Prewired Split Blade Pickguard
Customizable, Prewired Noiseless Tone
$435 – $455
Our Prewired Split Blade Pickguard is the perfect product for anyone who wants the noiseless Strat tone, instantly. We use the finest materials available: from CTS® Pots, USA-Made Pickguards, and CRL® Switches. With easy installation, you can be sporting a new look and the best tone you can find – all with our Prewired Split Blade Pickguard.
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What's Included?
Fully prewired and assembled and includes a set of Knobs, a Matching Switch Tip, and Mounting Hardware.
Our Pickups, Your Personality, No Hum.
Want to learn more about our Prewired Split Blade Pickguard? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features:
At Fralin Pickups, we’re always trying to make you sound better. With our Prewired Split Blade Pickguard, you can rest assured that you will have the best sounding pickups available, with the highest quality parts on the market. Customize your pickguard exactly how you want it, and we’ll make it to your specifications. Don’t sweat about installation – it’s super easy to install. All you need to do is solder a few wires, screw it in, string it up, and you’re off rocking!
Look & Sound:
We use the finest-quality USA-made pickguards available. These are standard 11-hole Stratocaster pickguards. This model will fit most Mexican-Made and USA-Made Standard Stratocasters®. We have them available in the following styles and colors:
CHOOSE YOUR PICKUPS
With the Prewired Split Blade pickguard, you can choose any combination of pickups you would like, depending on what sound you are going after. Our most popular sets are calibrated sets – all three of the same output. However, if you wanted a higher-output bridge, you can do that too.
Vintage Output and High Output sounds best on 250K pots. Blues Output and Super High Output work best with 500K pots. We don’t necessarily recommend mixing Blues and Vintage – they will seem sound noticeably different. See below for a handy chart:
CHOOSE YOUR WIRING
You can customize your wiring as well! Here are some popular combinations:
- Master Tone with a Blender Pot
- Neck & Middle Tone, with separate Bridge Tone
- Master Tone 1 (.02 Cap) and Master Tone 2 (Magic Cap)
CHOOSE YOUR ADD-ONS
Matching Backplates:
Wiring
Customize your pickguard’s wiring by selecting between two powerful wiring options. Select between Fralin Pickups Wiring and Standard Stratocaster® Wiring.
Fralin Pickups Wiring features an intuitive layout: a Master Volume, Master Tone, and a Blender Pot. The Blender Pot delivers incredible versatility by allowing you to combine the Neck and Bridge, for Telecaster-type tones, and more. Fralin Pickups wiring is Lindy’s favorite way to wire a Stratocaster.
Standard Stratocaster Wiring delivers a classic take on the Strat – a Master Volume, Neck & Middle Tone, and a separate Bridge Tone. This wiring allows you to select multiple cap values for a bit more tone versatility.
Custom Requests can be made using the “notes” field.
FAQs
- How long will my Pickguard take? Since we’re building it from scratch, give us about one to two weeks 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. With Vintage Output & High Output Split Blades, you may like 300K pots for additional brightness. 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.
- Why don’t I see Ground Jumper wires between all my parts? Our pickguards have a metal shielding that connects all of the metal parts together, thus we don’t need to use jumper wires.
Installation
Check out our installation guide below to put your new pickguard 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! Also, download our installation guide here.
Tech Specs:
Coming Soon
We don't have Tech Specs at the moment, but we will have them up soon!Prewired Split Blade Pickguard FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
33 Genuine Reviews for Prewired Split Blade Pickguard
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Great pickups. Sweet sound.
I’m very happy with these pickups. I switched the cap because the one I ordered was too low. They sent me two options to replace it. Great company that has maintained its small company feel since I first bought a tele set back in the ‘90s. With that tele set Lindy invited me in to hear a range of options before they wound a set for me. -
Customizable Prewired Split Blade Pickguard
Simply Incredible tone, and with the blender pot the tones are warm and variable -
Exceeded Expectations!
At last I’ve found the sound I’ve been chasing for decades and then some!!! The quality of personal service and the product build is outstanding. My Strat has a new life! Clean sounds are just beautiful. The push pull mods I chose are spot on; out of phase bridge with neck and bridge blend adds the secret sauce for finger style jazz and snappy funk. The blades are quiet and play great with effects with my high gain setup as well. For me, the best of all worlds. Thank you Lindy and staff!
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They Might the Best Strat Pickups Ever
1. I have made some very simple videos calling out each pickup and combinations and sent them to Strat player friends. They thought the split rail pickups sounded amazing. One guy who is constantly putting together Strats and Teles for himself and other people (using Seymour-Duncans) said “they might be the best Strat pickups I’ve ever heard.”
2. Played in rehearsal and live at a small club. The sound was amazing. I did not try the options too much as I was trying not to get too distracted while playing, but everything sounded great. I would say the split rails are “tight” in that they are pure sound and not noise or other distractions.
3. Installation was easy although I had to redo the ground solder because I was trying to get the trem balanced the way I like it, intonation, string height and neck relief all at the same time I was learning about the pickups. The most finicky strat neck yet.
