Steel Pole 42 Tele
Perfect Balance of P90 and Tele Tone
$130 – $260
Enter the world of the almighty P90 pickup, and discover what you’ve been missing with our Steel Pole 42’s. Featuring the perfect balance of a traditional Tele pickup and the P90 tone, we’ve achieved hybrid tonal bliss! Expertly crafted by hand, we guarantee this tone will inspire you for years to come.
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Telecaster, Meet P90.
Want to learn more about our Steel Pole 42 Tele? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features
Steel Pole 42 Tele pickups are an exciting blend of a P90 and a traditional Tele pickup. Thicken up your Telecaster’s tone with a snarly and warm midrange and a stiffer, percussive treble. Hand-built with USA-Made Steel Pole Pieces, Ceramic Magnets, and a low-output wind, we guarantee the unique tone produced by this set will inspire you.
Featuring a thicker and warmer tone than our Stock Teles, you’ll be impressed by the unique pick attack and versatile nature of this set. Hand-built with Steel Pole Pieces and Ceramic Magnets, Steel Pole 42s feature a stiffer top-end and midrange snarl. If you play with distortion, you can expect a faster break up and a “chainsaw” grind.
Perfectly fusing the clarity and dynamics of a Tele pickup and the midrange aggression and bark of a P90, we’re sure that this is one of the most versatile and unique-sounding pickups on the market today.
Features:
- Original Fender Size, Lindy Fralin Design
- Strong and bold – lots of midrange and snarl
- USA-made Ceramic Magnets for aggressive tone and output
- Compensated Bridge for even volume across all pickups
- RW/RP Neck pickup for a hum-canceling middle position.
- Adjustable Steel Pole pieces for fine-tuning string balance
- 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
Sound
Steel Pole 42’s sound larger and richer than traditional Tele pickups. You’ll notice more midrange, especially in the lows and highs when played clean. The midrange is prominent on this pickup, and it sounds great on 250K pots. These pickups are not as dark as a P90 but have a beautiful openness and clarity. Steel Pole 42’s sound thicker in the midrange with more of a “chainsaw” grind. For musicians looking for more of a traditional P-90 sound, we recommend our Steel Pole 43 Pickups.
Finally, Steel Pole 42 Pickups are for those who need more output from their stock pickups. If you’re looking for something different, these may be right for you. Also, if your current pickups are too bright or thin, you will love these. These tend to be warmer-sounding, and a bit aggressive.
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. Steel Pole Pickups consist of a precision injection mold and USA-Made Steel Screws. We use aggressive USA-Made magnets to make this model scream. Each bobbin is carefully inspected and cleaned before winding.
We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time, using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique. Winding pickups this way gives each pickup a sweet, clear tone. Finally, we wax-pot the pickup to preserve the pickup and prevent microphonics.
Sound Samples for Steel Pole 42 Tele:
About this Sound Clip:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
Tonal Graph For Steel Pole 42 Tele:
The tonal graph below for our Steel Pole 42 Tele features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Stiff & Percussive
Tech Specs:
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Steel Pole 42 Tele.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 7.7K* 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 6.7K 1 |
| Neck Polarity: | Counter Clockwise Coil Direction, North To Strings |
| Bridge Polarity: | Clockwise Coil Direction, South To Strings |
| Magnet: | Ceramic |
| Wire: | USA-Made 42-Gauge / 43-Gauge Single Poly Nylon |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 250K |
| 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.
*The Neck reads higher due to the use of 43 Gauge Wire, outputs are compensated
Polarity Information:
Here's how we wind and magnetize our pickups:
Note: We depict all our coil directions from Ground (Black Wire, or Start Wire) to Hot (White Wire, or Finish Wire).
Steel Pole 42 Tele Dimensions:
Pickup Pairing
Our Steel Pole 42 Tele pairs well with the following models:
Steel Pole 42 Strat - Middle
Starting At: $ 115
Pair with a Steel Pole 42 Reverse Middle for a Smokin' Nashville Tele tone.
Split Steel Poled Tele - Bridge
Starting At: $ 150
Our Split Steel Pole Tele Bridge is the perfect noiseless companion for our Steel Pole 42.
Get it prewired
Go the extra mile and combine our Steel Pole 42 Tele with a Telecaster Control Plate!:
Customer Reviews
54 Genuine Reviews for Steel Pole 42 Tele
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I was looking for a tele sound with more body and mids and these pickups are great! The highs are way smoother than the stock pickups (Gen 4 Noiseless). The exposed pole pieces help dial in the string balance. The clarity is still there and the tele spank, especially on the middle setting. They are not as bright as the stock pickups that were on there, but some subtractive eq can give it that characteristic if you need it too. Really great sound that can be shaped to your liking.
