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:
- 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
OVERVIEW
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.
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.
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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 |
F.A.Q's
- What Magnet Stagger Do I Use? It all depends on your fingerboard radius. If you have a 7.25″ – 9.5″ radius, we recommend going with Stock Stagger. If you have a 10″ radius or flatter, including compound radius, go with a Hybrid stagger.
- What’s the difference between Blues Specials and Vintage Hots? Blues Specials have more turns per pickup – they sound thicker and darker, with more output than Vintage Hots. Vintage Hots sound cleaner, clearer, and a tad bit more balanced.
- How far away from the strings does the pickup need to be? Push your Low E String down at the highest fret. Measure from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string. The ideal starting location should be 1/8″ on the bass string, and 1/16″ on the treble string when pushing the High E string down at the highest fret.
Sizing
Vintage Hot Strat Questions And Answers:
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS
94 reviews for Vintage Hot Strat
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these are what strats want to sound like
I put these in an early 60s style strat build. Ash body, maple neck with rosewood board. I wired them with neck/middle on one tone and the bridge on the other with no-load pot, normal five way switch. The pickups sound fantastic. These are much more full sounding in all positions than my american standard strat (which is nice but very middle of the road). These can go both fatter and brighter but are not harsh at all. The baseplate on the bridge pickup gets it close to a tele bridge, with a lot more oomph than a typical strat bridge. The neck pickup is as fat and sweet as any single i’ve heard on a strat.
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Doesn’t get any better! Throw any hesitations out the window. In my 20 years of playing, this has been the best pickup I have ever heard, EVER, hands down, no contest. The clarity and balance are unbelievable and sound alive compared to the others. I will also add that the customer service from this company is amazing. I even got to talk to Lindy directly. He is an extremely genuine person and you can tell immediately he loves making these pickups. This shows in his product and I can’t wait to get more (next will be some p90s).
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Blown away!!!
I have a strat that had become more of a utility guitar than anything else, I had a lil 59’ in the bridge and Texas specials in the mid and neck. I have enjoyed the tone, but after I did some research and learned about Lindy and his awesome work, I had to have a set. I feel like I have a brand new strat that can finally breathe, the clarity is unmatched, and these things absolutely sing. This is my first set of Fralins, but it will not be my last!
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Will be buying more soon! Couldn’t believe the tone you can get from the vintage hot. Straight Fire will definitely be buying more Fralin pickups!
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Upgraded my ‘62 Reissue Strat
I’ve had two stock single-coil pickups and a Seymour Duncan Lil Screaming Demon for the last 20 years. Now that I’ve got a guitar with humbuckers, I wanted to return my strat to pure single coils and wanted to try Fralins. They live up to the name “Hot,” very responsive and punchy. They’ve definitely reignited my love of my first and only Stratocaster.
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If you are reading this, then you already know! DO IT NOW! You will not be sorry, my only regret is that l didn’t buy these sooner – truly unbelievable how good and balanced they are, everything that other pickups you are hoping to get, but don’t quite hit the mark, well guess what? These do!!!! I ordered a pre wired guard, added a baseplate to the bridge, and the tone blender which takes it to even ANOTHER level.. l am in awe, and l am very happy. Life long fan and buyer from here on out for sure.. THANK YOU
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I recently replaced my 2005 deluxe strat noiseless pickups with these. My Luthier also removed one of the tone control knobs and replaced with a blend knob. Top shelf all the way. It will be hard for me to play anything else.
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Excellent pickups!
Great pickup. Very warm and organic sound. I put this in a Nashville Tele with a Blues Special Tele set.
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Just bought a 2003 American Vintage 1957 Reissue (maple neck) that came with Fralin Hot Vintage pickups….absolutely great Strat sound….hard to pick favourite Strat now….this one or 2012 American Standard (rosewood fretboard) with Texas Special pickups….both great Strats….but something about these Fralin Hot Vintage that might be even more ‘special’ than the Texas Specials
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Absolute Game Changer
Absolutely love my vintage hots, although they feel kinda quiet, they are still the best pickups I’ve played.
5 Questions about Vintage Hot Strat