VINTAGE HOTs: THE ULTIMATE SET OF Guitar PICKUPS FOR VINTAGE TONE.
Vintage Hot Pickups: our best selling single coil set. Musicians looking for a sparkling, bright, and open sound will love the sound of these guitar pickups. These pickups offer a 50’s era-authentic sound, for direct replacement in a Fender® Stratocaster or other single-coil equipped guitar. Vintage Hots are fatter sounding that our Real 54’s, but not as dark as our Blues Specials. Wound with 42-gauge Formvar wire and AlNiCo V magnets, These guitar pickups sound smooth, balanced, and beautiful.
FEATURES:
- 42 Gauge Heavy Formvar Wire, With Beveled Magnets
- Clear bass strings with nice airy treble strings.
- Full sound without sounding overly harsh or bright
- Our Stock set features a 5% overwound Bridge to match the output of the Neck and Middle
- Made by hand, one at a time with USA-made parts
- The pickups come with your choice of White, Black, Yellow (Aged White), or Green covers.
SOUND:
When playing clean, Vintage Hots sparkle and sound very open and clear without sounding “tinny” or glassy. Vintage Hots sound big and wide, with an even balance of Bass, Middle, and Treble. With distortion, the tone cuts through and while still remaining very dynamic and thick with a clear low-end and a sharp attack. Single notes cut through with ease while chords have excellent string-to-string definition. Players can expect wonderful clarity, and string definition with Vintage Hot Pickups: a truly versatile pickup. For a similar tone with no hum, consider using our Split Blade Strat Pickups.
Choosing the Pickup:
Our Complete Set is our best-selling option. It has a slightly hotter bridge to compensate for the brightness near the bridge. If you’re buying a single pickup, please see the box below describing the information we need to get you the correct polarity information, and read this important article: “What’s The Deal With Polarity?”
Choosing the Magnet Stagger:
Our Vintage Hot pickups come in two Magnet Stagger(?) options: Stock(?) and Hybrid (?).
TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
Hand wound with 42 gauge Heavy Formvar wire, beveled AlNiCo V magnets and cloth leads. Our Vintage Hots are wound using a “Scatter-wound” technique to give it a full, sweet tone. We recommend using 250K Pots with these pickups. The neck and middle pickups are average 50’s specs, and the bridge pickup is just hot enough to have the same output as the neck and middle pickups. Vintage Hots will read approximately 6K in the Neck and Middle, and 6.8K in the Bridge.
CUSTOM REQUIREMENTS:
At Fralin Pickups, we are a total and complete custom shop. Need something specific? Upon checkout, use the “Notes” field to write anything you want! We don’t charge extra for custom work in most cases.
T92780 –
Vintage Hot’s w/Bass Plate are among the best Strat pickups in marketplace and best $260.00 tonal investment you can make. They chime, sparkle and growl….great pickups!!
Cheers!
ahmet orhon –
The only thing i can say it is great.
Thanks Lindy Fralin.
Kevin Thomas –
After two years of searching for the right set of strat pickups I finally broke for a set of these. I have wanted these for a while but went down the road every time the idea came to mind. Not this past weekend. I have not yet installed the base plate, will being doing that soon. My tele has a set of pickups that will stay in it forever, AND NOW my stratocaster has a set of pickups that will stay in it for ever. Thank you Lindy this guitar sounds the way a stratocaster should sound in my head. Also I went with the blender option which is a must in my book. I had the Gilmore switch in and its like that with a whole lot more options. Couldn’t be happier, had the chance to speak with Lindy on the phone as well some time ago amazingly good advice and tremendously friendly. You will not find customer service like that anywhere. His work is worth every penny. Thanks a million.
Bob –
Swapped these into my Am Strat that was good but not great, now it sings.
These are the best strat pickups on the market. Period.
Need to grab some more for my 57 relic very soon.
Danny –
Holy cow are these the real deal…I recently had the opportunity to play a few Strats with Vintage Hots in them next to about 4 different sets of pickups being offered today, and objectively in my opinion, these ran circles around them without breaking a sweat. Worth every penny if you’re into that classic Strat tone, and feel like you can only get ‘so close’ with what the guitar makers offer today.
