Unbucker

Unbalanced Coils For Coil Splitting

$175$350

  • Hum-Cancelling
  • Clean & Articulate
  • Traditional Appearance
  • Vintage Output

Lindy Fralin Original Design

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( 64 genuine reviews)

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.

 

 

 

Options

Customize your Unbucker:

Selection Needed

Select Options Above To Display Add-Ons

Humbucker Cover

Further customize the look of your pickups by adding a USA-Made Nickel Silver cover.

Lead Length

You may need long leads if you have an Archtop guitar, like an ES-335. Check this box below, and we’ll give you some extra lead length.

Gold Screws

Check here if you want to include Gold Pole Pieces & Mounting Screws for your pickups. Not necessary if buying gold covers.

SPEED UP YOUR ORDER

Since you're buying a single pickup, we might need more information from you. To avoid unnecessary delays in your order, please choose one of the options below:


Notice

Due to the nature of Raw Nickel, Raw Nickel may contain slight cosemetic defects or abrasions.

Recommendation:

We recommend using 2-Conductor With Shield Lead when purchasing a single pickup. 2-Conductor lead allows you to reverse the phase should you have phase issues. Learn About Lead Choice

Note:
Note:

While we do our best to match double-white bobbins, there may be subtle differences in color due to different dye lots from the manufacturer.

Upgrade To A Prewired Pickguard

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Fralin Warranty Stamp

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Our commitment to quality is unwavering. We build our products to last and stand by our products and manufacturing process—period. We're so confident in the quality of our pickups that we offer a 10-year warranty against manufacturing defects. This warranty is our promise to you that you're investing in a high-quality, durable product that will stand the test of time.
Fralin Handmade Stamp

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Our commitment to quality extends to the materials we use. We make all our pickups by hand, one at a time, in our small, humble shop in Richmond, VA, using 100% USA-made parts. This ensures that we can carefully build, wind, and assemble all our pickups with the utmost care and attention to detail, using only the best materials.
Fralin Exchange Stamp

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Experience our exclusive 30-Day Exchange Program, designed to give you the peace of mind you deserve. It allows you to thoroughly test your pickups in your preferred environment, whether it's on stage or on the road. If you have second thoughts about your selection, simply contact us, and we'll ensure a hassle-free exchange for a more suitable set of pickups.

Unique Humbucker Design For Coil Splitting

Want to learn more about our Unbucker? Here's all the information you'll need:

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

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.

 

 

 

Sound Samples for Unbucker:

About this Sound Clip:

All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.

This is out Stock Output of Unbuckers played on an Epiphone Les Paul. Sound Clips recorded by Phil Heesen III.

Tonal Graph For Unbucker:

The tonal graph below for our Unbucker features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.

HIGHS
MIDS
LOWS
OUTPUT

Attack: Dynamic & Full

Videos for Unbucker:

Humbucker Lead Color Codes

Gibson Braided Lead

Gibson-Style instruments

Phase Reversible

Coil Splitting

Gibson Braided Lead
Only select Gibson Braided Lead if you install these pickups as a set into a Gibson-style instrument. Examples of a Gibson-style instrument are the Gibson Les Paul, 335, or Telecaster Deluxe. These guitars have two Volume Pots and two Tone Pots.

Note:

Gibson Braided lead is not intended for Telecasters with a Control Plate. If the braiding touches anything, it will short it out.

3-Conductor Lead

Phase Reversible

Coil Splitting

3 Conductor Lead Fralin Pickups
Select this lead if purchasing a Single Pickup, wiring this pickup to a Blade Switch (Fender-style Instrument) or need coil-splitting. This lead allows you to reverse the phase and coil split.

4-Conductor Lead

Phase Reversible

Series Parallel Wiring

Coil Splitting

4 Conductor Lead Fralin Pickups
Only select 4-Conductor lead if you need Series / Parallel wiring. This lead allows you to reverse the phase, wire in series / parallel, and coil split.

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

Additional Technical Info:

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.

Polarity Information:

Here's how we wind and magnetize our pickups:

Fralin Humbucker Polarity This is a Hum Cancelling Pickup.

