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.
Quick Links:
Jump to Sound Clips and Product Info:
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
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.
Tech Specs
The Sunbucker Blues is wound with Single Poly Nylon Wire. We build them using USA-Made Alnico 5 Magnets and USA-Made Steel Screws. We use Nickel-Silver Baseplates and Covers.
The Stock Set of Sunbucker Blues reads 8K in the Neck and 9K in the Bridge. The outputs are compensated and all sets have matched volume.
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:
2-Conductor Lead:
3-Conductor Lead:
4-Conductor Lead
Sunbucker Blues® Questions And Answers:
Notice:
Have a question about our Sunbucker Blues®? 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.
-
Will Sunbucker Blues set do Woman Tone?
-
Q Will Sunbucker Blues set do Woman Tone?A
Hey Alex, sure! Just make sure you dial in the distortion and tone properly, and you'll be able to recreate this tone nicely.
I would like to know which pair of humbuckers are suitable for the Ephiphone Les Paul Special-II LE guitar to produce a jazz sound. Thank you. Vorrei saper quale coppia di Humbucker è adatta alla chitarra Ephiphone Les Paul Special-II LE per produrre un suono jazz. Grazie
-
Q I would like to know which pair of humbuckers are suitable for the Ephiphone Les Paul Special-II ...... Read moreA
Hello Luca, it really depends on how warm you want the Jazz tone to be. If you wanted a traditional P.A.F. tone, I would recommend our Modern P.A.F.s. If you wanted something a bit more clear with a P90 tone, our P-92s are great. A third option would blend the two tones - and that would be our Read more
What’s the difference between this model and the Pure P.A.F.?
-
Q What’s the difference between this model and the Pure P.A.F.?A The Sunbucker Blues is clearer and more articulate than the Pure P.A.F. You might find this model great in the neck, and a Pure P.A.F. in the bridge.
Can you Coil Tap this model?
-
Q Can you Coil Tap this model?A
Yep! Choose 3-Conductor Lead and use our diagrams here. You may want to use a Partial Tap Resistor as this is a medium-output humbucker.
Which Lead should I choose?
-
Q Which Lead should I choose?A Gibson style instruments with separate volume pots for each pickup work best with Gibson Shielded Braided lead. If you have a Fender style instrument or coil-tapping or phase reversing needs, go with 3-Conductor. If you want the maximum options, go with 4-Conductor.
Note:
Asking a question here will be public to all users of this siteHey!
Did you already ask a question on our Contact Us Form? Don't ask it again here. Please be patient while we get back to you.
GET IT PREWIRED
Get our Sunbucker Blues® prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:
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!