Blues Special® Strat

Fralin Blues Special
I replaced custom shop 50’s pickups with the Blues Specials. When playing clean, Blues Specials sound thick and rich, especially in the lows and mids. Additionally, Blues Specials sound very open and clear without sounding too compressed. With distortion, the tone cuts through and while being slightly compressed and thick with a low-end growl and a medium attack. Single notes sound thick and round, while chords have a full tone with an early breakup. Perfect pickups for Blues or vintage Rock tone. Love the bridge pick up.

Have one of these with a baseplate in the bridge of my 2018 MIM players strat, in my custom fralin pickgaurd, and its a beast to say the least. Does a crazy hot rodded tele sound with the tone rolled back a touch, and on full blast it’s like no other strat I’ve played, crunchy and smooth, fat and glassy, pure rock and roll.

Best One: I wanted this sound & response. I appreciate it, thank you 🙂

The way a Strat should sound!
I put a Blues Special neck and a Blues Special bridge with the metal baseplate in my Mexican Roadhouse Special strat. The neck pickup has all the dynamics and warmth I love with plenty of spank when you hit it. The bridge pickup really amazed me. I finally have a strat with a bridge single coil that I can actually use. All the spikey harsh highs are tamed. It’s big and articulate. Both pickups clean up incredibly well with a little roll off of the volume knob. Now I just need to order one for the middle position!

First Class Sounds
I am absolutely over the moon ?!!! After installing the Lindy Fralin pickups, my Paisley Strat has now become my “Go To” guitar. These pickups give me such a variety of real class sounds to choose from. The installation guide on the website was real handy… Thanks!!!!!!

Hot Sauce for the Strat
I’ve had the Blue Specials in for a couple of months and love them. They really added bite/growl I was looking for, while keeping that signature strat sound.

Simply Awesome.
I have an Eric Johnson model with a 12″ radius board and the vintage stagger made the high e and B weaker on my example no matter how the pickups/setup was. So I got a hybrid staggered set with a wind that is in between the Blues Specials and the Vintage Hots because I couldn’t choose and that was what Lindy suggested. The are, as the title says Awesome! I have played around with a few different pickups and these have very balanced output string to string, great tone, (GREAT!!) and the difference and variety of tones avaible is almost overwhelming. I opted for a blender pot and a no load tone pot with a russian paper in oil cap and there are so many tones avaible that I haven’t been able to explore them all yet! Thanks so much for making fantastic pickups Lindy! If you want to buy only one set of upgraded pickups for your guitar, and not just hope that they will be good, Buy Fralin’s. That’s why you never see them on the used market.

They brought my strat to life. I hated the Mod Vs that came with my strat. They were thin and the high end was brittle and I just couldn’t get a good bluesy tone. I went with the Blues Special with the SP42 in the bridge and the difference is remarkable. They seem to be just hot enough to bring a low-gain overdrive to that sweet spot without any fizz. They are articulate and the tone smokes anything I’ve had in the past. This is my first set of Fralin’s, but I’m sure it won’t be the last.

I love these pickups so much! They have a lot of clarity and they react so well with my guitar and gear. This really made my strat ten times better than when I had the stock pickups. Love them, Great job Lindy and the team! Great quality!

Love Em! I no longer deal with the ice picking of the stock pickups, very warm, smooth and responsive. Handles OD and other pedals great. Thanks Lindy, I’ll be back!

Fantastic. These pickups are awesome. The definition and clarity are great. Killer blues tone!

They sound great! The tone is perfect for me. The bridge pickup really can rock when you push it, all-in-all the tone sounds right for blues and rock.

These are sweet
A bit meatier than your stock Strat pickups, but with all that classic sound. If you’re looking for a quality, big sound, you won’t be disappointed.

Frankly, beyond my expectations. I’ve been a pretty committed Texas Special guy until now. 1) Completely even string response. Punchy and articulate across all the strings. No more weak and dying treble sustain. I spend most of my time on the neck pickup now. 2) Blends perfectly in volume with the Split Steel Poled Tele I have in the bridge. I can change pickups mid solo with no volume drop. 3) Staff was warm and helpful. Lindy even got on the phone to make some suggestions. Very pleased.

Great Sound.
Have a set of Blues Specials in my 1956 NOS custom shop Strat. Liked them so much that I put a set in my 1973 Strat. (I’ve owned this guitar since 1974).