If you're buying a set from us, all pickups will work together seamlessly. If you're buying a single pickup, all you need to worry about is Coil Direction.

To ensure your pickup will work, make sure you select multiple leads (2-Conductor, 3-Conductor, or 4-Conductor if available), or the 3-Wire modification so you can reverse the coil direction, if need be.

Covered Humbucker

Fralin Humbucker Dimensions

Uncovered Humbucker

Fralin Uncovered humbucker dimensions

Get It Prewired

Get our Unbucker prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:

Customer Reviews

64 Genuine Reviews for Unbucker

  1. Scott

    Verified Purchase

    Amazing pickups! Superbly versatile and covers a great array of sounds. The humbucker mode sounds like a real humbucker and the single coil mode sounds like a real single coil. Other great aspects is that there is practically no volume drop when coil splitting.

    For me, I’m not the kind of guy that wants to have a lot of guitars; because of that, having one guitar that could be versatile, cover a lot of ground, and more-or-less do everything was very important. When played clean, all the settings of the coil splitting and switching to different pickup selections were great. From my experience thus far, these pickups can pretty much get any genre of music down no problem. From music that requires nice cleans like jazz, classical, etc to heavy distorted sounds like metal or anything in between, these pickups can handle them no problem.

    My main guitar is a 61 Gibson SG and I additionally put in Seymour Duncan’s tripleshot mounting rings along with w push-pull phase switch and a master series-parallel switch so the tonal variety on my guitar is absolutely insane. Just about all of the settings of these pickups with all of these other options sound good as well. In my honest opinion, if you have reservations about these pickups because you’re thinking that there might be compromise of sound at the humbucker or the single coils, forget about it because as far as my ear can tell, they both sound like real legitimate humbuckers and single coils, respectively.

  2. V

    Verified Purchase

    I finally found the sound and versatility I was looking for in my Squier J. Mascis Jazzmaster! It’s been modded quite a bit with dual-volumes, PTB cut controls, replaced the rhythm-circuit with treble-bleed in the slider-switch and a titanium Compton bridge. Went from the stock JM-shaped P90’s to Duncan Antiquity II’s to Creamery WRHBs before finally settling on the Unbucker set. For funsies, I initially had the Unbucker bridge on a Tele HH with a maple neck, but found it a bit too punchy. Over time, my gut said that the pickup was more suited for a more resonant guitar body with a rosewood (or alternative) neck to soften the attack. When I then tried this on my JMJM it was so perfect that I immediately ordered the Neck pickup to complete the sound which is now just glorious! Fantastic clarity and chime while also breaking up really well. As some other reviewers & guitar forum posts said there’s some P90 to the tone but more airy & open. The split single coil mode is great too. I can attest to comparing sound samples and guitar forum posts that the split coil sounds similar to the Strat Blues Special EQ-wise. Overall, it turned my JMJM into my #1 and a truly versatile platform that can do pretty much anything!

  3. Ryan DiDomizio

    Verified Purchase

    I’m extremely please with my purchase. I did something that might not seem to have been smart, but it’s seems to have worked! I bought a very inexpensive Chinese made LP style guitar, new. I then changed most of the hardware – tuners, bridge, electronics, and last but not least, the pickups. Every upgrade made a difference, but the pickups made the most difference. Granted, I spent more on the pickups alone than I did for the brand new guitar, but I have a guitar that replaces my Gibson that looks better, dare I say, performs better, and cost a fraction of what I paid for the Gibson. The unbuckers have the sound I wish my Gibson had and I can also get single coil sounds that are legit, without a huge volume drop. Honestly, I’d go for these pickups even without the single coil sounds, but I’m extremely pleased as I have been with every Fralin pickup I’ve ever purchased!

  4. John Bose

    Verified Purchase

    These Unbuckers are incredible!
    Beautiful full tone. I play indie rock with kind of a post punk tilt so I’ve never shied away from regular humbuckers and their darker tone. But I’m older now and wanted something more articulate for a too dark Fender HH I have. Boy these were the perfect answer. Just incredible tone and with split coil abilities, the most diverse guitar I now have. But the sparkle ability in humbucker mode is fantastic with very low hum. They can jangle and they can snarl. Absolute perfection!

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