Wide Range Humbucker
The Fralin Wide Range Humbucker is a cleaner and more articulate version of the original, with all the clarity and definition you’ve come to expect with Fralin Pickups. Made with USA-Made parts and wound by hand, this will give you an amazing, sweet era-authentic tone!
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Jump to Sound Clips and Product Info:
True '70s Wide-Range Tone
Want to learn more about our Wide Range Humbucker? Here's all the information you'll need:
Wide Range Humbucker FEATURES:
Our Wide Range Humbucker is a modern take on the original classic. Originally built and designed by Seth Lover for Fender, this was the answer to Gibson’s darker-sounding humbuckers. Today, Lindy Fralin took his idea a little further, by making this pickup sweet, articulate, and clear and clean. Our Wide Range humbuckers will drop right in to your guitar, as they are the same fit and finish as the factory ones. This pickup will sound reminiscent of our P-92’s – Bold, but clear and articulate.
Features:
- Loud, bright, articulate clean tones and smooth, slightly crunchy distortion tones.
- Same size as the original Wide Range Humbuckers
- Threaded Alnico 5 Pole Pieces and for top-end sparkle
- Traditional humbucker design and looks
- USA-Made Parts, and Wound to spec, one at a time.
Sound
Tonal Graph for Wide Range Humbucker:
The tone graph below for our Wide Range Humbucker features Lows, Midrange, Highs, and general Output.
Attack: Dynamic & Full
Sound Clips for Wide Range Humbucker:
About this Sound Clip:
All sound samples are played from Neck Position First and Bridge Position Last.
The Fralin Wide Range Humbucker is Clean, articulate, and bright. If you have a darker or dull-sounding guitar, these will breathe new life into it. Lows are big, bouncy and clear like most Fender humbucker designs. The Mids are slightly scooped with an emphasis on the high mids. This pickup is sure to cut through the mix, without sounding brittle, shrill or thin. Playing dirty, this pickup won’t break up as early as traditional humbuckers. It will still sound thick in the low mids and smooth on the top-end. As with all our pickups, we take care to make sure we wind it to your specifications. Want it to sound a little fatter and darker? No problem – we’ll wind it to spec, free of charge.
Sizing
Lead Color Codes
See below for our Lead color codes. For help with matching to other manufacturers, check out this resource here.
Gibson Braided Lead:
2-Conductor Lead:
Tech Specs
See below for the estimated DCR and Polarity Information for our Wide Range Humbucker.
| SPECIFICATION | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Neck Ohm Reading: | 9K 1 |
| Bridge Ohm Reading: | 9.7K 1 |
| Neck Polarity: | Reversible With 2-Conductor Lead |
| Bridge Polarity: | Reversible With 2-Conductor Lead |
| Magnet Material: | USA-Made Alnico 5 |
| Wire: | USA-Made 42-Gauge Single Poly Nylon |
| Bobbin Material: | Nylon |
| Baseplate Material: | USA-Made Nickel Silver |
| Cover Material: | USA-Made Nickel Silver |
| String Spacing: | 54mm |
| Recommend Pot Value: | 300K | 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.
300K pots will give this pickup a slightly darker and warmer tone.
Wide Range Humbucker FAQ's
General FAQs
Here are quick answers to common questions we get:
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What Ohm Readings does your Wide Range Humbucker 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 1 Week 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 Wide Range Humbuckers 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.
Product FAQ's
These are frequently asked questions about our Wide Range Humbucker. If you have a question that you don't see listed here, click "Ask A Question" in the Quick Links section above.
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Can you coil split the Wide Range Humbucker?
While we can technically wire this pickup for coil splitting, we do not recommend it. You’ll be left with a coil with 3 exposed pole pieces, and 3 covered pole pieces, giving you an unbalanced tone. This pickup sounds best in a full humbucker mode.
GET IT PREWIRED
Go the extra mile and combine our Wide Range Humbucker with a Telecaster Control Plate!:
Featured Reviews
Reviews we worked hard for, and are proud of
Just what the doctor ordered for my latest build. Perfect fit and awesome range
’73 Tele Custom reborn
Really amazing. Tightened up the sound and makes the neck position more articulate. Was totally what I was looking for. Original pickup got way muddy even with the mildest overdrive. Middle position also a sweeter place to be now too. Great!!!
The low end BOOMS, but remains articulate and balanced. This pickup also responds well to pick attack and volume and tone adjustments. I highly recommend it.
I am impressed by the output of these pickups. Put a big smile on my face
I put the Wide Range Humbuckers in my MIM Fender ’72 Thinline and it was glad I did. The clarity and fullness of the tone was more than expected. Thank you Lindy and company.
I’ve only had these in my Squier Thinline Tele for a week, so I won’t give a full description of their comparative tone, etc. I will say that they have brought the sound and the response of the guitar… its musicality..to a much more satisfying level. Ridiculous, really…the improvement. Thank you very much.
Wonderful tone. It gave superpowers to my Fender Telecaster Deluxe 72 (2012 – MIM). I’m really happy. Thanks a lot!
Just What I Was Looking For!
This is the fourth set of Fralin pickups I’ve owned, and as anticipated – they are fantastic! I had them installed in a semi-hollow Fender ’72 Thinline. Tonally, I feel they land somewhere between a single coil and a humbucker, but differently than P-90s do. The P-90s I owned (also from Fralin) were like a slightly hotter single coil with more output. I feel the Wide Range Humbuckers have some of the clarity of single coils, but also a fuller body of that is associated with humbuckers. Of course I’m using all sorts of subjective jargon right now, so do yourself a favor and take a listen some sound samples! And as always – Lindy and friends make up one of the finest companies to do business with. Their passion for pickups and music in general is apparent any time you work with them. Thanks for another awesome product, Fralin Pickups!
I own a dark sounding alder bodied HS Telecaster that I was trying to brighten up, especially in the neck position. I have a sound in my head for a neck humbucker and no one seems to make it. Every neck humbucker I play sounds very muffled and dark, like it has a sock over the pickup. The neck humbucker sound I have in my head has tight lows and very bright highs, with even or even slightly boosted mids; no “woof” in the low strings with a lot of shimmer on top that gets hairy quickly.
Anyways, I called Fralin’s phone number and got to talk to an actual human being (um, wow!) named Luke who gave great recommendations. After discussion, they custom made me the Wide Range in traditional humbucker housing. I have to admit, I was not crazy about the sound of this pickup at first. It was pretty “woofy” on the low strings and the highs were muted, but it was very clear and articulate. I didn’t dislike the overall tone profile but the woof had to go and I needed more breakup. I really had to play around with the pickup height and pole pieces. The good news is that you can get a lot of very different tones out of this pickup if you tweak it.
I ended up setting the pickup height very low (almost flat with the pickguard) then turning the treble side up about two turns. This cleared up the pickup and eliminated the “woof” but in exchange I lost a lot of power. The gain level between the neck and bridge was too intense. When I flipped to the bridge (a Fralin Blues Special Tele) it was like turning up the gain on my amp 3-4 notches. Maybe some players like this but I was going for more balance. I was pretty frustrated but decided to play with the pole pieces. I raised the pole pieces 2-3 turns on the high E, B, and G, 2 turns on the D, and 1 turn on the A and low E. This gave me some of the power back while keeping the “woof” in check. Overall I’m pretty satisfied now. The balance is pretty good. I still wish the pickup had tighter lows, was a smidge brighter and maybe had just a little more output.
Awesome! These pickups sound amazing. I put them in a Squire Classic Vibe Starcaster. Nice warm tones.