Dan Kaufmanb (verified owner) –
I Recently got your Vintage Hots for my Strat and wanted to say that I love them. These are the third set of pickups I’ve had in this guitar (american standard) and I’m finally happy. Your pickups have found homes in both of my Fenders ( I also have a Tele) and both sound amazing. Great quality pickups and supportive customer service. Thanks for explaining the differences between the pickups and helping me to make a decision
Ben Mueller (verified owner) –
I upgraded an old Mexican Strat I had with a Pure PAF in the bridge, and a couple of Vintage Hots in the middle and neck positions. This thing totally sings now. Nice and glassy, but still with a nice bottom end. Before the upgrade, I felt like I could only really use the bridge or bridge+mid setting on the guitar. The mid and neck pickups by themselves were too muddy. But now, every pickup position offers tone as clear as a bell. So much more versatile than it was before. Thanks guys!
Britt (verified owner) –
I just swapped out the stock pups on my American Select Strat (HSS) with the ‘Vintage Hots’, neck and middle. The difference is absolutely astounding, just an incredible upgrade in tone: more bell-like, glassy clarity throughout. These pups are never leaving this guitar! Completely satisfied.
Matthew W. –
Years ago the owner of my local guitar shop told me “just get some Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots, they are the best Strat pickups there are.” I was in to heavier music then and had some hotter Seymour Duncan pups (JB in the bridge and teo Quarter Pounders) in my beloved Strat, but I filed that information away. Recently I decided it was time to make my Strat a real Strat again with three vintage type single coil pickups. I did a lot of looking but finally decided on the Fralin Vintage Hots. I got the baseplate on the bridge and a blender pot as well. I must say I am over the moon with my choice. These things are vintage Strat for days! Chimey, glassy, woody, clear, articulate, and amazingly responsive and touch sensitive both clean and with gain. I’m in love! I can’t recommend these more, thanks Lindy and company!
Mike C. (verified owner) –
After researching various pups to the nth degree for my American strat, I took a chance on a Vintage Hot set with baseplate. I could not be happier! These replaced a set of DiMarzio Virtual Vintage that I’ve had for years, which I finally admitted to myself never sounded “strat-y” enough. It’s like a completely different guitar. Cleans are super chimey and vintage sounding, just as I’ve been hearing in my head. With some dirt, the pickups have the right amount of growl and bite, with the ability to track incredibly well without losing their character one bit. I am extremely happy and will be playing this axe more and more. The tone is inspiring and sounds as it should’ve from day one! Also, Tyler was helpful with some wiring questions along the way. Try these!
Jamie –
It’s hard to describe these pickups any better than all of the previous reviewers have, but I’ll offer what I can. I bought myself an MJT relic-job Strat type guit that came with some vintage hots. Aside from the beautiful job MJT did, it was the Fralins that attracted me to the GUI in the first place. After a little bit of adjustment (raising the high E side of all three pups), the guitar just came to life. What beautiful tone. Just absolutely perfect. Round, warm, snap, chime. It’s all there. The toughest decision you’ll have is which position you’re gonna want to play in. Nice job guys! Thanks for your dedication to the art and craft of making beautiful pickups.
Ron Collier –
I discovered a secret. If you want a great sounding guitar, don’t buy a top of the line Fender Strat. Instead find a Squier with a good neck and get Lindy’s Vintage Hot pickups installed. Better sound for a fraction of the price. By the way, I also love his Blues Specials, Split Blades, and Sunbucker pickups. His installation work is also first rate.
Adam Goldfine (verified owner) –
The sound of the Vintage Hots is absolutely incredible. Articulate and versatile, I now love the sound of my Strat. Not only that, Lindy spend a very generous amount of time on the phone with me answering questions and discussing every aspect of my rebuild including shielding, capacitor values, wiring schemes, treble bleed circuits and more. As a result, I tried some things I might not have otherwise and ended up with way more than I bargained for. The pickups shipped fast and I couldn’t be happier. Great product, great company, great people!
A Linden (verified owner) –
Neck standard stagger. Soundwise everything it was said to be. Very easy to get that sweet gritty sound and still have clarity. Only drawback was that the white lead cable was quite short and since I bought the neck version it needed an extention. The black lead was longer and A OK!
Jim –
Just installed a set of Vintage Hots in my MIM Strat – it’s like I have a brand new guitar. Somehow the guitar is cleaner & more articulate, but more aggressive & throaty at the same time. I couldn’t be happier.
John Davis –
Replaced a set of emg dg-20 pickups with vintage hot w/ pickguard. Much brighter and fresh sounding. Clean distinct edges to each note. The pickups have great response to the pots. My old pickups clearly didn’t like a couple of my drives; the vintage hots sound awesome with those same drives so now they’re back in the lineup. I basically have a new custom strat with a couple new drives for the price of a set of pickups. Couldn’t be happier with my purchase. Went from a guitar that was seldom played to being my #1.