromised. Dimarzio always had this thing about making bright lows and warm highs to kind of even out the sound. mine sound too even and not lively, I really really need to make the sound come alive. I just put new strings on them today and they sound, boring.
The bubbly neck thing (think castles made of sand intro) is what I aim for in the neck, and I come short of that w/ the blue velvets.
Then with distortion they sound smaller than they are clean. I don't know if this helps, but have you ever seen hair or dry grass shrivle up in a fire, that's the idea sonicly. just glassins and shrivles up too much.
The notch tones are the worst part though, I thought I wasn't fond of the whole thing because mine sound sooooooo thin, it's clean but too thin. it looses output, highs, lows, everything in the notch pos.
They did sound better than the stock american standard though, god those were just plain wierd.
Re: fralin strat pups
just got done listening to the fralin clips @ acmeguitarworks.com
Man those are awsome clips for comparisons. I dig the fralins over everything else, tied between blues @ vintage hots (so damn lively and quacky), then it's the fender CS '54's then the CS '69's. I'm going to thank them for the clips. Lace noiseless holy grails sounded terrible.
As far as bridge tone, i want some thing tele-like, something like the twangbanger tapped. It'd be 140$ said MJ when I emailed the duncan CS. But I could do three other things for cheaper, 1- buy a custom flat tapped, then take the plate from my red velvet and put'er under there. 2- have them "rewind my blue velvet bridge model w/ baseplate and coil tap added. 3- buy a real tele pup and drill holes in my pickguard to have it installed backwards (maybe a duncan or fralin still deciding WHAT procedure would be best).
just got done listening to the fralin clips @ acmeguitarworks.com
Man those are awsome clips for comparisons. I dig the fralins over everything else, tied between blues @ vintage hots (so damn lively and quacky), then it's the fender CS '54's then the CS '69's. I'm going to thank them for the clips. Lace noiseless holy grails sounded terrible.
As far as bridge tone, i want some thing tele-like, something like the twangbanger tapped. It'd be 140$ said MJ when I emailed the duncan CS. But I could do three other things for cheaper, 1- buy a custom flat tapped, then take the plate from my red velvet and put'er under there. 2- have them "rewind my blue velvet bridge model w/ baseplate and coil tap added. 3- buy a real tele pup and drill holes in my pickguard to have it installed backwards (maybe a duncan or fralin still deciding WHAT procedure would be best).
Re: fralin strat pups
hows that steel pole 43 thing work out anyway lew? p-90ish right, sound balanced w/ pther pups? good for blues/rock/funk? I'm going through my funk phase right now (jeff beck inspired) and really need good notch tone for those slashing funk rhythms (think the first song on "Blow by blow" album. bridge/middle (franlin SP 43 & vintage hot) sound good IYO.
hows that steel pole 43 thing work out anyway lew? p-90ish right, sound balanced w/ pther pups? good for blues/rock/funk? I'm going through my funk phase right now (jeff beck inspired) and really need good notch tone for those slashing funk rhythms (think the first song on "Blow by blow" album. bridge/middle (franlin SP 43 & vintage hot) sound good IYO.
L
Lewguitar
Guest
Re: fralin strat pups
Both the Ant Surfers and the Fralin Vintage Hots do the bubbley Castles Made of Sand thing beautifully. The Surfers are a little brighter and the Vintage Hots seem a little fuller...maybe more bass. The Steel Pole 43 sounds about 1/2 way between a P-90 and Strat. It's a great Strat bridge pickup, IMO, and it blends great with the neck and middle pickups when combined...very chimey. I'm going to use one with an Antiquity Surfer neck and middle pickup in my next Strat. I really love those Surfers for the cleaner Hendrix things...like Castles Made of Sand, Little Wing, etc. Lew
Both the Ant Surfers and the Fralin Vintage Hots do the bubbley Castles Made of Sand thing beautifully. The Surfers are a little brighter and the Vintage Hots seem a little fuller...maybe more bass. The Steel Pole 43 sounds about 1/2 way between a P-90 and Strat. It's a great Strat bridge pickup, IMO, and it blends great with the neck and middle pickups when combined...very chimey. I'm going to use one with an Antiquity Surfer neck and middle pickup in my next Strat. I really love those Surfers for the cleaner Hendrix things...like Castles Made of Sand, Little Wing, etc. Lew
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the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: fralin strat pups
brinton,
to damn bad we're not in the same state!!! I'm smack in the middle of a Jeff Beck thing right now too...Lew has does a very good Strat Tone thing...search for it, it helped me alot...I too have a set of Blue Velvets in the neck and middle of my strat and a Tele lead coil from a highway 1 in the bridge...it gets me by...but I have it...the bridge is ok but... Check out Lew's thread...it will open your eyes...and Lew if you read this...thanks so much for that thread...it helped me make most of my decisions about my Strat!
