Blues Special Tele
Versatile & Thick Tele Tone
$110 – $220
Love playing your Telecaster again and know it finally has the voice it was always meant to with our Blues Specials. Wound with a 5% overwind from our Stock Teles, Blues Specials feature a punchy, warm tone that tames the harsh top-end from most Telecasters and helps you hear every nuance in your playing. Lastly, customize your appearance with our neck options and make your Telecaster a real eye-catcher with a look that suits you.
100% Tele, Just a Bit Meaner.
Want to learn more about our Blues Special Tele? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features:
Discover what you’ve been missing with our best-selling Telecaster pickups. Blues Specials feature a 5% overwind that emphasizes the midrange while taming the high-end for a warmer, thicker Telecaster tone that still sounds like a Tele. Built with all USA-Made parts, you can take pride knowing Lindy designed his Blues Specials with the highest quality materials available.
It starts here: Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. Blues Specials consist of local fiberboard and USA-Made Alnico 5 Magnets. We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time, using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique for a sweet, unique tone. You can feel great knowing that we wound your pickups specifically for you. Finally, we wax-pot the pickup to prevent microphonics and preserve the pickup for years to come.
Features:
- 5% more coil than our Stock Tele set for a warmer, thicker tone
- Modified Fender specifications, optimized for output
- High output, but still has Fender sparkle
- Compensated Bridge for even volume across all pickups
- USA-made Alnico 5 Magnets for optimal tonal balance and output
- Two different magnet staggers for optimizing pickups for your instrument
- Hand-wound with our “Sectioning” technique for unique, dynamic tone
- Hand-built fiberboard Bobbins for unrivaled quality control
- Backed by our 10-Year Warranty on manufacturing defects
Sound
If you’re looking for balance – not too bright, not too dark, this set is for you. While playing clean, Blues Specials sound thick and creamy with open and clear highs and a thicker midrange. The overwound coil tames your highs and bumps your midrange – more than the Stock Tele Pickups, while you can expect more of a traditional Tele Tone than our Steel Pole 42s.
With distortion, you can expect a light compression, low-end growl, and a medium attack. Single notes sound thick and round, while chords have a full tone with an early breakup. Finally, Blues Special Pickups are for you if you’re looking for more output from your current pickups, but still want to keep that traditional Tele tone.
You’ll wonder why you didn’t make the switch earlier.
Are you looking for a Hum Cancelling Tele pickup that actually sounds like a Tele? Check out the Blues Output of our Split Blade Tele Pickups
Sound Samples for Blues Special Tele:
Compare Outputs
We have 2 outputs of our Blues Special Tele. Compare them below.
About these Sound Clips:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
Tonal Graph For Blues Special Tele:
The tonal graph below for our Blues Special Tele features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Dynamic & Full
Videos for Blues Special Tele:
Tech Specs:
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Blues Special Tele.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 7.8K* 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 7.3K 1 |
| Neck Polarity: | Counter Clockwise Coil Direction, North To Strings |
| Bridge Polarity: | Clockwise Coil Direction, South To Strings |
| Wire: | USA-Made 42 / 43-Gauge Single Poly Nylon |
| Magnet: | USA-Made Alnico 5 |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 250K |
| Recommended Cap Value: | 0.02mfd 2 |
More Information:
1 Ohm Readings can vary due to a multitude of factors, including ambient temperature, multimeter calibration, different wire batches, and other factors. Due to this, ohm readings are approximate. Learn more about Ohm Readings here.
2 We recommend a 0.02mfd Cap Value on most guitar and bass pickups. The exception is a Magic Cap, which Lindy prefers on the Bridge Pickup of Fender® guitars only. Learn More about Caps Here.
*The Neck reads higher due to the use of 43 Gauge Wire, outputs are compensated
Polarity Information:
Here's how we wind and magnetize our pickups:
Note: All of our coil directions are depicted from Ground (Black Wire, or Start Wire) to Hot (White Wire, or Finish Wire).
