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Sunbucker®
$150.00 – $300.00
The Fralin Sunbucker gives you 25% Humbucker tone and 75% Alnico Single Coil tone – with humbucker aesthetics. Enjoy a beefy, hum-cancelling single coil tone – all with traditional humbucker looks. Thicker, darker, and louder than our Big Single, and clearer than our Pure P.A.F.
SUNBUCKER: HUMBUCKER WITH A SINGLE COIL SNAP.
The Fralin Sunbucker® guitar pickup is a very snappy, bright sounding humbucker with a Single Coil vibe. Based on Lindy’s original design, the Sunbucker humbucker is clean, very articulate, and clear. You can expect a spanky, snappy clean tone that’s very articulate, unlike most modern humbuckers, while offering a lot of Single Coil tone. The Sunbucker has a medium output, which is very dynamic and expressive. Lindy created this pickup to help balance out very dark sounding guitars, or for those who want a bright, snappy tone with no hum.
SUNBUCKER FEATURES:
- 75% Single Coil tone, 25% Humbucker
- Clear, Clean, Articulate sounding Guitar Pickups
- Late, smooth breakup
- Bright wound strings, pure-sounding plain strings
- Made by hand, one at a time.
Due to supplier issues, we are discontinuing Jet Black Nickel covers until further notice. We’ll keep you updated when black comes back!
SOUND:
Very bright, clear, and articulate. Sunbuckers will stay clean as it won’t break up as early as modern humbuckers, and you’ll find that it’s spanky and plucky. Built with AlNicCo V and 42-gauge plain enamel wire, this guitar pickup is an excellent solution to a dark-sounding humbucker in the neck position, or for those who are chasing after a single-coil tone with no hum.
When playing clean, you’ll find that this guitar pickup sounds very much like a single-coil: it’s incredibly dynamic, bright, and snappy. With distortion, you’ll find that the smooth and late, with a pronounced pick attack and pure-sounding plain strings and bright wound strings.
FAQS:
- What makes this humbucker sound different? The Sunbucker uses Alnico 5 Magnets instead of Steel Slugs, like a normal humbucker. This gives this humbucker design a Fender Sparkle.
- What Pots do you recommend? You can experiment. 500K pots will give you the brightest, snappiest tone. 250K pots will mellow it out a bit, but it will still remain bright. We recommend 250K pots most of the time.
- What lead do I choose? This depends on your guitar and a few other things. Gibson Lead: Go with this if installing a set into a Gibson-style instrument, where each pickup has its respective volume pot. 2-Conductor: Go with this lead if buying a Single, or installing into a Fender-style instrument.
- What’s the String Spacing? 49.2, 50, 52mm. We can make them in all sizes.
- How far away do the strings does the pickup need to be? 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 the High E string is pushed down at highest fret.
- Wiring Diagrams? Here!
TECHNICAL INFO:
Wound with 42 & 43 Gauge Single Poly Nylon Wire and Alnico 5 Slug Magnets. 250K Pots are recommended with this pickup.
Our Stock Set reads 9.8K in the Neck and 10.3 in the Bridge, due to mismatched coils.
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Justin Burrow (verified owner) –
As usual, exactly what I wanted. Fat, round, with definition – perfect as a neck pickup for pairing with a PAF in the bridge.
Calne WA –
These are to a guitar what black yoga pants are to women: goes with anything.
Got a Sunbucker in the bridge with an underwound Pure PAF in neck on 250 pots. We all know how sweet the Pure PAFs are–but then I look down to find I’m on the Sunbucker with the tone rolled off! Whaaaaa?! Also, the middle position is candy, too… until I look down and, again, I’m on the dang Sunny! Always been a neck pup guy, and only got the bridge pup to fill the gaping bridge route. That’s over….
When it comes time to put a humbucker in the bridge of my Strat, this goes in there. Thinking of putting one in my lap steel, in the bridge position on a one-pickup guitar, and on and on. Uncanny chameleon ability: whatever you do with your neck pup, this bridge Sunny will be perfectly synched when you go there like the best wing man evah!! With two different kinds of pups, I certainly didn’t expect this.
