BLUES SPECIALS: THE PERFECT BALANCE BETWEEN WARM AND BRIGHT
The Blues Special set of Single Coil Pickups is our second best-selling single coil set. Musicians looking for a thick, warm, and beefier sound will love the sound of Blues Special pickups. Blues Specials are wound with 5% more coil, which is 5% hotter than our Vintage Hot pickups. Our Blues Specials are perfect for anyone trying to balance out a bright-sounding guitar, or who want a beefier single-coil sound without sounding dark.
FEATURES:
- 5% more coil than our Vintage Hots: 5% more output and mids, 5% less highs
- Perfect for anyone looking for a bold-sounding pickup to balance out a bright guitar
- Thick, full sound with low-end growl and warm treble strings
- Our Stock set features a 5% overwound bridge
- Uses all USA-Made parts
- The pickups come with your choice of White, Black, Yellow (Aged White), or Green covers.
SOUND:
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. The 5% overwound coil gives the player 5% less highs and 5% more mids than the Vintage Hot Pickups. 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. This pickup sounds powerful and bold – a great way to take your guitar’s tone to the next level.
Options:
Our Complete Set is our best-selling option. It has a slightly hotter bridge to compensate for the brightness near the bridge. If you’re buying a single pickup, read this article here: “What’s The Deal With Polarity?”
CHOOSING THE MAGNET STAGGER:
Our Blues Special pickups come in two Magnet Stagger(?) options: Stock(?) and Hybrid (?).
TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
CUSTOM REQUIREMENTS:
At Fralin Pickups, we are a total and complete custom shop. Need something specific? Upon checkout, use the “Notes” field to write anything you want! We don’t charge extra for custom work in most cases.
Bob –
Just amazing and articulate. Crunchy when necessary.
I have a custom shop 57 relic w hand wound Josefina pickups that was just harsh. Put these in and really made the guitar sing. Only mellowed a bit, still surprisingly quacky and the treble is still there when I need it.
You can’t go wrong.
Scott Dale –
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.
John R (verified owner) –
I have a MIM Strat, not a terribly expensive guitar, but nice. I had replaced the stock pickups with a set from another company – not what I would call “top-shelf” but decent, and it was definitely an improvement over the originals.
I wanted to further improve the sound, and someone recommended that I try a set of Lindy Fralin’s. I wondered if the increased cost could be justified since these pickups cost almost as much as the guitar! And would I hear much of an difference compared the pups they replaced, which were not bad.
To my amazement, the answer to both questions is yes! There is a musical quality to these pickups that is hard to explain. As soon as I plugged into my amp, it was obvious. My Strat sounded like many recordings we’ve all heard, as opposed to a cheap guitar off the rack at GC (no offense).
I think these pickups are worth every penny, it was money well spent, and I have no regrets.
Eric (verified owner) –
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.
Nate Rudy –
I sent an old Strat pickup to Lindy to be rewound in 2009 at the suggestion of my guitar tech, David Petillo, from Petillo Guitars.
This pickup came from my ’65 Strat. It was dead when I got the guitar in 1990 when I immediately replaced it with a Seymour Duncan.
Lindy stayed true to my requests regarding the cosmetics of the pickup and he rewound it to spec. The pickup is still running solid.
I never miss a chance to recommend Fralin pickups to anyone that needs replacements or a rewind.
Barney Perrine –
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.
Kent Havener (verified owner) –
I’d like to thank you guys for your helpful support and hard work. The Strat “Blues Special” are everything I was looking for.
Patrick –
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.
Jeff Cornell –
I have been a stratocaster lover for years, but have had consistent issues with sound and tone. Then I tried Fralin Blues Specials. I can not overstate the satisfaction I felt when I started playing my stratocasters with these pickups in them. I have a new ’12 one and ’75 vintage and they have moved to front of my arsenal since switching to these pickups.
Beautiful warm tones, nice crispy clean sounds, incredibly cool decay (when using overdrive) and just such an awesome classic gutsy sound. I feel like I finally graduated to a pro set-up with these pickups and have to wonder why I never tried them sooner.
However many stars a review can have, add one!
Mike Bjorgo –
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.
Justin –
I’m extremely happy with these Blues Specials! I bought a neck & bridge pickup for a regular ole American Strat. And these were the first replacement pickups I’ve put in any guitar. After many years of playing stock Strats I decided to try these. I must admit at first I wasn’t sure if I liked them.. It actually took some time adjusting because I had grown so accustomed to using the lousy, thin pickups that came with my guitars I didn’t know what I had at first. The number one question many people have about new pickups (myself included) is whether or not they will sound different from what they’ve already got. I can say absolutely yes! That same change/improvement also requires some adjustments to the eq on my equipment; I no longer needed to fear harsh highs, cut treble and compensate for lack of bass response. This was a good thing and translated to a better balance.
What I also realized is it may actually be possible to utilize the bridge position. I had intended originally to get a mini humbucking, single coil sized pickup with high output (i.e. SD “hot rails”, “JB Jr.”). But because I loved these so much and because I now knew that it was possible for a single coil to sound full and warm.. I bought a Fralin SP42 for the bridge position and I’ve never been more impressed! Never thought I’d be so happy to play a Strat in the bridge position through a blackface Super and be floored by how good it sounds! Wow..
Joseph Franks –
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.
Lou Gimenez (verified owner) –
I love my Blues Special Strat pickup I got for my 1981 “The Strat”. I also love my set of Vintage Hot’s I have on another Strat. And the Blues Special pickups I have on my G Custom Tele. And the Fralin P90’s I have on an Agile Valkryie and the Blues Specials and Humbucker I have on on of my 86 Ibanez PL2550 and The Humbuckers I have on my 90’s Epiphone Sheraton. I think Lindy makes the best pickups currently made on the planet.
David Sumners –
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 🙂
Pieter Kniest –
Replaced the Fender SCN pickups in my Custom Shop Pro model. Guitar is fitted with a maple neck. Actually bought the pre-wired pickguard with magic tone cap installed :-). These pickups make a big big difference, good balanced mellowed tone. Just a perfect match for this guitar! Highly reccomended for use with maple neck guitars. For me this is the best set I have ever played (+ 25 years), love it!
My other stratocaster btw (rosewood neck) is fitted with a Fralin vintage hot set, also great pickups that work realy well with that guitar. Sound and perception are for a big part in the person itself , but I personally would not go without a Fralin equiped guitar! Really makes a difference.
Pietro –
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?
Bradley –
Have these pups in a 2004 Standard Strat I bought from a local musician. My goodness. Clear and fat and with some OD it’s just killer. Getting tons of compliments on my Strat’s tone. Would highly recommend to anyone.
Mike Galvan (verified owner) –
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
John O’Connor (verified owner) –
I just finished a build and used these pick ups. The sound is awesome. I’m still experimenting with them but I love the way they sound. Just what I was looking for. Thanks Lindy
Tom Clines (verified owner) –
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).