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I own 2 teles and 2 strats, all with Fralin pickups or wired Fralin pickguards. I’ve owned many other guitars and most at some point had Fralins in them. Today I put an SP 42 bridge in my tele and fired up my 65 Bassman and Vibrolux to test. It delivers as I had hoped…punchy, loud, twangy, lots of bite. With an od pedal on it sings and produces overtones that are very nice. As usual a top notch product from one of the best pickup winders/ developers around. I live nearby to go to the shop to fulfill my order, and the room is quiet and professional, all the staff friendly. I’m retired and don’t need to work but if I did this would be a great place to be employed from what I can observe.
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Simply OUTSTANDING!!! This pickups are incredible! They sound so rich, thick, and full, but retain that Tele brightness and snap. Just very well balanced and detailed. They are absolutely perfect for the tones im after. I highly recommend them. The wait time was less than expected as well. Im definitely trying more Fralin Pickups in the future.
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Great interaction with the Fralin support team in advance of buying.
Pickup is fantastic! I’ve been using Fralin’s pickups in guitars and basses for 20 years and have never been disappointed.
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Put in the bridge of a Fender Ultra Telecaster, paired with a Blues Special in the neck. This tele is now incredibly versatile. The steel pole 42 still does sound like a tele pickup – just on steroids. In series mode combined with the neck pickup, turn down the tone knob just a touch and you can get genuinely useful humbucker like tones. I now have the pickups to match everything else about this great guitar. Very satisfied.
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Wow! These pickups are amazing. I have had an American Tele for the last 30 years that I could never quite get to sound the way I wanted it to, despite going through several sets of pickups. This set was everything I wanted and more! The balance between the low and high frequencies is stellar and provides wonderful clarity. This is my first set of Fralin’s but won’t definitely won’t be last.
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I traded a guitar for a 2002 American Deluxe Telecaster, which is a beautiful looking guitar that plays fantastically. However, the pickups (vintage noiseless, I believe) were not great, very thin and weak. I wanted to beef up the tone a bit and came across the Steel Pole 42 set after a few days of Google searching, and the description and reviews here matched what I was looking for. There were no Youtube reviews at the time, and the only sound samples were at this site, so buying them was a bit of a gamble.
I could not be happier. These are perfect. Some of my favorite pickups ever are on my G&L ASAT classic, but they are just a little too hot and could use a little more clarity and a touch more midrange, and these pickups are pretty much the ASAT MFDs with those improvements.
The set shipped sooner than expected, look great, and sound phenomenal. This was my first set of Fralins and probably not my last.
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Great tele neck pup! It’s got that P90 aggressiveness yet retains that tele snap. Not mushy at all!
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I have a Fender Roadworn Tele with Fralin Blues Special in the bridge and Fralin Steel Pole 42 as a neck pickup. I’m a neck position guy and this pickup was such a great update to my guitar. It leans towards a P90 soundwise, providing a fat, warm and when needed, gritty sound. And it looks really lovely too!
The good folks at Lindy Fralin were very communicative and helpful and wanted to make sure the pickup I was receiving was in right wind direction and polarity were matched to my existing p/up
Here’s the first video track I cut with the pickup:
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Oh, my goodness. Put a matched set of SP42’s in my Player Telecaster and… Wow, just WOW.
It’s hard to describe just how good these pickups sound, but I’ll try. They add warmth, richness, boldness but still exhibit some of that sparkle that you want now and then from your Tele. I did some fancy wiring to get series and parallel sounds and these pickups really shine with those additional options. Super responsive to touch and retain clarity and character even with the volume rolled down.
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Lindy’s Steel pole 42 bridge transformed my tele and their service is the best. Looking forward to future guitar builds with their pick ups
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Perfect match for the Split Steel Poled bridge pickup. A 4 way switch is my preferred way to wire Tele style guitars, these two pickups are full, fat and just beautiful sounding.
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I purchased the SP42 tele bridge pickup as a replacement for the G&L MFD pickup on my ASAT classic S. I was looking for something that would mostly preserve the original sound of my guitar, while eliminating the dreaded “ASAT screech”.
This pickup is awesome. It’s definitely not an MFD but it fits very well with my guitar. It does everything a P90 does – sparkle, growl — great clean, pedals, od, or distortion.
I do a lot of intricate sliding/tapping in my current band and this pickup is articulate at all stages, but can still rip out a solo/heavier riffs. Great all around pickup
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I purchased the SP42 tele bridge pickup as a replacement for the G&L MFD pickup on my ASAT classic S. I was looking for something that would mostly preserve the original sound of my guitar, while eliminating the dreades “ASAT screech”.
This pickup is awesome. It’s definitely not an MFD but it fits very well with my guitar. It does everything a P90 does – sparkle, growl — great clean, pedals, od, or distortion.
I do a lot of intricate sliding/tapping in my current band and this pickup is articulate at all stages, but can still rip out a solo/heavier riffs. Great all around pickup
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