Lindy Fralin Pickups...What I Use and Recommend:
Fender Stratocaster:

I've owned a few 50's and 60's Stratocasters and that's the Strat tone I prefer: vintage. Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Ike Turner, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmie Vauhgn, Robert Cray, David Gilmore...all those guys used vintage Strats with vintage pickups. Except for a refret, my old '63 Sunburst Strat is 100% original has been my #1 Strat since the day I bought it about 25 years ago. It looks and sounds alot like SRV's old '63. It was my main gigging guitar throughout the 70's and 80's and it's the Strat I always compare replacement pickups to for a reality check. But vintage Strat pickups have a couple of weaknesses: all three pickups are wound to 6K and that makes the bridge pickup sound thin and a little weak...it needs to be wound about 10% hotter. And there's no humcancelling with vintage sets when the middle pickup is combined with either the neck or bridge pickup.

Fralin Vintage Hots

In my favorite Fender '57 RI Stratocaster, I use the same pickups Mark Knopfler uses in his Pensa-Suhr guitars: Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots. If you love that Dire Straits, Sultans of Swing tone you will love the Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots. At 6K the neck and middle pickups sound almost exactly like the 6K vintage pickups in my '63 Strat, and the middle pickup is RW/RP so you'll have humcancelling when the middle pickup is combined with either the neck or bridge pickup.

The bridge pickup in the Fralin Vintage Hot set is wound about 10% stronger than the neck and middle pickups and frankly, Leo Fender should have done that too. It measures about 6.6K and has just the right output to balance perfectly when combined with the neck or middle pickup and to produce a little stronger and less ice picky tone when by itself for soloing.

Fralin Blues Specials

If you'd like a Strat pickup that's just a little hotter and a little less bright than a vintage 50's or 60's Strat pickup, go for the Fralin Blues Specials. They're about 5% stronger than the Fralin Vintage Hots, with 5% more bass, 5% more mids and about 5% less treble. The <>Fralin Blues Specials are not a super hot overwound pickup...they're still very chimey and very vintage sounding, but they're wound for a tone that's about 5% stronger and just a little less glassy than vintage Strat pickups.

I really like the improvement in bass response and the deep Tele twang that the Fralin Bassplate adds to a Strat bridge pickup. Early 50's Tele pickups have a steel bassplate on the bottem of the pickup that directs the magnetic field upwards towards the strings. The result is a fatter, thicker tone. The Fralin Bassplate is only $10., works with any vintage style Strat bridge pickup and is very easy to install. The Fralin Bassplate comes with a wax coating. Just heat the bassplate hot enough for the wax to melt, press it tight to the bottem of the bridge pickup, and then wait a minute or so for the wax to harden again.

Fralin Steel Pole 43

If you're happy with your stock neck and middle Strat pickups but want a stronger bridge pickup, the Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot or Blues Special Bridge models will eliminate the thin ice picky tone of most stock Strat bridge pickups. But if you're after the strong plucky mids and plucky growl of a vintage Gibson P-90, the Fralin Steel Pole 43 is the one to get.

The Lindy Fralin Steel Pole 43 is one of the best Strat bridge replacement pickups I've ever used.

Unlike mini humbucker replacement pickups, the Fralin Steel Pole 43 retains the single coil chime and sounds great combined with a stock Strat middle pickup, but it will also push your amp into a singing P-90 style overdrive for bluesy soloing on the bridge pickup. Highly Recommended.

I use mine with a Fralin Vintage Hot neck and middle, but I stock full sets of the Steel Pole 43 too. The Fralin Steel Pole 42 is similar to the SP43 but it's a little brighter and more Stratty. I think of the Steel Pole 43 as being 75% P-90 & 25% Strat and the Steel Pole 42 as being 50% P-90 & 50% Strat. Output wise, the Steel Pole 42 and 43 seem to be about equal.

Fender Telecaster:

I've played Telecasters since about 1970, starting with a real '51 Fender Tele. I sold that one when the neck twisted, and the '54 Tele I have today is my #1 Tele. In my '54 Tele I have the Lindy Fralin Blues Specials. I keep the original 50 year old Fender pickups in the case, because the Fralin Blues Specials are simply better. I'm mostly a roots and blues player, but country artist Vince Gill is also using the Fralin Blues Specials in his Teles.

If you're looking for a Tele neck pickup with the output and tone of a vintage Strat neck pickup (instead of the usual microphonic and muffled tone of most Fender Tele neck pickups!) the Fralin Blues Special Neck pickup is a great choice. It is uncovered, as the usual Tele chrome cover can cause the pickup to squeel, interferes with the magnetic field and muffles the tone. The Fralin Blues Special Tele neck pickup has the best tone I've ever heard from a Tele neck pickup and sounds terrific for both soloing and chord work.

