Steel Pole 43 Tele
Stand out in the mix and transform your Telecaster into a P90 powerhouse with Steel Pole 43s for Tele. You won’t get a traditional Telecaster tone out of these pickups, and that’s the point! 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 Tele. Don’t be afraid to get dirty – experience the expertly-crafted blend of P90 and Tele pickups, and discover what you’ve been missing.
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Tele Looks, P90 Guts.
Want to learn more about our Steel Pole 43 Tele? Here's all the information you'll need:
Steel Pole 43 Tele FEATURES:
Are you searching for the perfect P90 tone, but want to keep your Telecaster looks? We got you right here: Steel Pole 43s are the highest-output Telecaster Pickups we make and feature the thickest midrange and most aggressive attack.
Thicker and louder than our Steel Pole 42’s, The Steel Pole 43 leans even more towards the tone of a traditional P90. They are guaranteed to push your amp hard while still retaining all the definition and clarity you’ve come to expect from Fralin Pickups.
Features:
- Original Fender Size, Lindy Fralin Design
- P90 Tone in a Telecaster size
- 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
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. The Steel Pole 43 for Tele consists of a precision injection mold, USA-Made Steel Screws, and USA-Made magnets to make this model scream. Each bobbin is carefully inspected and cleaned before winding, and checked three times before shipping for unparalleled quality control.
We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique, which 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
Steel Pole 43s are the closest we can get to a traditional P90 tone, with Telecaster looks. They are the perfect pickups to warm-up a particularly bright and thin-sounding guitar. If you play clean, you can expect a super thick and creamy midrange. You’ll instantly notice the warm tonal quality, round pick attack, and percussive character of the Steel Pole 43s.
When playing with distortion, you can expect a thick, aggressive top-end and midrange and a “chainsaw” grind, similar to P90s. Steel Pole 43s will hit the front-end of your amp hard and break up quickly.
The midrange is prominent on this pickup, which is suitable for all music styles of music, from Rock to Jazz, and sounds excellent on 500K pots. Finally, if you need the most output out of your Tele or are merely looking to give your Telecaster a unique voice, Steel Pole 43s are your go-to choice.
Tech Specs
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Steel Pole 43 Tele.
This pickup features a reversible coil direction. We can supply a 3-Wire lead which allows you to reverse the phase easily.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 8.8K |
| Bridge Reading: | 10.6K |
| Neck Polarity: | North To Strings, Counter-Clockwise Coil Direction |
| Bridge Polarity: | South To Strings, Clockwise Coil Direction |
| Wire: | USA-Made 43-Gauge Single Poly Nylon |
| Pole Pieces: | USA-Made Steel Screws |
| Magnets: | USA-Made Ceramic |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 500K* |
| Recommended Cap Value**: | 0.02mfd |
**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.
* You can experiment with pot values for a different tone. This pickup will sound very dark and warm on 250K pots
Sizing
Steel Pole 43 Tele Questions And Answers:
Notice:
Have a question about our Steel Pole 43 Tele? Ask it here. Your Question will be publically visible. If you want to ask a Private Question, please contact us through our Contact Us Form.
If you have multiple questions, please call us at (804) 358-2699.
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after reading reviews on your steel pole 43 pickup, it seems that this pickup is not easily compatable with a callaham vintage tele bridge. i ordered one of these pickups on march 2nd 2022. my question, if this is true, have adjustments been made? or have i purchased a pickup i cant use.... thank you in advance for your quick responce. tim
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Q after reading reviews on your steel pole 43 pickup, it seems that this pickup is not easily compa...... Read moreA
Hey Tim, the mounting screws thread into plastic at first, which has some pliability to it. I'd try to mount it as our pickup's mounting holes should line up. On the off chance that it doesn't work, we can simply accept a return.
How far away from the strings does the pickup need to be?
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Q How far away from the strings does the pickup need to be?A Push your Low E String down at the highest fret. Measure from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string. The ideal starting location should be 1/8? on the bass string, and 1/16? on the treble string, when you push the High E string down at the highest fret. You can adjust the stagger from there with the pole pieces.
What’s the difference between the Steel Pole 43 and 42?
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Q What’s the difference between the Steel Pole 43 and 42?A The Steel Pole 43 leans more towards a P90 tone. It requires 500K pots, just like a P90.
How will this pickup differ from a standard Tele pickup?
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Q How will this pickup differ from a standard Tele pickup?A Because of the Ceramic, the Steel Pole pickups have a harder and more aggressive treble than the softer, more sparkly treble of a normal Tele pickup with Alnico magnets. The Ceramic will cause this pickup to sound slightly more aggressive in the midrange and will be darker.
Steel pole 43 Tele pickups. You recommend 500k pots. What value tone cap compliments these ?
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Q Steel pole 43 Tele pickups. You recommend 500k pots. What value tone cap compliments these ?A Yes, we recommend 500K pots for the Steel Pole 43’s. Either the 0.02mfd or 0.047mfd Tone Cap will work really well with this set, depending on how dark you need the tone to be (0.047mfd being darker than 0.02).
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Go the extra mile and combine our Steel Pole 43 Tele with a Telecaster Control Plate!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews we worked hard for, and are proud of.
Absolutely gorgeous sound. I installed a complete set plus a control plate on a ‘72 Tokai. Beautiful full sound, incredible clarity. Lindy was super helpful on the phone helping me configure the control plate appropriately. Wonderful customer experience, couldn’t be happier.