These pickups are the real deal! I ordered the Blues Special Strat pickups (mid and neck) to work along with a Seymore Duncan JB Jr bridge. Tyler and Lindy were great about leading me in the wiring and blender setup/install. I highly recommend doing business with Lindy Fralin. You won’t be disappointed!
Mike from KY

My strat ( squier maple body plus reverse all-parts neck, all maple too) has never sounded more perfect! The blues special set gives you a tremendously balanced array of sound: every position is very usable and efficent! The tone is what is has to be: airy, with the right amount of darkness and meat. Chord sound Huge and absolutely clear trough the amp. And the blues of course, every note gives you that chimey bell-like attack when you pick! I would suggest this set, even if not Hum cancelling, for all your neo-classical stuff too!
I am stunned cause it looks, weights and handles like a totally regular single coil set. Where is your secret guys?

Love my Lindy Fralins. This is number nine for me, Blues Specials in Strats have the best tone ever, bell chime wet highs, fat warm resonate mids and lows, Fralins are hands down my favorite pickups for guitar, what a Strat is supposed to sound like 🙂

So far, i’m pretty impressed with these pickups. I chose two specials for the neck and middle and a high output for the bridge with a blender pot and treble bleed. I gotta say, it made me fall back in love with my strat. The tone is definitely thicker but still retains that strat sparkle, but not too twangy, which i like. I love the tone options too with the blender. These pickups cut through perfectly and sound great with gain. Good rock tone and thick blues tone. The cleans chime. I’m a Fralin fan. I talked to Lindy on the phone momentarily when i was considering them and he was helpful but not pushy and answered my questions. My Strat is like a super strat now, i love it.

I recently got the okey-dokey from the little woman for a new axe, but limited budget. Checked out my favorite shop’s website and found a sharp looking 2011 MIM FSR Strat in Copperburst. After a bit more research, I went for it at $350 with gig bag. When I got the Strat, I started immediately noticing upgrades…the nut was bone, the saddles were Graphtech, and the sustain block was FU. Best of all, the pickups are Fralin Blues Specials! This thing sounds so amazing that I’ve been offered ttiple what I paid and passed on it! These are the best Strat pups I’ve ever heard! They have all voice you expect without being ice-picky, and are very expressive. Every position is VERY usable, and 100% musical.

I’ve owned a lot of Stratocaster’s over the years but never cared for the stock pickups or the custom shops I alway’s found them to be thin and tinny sounding until I tried a set of blue’s specials now that’s all I use in my Stratocaster’s much to my surprise I tried them in an early 90’s Plus they sounded more amazing with the swimming pool route.

The luthier working on my guitar after I asked what pickups to get for the rebuild , gave me 2 or 3 sites that make them. What I didn’t know was that the choices would be endless. It was your site that sold me on your pickups. I was able to by a set for my Tele instead of trying to pick a neck and bridge pickup from dozens of pick ups and I was able to hear them compared to baseline or stock pickups because you supplied a video all in one place on your site. I played the guitar live for the first time last night and couldn’t be happier. They went into this beautiful Tele that my eldest son told me he would build for me if I beat cancer. This is the first time in the 30 years I’ve been a musician that I have felt like I’ve finally found the sound I’ve been looking for.

Fantastic pickups. Replaced a set of texas specials in an alder body strat. More bite, way more character. Love em. Great customer service as well. Much appreciated.

I put these in my Am Std 2005 Strat and absolutely love them. They are super clear and full with no imbalance of frequencies anywhere. I would not call them super fat, just full with plenty of sparkle without being ice picky. They obviously play clean tones perfectly but the way they overdrive my Deluxe Reverb is super smooth and creamy. I got the base plate for the bridge pickup which does exactly what Lindy says it is supposed to do. That may be why my strat does not get too overly bright on that pickup like it did with the Fender pickups that came on it. I also have some Fender CS Fat 50’s on a similar axe and they are definitely fatter and a little louder but less articulate that these Blues Specials. You can really tell the quality difference in a boutique hand-wound Fralin and a mass produced Fender pickup, and the price difference is negligible. I highly recommend these pickups and the customer service you get when you call Lindy is second to none. Good luck calling up Leo Fender and chatting about your pickups :)). I also got the blender wiring kit and that is very useful as well and I ended up putting one in both my strats.