Sunbucker Blues®
The Sunbucker Blues is perfect for those who want a traditional humbucking tone, except we magnetize one coil of the Sunbucker Blues stronger than the other coil to give this Humbucker a bright, scooped mid-range tone. This is great for those looking for a brighter, more single-coil sounding humbucker, with a perfect balance of traditional Humbucker tones.
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Polite PAF Tone
Want to learn more about our Sunbucker Blues®? Here's all the information you'll need:
Sunbucker Blues® FEATURES:
The Sunbucker Blues by Lindy Fralin is a cleaner-sounding humbucker with scooped mids. This pickup is based on the specifications of the original 50’s Gibson® P.A.F. pickups, with a few minor tweaks to give this pickup a unique sound. The Sunbucker Blues will give you a vintage, clean tone that’s more articulate than our Pure P.A.F., while leaning slightly towards a Single Coil tone.
Lindy designed the Sunbucker Blues to solve the problem created by a dark-sounding pickup in the neck position of a guitar. To give this pickup its unique tone, we magnetize the screw side of the pickup stronger than the slug side. Building the model this way scoops some midrange and gives you a clearer, more articulate and cleaner tone than traditional humbucker designs.
Features:
- Clear, Clean, Articulate Humbucker Tone
- One coil magnetized stronger than the other, giving it a scooped midrange tone
- Late, smooth breakup
- Bright wound strings, pure-sounding plain strings
- Compensated Overwound Bridge for even volume across all pickups
- Hand-wound with our “Sectioning” technique for unique, dynamic tone
- Hand-built for unrivaled quality control
- 10-Year Warranty on manufacturing defects
Sound
Tonal Graph for Sunbucker Blues®:
The tone graph below for our Sunbucker Blues® features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Dynamic & Full
Clean and articulate. The Sunbucker Blues will stay clear as it won’t break up as early as modern humbuckers, and you’ll find that it has a tight bottom end and a shimmery top end. Built with AlNicCo V and 42-gauge plain enamel wire, the Sunbucker Blues is an instant solution to a dark-sounding humbucker in the Neck position.
When playing clean, you’ll find that this pickup sings what you put into it: it’s incredibly dynamic and warm. With distortion, you’ll find that the breakup is smooth and late, with a pronounced pick attack and pure-sounding plain strings and bright wound strings. Furthermore, we find that you’ll be able to get some sweet blues and clean tones out of this pickup.
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time. Each pickup is wound using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique. Doing this gives the pickup a sweet, clear tone.
Finally, we assemble each pickup one at a time by hand. Hand assembling pickups allows us to achieve unbeatable attention to detail. After assembly, we wax-pot the pickup to preserve the pickup and prevent microphonics.
Sizing
Humbucker Lead Color Codes
See below for our Humbucker Lead color codes. For help with matching to other manufacturers, check out this resource here.
Gibson Braided Lead:
Select This Lead If...
- You are wiring a set of pickups to a Gibson® Style Instrument, like a Les Paul or 335.
Avoid This Lead If...
- You need Coil Splitting
- You are purchasing a Single Pickup
- You need to Reverse the Phase
3-Conductor Lead:
Select This Lead If...
- You need Coil Splitting
- You are purchasing a Single Pickup (You can reverse the phase)
- You are wiring pickup(s) to a Blade Switch, like a Fender-Style instrument.
4-Conductor Lead
Select This Lead If...
- You need Series / Parallel Wiring
Avoid This Lead If...
- You have limited space in the wiring cavity (wire can be bulky).
Coming Soon
We don't have Tech Specs at the moment, but we will have them up soon!Sunbucker Blues® FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
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What Ohm Readings does your Sunbucker Blues® have?
Navigate to our Tech Specs tab for complete Ohm Readings and more useful information.
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Will this pickup fit my instrument?
Check our "Sizing" tab for the size of the pickup. No Sizing tab? Check under the product image gallery for dimensions.
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Is your Lead Time of 3-4 Weeks accurate?
It really depends on the shop capacity at the moment, and the size of your order. Feel free to give us a call for an accurate lead time. We always try to underpromise and overdeliver.
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What pickup height do you recommend setting your Sunbucker Blues®s to?
Our recommended Pickup Height is 1/8" (3.175mm) on the Bass Side and 1/16"( 1.5875mm) on the Treble Side. Measure by holding the corresponding side down at its highest fret and measure from the bottom of the string to the top of the pole piece.