The Blues Special Bridge pickup is smoother and less ice picky than most Tele bridge pickups and is also a bit hotter. I'll sometimes use my '54 Tele with a Boss DS-1 overdrive pedal plugged into my '51 Fender Tweed Super or '60 Fender Tweed Bassman and dial up a tone that allows me to go from country clean to Led Zepplin by adjusting my Tele's volume control.

I also like the Fralin Tele Stock pickups for the look and more traditional 50's Tele tone, especially when the two pickups are combined. For that chimey, jangley rythym tone you might hear from a band like the Pretenders, the Fralin Tele Stock set is the ticket.

As far as covered neck Tele pickups go, I like the Fralin Stock Tele neck alot and use it in my Fender James Burton Telecaster along with a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue lead pickup. I love that combination and even tho I prefer the stronger tone and output of the Fralin Blues Special Tele neck pickup when I'm playing just the neck pickup by itself, when I combine the bridge and neck pickups together the tone is chimier with the Fralin Tele Stock neck pickup. The slightly lower output of the Fralin Stock Tele neck pickup allows the bridge pickup to dominate the mix a little more and the resulting tone has more chime.

Lindy has a way of scatter winding a pickup so that the mids are thicker, the highs are smoother and the output is just a little stronger...even tho his pickups measure to vintage specs. And Lindy always wax pots his pickups so there are no microphonics are no squeeling.

That's why Lindy's Stratocaster, Telecaster and Humbucking pickups won the pickup shootouts in all of the Guitar Player, Vintage Guitar and Guitar World pickup shootouts.

Gibson Les Paul Gold-Top:

When it comes to P-90 pickups the P-90s Lindy winds are even better than vintage 50's Gibsons. Compared to stock Gibson P-90's the Fralins have more personality, they're livlier and the neck pickup is clearer and more articulate, while the Fralin bridge P-90 is stronger and ballsier. My buddy Rondo borrowed my Hamer Gold Top with Fralin P-90s and gigged with it for a week to compare to the stock Gibson P-90s in his Gibson Les Paul '56 Historic. Rondo's a great, authentic blues player but found that he played even better than usual with the Fralin P-90s because it was so much easier for him to get a great tone with the Fralins. He's having me replace the Gibson P-90's in his '56 Les Paul with a set of Fralin -10/+5 P-90's.

I stock two different sets of Fralin P-90's: -15% neck/Stock 50's Bridge and -10% neck/+5% bridge. "Stock" refers to the output and tone of the best Gibson P-90's from the 1950's, and the bridge pickup in the -15/Stock set is wound to stock 50's specs and the neck pickup in that set is underwound about 15% for better balance with bridge pickup and greater clarity. The -10%/+5% set has a neck pickup that's underwound 10% compared to a 1950's Gibson P-90 and the bridge pickup is overwound 5%.

Fralin Humbuckers:

I love the clarity and articulate tone of Lindy's Humbuckers and use Lindy's 8K/9K set in my '96 Hamer Studio. Lindy uses a rare Alnico 4 magnet in his humbuckers and the result is a ballsier sounding humbucker than an Alnico 2 or Alnico 5 Gibson PAF, but with better note separation and less smear, especially for chord work.

I've always found most neck humbuckers to be a little muddy for clean chords when I play at rock n roll volumes...but not the Fralins.

Lindy Fralin Humbuckers have more mids than most Alnico 5 humbuckers and tighter bass and more bell-like highs than most Alnico 2 humbuckers. I stock Lindy Fralin Humbucker sets in three strengths: 7.5K/8.5K, 8K/9K and 8.5K/9.5K. The 7.5K/8.5K set is great for vintage Gibson PAF output and tone and the 8.5K/9.5K set is great for players after a little hotter tone than vintage Gibson PAFs for harder rock and blues styles. The 8.5K/9.5K set is also nice for beefing up the tone of thin body mahogany guitars like the Gibson SG.

Personally, I like the 8K/9K set best.

Fralin Unbuckers: Lindy was the first pickup winder I heard of to wind humbuckers with un-matched coils. When the two coils in a humbucker are wound the same the mids are dense and ballsy: the classic Humbucker tone.

When one coil is wound a little hotter than the other, the tone opens up and there's more "breath" to the mids. There's more highs and the mids are clearer and more transparant. That's the tone of the Fralin Unbucker.

Also, because one coil is wound stronger than the other, when a Fralin Unbucker is split and used as a single coil and the stronger of the two coils is selected, the single coil tone is much stronger and more Fender-ish.

If you've always wanted a humbucker with a much clearer, more articulate tone you should try a set of Fralin Unbuckers. I stock them in 8K/9K sets with 4 conductor cable for custom wiring.

Fralin P-Bass and Jazz Bass Pickups: I stock Lindy's Vintage P-Bass and Vintage Jazz Bass pickups. Bassists love them and tell me they have more complexity and personality than anything else they've used in their Fender basses.