Blues Special Tele Dimensions:
Blues Special Tele FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
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What Ohm Readings does your Blues Special Tele have?
Navigate to our Tech Specs Tab for complete Ohm Readings and more useful information.
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Will this pickup fit my instrument?
Check our "Sizing" tab for the size of the pickup. No Sizing tab? Check under the product image gallery for dimensions.
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Is your Lead Time of 2-3 Weeks accurate?
It really depends on the shop capacity at the moment, and the size of your order. Feel free to give us a call for an accurate lead time. We always try to underpromise and overdeliver.
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What pickup height do you recommend setting your Blues Special Teles to?
Our recommended Pickup Height is 1/8" (3.175mm) on the Bass Side and 1/16"( 1.5875mm) on the Treble Side. Measure by holding the corresponding side down at its highest fret and measure from the bottom of the string to the top of the pole piece.
Product FAQ's
These are frequently asked questions about our Blues Special Tele. If you have a question that you don't see listed here, click "Ask A Question" in the Quick Links section above.
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How does the cover affect the tone of the Neck pickup?
It doesn’t – we use USA-made nickel Silver, the most sonically-transparent metal for covers. We also compensate the winding technique to make sure the Neck pickup sounds like we want it to.
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What is 4-Way Switching?
4-Way Switching adds a fourth position to your Telecaster’s switch to put both pickups in Series and Parallel. The 4th Position sounds like a big humbucker as a result. Read more on the topic here.
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What is required for my pickups to work with 4-Way Switching?
We apply tape to the magnets before winding to isolate the coil wire and the magnets. If you select a cover, we add a separate ground wire to permanently ground the cover instead of grounding the cover through the coil.
Pickup Pairing
Our Blues Special Tele pairs well with the following models:
Big Single - Neck
Starting At: $ 165
Pair A Blues Special Bridge with a Big Single 42 in the Neck for a killer combination.
View Product
Blues Special Strat - Middle
Starting At: $ 99
Nashville Tele? Our Blues Special Reverse Middle is the perfect match
View ProductGet it prewired
Go the extra mile and combine our Blues Special Tele with a Telecaster Control Plate!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
347 Genuine Reviews for Blues Special Tele
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These are the tele pickups you want. Just buy them now and save yourself some time.
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I have a 2011 Fender Select Thinline. Looks great and plays even better. But I wasn’t happy with the way it sounded. Tried different amp / speaker combinations, pedals , but couldn’t get “ that sound “. My guitar tech / guy suggested I put some Lindy Fralin’s in and what a difference !!!!! The guitar came alive. These Blues Special’s are exactly what this guitar needed and what I was looking for sonically. Thank you , Mr. Fralin
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Well, I set up my telecaster with a middle pickup last week. I bought 2 Fralin blues special tele pickups and one blues special strat middle. I cannot describe the tonal excellence I can get out of this beast. However, I wired my tele like a strat and omg…positions 2 and 4 are exquisite. But the big surprise is position 3. It shines and sounds so good. It’s like a slightly overwound high-definition sounding pickup…lol.
Thank you so much to Taylor and Lindy and anyone else who has worked on this project. Next guitar project: swapping the hums in my SG.
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Of the now five guitars I’ve upgraded to Fralins – the tele project is the mountaintop. The Cohiba.
I started with an American Telecaster thats essentially the Keith Richards homage w/ the humbucker in the neck. It’s a great guitar – everything you would expect from a real California-built tele, but it was a little flat sounding, and the humbucker, while cool on paper, was almost uselessly muddy. It also didn’t help that its surrounded by all the other guitars in the studio loaded with Fralins, which as anyone that has Fralin and non-Fralin guitars living together, the irony is that not only does a Fralin pickup make a guitar sound better – it makes other guitars without them sound WORSE. If you really want to know what a Fralin pickup does, play another comparable guitar right after. The comparison I like to make is that the difference between Fralin pickups and pretty much any big-name stock is the difference between a flat circle and a 3-dimensional sphere.
