Sunbucker
PAF Tone meets Alnico Clarity
$160 – $320
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.
Quick Links
Jump to Sound Clips and more Info:
PAF Tone Meets Fender® Clarity
Want to learn more about our Sunbucker? Here's all the information you'll need:
Features:
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.
- 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.
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.
Tonal Graph For Sunbucker:
The tonal graph below for our Sunbucker features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Bright & Sharp
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:
Gibson-Style instruments
Phase Reversible
Coil Splitting
2-Conductor Lead:
Phase Reversible
Tech Specs:
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Sunbucker.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 13.2K 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 13.9K 1 |
| Neck Polarity: | Reversible with 3-Conductor Lead |
| Bridge Polarity: | Reversible with 3-Conductor Lead |
| Magnet Material: | USA-Made Alnico 5 |
| Wire Material: | USA-Made 43-Gauge Single Poly Nylon |
| Baseplate Material: | USA-Made Nickel Silver |
| Cover Material: | USA-Made Nickel Silver |
| Pole Piece Material: | USA-Made Steel |
| Bobbin Material: | ABS Plastic |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 250K |
| Recommended Cap Value: | 0.02mfd 2 |
More Information:
1 Ohm Readings can vary due to a multitude of factors, including ambient temperature, multimeter calibration, different wire batches, and other factors. Due to this, ohm readings are approximate. Learn more about Ohm Readings here.
2 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.
Covered Humbucker
Uncovered Humbucker
Sunbucker FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
-
What Ohm Readings does your Sunbucker have?
Navigate to our Tech Specs Tab for complete Ohm Readings and more useful information.
-
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.
-
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.
-
What pickup height do you recommend setting your Sunbuckers 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.
Pickup Pairing
Our Sunbucker pairs well with the following models:
High Output Tele - Bridge
Starting At: $ 110
Pair the Sunbucker Neck with a High Output Tele Bridge for a powerful, Fender-sounding Tele
View Product
Alnico Noiseless P90 - Humbucker - Neck
Starting At: $ 165
The Sunbucker and our Noiseless Alnico P90 work great together!
View ProductGet It Prewired
Get our Sunbucker prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
27 Genuine Reviews for Sunbucker
-
Installed on the neck of a Tele. It sounds very very good, closer to single coil than humbucker but very articulate and full. This is a probably one of the best pickups I’ve used. I have two custom shop fenders and this pickup has a place of its own among them. Great quality product. I also installed the twangmaster on another guitar and really like both of them, you can’t go wrong with either. The description of the Sunbucker is very accurate (i.e. it is 75% single coil 25%humbucker). I think it just provides some fullness to the great single coil sound. I have it coupled the sunbucker with a high output bridge and they work really well together. For the first time I use the middle position (combination of neck and bridge) of a guitar.
-
Beautiful fullness and warmth on the neck, bridge can definitely growl especially with some OD, mixed has a nice plinky sweet spot with my tone and vol dialed back a bit. These are great pickups if you play chord melodies, strum rhythms, and rip big leads. Basically super versatile no pickups that sound great in every situation.
-
I love the sound of this pickup! You can definitely hear the scooped mids. It’s paired with a fralin hum-cancelling p90…the Sunbucker is a lot lower output than the p90 which makes them a bit unbalanced in volume which is a bit unfortunate. Lindy does amazing work and I appreciate how helpful he and his team are. Fralins are the only after market pickups I buy and they’re worth every penny.
-
Just what I wanted. Perfect!
-
Lindy hit a home run in recommending these pickups… they’re beyond wonderful
-
Awesome full single-coil sound without hum….Love it.
Great pickup. Really didn’t know what to expect and I’m really impressed. Thinking to use again in another guitar.
-
Sunbucker Bridge Pickup
Perfect bridge pickup mate to the Alnico Rod P90 in the neck of my swamp ash Tele build. Great clarity and a nice mix of a single coil/humbucker tone and response. Love it! -
I just got my guitar back from the luthier with the Sunbuckers installed and plugged into a clean high headroom amp. Awesome pickups. Really does that single-coil sound and very much improved the 2xHB telecaster that I had upgraded.
-
I have recently installed a Sunbucker in the neck of my latest Telecaster build along with a Split Steel Poled in the bridge. I had them build me a harness for this guitar also. WoW!!! I think I found my holy grail. It is exactly what I’ve been looking for. These pickups sound very good together and individually. Very balanced and the clarity is remarkable. Great string separation and sensitivity. Very responsive to different pick attacks and approaches. Add a little dirt in the amp and the tones are freakin’ fantastic. No pedals needed. Most definitely my favorite neck pickup yet.
-
I have a Gibson historic 1963 ES-335 custom shop 2013. Basically, a beautiful guitar, but with a great need for sound improvement (the Burstbucker 1 and 2 are way too flat to my hear…).
I ordered a Sunbucker for the neck position and a PurePaf (8k) for the bridge position. It was the best decision I could make to turn this guitar into a real musical instrument! FYI, I use a Mesa 2020 amplifier (not for the year, as I bought it in 1995 ;), a triaxis preamp, Eventide H8000 effects, celestion gold speakers (2 times 1×12) with a sound that generally has little distortion but a lot of attack. The result is perfect! Thanks Fralin’s team, amazing product!
Problem now… I can’t stop playing! -
As usual, exactly what I wanted. Fat, round, with definition – perfect as a neck pickup for pairing with a PAF in the bridge.
-
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 -
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! -
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!
-
Made my #1 even better. I can’t believe the tone from the P90s. I didn’t know what my guitar was missing…
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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. -
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!!
More Reviews:
STAY IN TOUCH
Add a review
Leave a review for our Sunbucker