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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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.
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What are the differences in the Unbucker, Sunbucker, and Sunbucker Blues?
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Q What are the differences in the Unbucker, Sunbucker, and Sunbucker Blues?A
Hey Billy,
- The Sunbucker sounds like a Fender pickup, clean bright and clear with a Fender sparkle.
- The Sunbucker Blues sounds like a standard humbucker, but with a bit more clarity and articulation out of the wound strings
- The Unbucker sounds similar to the Sunbucker Blues, but will produce a bit of hum as the coils are unbalanced.
What is the difference between the Sunbucker Blues and the Sunbucker? And which of the two work bese with a 250K pot? Which of the two mix better with your real 54's in the neck and middle?
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Q What is the difference between the Sunbucker Blues and the Sunbucker? And which of the two work b...... Read moreA
Hey Jaime, the Sunbucker Blues sounds best on 500K pots, and the Sunbucker sounds best on 250K pots. The Sunbucker Blues sounds more like a traditional Humbucker, while the Sunbucker sounds a lot more "Fendery". The Sunbucker would mix a lot better with the Real 54s.
Hy, I’m Federico from Rome, Italy. Do you know something about shipping extra tax to send it in Italy? Or the price is the same. Thank you very much
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Q Hy, I’m Federico from Rome, Italy. Do you know something about shipping extra tax to send it in I...... Read moreA Hello Federico, I'm not 100% sure of what taxes/duties are due to deliver the package after it clears customs. I can guarantee that there will be some extra charge, but I do not know how much. I apologize for the inconvenience. - Tyler
What magnets do you use in the Sunbucker Blues bridge pickup? Jacques
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Q What magnets do you use in the Sunbucker Blues bridge pickup? JacquesA
Hey Jacques, we use two Alnico 5 bar magnets to charge the screw coil stronger than the slug coil.
Hi! I want to customize my MIM Fender Player HH Tele. Looking at the Pure P.A.F. Or Sunbucker Blues - 4 wire? My main guitar is an Fender AM Std Strat. I love the single coil tone and would like to modify the Tele with split coil(s) I know, you have all the parts, wiring diagrams and tech, why am I writing this? I’d like to use a five way switch to get in/out of phase operation similar to the way a Strat operates. Is this a stupid over complica...
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Q Hi! I want to customize my MIM Fender Player HH Tele. Looking at the Pure P.A.F. Or Sunbucker Blu...... Read moreA
Hey David, thanks for your patience while we get back to you. The "In / Out of Phase" on a standard strat is actually In-Phase but wired in Parallel. No Strats come with an "Out of phase" switch unless wired in a custom way, which we haven't seen many of. Also, wiring with auto-splitting humbuckers with a 5-way switch leads to a strange switching pattern. We recommend using a 3-Way Switch and a Push-Pull Pot. You can use 1 Push-Pulls Pot for a...
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Fantastic pickups
I purchased a different model of Fralin pickups and found them to be of the best quality of construction and tone of any pickups I’ve ever had. When I got a new guitar that needed new pickups, I came back to Fralin. These Sunbucker Blues pickups have an incredible tone, are versatile and the quality is as good as it gets.
I play with a set of your pure paf in 1of my les pauls & it is my go to AX after i filed & polished the frets & its a bad motor scooter. I also have a few newer guitars that i just pulled the plastic off the pick guard
1- High Performance Gibson Flying V
2-Traditional Pro I l Les Paul
3- S G X
4- Blues Hawk
Customer added no additional comments
A humbucker with a difference
As they describe, it sounds a little bit different than expected from a humbucker.
I put these in a telecaster body that sold over Christmas. The customer and his friends rave about the tone of this pickup so I am hoping it will lead to a few more sells. Thank you for a wonderful pickup!
What the Dr. ordered. Great sounding pickup. Perfect for a clean blues tone. Sounds great with some gain and overdrive. Highly recommend.
This is the neck pickup for which I have been searching. It has the fullness of a humbucker and the clarity of a single coil. The clean sounds are gorgeous. The distorted sounds maintain a great deal of clarity – you’re not going to get “woman toan” from this one.
The Sunbucker Blues also splits really, really well. In split mode you get even more single coil clarity and spank.
I was so impressed with this pickup, that I’ve purchased other LF pickups!
I outfitted a telecaster with a full set of Fralin pick ups and it just turned out amazing. With two single coils and a humbucker this guitar has a complete range of sounds. Thanks to Lindy for helping me out.
I built a Paulowina tele with a SD SH-2 humbucker screwed into the body at the neck, but it was too dark and muddy. Just replaced with a Fralin Bluesbucker and it’s a huge improvement. Neck now sounds a bit like a chimey Strat neck PU, but with more girth. This pickup is as good or better as any I’ve owned (Bare Knuckle, Don Mare, Bill Lawrence, Seymour Duncan, Gibson, Epi, Fender, Ibanez, etc.). I’m really impressed with the voicing and will STRONGLY consider Fralins for any other replacement PUs. Already looking at my Strats and scratching my chin.
I have a Gibson SG 61 Reissue that had 57 Classics in it. These pickups just did not work in this guitar. It suffered from the dreaded “wet blanket” syndrome. The neck pickup was so muffled and boomy. I kept reaching to turn the tone knob up thinking it was turned way down but it was always on 10. I did everything to try and make that pickup sound better, but it couldn’t be done. I needed something brighter and clearer.
This brought me to Lindy Fralin. The Bluesbucker was exactly what I was looking for in the neck. All the muddiness is gone. It’s crisp and clear just like a single coil but has a big full sound like a great humbucker. I paired it with an AlNICO 5 Pure PAF in the bridge and couldn’t be happier.
Hats off to Lindy and his crew. Keep up the great work.