Split Steel Pole Strat
Clean, Noiseless P90 Strat Tones
$145
Instantly transform your Strat into a P90 powerhouse with Lindy Fralin’s Split Steel Pole Strat Bridge. Featuring a high-output coil design and an aggressive magnet structure, this is as close to the famous P90 tone as we can get on a Strat, with no hum! Don’t be afraid to get dirty – experience the expertly-crafted blend of P90 and Strat pickups, and discover what you’ve been missing. Available in a Bridge Position only.
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Noiseless P90 Tone For A Strat Bridge.
Want to learn more about our Split Steel Pole Strat? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features
Transform your wimpy Strat Bridge pickup into something that will inspire you for years to come with Lindy Fralin’s Split Steel Pole Strat Bridge. This noiseless Strat Bridge replacement features steel pole pieces, like our Steel Pole 42 and 43, but its unique design eliminates hum entirely.
Our Split Steel Pole Strat Bridge pickup features an aggressive and snarly midrange and attack, making it a brighter pickup with a little more “grit.” Whether you play clean or dirty, we guarantee the unique tone of this pickup will inspire you.
Features:
- Unique two-coil design for 100% noiseless operation
- Adjustable USA-Made Steel Pole Pieces for a blend of P90 tone, and fine-tuning string balance
- Fender Size, Original Lindy Fralin Design
- Strong and bold – lots of midrange and snarl
- USA-made Ceramic Magnets for aggressive tone and output
- Hand-wound with our “Sectioning” technique for unique, dynamic tone
- Hand-built for unrivaled quality control
- Backed by our 10-Year Warranty on manufacturing defects
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. This Split Steel Pole Pickup consists of a precision injection mold that is carefully inspected and cleaned before winding. We use USA-Made Steel Screws and aggressive USA-Made magnets to make this model scream.
Furthermore, we wind each pickup by hand, one at a time, using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique. This gives the pickup a sweet, clear tone. Finally, we wax-pot the pickup to prevent microphonics and preserve the pickup for years to come.
Sound
How does it sound? Powerful! The emphasized midrange on our Split Steel Pole Strat Bridge makes this pickup a perfect companion in your bridge position. You can expect a full and rich midrange, with plenty of clarity and brightness, sounding perfect on 250K pots. You can also expect a more potent attack and a stiffer treble tone than traditional Strat pickups.
It does not have traditional Fender “Sparkle”; instead, it is more in-line with a P-90. Being a lower-output pickup, it’s cleaner and more articulate than our Hum-Cancelling P-90s, but this pickup will still push your amp hard and break up easily! Whether you have an overly bright guitar, need more output, hate the hum, or are just looking for something different, the Split Steel Pole Strat Bridge will inspire you.
Sound Samples for Split Steel Pole Strat:
About this Sound Clip:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
Tonal Graph For Split Steel Pole Strat:
The tonal graph below for our Split Steel Pole Strat features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Stiff & Percussive
Tech Specs:
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Split Steel Pole Strat.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Stock Ohm Reading: | 9.5K* 1 |
| -5% Ohm Reading: | 9K* 1 |
| Wire: | USA-Made 43-Gauge Single Poly Nylon |
| Magnets: | USA-Made Ceramic |
| Pole Pieces: | USA-Made Steel Screws |
| Design: | Hum Cancelling |
| Polarity: | Hum Cancelling, Use 3 Wires for Phase Matching |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 250K** |
| Wax Potted: | Yes |
| Recommended Cap Value: | 0.02mfd 2 |
Additional Technical Info:
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.
* Due to the unique design of this pickup, Ohm readings are not useful when comparing to different models | **Experiment with different pot values for a different tone
Polarity Information:
Here's how we wind and magnetize our pickups:
If you're buying a set from us, all pickups will work together seamlessly. If you're buying a single pickup, all you need to worry about is Coil Direction.
To ensure your pickup will work, make sure you select multiple leads (2-Conductor, 3-Conductor, or 4-Conductor if available), or the 3-Wire modification so you can reverse the coil direction, if need be.
