Unbucker
The Lindy Fralin Unbucker gives you great split-coil and humbucking tones – all in one. The unbalanced Unbucker’s coils give you a stronger single coil tone when split.
Quick Links:
Jump to Sound Clips and Product Info:
Unique Humbucker Design For Coil Splitting
Want to learn more about our Unbucker? Here's all the information you'll need:
Unbucker FEATURES:
The Lindy Fralin Unbucker is one of our best-selling pickups. We’re known all over the world for incredible-sounding Single-Coil and Humbucker pickups. Why not combine them both and get the best of both worlds? The Unbucker provides fantastic Humbucker tones as well as Single-Coil tones. We purposely unbalance the coils to give you a stronger coil when the Unbucker is Split.
Our Stock Set includes a 7.5K Neck and 8.5K Bridge.
Features:
- Unbalanced coil turns for a stronger single-coil tone (Screw Coil)
- Scooped midrange with an emphasis on top-end clarity
- AlNiCo IV Magnets for a smooth, rich sound
- Fits any Standard Humbucker or F-Spaced Humbucker routing
- Assembled by hand, one at a time, for impeccable attention to detail
- 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 Unbucker:
The tone graph below for our Unbucker features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Dynamic & Full
Bright and clear, with just the right amount of chime and an open midrange. Our Unbucker features a stronger wound screw coil that gives this pickup a unique tone. Our Unbucker has a similar vibe to our Pure P.A.F. with a more open and airy midrange and top end. Expect outstanding clarity and articulation. When you tap the slug coil, you still achieve a robust single-coil tone. When playing dirty, you’ll get a nice, sharp pick attack and excellent clarity, and a tight and punchy low end. Due to the unbalanced coils, Unbuckers won’t be 100% hum-canceling.
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).
Tech Specs
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Unbucker.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 7.5K 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 8.5K 1 |
| Neck Polarity: | Reversible with 3-Conductor Lead |
| Bridge Polarity: | Reversible with 3-Conductor Lead |
| Magnet: | USA-Made Alnico 4 |
| Wire: | USA-Made 42-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 |
| Baseplate Leg Depth: | 6mm |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 500K |
| 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.
Unbucker FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
-
What Ohm Readings does your Unbucker 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 Unbuckers 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.
I have a telecaster with Fralin pickups and had high expectations. I installed these unbuckers in a sg, and they are great! Single coil sound unique and all combinations provide really useable tones. Should have done this a long time ago. Love the way my guitar sounds!
Incredible pickups. Just in humbucker mode alone they sound great. The split works well also. I play them mostly unsplit accept for a handful of songs. Clear, articulate and warm. I have been looking for pickups like these for years and am glad that i found this set. I will be buying another pair soon for a CS 336. The best neck pickup i have found, hands down, for my ES 335. And i tried quite a few. Highly recommend this set.
Great pickup. I use it in the neck position of my Schecter PT. This pickup was my target for the very long time and finally I’ve found exactly what I expected.
Wow!
I bought an Unbucker to replace a neck pickup on a late 90’s Tex Mex Tele Special and the folks at Fralin matched it with a single coil for the bridge. The Tele has a five way switch that splits the pickup into a single coil in a couple of postions. AMAZING sound! They worked with me about how to wire it and I also purchased one of their Tele pre-wired switch plates.
I installed a set of these in a clients guitar who was after a great humbucker sound with the ability to split the coils. I’ve always hated the sound of traditional coil split humbuckers but these blew me away. The full humbucker sound is everything you’d want and the split sound is better than anything else on the market. Full, chimey, bell tones and not a significant volume drop. Highly recommend these pickups.
I ordered an Unbucker set for my Fender Lead 3 and it absolutely blew my mind!
Neck or bridge position, full or split, clean or dirty, they sound amazing in all configurations.
Fralin also carefully checked that they would fit with the Fender Lead 3 and found out that a custom pickguard would be needed. They even offered to have it delivered at their place first so that they could check everything again, which also spared me the fees of a second oversees shipment. Thanks!
Obviously, both the customer service and the pickups themselves get a well deserved 5 stars rating.
The Unbuckers are great! Thank you Lindy and crew. It was wonderful working with you guys.
Wow!! The pickup I’ve been looking for forever. The unbucker has the most clarity of any modern humbucker I’ve tried. No muddiness at all. But the real reason I gave it a try was to see if I could get a little more of a strat “quack” tone in position 4 on an HHS guitar with the coils split. I’ve tried everything from different pickups to obsessing over pickup height and nothing was really close. But as soon as I installed this and plugged in it was exactly what I was hoping! It’s amazing! The single coil and humbucker tones are fantastic. And the output between humbucker and split is so consistent. Almost no volume difference when switching between the two, just a tone change. I installed this in an old PRS EGII (with the old Fralin Domino single coils in the neck and middle) and it sounds incredible. Now I may need to buy a couple more for my other guitars!
Installed these in a new LP Standard 60s specifically to complement the infamous Jimmy Page wiring ‘nest’. The humbuckers are noticeably higher in output than the stock PAFs, neck is nice and warm while bridge has plenty of brightness and bite. The split tones are excellent, though the volume drop is slightly more noticeable with the 500K pots. While I was not surprised by the exceptional quality of the pickups (also have a beautiful high output split blade bridge pup in my tele), I was pleasantly surprised by the extremely fast turnaround of my order (ordered 12/13 and received 12/22).