This build was also the result of a phone conversation with Lindey where I basically told him what I was trying to do – and he sketched out the recipe down to the pairing, the winds, and a really cool dual capacitor push-pull knob mod. (PS the Fralin Magic Cap is exactly what its name implies) and paired it with a Twangmaster in the neck (which I will review separately – but wow.)
The Blues special in the bridge is simply put THE BEST SOUNDING TELECASTER PICK-UP I HAVE EVER HEARD. PERIOD. It maintains all the definitive tele sound but really beefs it up and the combination of fatness and twang is nothing short of sublime.
Like all Fralin pickups, it’s astonishingly detailed. Incredible clarity and focus, but the secret sauce is what it’s doing in the low mids, which is not traditionally a telecaster’s place of strength. It still sounds like what you would expect a REALLY nice tele to sound like, but with this muscle to it just to the back of the sonic picture. As I said – It’s sublime. But it’s incredibly rich sounding
The telecaster is the ultimate working guitar. You can do pretty much any gig with a tele and it will work. The Blues special gives your tele another level of tone and utility and turns it into even more of a precision surgical instrument. Strongly recommend a 5% overwind just to give it a little more heft.
Do your tele a favor. That guitar has always been there for you, give it what it really wants for Christmas.
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I use this Fralin pickup in t-style guitars that I build and suggest them every time someone says, ‘I really don’t like the tone I get from my t-style guitar’. No one has ever complained about them. They are unmatched in every respect.
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I was expecting something great with these pickups, but these blues specials far exceeded my expectations. They are just the right amount of hotness, warmth and bite. I used to keep my tele on the middle pickup position almost always. Now my guitar is so much more versatile as it sounds amazing on all three positions. The neck position is clean but still has enough clarity to sound good. The bridge gives me a fantastic rock sound for power chords and such. My telecaster has an “S1” switch to switch from parallel wiring to series. For those who have one of these, it still works even without the Fender Noiseless pickups. Also, the blues specials are a lot quieter for noise than my Fender vintage pickups were (this was on a different tele, so I can’t attest to the Fralin’s being the cause). These pickups were exactly what I was looking for and more. I don’t think I could be happier with this purchase.
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In over 50 years of playing regular gigs using various stock USA – made instruments from the ‘Big Three’, I thought I’d stick with my guitar when, on a whim, I picked up a locally-made custom Tele fitted with Blues Specials. I have just experienced the pleasure of accessing Real Tone. Thank-you Lindy – what a revelation!
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I purchased a used Fender Vintera Custom Tele. I received a new Fender CuNiFe Wide Range Neck pickup as a gift and changed the standard pickup out. Of course, because of variations in Fender’s manufacturing standards the pickups were out of phase with the bridge, but I worked around that by reversing the leads. But, the standard bridge pickup remained harsh and ice-picking in my ear so it had to go. After conversations with Lindy I settled on the Blues Special bridge pickup. I swapped it out replacing the bridge plate with a Gotoh BC-TC1S steel bridge with cut down sides. After height adjustments, this new Fralin pickup is balanced with the neck and it is just plain perfect. Rich, round, full Tele bridge tones with great response to alterations in picking style. It punches into lead playing with aplomb. I have other Fralin pickups including humbuckers in a Flying V, single coils, and in one of my starts, a loaded bridge from Lindy with custom wound Blues Specials. As before, very satisfied.
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I just had my 1992 Fender JD Telecaster upgraded with your Blues Telecaster set and a Woodstock pickup in the middle position, for that Nashville Set-up. And I just wanted to write and say Thank You so much you made that 30 year old guitar come back to life….
But I love warm, open clean tone pickups. I’m giving this guitar to my sister Tamara, I called it T’s Telecaster.
The neck shape is a v shape and I like my Fender 65 C shape, and my sister said that she was interested in playing guitar so I hot rodded it like I was going to keep the guitar then give it to her on her birthday.I’m in Sonic Bliss, Congrats Mr Fralin.