Installation Instructions
This install guide covers the installation of our Strat pickups in a standard Stratocaster with a 5-Way Blade Switch. For other installation diagrams, check out our Wiring Diagrams page for all of our Stratocaster wiring configurations, from SSS, HSS, and more.
Most installation jobs are simple enough to perform yourself, but if you are inexperienced or uncomfortable with wiring, take your guitar to an experienced luthier for a professional installation.
Wire Colors
Here's where each color wire goes for each Stratocaster set we sell:
- White = Hot (to switch)
- Black = Ground (solder to the casing of the volume pot)
The image below features different colors for visually tracing the wires, but here's how to wire it up to the switch:
Steps Required For Installation
- Remove the strings and pickguard from the guitar
- Unsolder each pickup lead from the switch and ground
- Once all wires are unsoldered, use a phillips head screwdriver to remove each pickup from the existing pickguard
- Once all pickups are uninstalled, install each new pickup carefully. Damage can occur from rough handling, or the pickup's mounting screws "scraping" the coil wire. Be extra careful on this step and take your time.
- Solder each new wire according to the instructions above, and trim any excess
- Replace the pickguard and test by plugging the guitar into an amp, and performing the "tap test" with a metal screwdriver to test each pickup's output
- Replace the strings and set the pickup height according to this article here.
Pickup Dimensions
Our Strat® replacements are standard Stratocaster sizing and spacing. All string spacings are 52mm.
Upgrade To Prewired
Get our Split Steel Pole Strat prewired, so you can drop in, plug in, and play.
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Prewired HSS Strat Pickguard
The Ultimate Pickguard for HSS Strat
Customize This product has more options. You can choose them on the product page. -
Prewired Strat Pickguard
The Ultimate Prewired Pickguard Choice
Customize This product has more options. You can choose them on the product page. -
Prewired Split Blade Pickguard
Customizable, Prewired Noiseless Tone
Customize This product has more options. You can choose them on the product page.
Builders Love Our Split Steel Pole Strat
These are just some of our talented builders that use our Split Steel Pole Strat
Featured Artists
These artists trust their tone to our Split Steel Pole Strat
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
34 Genuine Reviews for Split Steel Pole Strat
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I put this in the bridge position of a Strat, because the bridge pickup on a Strat is typically underwhelming. Compared to a full size P90, this pickup seems a bit clearer and punchier, but overall sounds very close to a full size P90, and it works wonderfully well with the middle pickup in position 2 (all the quack and none of the ice pick). On it’s own, the pickup is the best sounding “single coil” bridge pickup I’ve ever heard in a Strat. Very quiet, though not completely without 60 cycle hum, and strong mids, perfect highs, and lows like a Tele bridge pickup. Highly recommended!
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Exactly what I needed. I have a love/hate relationship with my strat, and a big contributor to the “hate” part is definitely the 60 cycle hum. I play the majority of my stuff in the bridge position, and me (and my sound guy) were getting fed up with it. I needed something with a good midrange that could still cut, and still had some of that strat flare.
This absolutely delivered. It has a bold midrange, enough highs to cut, and enough lows to not feel weak. It’s not afraid of a lot of gain either, although I haven’t tried any kind of metal music on it yet lol.
I will say it does lean more towards P90 than strat sounds, but a thicker more midrangey sound is exactly what I wanted from my bridge pickup, so I’m perfectly okay with that. It still retains enough of the strat character that it doesn’t sound out of place with the other two single coils though.
It’s also a perfect drop in! No pot switches, no new pickguard to fit a giant humbucker. Can’t recommend this enough.
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Ferocious! Transformed a Japanese Strat into a monster. Great with tons of gain and cleans up nicely with a twist of the volume knob. Highly recommend!
