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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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.
Tonal Graph for Steel Pole 43 Tele:
The tone graph below for our Steel Pole 43 Tele features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
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:
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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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does the steel pole 43 bridge pickup have a metal plate on the bottom or do I need a separate ground for the bridge.
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Q does the steel pole 43 bridge pickup have a metal plate on the bottom or do I need a separate gro...... Read moreA
Hey Jeffrey, it has a Nickel Silver Metal Plate on the bottom that will ground out your bridge assembly once installed.
Hey! This pickup is going in a 2010 Mexican made Fender Esquire. Can you confirm which bridge pickup I need in the steel pole 43
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Q Hey! This pickup is going in a 2010 Mexican made Fender Esquire. Can you confirm which bridge pic...... Read moreA
Hey Shane, I'm a bit confused by your question. Since this is a single pickup guitar, are you asking if the Steel Pole 43 will work in your esquire? If so, the answer is yes. If you're asking what pot value, the answer is 500K.
Hello - I purchased a SP43 bridge pickup for my Tele from you guys a while back. I paired it with a p-90 noiseless that I purchased from you guys years ago. I have never really bonded with the p-90 neck, but I love the SP43 bridge. I am planning on buying the SP43 neck pickup from you. But it's asking about a 3-wire option. I'm not sure what to answer for that??
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Q Hello - I purchased a SP43 bridge pickup for my Tele from you guys a while back. I paired it with...... Read moreA
Hey Rick, you don't need the 3-Wire option for this model as you're matching two Fralin pickups together. If you were to do the Series Parallel (4-way switching) mod (which I don't recommend on higher-output models), you would need the 3-wire option for that modification.
Hello- I have the 3 wire steel pole 43- where do I connect the blue wire from the neck and the blue wire from bridge?
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Q Hello- I have the 3 wire steel pole 43- where do I connect the blue wire from the neck and the bl...... Read moreA
Hey Fernando, both Blue wires are permanent grounds. Solder them to the casing of the volume pot. - Tyler
How well does the steel pole 43 pickup handle extremely high/loud volumes with a big muff style fuzz as far as feedback is concerned. I’ve built a backup tele to my 1974 telecaster (which has no trouble with feedback at high volumes) but every pickup I’ve put put in this new build feeds back horribly. I’ve tried silicone tubing instead of springs and I’ve put foam under the pickups but it makes no difference. Also, if the steel pole 43’...
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Q How well does the steel pole 43 pickup handle extremely high/loud volumes with a big muff style f...... Read moreA
Hey Eric, that's a tough question to answer. All else things being equal, our Steel Pole series will not feedback more or less than any of our other pickups. So, I would definitely take a look at your gain stages and see which one is making the most difference, and start tweaking that. Furthermore, to test if your guitar is microphonic, you can tap on different parts of your instrument to see if a specific part makes the feedback come...
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Featured Reviews
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Which of your kids do you love most? Both! Can say the same about my pickups!
I blew a serious load, when I started using these pickups. I could hardly get it up, with regular pickups, but these got my shorts sticky, for sure!
I came like a camel!
Best Single Coil ever! Impressive sounding single coil. Hot output, great bass, clean highs, excellent tonal quality.
I installed a Steel Pole 43 Neck and Bridge in my maple neck tele. I love them. Sound wise they are about 60% P90 and 40% tele. Just the thing to thicken up the sound on an overly bright tele. They are louder than std. tele pickups, which is great, just roll a bit of volume off and you get regular tele output. I prefer setting the amp loud and controlling the volume from my guitar anyway.
I highly recommend these to anyone wanting to add a P90 type flavor to their tele.
Be advised these a slightly larger than some tele neck pickups. My original neck route was too small (the guitar is not a Fender, I made it.) so I routed it a bit deeper and expanded the size to that of a strat neck. The pickup is not as large as a strat neck, I just wanted a bit of room to work with. The magnets underneath make it a bit taller than stock tele, and the cover clips stuck out slightly further than the neck pickup that was installed. This may be no issue with a real USA Fender, but it is easily remedied if needed.
Fixed my issue. I love teles with all my heart. The location of the control plate and the range of tones you can get make it such a versatile instrument. I really love the sound of standard tele pups for country and Americana type stuff, or for accompanying songwriters etc, but for the indie rock gigs where the band has multiple guitars I was having this issue where the neck pup sounded too hollow, didn’t sit in the mix of the band very well, and the bridge was too thin and bright if I tried to compensate on the amp. These sp43s solved that, brought the neck pup forward into the mix, added those mids that I needed, and beefed up the bridge too, which now has that p90 growl along with the typical sizzle you would expect. Kept the tele vibe for sure, so don’t worry about it totally changing the personality of the tele, it’s just alters it a bit. Couldn’t be happier!
I play in an old school Rock and Roll, Jump Blues, Rockabilly band. These pickups give me the versatility to go from clean to pushed effortlessly. I was pleasantly surprised. The guitar I put them on went from being a reserve guitar to now being played more than these rest.
This was the missing piece to my tone! I bought the bridge pickup for my thinline tele and it has brought so much more thickness to my tone without sacrificing clarity. To me this is how a tele should sound! Like others have said, you don’t loose the twang of the tele but it gives you much more clarity, punch, and power! No more thin, shrill tone on my tele! Could not recommend these enough!
I have owned my bridge SP 43 for maybe 6 years now. I am not normally a tele player, so this pickup is a great trade off for my ears. I didn’t want that very thin (in my opinion) scooped mid stock tele bridge sound but I DID want that tele bridge sound! Ha! So if you normally play humbuckers, this is a great compromise to get that tele sound and still have some beef.
However…this still twangs and has that noted tele high end sizzle. Don’t be scared that it won’t sound like a tele. It will. Just with fatter mids, in my opinion. 5 stars for me!
Epic tone. The high quality is obvious straight outta the box. Once you have it soldered in place the smile on your mug will grow ear to ear as you start playing. A great combo of clarity, punch, and power. You don’t loose twang with these, it sounds like a tele… but with the twang you gain depth. Stellar!
I love these pickups. I have a set in my Standard Tele & in my Nashville Tele. I enjoy the utility value of a Tele guitar with the richer, warm, clear sound of SP43’s. More tone, less twang. I especially appreciate their ceramic magnet construction which enables raising the pickups close to the strings without any interfering string pull from the magnets. They are bright enough for my taste, with guitar tone wide open and amp tones near center. Plenty of room for more bass and/or treble. For me, they make a Tele a far more versatile guitar which is able to cover the tasks of solid, semi-hollow, and hollow body instruments, all in one. These great pickups, with the Fralin team support, make this my preferred source for pickups. I just ordered a set of SP42’s for my Strat clone.