Prewired Pickguards – The Fralin Way
At Fralin Pickups, we’re always trying to make you sound better. With our Fralin Pre-wired Pickguard, you can rest assured that you will have the best sounding pickups available, with the finest quality parts on the market. You can customize your pickguard exactly how you want it, and we’ll make it to your specifications. With this pre-wired pickguard, you can have famous Fralin tone, instantly. All you need to do is solder a few wires, screw it in, string it up, and you’re off rocking! Here’s how to get it going:
Step 1: Choose Your Pickguard
We use the finest quality pick guards available, only from Allparts®. These are standard 11-hole Stratocaster pickguards. We have them available in the following plys and colors:
- White – Single Ply (Vintage, 8-Hole)
- White – 3 Ply
- Parchment (aged white) – 3 Ply
- Mint Green – 3 Ply
- Black – 3-Ply
- Tortoise Shell – 3 Ply
- White Pearloid – 4 Ply
- Parchment Pearloid – 4-Ply
Step 2: Choose your pickups
With our pick guards, you can choose any combination of pickups you would like. Want a Vintage Hot in your Neck, a Blues Special in your Middle, and a Steel Pole 43 in your Bridge? Sure thing. Simply choose what you would like, and we’ll make it to your specifications.
Step 3: Choose your Knob and Cover Color
We have White, Parchment (Aged White), Mint Green, and Black covers and Knobs available. Note: we only have plastic knobs available. If you choose Solid Shaft Pots (for metal knobs) please understand that metal knobs are customer provided, and we will ship your order without plastic knobs.
Step 4: Choose your Pots
You can customize exactly what you want your pot configuration to be with our Prewired Pickguards. Let us know what you want in your Volume Pot, Tone Pot 1, and Tone Pot 2. Want a Master Tone with a Blender? You got it. Want your Bridge to go to Tone 2 and your Neck and Middle to go to Tone 1? Sure thing. We’ll wire it up to spec.
Confused? Check out our in-depth article on pots and how to choose here.
Step 5: Choose your add-ons
We have a ton of add-ons available for your pickguard. Want a baseplate installed on your bridge? How about our Volume Kit? Need new pickguard screws? Just let us know!
Step 6: Install
Check out our installation guide below to put your new pick guard in! With 20 minutes a few easy steps, you can get your pickguard in your guitar and start rocking out with some of the best sounding pickups in the world!
F.A.Q’s:
- How long will my Pickguard take? Since we’re building it from scratch, give us about a week to put it together. We will always try to get it out beforehand.
- Can you wire it up without the Pickguard? As it turns out, No. Simply purchase an inexpensive pickguard, and you can pull out all the wiring once you receive it to put it in your own pickguard. It’s just too time consuming and unsafe to ship without a solid pickguard holding everything together.
- Can I return my Pickguard? No. Since these are so custom and made to order, all pickguard sales are final, and not available for exchange or return.
- What Pots should I use? Most of the time, 250K Split Shaft pots will work best for guitars with single coil pickups and plastic knobs. If you have metal knobs at home, go with Solid Shaft Pots.
- What if I don’t see exactly what I want? Use the “Notes” field on the checkout screen to type in any special requests. Use this field to describe how you want it wired as well, if you want anything customized. We’ll make it to your specs.
- What does a Magic Cap do? Our Magic Cap is a very low capacitance tone cap. It doesn’t roll off highs as much as it seems to boost the mids. This really works well on the bridge pickup only.
- What does a Blender Pot do? Our Blender Pot takes the place of Tone #2, and it allows you to blend between the Neck and Bridge. You can get all 3 pickups on with a Blender Pot.
- What does a Baseplate do? A Baseplate is a steel plate that adds a little bit of bass and power to your bridge pickup.
Fatman (verified owner) –
I’ve been buying 3rd party prewired pickguards with Fralin’s in them for years but limited to what pickups and wiring the 3rd party was offering in their prewired pickguard. FINALLY, Fralin is offering prewired pickguards. Tyler at Fralin was awesome suggesting the right pickups for the tone I wanted. I immediately ordered a prewired pickguard with a Neck Vintage Hot, Middle Blues Special, and Steel Pole 42 for bridge in my Custom Shop Strat’. I was also able to get custom wiring (no mid p/u tone pot, a’ la’ EJ). This is the exact tone palette I’ve been trying to get with this Stratocaster! Not sure, but sounds RWRP since the 2 & 4 positions seem extremely quiet? Regardless, I can’t say enough about the tone, chime and fullness of these pickups. Love ’em! Thanks again all at Fralin…I know it takes a team!
Wil Hodge –
I’ve had seven Gibson Les Pauls over the years. I liked them all, but sold my last one, a 1975 Custom, a few years back and went to Strats, Teles and big hollow bodies for my Humbuckers. Anyone who’s ever owned an LP knows darn well that if they sell it, they will get another one sooner or later. When the LP jones hit, I realized new LPs came with a California zip code hanging on the price tag. Too rich for me. So, I opted to try what I was optioned, a new Epiphone Custom LP (500.00) and trying some better pickups. I play every Sunday at a big church in Atlanta. Lotta folks. Me up there playing an Epiphone really bothered the guitar snob in me because I gotta look like, as well as sound like I got good gear. I put a set of Fralins in that Epiphone with CTS 500 pots. (It was fun gutting the Epiphone, by the way) Holy Lord! What a difference! I now play the little and lighter Epiphone almost every Sunday now. And I play it proudly! Killer tone that doesn’t leave me when I turn the volume down from the guitar! That is huge!! I’m trying the Fralin Strat pickups on a build project I’m doing now. Can’t wait! These pickups are for real!!
kgjgtrplyr (verified owner) –
I’ve been very happy with the pickups in my Strats but I’m always looking for something better, if it exists. After years of Fender, Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio etc. pickups and since I had heard so much about Fralin I decided to give them a try. This turned to be the best move I could’ve made. I don’t know how to explain what makes these pickups better but they are. Well worth the money. The prewired pickguard is the best way to go because of the options available (master tone control, magic cap for the bridge pickup, Fralin volume kit to keep your tone consistent when lowering the volume). Tyler was a big help with all the options so the Customer Service was amazing. Give these guys a try because I don’t see how anybody else could be better.
Matthew Koutz (verified owner) –
First point, having a presided pickguard made installing it myself so simple, no need for a tech. But that doesn’t even scratch the surface about how great these pickups are. I ordered the Blues special in all positions, with the baseplate, blender pot, and volume control added onto the pickguard. The result is a level of tone control I had not experienced in this guitar before (93′ American Strat Plus), giving it new life, and giving me more desire to play it. The lows are resonant without being muddy, and the highs have that wonderful bright Fender tone without the almost “tinny” sounds I was hearing before. I have had them for a few months and it has become my go to guitar for everyday playing.