Blues Special Tele
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.
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100% Tele, Just a Bit Meaner.
Want to learn more about our Blues Special Tele? Here's all the information you'll need:
Blues Special Tele 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
Tech Specs
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Blues Special Tele.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 7.8K* |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 7.3K |
| 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 |
**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
Sizing
Blues Special Tele Questions And Answers:
Notice:
Have a question about our Blues Special Tele? Ask it here. Your Question will be publically visible. If you want to ask a Private Question, please contact us through our Contact Us Form.
If you have multiple questions, please call us at (804) 358-2699.
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Will these Blues Special Tele and other Tele and Strat pickups work with a vintage depth pickup cavity of 5/8"?
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Q Will these Blues Special Tele and other Tele and Strat pickups work with a vintage depth pickup c...... Read moreA
Hey Jordan, thanks for your question. All of our standard Tele Neck pickups (not the Steel Pole line) will have an average height of 5/8", so as long as you're not bottoming out the pickup, it should fit fine. If you sink your pickup flush with the pickguard, it will bottom out.
I have a Fender '52 RI Tele on which I've made a few mods. My neck pickup seems to have low output and sounds anemic and weak. The original pickup was weak, the rewind (P-90) was weak and the present LSL replacement is weak. I can only guess this has something to do with the bobbin size because I've heard a lot of Tele players make the same complaint about their neck pickup Would the Vintage Hot neck pickup with 2% over-wind have noticeably highe...
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Q I have a Fender '52 RI Tele on which I've made a few mods. My neck pickup seems to have low outpu...... Read moreA
Hey James, I would actually recommend the Blues Special - it features twang, but a thicker midrange and darker highs, especially in the Neck - in my opinion, it's the perfect voicing for a Telecaster. We have a 30-day exchange policy, so if you're not 100% satisfied with the Blues Special, we'll know what to do from there.
I have a Nashville deluxe, what do you recommend putting in the center pick up with the Blues Tele pick-ups?
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Q I have a Nashville deluxe, what do you recommend putting in the center pick up with the Blues Tel...... Read moreA
Hey Rick, our Blues Special Strat would be the perfect compliment to the set.
Can I add a cover to a Blues Special Tele neck and, if so, can I buy a cover from you ? Also, I just wanted to say that I have several guitars with your pickups and they are remarkable. Thanks for what you do
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Q Can I add a cover to a Blues Special Tele neck and, if so, can I buy a cover from you ? Also, I j...... Read moreA
Hey Pat, if you have the staggered magnets out of the top, you'll need to go with an Open Top cover. We don't sell our covers separately, but you can get them all at Philadelphia Luthier Tools
Hi I'm interested in a Blues special telecaster set of pickups. I want the neck pickup with no cover at all. Is the 4 way switching option not possible now since wire cant be soldered to cover. Thanks for your help
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Q Hi I'm interested in a Blues special telecaster set of pickups. I want the neck pickup with no co...... Read moreA
Hey Phil, we can still do that - you'll get two wires, White and Black. The magnets will be taped so you can achieve the modification still.
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Featured Reviews
Reviews we worked hard for, and are proud of.
These are the tele pickups you want. Just buy them now and save yourself some time.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!!!!