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 |
| Recommended Cap Value**: | 0.02mfd |
**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.
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.
Vintage hot in the bridge sounds great!
Best decision I’ve ever made!
The framing vintage hots literally brought my 2020 American special Strat to life. It’s a whole different beast now. Love the baseplate on the bridge. Just simply Wow! Thank you Lindy what a pleasure doing business!
The Best of the Best
I’m a tone hound. I try tons of new equipment looking for the perfect sound and usually sell it within a week on Reverb. As close to that sound I had been was a set of Fat 50s. I tried brand after brand. Some cheaper than Fralin and a couple more expensive. Never again! I’m a Fralin man now. Period. Point blank. These pickups are outstanding. The perfect sound that I’ve been looking for.
Vintage Hot Strat bridge pup
Great addition, gives me a little more “oomph” but not too dominant. And I like the string balance, especially with the lower G pole. Thanks!
Issues
So this is the 3rd guitar that I have installed Fralins. A set of unbuckers in a PRS. Blues specials for middle / neck and steel pole 42 in the bridge on an American Elite Strat. Now these Vintage Hots +2% with baseplate on the bridge in a MIM 60’s reissue Strat. Here’s the issue…Fralin pickups are addictive! They are all amazing. The tone difference is incredible. The best way I can explain them is that the tone is more 3 dimensional than the stock pickups in all three cases. So the other issue is when looking to buy guitars now I always have to figure in the cost of a set of Fralins. They are that good!! Excellent customer service on top of the high-quality pickups!!!
Before placing my next order I am calling not only to ask for certain details but express first my great impression by the Strat “Vintage Hot” set purchased earlier.
Among many “boutique” brands pickups I have tried in my Fender CS fine guitars this is the BEST SET way above all others.
Replacing pickups in a guitar always accompanied with high expectations built by the pickup maker to improve the sound and overall playing experience that lead to disappointment in many cases, however, this is the FIRST time for me in 20+ years that experience is BETTER than (high..) expectations !!! and by ALL meanings! sound, feel, balance across the strings, dynamic, clean, distorted, you name it …
Kindly share my thanks and appreciation with the team !!!
Brought my guitar to life
I had a 1999 custom shop US Fender Stratocaster with noiseless singlecoil pickups. Added these and wow. Blown away. Install was a breeze and best of all, the tone. My favorite position is now bridge, which was previously the one I used least because of the thin tone. Now is punchy and tight. Fantastic pickups.
Put them in my main strat a while ago after trying to search for the perfect pickups and have never thought to upgrade them ever since, they are phenomenal! Take the highest end guitar with the most expensive pickups, and the Vintage Hots in a strat will probably sound better!
I picked up a set Fralin vintage hot -5% underwound from Haar Guitars (Netherlands). On every p.u. label is handwritten -5%. Baseplate on the bridge. Sound is less powerfull but very sweet.
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