Just dropped a SP43 P 90 into my Tele bridge, and what a huge difference it makes! It just growls and sounds great. Even the tech that installed it commented, “this things sounds badass”. Great product and service. Lindy even called me directly regarding a phase question I had.
Great product, service and company. Fralin is the way to go, buy with confidence. I will absolutely do business with again!
Customer seems to be VERY happy with the sound of his guitar.
This pickup is awesome. For context, I have this in a single pickup Tele, bridge onlyc no neck pickup. I bought thisc and a loaded switch plate at the same time. I spoke to Lindy on the phone, told him what I was looking for and he made some suggestions.
On this set up I have what he calls the magic cap in the switch all the way to the bridge position, a more standard set up in the middle switch position which allows more control with the tone pot, and no tone in the all the way forward position.
The magic cap position is subtle, but it’s there. I believe Lindy explained it as rolling off the shrill part of the highs, but bringing out the rest of the highs a bit more, and nice lead boost type thing. This it does, and it does clean up if you roll off the volume. In the middle, it will clean up a bit more, and you can roll of the tone to achieve an almost neck pickup sound.
This pickup is definitely more aggressive than even a hotter wound Tele bridge pickup. I had the Blues Special for many years, this is most definitely darker and far more powerful. This is not the traditional bridge pickup sound. With that said, this thing is awesome. I’ve always thought that I sound too bright, even with the tone rolled off quite a bit, and this pickup really takes the edge off if that’s something you struggle with. This really does sound as P90ish as what I believe you will get out of a single coil pickup.
I have a Mexican Player Tele with a Fender Subsonic neck. After converting it to a baritone in B standard tuning, it sounded good clean but didn’t take my distortion and fuzz pedals very well. I play mostly early Black Sabbath and Doom metal, so I like heavy, sludgy fuzz. I wasn’t satisfied with the baritone Tele’s sound, so I considered several types of pickup upgrades, including Fender Custom Shop options and Seymour Duncan humbuckers. I eventually decided to give the Fralin Steel Pole 43s a shot because my favorite guitar is my 2008 SG Classic with P90s. What a difference! The Tele slays now. It has the growl I was looking for and works great with all my pedals. It sounds amazing clean, too, and is a vast improvement over the stock pickups both clean and dirty. The SP43s are exactly what I was looking for because they give me a P90 sound while retaining the Tele’s voice and maintain note clarity even with heavy distortion. They were also extremely easy to install because they directly replaced my old pickups. I swapped the pots for 500k and added a push/pull tone control to switch between two different caps. I must say that these pickups sound awesome with a .047 tone capacitor. I’m completely satisfied with my purchase and love the Tele now. I’m glad I chose SP43s over the other pickups I was considering. They’re great, and I don’t foresee any reason to ever swap them out for anything else. They also shipped much faster than I expected, and I had them installed in less than a week from the date of purchase! If you’re on the fence, just go ahead and buy these. You won’t regret it.
I had been of the opinion that the original P90 tone (not the hum) was the summit of pickup design, and all the humbuckers that followed were just a tad down the slope. It became a kind of mission for me to find a hum-free p90 sound in a T-style, so I kept returning to the sound clips on the Fralin website. Talking with Lindy, I thought, “Well, a P92 +2% in the neck and a 43 split-coil T-style bridge might get it.” Long story short, I am astonished at how good both pickups sound. 500k pots for me, .015 capacitor, but I have a feeling there’s no way to make these pickups sound bad. I do intend to find out. More likely than sounding like Keith, you’ll make him want a set if he doesn’t have them already. To my ear, Fralin has found a new summit. Equal height or higher may be a matter of opinion, but I personally look forward to a long time playing these pickups. You want jazz on the neck? You got it by the dozens. You want twang and grit on the bridge? Truckloads.
I got my first guitar in 1965, it was a SG jr with a single P90. I’ve always loved the sound of a P90 and the Fralin SP43 bridge pickup was an attempt to get closer to that type of tone from a tele bridge pickup with Fralin neck and middle vintage hots. I wouldn’t say that the SP43 is an exact copy of a P90 but it’s in the same category. To my ears it’s a bit brighter than a P90 while still delivering a more robust tone and higher volume that a traditional tele pickup. I think of guitars as a tonal palette like an artist has a palette for mixing color. The SP43 works extremely well with the vintage hots for obtaining the tone and feel that I’m looking for. It responds beautifully to touch and dynamics.
This is the third SP43 bridge p.u. for Telecaster I’ve owned; as Fralin mentions it’s not the traditional Tele twang thing but it is hands down one of the most versatile Tele bridge p.u.’s ever! If you want more chime you can experiment with higher pot values as well. My favorite Tele bridge p.u. for getting the best balance between robust clean and playing amazingly with drive box’s. All hail Fralin!
I bought these as a set to breath new life into my warmoth build tele that I put together 20 years ago. My expectations were far surpassed. It’s an even more responsive, colorful, and beautifully resonant tone then before. These pickups growl in all the right ways. Volume knob and picking dynamics push or hold back the break up in a really great way. I’m a Fralin player for life. Thank you!
I put my new Steel Pole 43’s in and all I can say is wow. As far as Telecaster PU’s go, if word truly gets around on these it’s over! These PU’s do it all. I definitely recommend being patient and taking extra time to get just the right height. Also I have 250k pots and they work fine.
Thanks to all, great product and well worth the money.