brinton,
to damn bad we're not in the same state!!! I'm smack in the middle of a Jeff Beck thing right now too...Lew has does a very good Strat Tone thing...search for it, it helped me alot...I too have a set of Blue Velvets in the neck and middle of my strat and a Tele lead coil from a highway 1 in the bridge...it gets me by...but I have it...the bridge is ok but... Check out Lew's thread...it will open your eyes...and Lew if you read this...thanks so much for that thread...it helped me make most of my decisions about my Strat!
Re: fralin strat pups
I saw lews ultimate strat tone thread. thing is, I ask for the impossible, castles made of sand clean tones and then a distortion that doesn't glass up w/ dirt. I heard how the holy grails don't sound exactly like a single coil, so I think I'll go with a fralin blues special set with the SP 43. pricey though.
I saw lews ultimate strat tone thread. thing is, I ask for the impossible, castles made of sand clean tones and then a distortion that doesn't glass up w/ dirt. I heard how the holy grails don't sound exactly like a single coil, so I think I'll go with a fralin blues special set with the SP 43. pricey though.
Re: fralin strat pups
Hey lew do you have any experience w/ the fralin bridge pups w/ the baseplate installed? curious about that. I kinda want a hot-tele sound in my strat. I might go with a blues special in the neck and vintage hot in the middle (maybe vice versa since I like to get a tele-like sound by swapping the neck for the middle pup (wiring stays the same) then I have mid, mid/neck, neck, neck/bridge, bridge. with both combos being humcanceling since the wiring is the same. I wasn't digging my mid/bridge tone so I dumped it for neck/bridge one day without soldering. It was pretty cool too. anyeay still trying to get along with strat bridge tone and wanna depart from the whole vintage thing in bridge pos. so what'll it be strat/p-90 or strat/tele? hmmmm
Hey lew do you have any experience w/ the fralin bridge pups w/ the baseplate installed? curious about that. I kinda want a hot-tele sound in my strat. I might go with a blues special in the neck and vintage hot in the middle (maybe vice versa since I like to get a tele-like sound by swapping the neck for the middle pup (wiring stays the same) then I have mid, mid/neck, neck, neck/bridge, bridge. with both combos being humcanceling since the wiring is the same. I wasn't digging my mid/bridge tone so I dumped it for neck/bridge one day without soldering. It was pretty cool too. anyeay still trying to get along with strat bridge tone and wanna depart from the whole vintage thing in bridge pos. so what'll it be strat/p-90 or strat/tele? hmmmm
Re: fralin strat pups
sorry that last post got a little side-tracked. main concern this bump up is, which sounds less glassier & fuller (distortion) of the vintage hots, blues special, surfers, tex hots, or even aps-1's. any help would be so very greatly deeply appreciated beyond a way that you could understand, actually you could but
sorry that last post got a little side-tracked. main concern this bump up is, which sounds less glassier & fuller (distortion) of the vintage hots, blues special, surfers, tex hots, or even aps-1's. any help would be so very greatly deeply appreciated beyond a way that you could understand, actually you could but
Norman_T
New member
Re: fralin strat pups
Although I have not seen Lew's thread on the ultimate strat tone what I will say is that that the pups will give you that quack tone very easily and I can easily get more tones and also use the bridge and middle pups independently. It cleans up very nicely and will start to sound even better with just a touch of overdrive on it - delay and some compression will also open up your tone. The baseplate under the bridge pup does make a difference and it does not sound so shrill and fattens up the bass response. I use the guitar almost exclusively for a lot of clean and slightly overdriven work and a number of guys have offered to buy my guitar. Although I do have other guitars this is one of my favorites. A picture is below:
FWIW - I had Lew do me a set of Fralin Vintage Hots with the baseplate on the bridge pup together with a blender pot and '50's wiring installed on a pearloid p'guard. This is installed in a '82 JV (Japan Vintage) strat which is a '57 strat.brinton said:
Although I have not seen Lew's thread on the ultimate strat tone what I will say is that that the pups will give you that quack tone very easily and I can easily get more tones and also use the bridge and middle pups independently. It cleans up very nicely and will start to sound even better with just a touch of overdrive on it - delay and some compression will also open up your tone. The baseplate under the bridge pup does make a difference and it does not sound so shrill and fattens up the bass response. I use the guitar almost exclusively for a lot of clean and slightly overdriven work and a number of guys have offered to buy my guitar. Although I do have other guitars this is one of my favorites. A picture is below:
L
Lewguitar
Guest
Re: fralin strat pups
Thanks guys!
