Unbucker
Unbalanced Coils For Coil Splitting
$160 – $320
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.
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Jump to Sound Clips and more Info:
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.
Attack: Dynamic & Full
Videos for Unbucker:
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
3-Conductor Lead:
Phase Reversible
Coil Splitting
4-Conductor Lead:
Phase Reversible
Series Parallel Wiring
Coil Splitting
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.
Covered Humbucker
Uncovered Humbucker
Unbucker FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
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What Ohm Readings does your Unbucker have?
Navigate to our Tech Specs Tab for complete Ohm Readings and more useful information.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Get It Prewired
Get our Unbucker prewired into a Prewired Pickguard!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews We Worked Hard For, and Are Proud Of
Customer Reviews
63 Genuine Reviews for Unbucker
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Great pickup. The clarity is unreal. I have it paired with a semour duncan hotrail in the neck and im thinking about puting that one in anothet guitar. The UNBUCKER is fhe only split coil ive ever played that sounds like a single coil. Im taking out my neck pickup and just using unbucker in bridge because its sounds so good and is so versatile its all i need . Amazing pickup!!!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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).
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In reality I’d give 4.5/5 if half stars were an option but it’s definitely better than 4 star, so giving it 5. It’s a very nice pickup, but is just ever so slightly muddy in my SG neck position, but I’ve struggled with that with every neck pickup I’ve tried so it might just be inherent to this guitar. The coil splitting is very nice. At first I wasn’t blown away by the split tone, probably b/c I was AB’ing with a very nice Strat, but after playing on it for a couple of weeks and realizing that yes it isn’t a bonafide Strat pickup in a 25.5” scale guitar, I think it gets my SG 90%+ on the way to Strat neck pickup tone which is a pretty amazing feat.
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Installed a set of Unbuckers in a PRS S2. It was recommended by Lindy Fralin due to splitting coils and still getting a good PAF tone when not split. The Lindy Fralin company ships their pickups very safely and within a reasonable time. I will say that the single coils sound better than the normal Fender Stratocasters. I have a couple of stratocasters that sound maybe just as could, but those I have installed Lindy Fralin Blues a wild back. I am a guitar repair and update business, but this comment has nothing to do with advertisements – this is just telling the truth in quality. Even my guitars prefer Lindy Fralins. Unbuckers are the best ever. Incredible tones – tested through a Fender Custom Deluxe Reverb, and a Marshall JVM205H.
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Put my new UNBUCKERS on my PRS ce 24, boy, what a difference, all strings with balanced out put and tone clear, and articulate. When you split the coils you don’t loose the volume but minimally and the beautiful single coil sound is spot on.
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Sooooo happy with these pickups. I found these and went with something cheaper and eventually came back and got these. I’m so happy I did. I wish I would have done it sooner. These sound so good and the tonal balance between split coils and humbuckers is amazing. I find myself playing less notes because every note sounds so good, and I can hear every nuance of every pedal in my chain. Happiest I’ve ever been with pickups. Thanks Lindy for an amazing product. If you made it this far in your research, go ahead and get these. Don’t do like I did and waste money on something you won’t be happy with only to come back and by these. Just buy them now. You won’t regret it.
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High output Unbuckers Bridge / low output neck in a PRS Custom 24 with Coil Split*
Pickups are excellent. Dynamic and clear on both with a lot of volume / tone knob response. Bridge is hot enough to handle the gain I want and neck is thick and clean. Sound great split as well. A little hotter than most strats in my opinion.
I received step by step updates and had great communication and advice throughout. More companies should conduct themselves like this. -
Holy shit. I just got my Carvin with split coils back from the shop after it being gone for over a week while I was having the unbuckers put in the neck and the bridge. I thought I loved this guitar before. The tones that are coming out of it now are incredible. I bought the unbuckers at the recommendation of a good friend and I could not be happier. Fralin definitely gained a faithful customer for life after this purchase. 100% recommend.
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I was introduced to the Unbucker on a Novo Voltur- and loved it, especially being able to split the coils and retain amazing tone either way. I decided to replace the 85/15’s in my PRS Custom with a set of Unbuckers, retaining the 5 way wiring that splits the pickups. Amazing!!! Didnt think that guitar could get any better, but it is. The tone! Any position, the tone has never been better. That guitar went from my number 4 to my number 1 with this upgrade. Would not hesitate to try more Fralins!
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Bought a neck Unbucker for my Tele with the idea of adding humbucker tone while also retaining the single coil sound I had (kept single coil bridge for full Keith vibes). WHAT a PICKUP! The humbucking tone is full, clear, and powerful; split mode is very Strat-like, with a bit more sparkle and power than the original Tele neck pickup. I wired it with a push-pull tone knob, and added a 4-way switch for some unique sounds; this humbucker makes running it in series with bridge work well because of its high end clarity and vintage-y output. An improvement from all angles and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Thanks so much Lindy!
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The Unbucker makes for a truly great neck pickup. It’s very articulate and responsive. It sounds great split and out of phase as well; both options have musical options and balance well with the standard in phase mode.
I was originally going to put this in the neck position of a strat but once I received the pickup my plans have changed; it’s going into a jazz focused guitar strung with flats. The cleans and edge of breakup tones are just too good to pass up for this application. Having a musical out of phase option is great for comping while the in phase and split modes deliver thick single note lines. A lot of (useful) variation from a single pickup!
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Put the Unbucker in a parts tele with a 5 way super switch, and 250k pots…I was trying to clone the Fender Fat tele made from 1998-2002…I was a little unsure how it would work out, and was ready to install 500k pots if the humbucker was too dark….
No need!….the description of the pick up is spot on…exactly what I was looking for. Full humbucker mode is warm, full, not overly aggressive, with a gorgeous amount of clarity and sparkle…split mode cuts a small bit of volume and bottom out, without changing the vibe….great for those chunky rhythms…then, when soloing, switch to full humbucker for a slight volume increase…its perfect!
and it ended up being a perfect match for the vintage wound bridge pickup I am using….
Thanks again to all of you for being the best
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