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This is the second SSP bridge I’ve purchased, 5% underwound. It’s just perfect, very balanced with the other 50s-style single coils. It sounds exactly like the other one, with a little less midrange. Actually the best one I’ve ever had on a strat
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My ‘86 American Vintage ‘57 Reissue Strat is hands down the best Strat I’ve ever played… but the bridge position, like on most SSS Strats, has always had me reaching for a Tele or something thicker until now. I wired in a Fralin Split Steel Pole bridge pickup last month and it is UNREAL!!! I’d put this bridge pickup against any P90 or lower wind humbucker on the market.
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Perfect bridge position pickup for my strat. I wanted something noisless with a little more bite. This pickup is perfect and sounds flawlessly like the examples on the site. It made my guitar even more special.
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I love this Split Steel Pole Strat bridge pickup. It has a percussive and hammery sound. Plenty sparkly. Cuts sharply and pushes the amp nicely. The ‘tweener tone with the center pickup is also magnificent and useful. This is a great country pickup, for pedal steel bends and fast clean pickin’. I haven’t pushed it too loud but I may try that. Finally a fully useful sound for the bridge position on my ash bodied Hamer Daytona. This pickup delivers great sonics without penalty. Highly recommended!!!
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Sounds great! I wanted something beefy in the bridge position of my strat without going to a humbucker. This pickup is versatile, it can cover country to high gain tones. It doesn’t get brittle like a typical strat bridge pickup can get if you hit it with distortion. It is juicy!
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I have this pickup with a 5% underwind in my MIJ Talman. I was expecting a great pickup, but somehow the Fralin crew exceeded my expectations. It absolutely nailed the tone I was looking for–beefier than a standard Strat pickup, but still in the same neighborhood — all while being noise-free! Simply put, the Split Steel Pole Strat offers the platonic ideal of what I want a Strat bridge pickup to be in my head.
What really surprised me about this pickup was its versatility; you can get a broad range of highly-usable sounds from the guitar’s tone control alone. So in addition to doing traditional Strat bridge things and medium-gain leads that I expected this pickup to deliver, I found that it can work quite well for parts that I normally play with a Filtertron.
tl;dr: The Split Steel Pole Strat offers everything I want out of a Strat bridge pickup and more.
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This is an AWESOME sounding bridge strat pickup.
It has the single coil “thing” but without the annoying brittle sounding top end, it’s fatter and warmer and pushes the amp more.I put it in the bridge position of my Suhr classic with the Michael Landau neck and middle pickups. They are a little hot and they all balance out well.
I had the V60LP in there and it is definitely a great sounding bridge pickup as well. This is better for me . I play almost always with some overdrive, into a Fractal FM3 at home direct as well as into two Friedman amps and the Friedman IR-X direct live.
I don’t have to roll off the top end a bunch with the tone knob and it cleans up great with the volume knob.
Fantastic pickup
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Had to be patient waiting for visiting company to go home to install this, but boy was it worth the wait. I have a beginner level lap steel that had a terrible, thin, cheap-sounding Strat-style pickup at the bridge. Now it has the tone I wanted – full and meaty, with great detail and fat, singing mids. Now I just need to learn to play more than the handful of lines in “Breathe” by Pink Floyd, and I’ll be golden. That task will be a lot easier with inspiring sound from a great pickup to help make me want to play more…. 🙂
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The Split Steel Pole is exactly what I wanted. It adds just enough midrange and output to make the bridge-only position sound really good. The bridge+middle position is still good, too.
I put up a YouTube sound demo of it here:
https://youtu.be/qAbKrcJuq0U -
this is a great sounding pickup! I play classic rock and blues covers and gig weekly. Adds a nice P90 flavoring to the standard Stratocaster tones. Well make and quiet! Thank you!
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Very pleased with the Split Steel Pole Strat bridge pickup. It actually does have a great P90 tone, which is what I was looking for! And it breaks up nicely, just like a P90. I think it actually hits my amp a bit harder than my other P90-equipped guitars. It cuts through great, but it is certainly not as bright as a typical strat bridge pickup. If Fralin could design a split steel pole with a bit more top end, I think that would be the best of both worlds.
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