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.
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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:
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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Great sounding pickups. I have 2 of these. From Roy Nichols to Brad Paisley…you can’t get wrong with these pickups.
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Strong and Articulate Tele Bridge
After a long series of trial and error looking for a Tele Bridge pickup, I finally found one that isn’t too brittle, or distorted, but has girth and accuracy when played lightly or hard. Very musical sounding pickup, to my ear, anyway! -
My customers LOVE them!!!
I have a small boutique guitar shop in Columbia TN. I use Lindy Fralin pickups almost exclusively. Customers come in wanting new pickups and I recommend Fralins. And they LOVE them!!! I also use them in my custom built guitars and everyone who plays them thinks they are awesome!!! Thanks Lindy!!! -
Best pickups I’ve ever owned
These Blues Special pickups made me fall in love with my telecaster all over again. Very present, balanced, and articulate from clean all the way to fuzz/distortion. My other guitars are getting seriously neglected at this point. Cannot recommend enough!
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Better than advertised.
Everyone told me these pickups would take my tone up about 10 notches … but that’s an understatement. I finally am getting what I’ve heard in my head (or on a professional recording), but was never able to attain.
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Great set of pickups!
Got these for my 2003 MIJ 62 reissue Tele. Did not care much for the Tex Specs it came with. The Blues Specials give it a fat beautiful sound, but still retain the essential tone of a Tele. Add a bit of dirt and you get wonderful sustain and dynamic response. Thrilled to bits with them?
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Best, Vintage Tele tone, you can’t put the guitar down!
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Telecaster Blues Special Review – This is the second bridge pickup, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Traditional to modern it suits all of my amps.
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Stratify a bright Tele. Darker with nice round tones like a Strat neck pushing up to a tubular edge.
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Simply Outstanding!
I bought the tele set after being extremely impressed with a set I bought for my Strat. They are simply outstanding. Easily the best pickups I could put in my tele. I’ve had a few over the years and I’ve finally found the ones I needed (I have a ‘74 Telecaster) all along. -
Great pickups! Best and most versatile telecaster pickups I’ve ever owned.
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Phenomenal, fantastic sounding pickups. Worth every cent. Definitely going to use Fralin pickups for future builds. I dig ’em!
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2016 Fender American Special Awakens!
Excellent sounding set of pups. This is my first experience with Fralin pickups and now I get all the positive reviews. I’m 62 and have been playing/recording since the late 70’s. I have a few old Strats with Arcane pups and SD pups in them and would compare this set sonically to the Arcane set in my ’99 Strat. A very nice sounding, well balanced set of Tele pups that I installed along with Lindy’s Pre-Wired Custom Tele control plate with the pup selector switch in the rear. Well done Lindy Fralin. -
I bought them for my beautiful Fender TL62B MIJ. It sounded too bright and thin with the stock japanese TL-Vintage pickups (very bad pups). Now with the Fralins it sounds as I wanted, like a real tele, just a little bit hotter.
The whole stuff is of very good quality, but there was a small dent on the bridge’s low E pole piece
http://imgur.com/a/Z5bhrzYNeck pickup DCR was 7.70 K (North to strings) and bridge pickup measured 7.45 K (South to strings)
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I recently got a set of Blues Special pickups from Lindy, he was very helpful in helping me pick them out, I put them in a Squier Classic Vibe Thinline telecaster, I am totally astounded at the sound quality, I will definitley be back to get more pickups for my next upgrade. Thanks Fralin Pickups!
you guys are awsesome!
Charles M
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Excellent tone. Great clarity. Big Tele sound! Put these pickups in my main Tele and could not be happier. They draw out all that’s good about the guitar. Thanks
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Over-wound Tele Blues Special: Sounds great, thicker as I expected. A+
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These pick ups are church. Pretty much changed my life.
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Finally! I love teles and classic rock. I’ve had a few that I loved, but somehow they never delivered “that” sound I was after…until now. Thank you Lindy for putting an end to muy tele tone quest! Now I’ve gottaramble on! ?
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Super Tasty. Always love my Fralins!
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