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I recently got a new American made tele (Pro II); it sounded good. Got a set of Blues Special pickups and Holy Cow!!! What a sound and response!! They are unbelievable. I’m gonna get a set of Strat pickups for my old Stratocaster for Christmas. I am excited. Thank you!!!!
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I got a fender squire Tele. So as expected, it’s a pretty standard setup. I wanted better tone to match my blues playing. I ordered a set of blues Tele PUPS and and installed them myself (fairly easy job).
Quick delivery to Australia.
The guitar has been transformed. Sounds amazing!!!
I’m probably gonna do the pots next. -
These pickups are the pickups you’re looking for for all of the reasons you would want a Telecaster. They’re super versatile in that they clean up like a bell and growl like a beast. I also love all of the information Fralin provides to make sure you get the most out of your pickups – They give you a great starting point to dial in what they’re designed to do and explain how to experiment to find the best sound for your gear.
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Dear folks at Fralin,
just wanted say thanks for the amazing p’ups that I recently purchased (inv 71658). I had bought a Blues Special Tele Bridge P’up back in 2004 (that I never used) and with the help of Jon was able to match that with a BS Strat middle and neck. I installed all 3 in a 2010 Mex-Nash-Tele with a 4 position switch for the neck and bridge with toggle to bring in the middle when wanted. Man, what a versatile guitar! This is now the best-sounding guitar that I own! The tone is sweet/hot, and the sustain is incredible! I finally heard that illusive tone that I’ve been looking for – almost made me misty eyed 🙂 Thanks for your loving tone and caring about your product and your customers. – Alan K -
I bought a telecaster in 2008, and my friend turned me on to lindy’s pick ups. I called the shop, and lindy picked up the phone himself. I did my best to describe what I was looking for, he invited me to come play all of his tele’s with the different pick ups he had to offer. I settled on the blues specials with a slight over wind in the bridge. I got home, installed them, and I couldn’t believe the tone! It took my breath away. I called an ordered a set for each guitar I owned. Lindy was more than kind to a teenager and has made a customer for life! I sing his praises to anyone that will listen. If your serious about your tone there is only one name you need to remember. Lindy Frailin!
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Very happy with the sound and clarity. No noise, and the highs and lows are equally balanced perfect. These went on a custom tele build I made for myself, my first ever guitar build. I ordered the neck special wiring to have the option to reverse phase. Sound clip at the end of my video shows the difference between series, parallel, and in and out of phase. I am beyond happy. Thank you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JIJVfrJOUU
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I changed pickups 5 times until finding the Blues Specials. I’m extremely happy. I play in an country cover band and was annoyed with fighting treble and sometime even bass. These Blues Special are just perfect in the sweet spot. To my ear, they sounds perfectly balanced and articulate. Punchy when hit hard and sweet when pulling back.
And I have to admit, I find myself actually using this neck pickups. It leans more on the Strat side than a traditional tele neck sound.
Overall, 5 stars!! They feel like home now. I know what to expect and I’m always happy with the sound. -
Got my Nashville back today after having the pick ups installed.
I installed a blues special Tele set and a blues special Strat in place of the vintage noiseless.
Add some gain, a power chord riff, I was blown away (I was wearing phones – neighbours.) by just how much the pick ups gave. My Nashville is now a rock machine.
Dial it back to a clean, the neck pick up is warm. Played a few chords from Hurt (Mr Cash’s version) it’s a very full sound.
The bridge is what you’d expect – just more of it compared against the vintage noiseless
Really pleased with these.
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These pickups are fantastic. Used them for my first telecaster build. Perfect for classic blues lead tones. Sound amazing through a fender tweed deluxe! Will buy more Fralin pickups in the future. Sold for life! Got a custom set and they shipped within a few days. Top notch company.
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These Blues Specials are incredible! I installed them in a baritone-tuned tele with a 4-way switch. The pickups retain excellent clarity and articulation, even in the lower register and with the series pickup configuration selected. Using higher gauge strings also mesh well with these pickups. I am loving the new tones!
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Incredible! Clear, precise tones. Such a beautiful sound. I’m hooked on Fralin for good now!
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