4. In my order I asked for aged plastic on the pickups and the knobs since the guitar is an aged white guitar. You sent me a bright white. At first, I got all butt hurt about it, but after looking at the guitar for hours I’m good with it. No sweat. Don’t send any freebies or anything.
5. I am taking a hard look at American Strat I have with stock Texas Specials… I might switch them out to a Lindy Fralin traditional set with the blues winding.
6. My only regret is I should have listened to Lindy and made the Bridge the next higher winding. I don’t play shred or anything but I wish it was a bit stronger.* Otherwise, the set is perfect. The workmanship was awesome and service exceptional. Getting to talk with Mr. Fralin and one of the technicians helped me a lot with my decision-making process. *let me play a few more shows before we make a final judgment on that. Sincerely, David
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Wow! Love the quality, clarity & depth that these pickups give me
I installed my loaded pickguard on my new chambered roasted swamp ash Warmoth Strat. Neck: Blues Split Blade (500K) Middle Pickup: Vintage Split Blade (250K) Bridge Pickup: Super High Output Split Blade (500K). I love the clarity that these pickups provide especially compared to the pickups in my other Strats: Fender stock and Seymour Duncan pickups. It’s clear to me now why Lindy gets the high marks that I keep reading about.
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Love these pickups in my ash Stratocaster! I’m a jazz player but love the feel and playability of a Stratocaster sometimes. I talked with Lindy on the phone for about 15 minutes about what I was searching for. He suggested the high output and boy he nailed it! Fat, warm, and fantastic jazz tone with the neck pickup. But still has all the Strat characteristics that I didn’t want to lose. Very pleased!
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Fralin Vintage output blades with medium radius: First off, if you are contemplating getting these, I think I can quickly put your mind at ease. They are absolutely everything they claim to be, and more. My 60 cycle hum, is gone. The tone combinations with the loaded pickguard (with blender pot) are the key. I find myself using the bridge pickup with about 50% of the neck dialed in. Wow!! Big/fat tone with that nice bridge articulation. This is something that you could never do in a traditional strat configuration. I can literally stay with that setting for my entire gig and be happy. I’ve used a plethora of pickups over the years (Lollar, Don Mare, Duncan, Dimarzio, Fishman, Baggs..) and I can safely say that these are the most versatile and all-around best that I’ve used. Fralin is no joke. These are the real deal! I really can’t imagine using anything else at this point.
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Fantastic!!
I love the SHO Split Blade pickguard and pickups!! THey sound amazing and the feel and tone are ridiculous! I am so glad that I got them and I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone looking to upgrade the stock Strat pickups! My strat is a custom shop American Strat with Rosewood neck and it is amazing with chickin’ picking and especially with hard rock stuff! Thanks, Lindy! This is the second guitar that I have upgraded to your pickups and I could not be happier! -
Transformed my 40 yr old Strat
My 1979 stock strat had grown stale so i started looking around for new pickups. I live in Richmond, VA so when I found the Frailin website and discovered that these pickups were being produced just a few blocks from where I work I was intrigued. After exploring the website and watching pretty much every video they had I decided to give them a try. I decided replacing the whole pickguard would be the least destructive to my guitar and easy to undo if I was not happy with the new setup. I took my guitar to the Frailin office one afternoon and Lindy Fralin was there working on pickups. Lindy took the time to talk to me and even let me try several of his guitars so that I could hear the difference in the tones for myself. I thought I knew what I wanted when I went in, but after talking with Lindy and trying out a few different pickups we both agreed that the split blade high outputs would be the best way for me to go. He then took the time to actually help me fill in the order form on his website to make sure I got everything correct. My guitar has never sounded better! The pickups are amazing and the pickguard options made a huge difference. I love being able to adjust the tone on the bridge pickup. The biggest surprise though is the blender pot! I love the blender pot! If the bridge sounds a little too high-end I roll the blender pot about 2 notches and bring in some neck pickup and it fills out and I get a tone not possible with my stock guitar. I also use it with the neck pickup to brighten it up sometimes.I could not be happier!
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I bought a loaded pickguard with split blade high output pickups for my 1979 Strat because I felt like the tone had grown stale. I took my guitar into the Frailin office one afternon since I work in Richmond and Lindy was there and took some time to let me hear different pickups he had on some of his guitars and helped me select the best pickups for my needs. He even walked me through the ordering process on the websiste to make sure everything was filled in correctly and ensured that I understood all the different options. He helped me decide which POTS to get, the value of the tone capcitor, and the configuration of the tone knobs. I got the blender pot and I love it! Geting a mix of neck and bridge pickups is something that was not possible in my stock configuration. My 40 year old guitar is like a whole new giuitar now and sounds amazing!
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I play mostly blues and classic rock and wanted pickups with more output for my Stratocaster and to lose the shrill highs. I ordered a pre-wired pickguard with 3 SHO split-rail pickups from Lundy Fralin. What I got was everything I wanted and much more. These pickups are clear and articulate with well-balanced lows, midrange, and no shrill highs. Played clean they sound fabulous, with overdrive power chords really stand out. They hit the front end of the amp harder but clean up nicely when the volume is turned down. All this and there is no him. They even look cool too. These are quite simply the best sounding Stratocaster pickups I’ve ever heard. Did I mention that the service was outstanding too? I will probably be ordering another pre-wired pickguard with 3 split-rail pickups for my other Stratocaster
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This is my 3rd set of Fralin pickups. Simply put, they are the kind of pickups that inspire you to play your guitar. Great work Lindy & company! Thank you for your amazing pickups.
