Vintage Hot Strat
Make your Stratocaster sound like a Strat should with Lindy Fralin’s Vintage Hots. As our best-selling Stratocaster set, Vintage Hots offer the purest vintage Strat tone. Vintage Hots have a warm, balanced midrange with lots of sparkle and clarity on the top, guaranteeing you’ll stand out in the mix. If you’re looking for the purest Stratocaster tone, look no further than these pickups right here!
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Fralin Vintage Hots: Real Vintage Strat Tone.
Want to learn more about our Vintage Hot Strat? Here's all the information you'll need:
Vintage Hot Strat FEATURES:
Vintage Hot Pickups: our best-selling single coil set. If you’re looking for a sparkling, bright, and open sound, you will love these pickups’ tone. Vintage Hots give you a balanced 50’s Tone: a smooth balance between bright and fat. They fit in the middle sonically of our Real 54’s and Blues Specials.
These pickups are era-authentic: wound with USA-made 42-gauge Formvar-enameled wire and built with USA-made AlNiCo V magnets. These pickups sound smooth, balanced, and beautiful.
Features:
- Modified Vintage Fender specifications, with modern output
- Bright, clean tone with balance across lows and highs
- USA-made Alnico 5 Magnets for optimal tonal balance and output
- RW/RP Middle for Hum-Cancelling in Positions 2 & 4
- Two magnet staggers available for different fingerboard radiuses
- Hand-wound with our “Sectioning” technique for unique, dynamic tone
- Hand-built fiberboard Bobbins for unrivaled quality control
- 10-Year Warranty on manufacturing defects
- 6K Neck & Middle, 6.6K Bridge
SOUND
Vintage Hots sparkle and sound very open and clear without sounding “tinny” or glassy. These pickups sound big and full, with an even balance of Bass, Middle, and Treble, clean or dirty. The tone cuts through with distortion – while remaining very dynamic and thick.
Expect a precise low-end and an acute attack. Single notes cut through with ease, while chords have an excellent string-to-string definition.
Are you looking for a Hum Cancelling Strat pickup that actually sounds like a Strat? Check out the Vintage Output of our Split Blade Strat Pickups
Our manufacturing process allows us to achieve unparalleled quality control. Our Vintage Hots consist of locally-stamped fiberboard and USA-Made Alnico 5 Magnets. We wind each pickup by hand, one at a time. We wind each pickup using our proprietary “Sectioning” technique. Our Sectioning Technique gives the pickup a sweet, bright tone. Finally, we wax-pot the pickup to preserve the pickup and prevent microphonics.
Tech Specs
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Vintage Hot Strat.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 6K |
| Middle Ohm Reading: | 6K |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 6.6K |
| Neck & Bridge Polarity: | Clockwise Coil Direction, South to Strings |
| Reverse Middle Polarity: | Counter-Clockwise Coil Direction, North to Strings |
| Recommended Pot Value: | 250K |
| Magnet: | USA-Made Alnico 5 |
Sizing
Vintage Hot Strat Questions And Answers:
Notice:
Have a question about our Vintage Hot Strat? Ask it here. Your Question will be publically visible. If you want to ask a Private Question, please contact us through our Contact Us Form.
If you have multiple questions, please call us at (804) 358-2699.
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Do you have any recommendations regarding resistors/tone caps for these pickups? Thanks! :)
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Q Do you have any recommendations regarding resistors/tone caps for these pickups? Thanks! :)A
Hey Filipp, we don't recommend using any resistors, but the 0.02mfd caps are the perfect cap value for Vintage Hots.
Just purchased a G&L S-500 with a set of vintage hot pickups. They sound great but are set (in my opinion) quite a distance from the strings. Is there a optimum distance for performance by design so I can set them?
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Q Just purchased a G&L S-500 with a set of vintage hot pickups. They sound great but are set (i...... Read moreA
Hey Dante, yes - check this article here. - Tyler
Are the vintage Hot neck and middle the same pickup? I bought a set and don't see any markings to tell them apart. Thanks!
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Q Are the vintage Hot neck and middle the same pickup? I bought a set and don't see any markings to...... Read moreA
The Vintage Hot Neck and Middle are essentially the same, but the Middle is reverse-wound from the Neck. If you bought them new, the Neck Leads are longer than the Middle Leads, and they should have stickers on the leads to differentiate them.
Hi, I have a Vintage Hot set. I am considering changing the bridge pickup, I find that the one that I have to lack chime...just a tad, comparing to Fender CS69. What can I expect if I would get a Real 54 instead for the bridge ? Thanks !