Brinton, what you're after is exactly what I'm after with my Strats: Sparkling clean neck and middle tone and ballsy lead tone from the bridge pickup. But I still want the classic chime when I combine the bridge pickup with the middle pickup.
I really like the Steel Pole 43 as a bridge pickup. I had a full set of the Vintage Hots with the bassplate on the bridge pickup of my candy apple red 57 RI Strat. That set has a very vintage tone...not a distorted tone. The bassplate adds some bass and fattens up the tone of the bridge pickup but it doesn't give it more output.
I replaced the bridge pickup with the Steel Pole 43 and that pickup is much ballsier and does have more output. But being a single coil it still sounds chimey when I combine it with the middle pickup, whereas Strat sized mini-humbuckers do not sound nearly as chimey when combined with the middle pickup.
John (Stratdeluxer97) uses the SP-43 and loves it. I think he also might have a set of Surfers with the Twangbanger as the bridge pickup. The Twangbanger is a real ballsy bridge pickup too. Another great choice, IMO. I use it with a set of APS-2's and really
dig that set too, and it gets the clean tones and the lead tones. A little chunkier in the mids and less chimey overall than the other sets we've been discussing though.
Another great set that accomplishes what I'm after is the Antiquity II Surfers as the neck and middle and the Ant Texas Hot Custom bridge. That's a fat ballsy midrangey bridge pickup too and that set sounds awesome to me too. I've been playing that Strat more than any of my others lately.
I installed a Fralin Blues Special Tele bridge pickup and a Vintage Hot neck and middle pickup in a Strat a couple of weeks ago, BTW. At first I was impressed...but they're not staying. That Strat was my favorite Strat when I had Antiquitys in it, but I'm not that crazy about it now. I'm going to try it with a Duncan Jery Donahue and see if I like it better...if not the Antiquitys are going back in. It was mostly an experiment anyway.
I'm giving to many choices now....don't mean to confuse you! It's just that everything we've mentioned would make the Strat of a lifetime for most players! We're talking about the cream of the cream of the crop here...
Lew
Thanks guys!
Brinton, what you're after is exactly what I'm after with my Strats: Sparkling clean neck and middle tone and ballsy lead tone from the bridge pickup. But I still want the classic chime when I combine the bridge pickup with the middle pickup.
I really like the Steel Pole 43 as a bridge pickup. I had a full set of the Vintage Hots with the bassplate on the bridge pickup of my candy apple red 57 RI Strat. That set has a very vintage tone...not a distorted tone. The bassplate adds some bass and fattens up the tone of the bridge pickup but it doesn't give it more output.
I replaced the bridge pickup with the Steel Pole 43 and that pickup is much ballsier and does have more output. But being a single coil it still sounds chimey when I combine it with the middle pickup, whereas Strat sized mini-humbuckers do not sound nearly as chimey when combined with the middle pickup.
John (Stratdeluxer97) uses the SP-43 and loves it. I think he also might have a set of Surfers with the Twangbanger as the bridge pickup. The Twangbanger is a real ballsy bridge pickup too. Another great choice, IMO. I use it with a set of APS-2's and really
dig that set too, and it gets the clean tones and the lead tones. A little chunkier in the mids and less chimey overall than the other sets we've been discussing though.
Another great set that accomplishes what I'm after is the Antiquity II Surfers as the neck and middle and the Ant Texas Hot Custom bridge. That's a fat ballsy midrangey bridge pickup too and that set sounds awesome to me too. I've been playing that Strat more than any of my others lately.
I installed a Fralin Blues Special Tele bridge pickup and a Vintage Hot neck and middle pickup in a Strat a couple of weeks ago, BTW. At first I was impressed...but they're not staying. That Strat was my favorite Strat when I had Antiquitys in it, but I'm not that crazy about it now. I'm going to try it with a Duncan Jery Donahue and see if I like it better...if not the Antiquitys are going back in. It was mostly an experiment anyway.
I'm giving to many choices now....don't mean to confuse you! It's just that everything we've mentioned would make the Strat of a lifetime for most players! We're talking about the cream of the cream of the crop here...