Idiot-proof user friendly. As understated as it is underappreciated. What a great friend
Jala Tass (verified owner) –
FAVORITE NECK HUMBUCKER!
I have struggled with neck humbucker pickups. To me, they don’t usually have enough chime and sparkle, while still retaining fullness and lows. This pickup has blown my mind! My favorite neck humbucker, ever! I have tried Lollar, Wolfetone, Electric City, Sheptone, and these win hands-down! It pairs insanely well with the Pure PAF stock wind in the bridge. I have been using these in a Gibson ES-333. Honestly, I haven’t tried anything from Fralin that has disappointed me!
Matt Johnson –
I put these things in a Fender Blacktop Jaguar HH along with a vintage wiring kit, and it turned it into a professional guitar. I am blown away by the increase in tone quality- like going from 2D to 3D. I have not just usable tones, but great tones in all three pickup positions. For the stuff I play (modern Christian worship), it was a game-changer. Thanks Lindy and crew!
Jimmie Jensen –
Made my #1 even better. I can’t believe the tone from the P90s. I didn’t know what my guitar was missing…
Justin Miller (verified owner) –
These Pickups are fantastic. I can only speak for the neck position (I have a G&L semi-hollow bluesboy with a blues special in the bridge) and the description is spot on. It is thick, warm, AND clear. To my ear it is almost as if you are playing a Strat neck pickup that’s a lot fatter. It’s extremely versatile when rolling the tone off or on, and the sound can change based on if you are using a 250k or 500k pot. In my guitar, it’s wired to a 250k pot, which would make most humbuckers sound muddy, but with the true single coil nature of this pickup, it sounds like a really warm and clear humbucker, everything I wanted the neck pickup for this guitar to sound like. Thanks so much to Lindy Fralin, you make some fantastic sounding pickups!
Ian Tilp (verified owner) –
These are unique pickups that continue to grow on me in time. They are chameleon-like in their ability to sound either single coil or humbucker. I have mine wired with the small value “magic” tone cap that came with them, and when you roll this off it takes off a bit of the sparkle making them sound more like low output PAF humbuckers. I would say that they remind me a bit of Fender Wide Range Humbuckers in the way they chime, only smoother and more glassy without the harshness. Even though they can sound like humbuckers, it is without that honky humbucker harshness in the mid range. The neck is beautiful and glassy sounding, and the bridge has a very nice twang with a nice solid core that doesn’t distort prematurely. The in between has a nice quack. These are beautiful sounding pickups, not harsh at all. These also sit in a dense mix very nicely; the EQ profile simply works great. Because they are humbucking, there is a bit of a quack built into the sound of each pickup which takes away the deep lows and takes away some of the piercing powerful bite of single coils. When I use these for “go for the jugular” blues solos, sometimes I miss the bite. When I play r&b/funk, sometimes I miss having the round bottom end frequencies of regular single coils, though in reality those low frequencies are often lost in the mix. Where these pickups shine is their ability to cut through a mix and give you a variety of sounds from glassy single coil to PAF. Great for top 40 work, among other things. Try them if you want something unique.
Jay Moss –
I got a Sunbucker for the neck of my Les Paul Custom and it’s perfect! No mud or boomy bass at all. It’s got a great tone and amazing clarity for my taste. It can really snap and spank if you whack the strings hard (which I love) but it also has a crisp beauty on the top end if you pick or strum lightly. If you want single coil flavor with some extra low end and no hum this is perfect. Never knew I’d love a LP neck pickup so much. Mine is paired with a low wind P92 in the bridge, my middle position is heavenly. Reminds me of a nice full Tele a bit.
Justin Slojkowski (verified owner) –
True beautiful clarity.
I have a Sunbucker in my neck position of my Les Paul Traditional.
It’s just as bright as my bridge pickup but with added tight low end & mids.
(Bridge pickup is a PAF replica from another praised pickup winder.)
Definitely would recommend this to anyone who wants single coil clarity without taping or giving up humbucker character.
Akiya Tanaka –
Amazing!
It’s real single coil tone with a little low&middle.
If you want to tap this pickup,It might be a good idea to use slug side coil.
When using slug side coil,you will get real single coil tone!!