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Q Hi, I have a Vintage Hot set. I am considering changing the bridge pickup, I find that the one th...... Read moreA
Hey Robert, you can absolutely expect a bit more chime and shimmer out of the bridge when comparing a Vintage Hot to a Real 54. The Real 54's Alnico 3 Magnets give it a touch more sparkle and shimmer.
Hi ! Is the Stock Stagger identical to the one found on vintage pickups (with the pole piece under the G string raised quite high) ? Or is it adapted to the specs of Vintage Hots ? Because I sometimes find the G string to be a bit too dominant with those vintage stagger... For info the radius of my fingerboard is 9.5".
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Q Hi ! Is the Stock Stagger identical to the one found on vintage pickups (with the pole piece unde...... Read moreA
Hey Cristophe, it's adapted, without the "Tall G". We can make a Tall G stagger upon request, but ours has a lower G string for better balance.
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Featured Reviews
Reviews we worked hard for, and are proud of.
I have owned the Vintage Hot set for a number of years. Out of curiosity, I have tried many other well known brands and very soon, I always put the Fralins back in the guitar. Nothing that I have tried sounds as good. It has been expensive to try the others, but there is nothing I like better. I don’t know what the formula is but it certainly is magic. Just ordered another set with a 2% overwind. I don’t believe that you can better than Lindy Fralin pickups!
Tremendous Strat tones. I bought an EJ strat and liked the neck but not the stock fender pickups. I was in a cover band and to reduce the hum I went with framing split blade Humbuckers. I had questions at the time and called Fralin. Lindy himself took the call and I was impressed with how much he knows and the time he took with me. Anyway although I loved the split blades I wanted a true strat tone. Played my first gig with them last night. I was not disappointed. I’ve been playing a Suhr S ssh that’s great but I’m a strat guy and the vintage hots for me are it. Buy some now!
Long story short, these Fralin Vintage Hots are truly stellar Stratocaster pickups.
I stumbled upon a Squier SE Strat at my local guitar shop and decided to purchase it, gut it and make it into a project guitar. I did some research on replacement pickups and chose the Vintage Hots. I’m certainly glad I did. With all new electronics, hardware and Fralin pickups, that Squier sings!
I would without hesitation recommend this trio of pickups to anyone looking for a high quality set. I’m frankly blown away by the tone. Kudos to the entire Fralin team. Well done.
I have a vintage hot Strat neck pickup in my Nashville-Style Telecaster. I’ve had it for over a year now, Love it! It’s clear, rounded tone cuts through in the mix, it has that perfect bell tone and it is a very expressive pickup that is very clean but powerful enough to yield a little sizzle from the amp. Sounds great and pure with gain too.
Hi
I went with the Vintage Hots in my 2012 Deluxe which came with the Noiseless N3 pickups which sounded very bassy highs were nonexistent and anything to do with the S1 switch seemed to make it sound worse so in my last one I installed the Blues Specials which sounded fantastic but this time round this deluxe was darker sounding so I went with the VH’s added the bright switch mod and what an amazing deluxe I’ve got now I tried out the new fender tone master deluxe reverb I instantly fell in love with the tone’s and bought one so I’m happy as a clam with my VH’s Thanks for all the help guys
These pickups are well matched, and sonically all one can ask for from a Strat. I especially like the 2 and 4 positions, that are balanced for tone, quiet, and very responsive to pick and attack.
The Blues Special set is also really great with a bit more girth and grind.
Stellar pickups!! This is my fourth set of Fralins. The neck and middle provide a clean, articulate vintage sound, and the bridge (with the baseplate) produces a slightly rawer, hotter tone. Highly recommended!
I put these in an 80 dollar Chinese Stratocaster kit. I changed out the rest of the electronics and hardware. The body and neck were great though. I put in a set of these Fralin pickups, because i had previous success with Fralin P bass pickups. These blew me away! Genuinely never played a strat made by fender that sounded this good. Fralin does the classic Fender tone better than Fender can.
Great pickup!
Vintage Hots (stock) in 1987 Am. Std. Strat
After24 yrs, decided the stock PUs sounded not so great..after much looking, listening, and recommendations…ordered the VH’s and had installed. WOW..warmer, better, not as harsh…but the bridge PU was the real shocker, it sounds amazing..slightly hotter so there’s not a volume drop off, but the tone was way better and sound that’s 100% usable now (i rarely, if ever, used the bridge on it’s own before).