Lew
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Re: fralin strat pups
thanks everbody, the everything is still really up in the air with what I'll go with in the bridge. I don't really want to go with a strat 'bucker, I can get mean w/ my other strat. I have to admit that today I was actually liking my red velvet (8k w/ baseplate) bridge sound, I lowered it a bit and it was giving a little more and I was getting a decent fat "moby ****" (zeppelin) style tone, though it was more distorted (than zeppelin) it actually gave a little more this time.
So the point here being, I don't need a beast in the bridge, a twangbanger might do, but I am a bit of a rocker when I get my distortion going (I love squirling thumb harmonics sound, fusion especially), I think I'll go my own way and get a fralin high-output w/ baseplate (should be a bit thicker w/ enough chime for 4th pos.), and a pair of blues specials for the neck and middle pos.
LEW, YOU DEAL FRALINS RIGHT? HOW MUCH FOR THAT BLUES SPECIAL/HIGH OUTPUT(W/BP) SET?
thanks everbody, the everything is still really up in the air with what I'll go with in the bridge. I don't really want to go with a strat 'bucker, I can get mean w/ my other strat. I have to admit that today I was actually liking my red velvet (8k w/ baseplate) bridge sound, I lowered it a bit and it was giving a little more and I was getting a decent fat "moby ****" (zeppelin) style tone, though it was more distorted (than zeppelin) it actually gave a little more this time.
So the point here being, I don't need a beast in the bridge, a twangbanger might do, but I am a bit of a rocker when I get my distortion going (I love squirling thumb harmonics sound, fusion especially), I think I'll go my own way and get a fralin high-output w/ baseplate (should be a bit thicker w/ enough chime for 4th pos.), and a pair of blues specials for the neck and middle pos.
LEW, YOU DEAL FRALINS RIGHT? HOW MUCH FOR THAT BLUES SPECIAL/HIGH OUTPUT(W/BP) SET?
hacker
New member
Re: fralin strat pups
Strat pickups are like cigars: they don't have to be expensive to be good. Here are some strat pickups that are cheap but sound great:
Fender Custom Shop 54s (vintage tone-early Chicago blues tone-think Buddy Guy)
Fender Fat 50s-more mid push, but sound great
Fender Custom Shop '69s-my favorite-big bottom end and glassy highs that distort well
Stock pickups in the Fender MIM Robert Cray model have the best mid position quack tones-and the whole guitar will cost you $150 over a set of fralins
Stock pickups in ESP 400 strats-same thing-buy the whole guitar for around $400
The best bargain out there: Fender 57/62s (the new ones with the beveled pole pieces are like $30 each from musicians friend)
If you want noiseless-try Bill Lawrence L-280s-also like $30-40 each.
Strat pickups are like cigars: they don't have to be expensive to be good. Here are some strat pickups that are cheap but sound great:
Fender Custom Shop 54s (vintage tone-early Chicago blues tone-think Buddy Guy)
Fender Fat 50s-more mid push, but sound great
Fender Custom Shop '69s-my favorite-big bottom end and glassy highs that distort well
Stock pickups in the Fender MIM Robert Cray model have the best mid position quack tones-and the whole guitar will cost you $150 over a set of fralins
Stock pickups in ESP 400 strats-same thing-buy the whole guitar for around $400
The best bargain out there: Fender 57/62s (the new ones with the beveled pole pieces are like $30 each from musicians friend)
If you want noiseless-try Bill Lawrence L-280s-also like $30-40 each.
Maggot
New member
Re: fralin strat pups
I've had both the Steel Pole 43 and the High Output bridge pickups. I think I prefer the high output - it's smoother. It doesn't really sound like a Strat pickup or a P-90; it's got it's own fat and compressed thing going on. The Steel Pole is brasher and edgier - say 1/2 Tele and 1/2 P-90, but it somehow still has a good Bridge + Middle sound. I must say, I've got the SP 43 in my guitar now, and I'm not sold on it, but we'll see.
I've had both the Steel Pole 43 and the High Output bridge pickups. I think I prefer the high output - it's smoother. It doesn't really sound like a Strat pickup or a P-90; it's got it's own fat and compressed thing going on. The Steel Pole is brasher and edgier - say 1/2 Tele and 1/2 P-90, but it somehow still has a good Bridge + Middle sound. I must say, I've got the SP 43 in my guitar now, and I'm not sold on it, but we'll see.