GET IT PREWIRED
Get our Sunbucker Blues® prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews we worked hard for, and are proud of
Exactly what I was looking for, exactly as described on the Fralin website, and it pairs very well with the Fralin Pure PAF 8.2k (Alnico III) in the bridge. I ordered the Sunbucker Blues with a 5% underwind for the neck position of my PRS Sunburst Series 22 (a limited run Custom 22 from 2009). It replaced a DiMarzio Eric Johnson humbucker. It was a tall order to beat out the DiMarzio but the Sunbucker Blues is the winner. The Sunbucker Blues is bright, but full, and has amazing clarity and string separation (the latter being very similar to the Pure PAF). It sounds great played together with the Pure PAF in the bridge, it sounds very much like a set (which was lacking for me before). It is very quiet noise wise. The sound is on the bright side but that is what works best in my opinion in the neck position–very crisp and punchy, no mud. Like a single coil but with the fullness of a humbucker, an excellent fusion of a single coil sound and a humbucker sound. It has the excellent articulation and clarity that Fralin’s PAF style pickups are known for. It also splits very well with the addition of a partial split resistor on the tone pot (and when split the 60 cycle hum is not significant). This is a very useful design and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a clear, clean, brighter neck humbucker that can also be split. Excellent customer service as always, I spoke directly with Lindy and he answered all my questions. Huge fan of Fralin pickups and the company. This is a USA business to support.
This was a journey trying to find the right sound I was looking for. Originally I struggled with what to get. I was struggling between Sunbucker Blues set or a Pure P.A.F. set. Both sounded so beautiful, but there was so much more information and demo sounds I could listen to for the PAF set. For Sunbucker Blues, I only found the one video on here (which sounded beautiful), but it’s very short. I searched everywhere and couldn’t find anything more. I wanted a really great blues sound and everyone said Pure P.A.F. set was the way to go. So I did, and it was beautiful when I installed them, but the neck wasn’t quite what I wanted. I wanted a clearer sound that had a little more twang, and sounded just a little brighter.
I wrestled over it for about a week and finally emailed Lindy about it. I loved the Pure P.A.F. set, but it was difficult to explain the sound that was in my head. Lindy actually called me on my phone and actually played two different guitars to compare the sound for me over the phone between the two pickups. I couldn’t believe it. It was awesome and decided to trade in the neck PAF for the Sunbucker Blues. Eventually it came, and I’ve had a hard time putting my guitar down since. It is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I can achieve every blues sound I’m looking for with this. I’ve played both clean and dirty with it. Every artist’s sound I’m looking for is here. Most importantly, the sound in my head, is here. It takes pedals perfectly or straight into the amp. The sustain is gorgeous. I can play with a kind of emotion that didn’t exist with my previous pickups I’ve used. I feel like the Sunbucker blues pickup is the translator of what’s in my mind. It’s weird and hard to explain beyond that. I have never been more happy with a pickup.
Fantastic clarity and single string articulation. Even when playing power chords. Love them!
I put this in the neck position of a Stratocaster with a Blues Special middle and Pure PAF bridge. It’s a great match with the other pickups. The pickup is brighter and closer to a single coil than the Pure PAF and sounds great split through a resistor.
At Lindy’s suggestion I put this in the neck position of my ES-339, and it added the clarity and attack I was looking for! It still has that cool semi-hollow smokey vibe, but without the mush. It’s way more usable and is a vast improvement over the stock pickup. This may be my new go-to neck humbucker pickup!
Sunbucker Blues – Les Paul neck
Finally ended a long search for a neck pick up for my les paul that wasn’t too bassy in the low strings. Very clear on clean tones. Breaks up nice on overdrive. Bass strings are articulate and not lost in mush like most other pickups. Still balances well with medium output bridge pickup. Thanks again Lindy for a great product.
At last a neck pickup that cleaned up my Les Paul!
Since I purchased my Les Paul Standard back in 2008 I’ve never been to happy with it’s neck pickup sound. About five years ago I changed the stock pickup to a PAF style from another brand and it got better but it was still not the sound I was looking for. Now this Sunbucker is exactly what I was looking for, a full great sounding neck pickup that finally cleaned up all the muddy low end my LP suffered from the start.
Paired the Sunbucker Blues Humbucker (neck) with Split Blade Blues Tele (bridge). They sound incredible! I usually think the neck humbucker can sound muddy, the Sunbucker Blues is bright and full. This was my 3rd set of Fralins in the last year. All have been fantastic!