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I ordered the Vintage/Vintage/High Output with the Volume Kit on parchment pickguard for a Road Worn Strat that was, frankly, just a backup guitar for my nicer guitars. I also put in a better bridge and block. I was blown away by the tone of these split rails! I’ve used MANY rails/hum cancelling single coils before, but they always sounded either like straight humbuckers or were missing the vibe of single coils. These pickups sing! They are warm, but still have more highs than other rails I’ve used. I can’t put this guitar down. I’ve used it on all my amps and it sounds great on all of them. The wiring job was immaculate, but I knew it would be as this is the 4th pre-wired pickguard I’ve ordered from here. These pickups are the real deal. I use them on pretty high gain amps straight in, no pedals, and noise was an issue. These pickups have solved that problem with great tone to boot!
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Split Blade pickups transformed my guitar
I got the pre-wired parchment pickguard with the Vintage/Vintage/High Output, with the volume kit. I installed this in a Fender Road-worn Strat that I also upgraded the bridge and block (brass). The tone transformed this mediocre backup guitar into one I can’t put down! The single-coil sound is there, but not the harshness…and not the hum! I really loving these split rail pickups. Also, the wiring job on the pickguard was immaculate. However, I knew it would be…this is my 4th pre-wired pickguard from Lindy Fralin! LOL -
Great look, better sound
It looks great and sounds even better. A thick tone and really reacts well to different pick attacks. Still maintains the sound of a Strat, but thicker with a little more bite. Love the quack of the bridge/middle combination. -
I have a 91′ Telecaster that I bought new in Enid Oklahoma. I have played the Grand Ol’ Opry in Nashville 3 times with various artists with this guitar and have always loved the action and feel of the neck. I have never been satisfied with the Fender stock pups and have gone thru many amplifiers searching for the *magic tone*. A couple of years ago I installed EMG T-System pups, and man, they sounded great! Fat, warm, but still the Telly spank. However, they sounded awful thru my effects units as they were active pups.. A friend told me about Lindy and how he had made some custom pickups for him and he loved them. I sent an email to the Frailin web sight and got a call from Zak. I told him what I was looking for and he recommended the split blade, high output pup. A side note: I had decided to tun my Telly into an Esquire, with just one pup. The pup Zak designed is amazing. Bridge is just straight out, no tone control. Middle position has a cap, and tone control. (which is killer). The neck position has the magic cap and no tone control. Honestly, its a bit midi for me, but the other two positions make the one pup sound like three! Would love to upload a pic of this thing. I am playing clean country guitar, thru an all tube Supro Thunderbolt, 15″ speaker. Adjustable wattage, 35, 45, 60. Sounds amazing. Thanks to Zak for the design! Keep it up boys!
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Mounted the prewired split blade on a guitar made for me by Chihoe Hahn. I arrived at Lindy’s pickups after having 2 other sets on the body. These were the perfect fit for transparency and no noise. Perfect to hear everything going on in your guitar… Lindy was
very helpful in picking out the right setup. Highly recommended. -
Great pickups and quality – I love them!
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Hi Lindy.The Vintage split blade pickups are just amazing. My Grandson received them as a Christmas gift from me, and he couldn’t happier. They truly live up to the reputation. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Bud Clark -
Hello Lindy and Co.
These are my 2nd set of Blues split blade pickups. The first was purchased in 2012 and now 2nd set in 2017. The improvement in both of my Stratocasters is amazing. Clarity of notes, string to string balance and sustain are all improved 100%. This last prewired pickguard came with a blender pot and a push pull tone pot. Both of these options add a significant increase in tones that can be achieved and make the guitar even more versatile. These are by far the best pickups I have used in my Stratocasters eg: Carvins, Fenders N3’s, Fender Alnico, Kinman Avn Blues set, Fender Texas Specials, DiMarzio Area pickup set. Although the aforementioned are all good pickups they just don’t compare to Fralins IMHO.I also have a set of Split blade Jazz bass pickups also same high quality 100% improvement in tone over the stock Fender pickups. Also like to say that Lindy is a gentleman and pleasure to do business with as well as the other members of his company. Customer service is excellent!!
Next pickups for my Tele project!
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NOTES ON COLOR:
- Please note that while we strive to provide the most accurate color representation possible, different computer monitors, manufacturer dye lots, and other circumstances may prevent the color from matching perfectly.
- Since we cannot guarantee color matching, we cannot provide a return to you if you are unhappy with the color matching of our Prewired Split Blade Pickguard.
HARNESSES:
- Our parts and wire lengths are designed to work seamlessly with our Prewired Split Blade Pickguard. Due to various guitar and instrument designs, we cannot guarantee that our parts will fit properly, and due to this, we do not offer Wiring Harnesses.
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