Prewired Strat Pickguard

The loaded pickguard is a great, high-quality service at a very reasonable price. My latest from Lindy was a Strat pickguard loaded with Steel 43s, the P-90s designed to fit a standard Strat. As always, the work was first rate and makes for a very easy installation. The pickups themselves are fantastic, I was looking for something different than the classic, beautiful Strat tone of the Vintage Hots, and these things really deliver Gibson growl and crunch while yielding reasonably classical strat tones with the guitar volume backed down a little. Really having fun with this latest project guitar. And yes, the customer service and support availability are really as good as everybody says!

Great sounding pickups — brought my strat back to life. Great pickups, but also great customer service and communication. Glad to know there are still a few good companies out there!

Last year I ordered a guitar from Novo. After talking to my friends about my build, they said; “ this guitar is loaded with Fralins?” I told them yeah. Why? I bet you will change the guitar pickups you liked the least .

So, emailed Fralin and I received a response from Jon there. The rest is history! I Jon’s configurations was spot on the sound I wanted to achieve. I had some questions, which eased my mind of the installation. So, the instructions was so clear I had my wife installed the pre wire. She needed a little insight on how to Soldering….her first time. It only took maybe 20 minutes for her to do the change over.

The moment I plugged in the amp this Strat was singing like never before! The suggestion of the Blend Knob made this transition to my strat complete! Now my wife has a jazz bass I will have replace the pickups on!

Thank you Jon for all your help!

Installed a Fralin prewired Strat pick guard with Vintage Hot pickups, master tone, blender pot, baseplate, and volume kit. This was to replace the stock pickups and controls in an American Standard Strat that I’ve had since the 1980’s. I felt that my old pickups were a little weak (perhaps to not aging well), and that the TBX tone control only gave me a useful tone between 3.5 and 4 on the dial. The installation was a breeze.

The pickups have this wonderful 3-dimensional quality that has given my guitar new life, and I can’t say enough good things about the varieties of useful tones I can get now with the master tone control and the blender pot. I’ve been playing with the new set up for the past two months since installing it, and I am still discovering fantastic sounds, without any bad ones. My only regret is not ordering this sooner.

Just installed with Vintage Hot in an EJ Strat. I had Fralin Split Blades in it which are awesome, just wanted to get a vintage strat tone. Played a gig last week. I’m really happy. The bridge has the baseplate installed and I kept going there all night. Usually not a bridge guy. Buy Fralins now

Installed a pre-wired pickguard with Vintage Hots a few weeks ago. The strat originally was an HSS, then I installed a set of Tex Mex. It never really hit the sound I was after so decided to go Fralin. Talked to Lindy for 20 minutes (as he’s casually winding away), and decided on the details smallest to largest. In short, I love the sound now. Smokes on neck and quacks on 2 and 4. Should point out I’ve bought lots of pickups the past 20 years, many of them Fralins. Next up will be a set of Blues Specials for my CS tele.

Top company, great folks who know their craft!

Sometimes, in life, you get what you are hoping for. Sometimes you don’t. The Fralin pick-ups I bought fall into the category of astonishment. Just f***ing gorgeous. Beautifully assembled with such remarkable sound. I would call them a bargain but that is hardly fair. They deliver exactly what they promised and then a magical bit more. There are more in my future, I hope.

I have a standard American strat and was not getting the sound I wanted. I thought I would try new pickups before I got rid of it. Im so glad I did. It’s been my number one every jam night since.

Received my Fralin wired pickguard and love it. Lindy was very helpful in making suggestions based on my wants, and is just a fun guy to chat with. I purchased a set of Vintage Hots with a magic cap on bridge, .02 neck, and left the middle pu unfiltered/ no tone control which increases quack. I had read about keeping the pickups low and tried that, however when I raised the neck and bridge up the strat really started to come alive. They are full of tone and are very consistent volume wise across all 5 settings. It sounds like a good vintage strat should, even with a good bit of od you can hear the quack coming through, and I’m enjoying that very much. The best pickups right here in RVA!

After much deliberation and a phone call to Lindy I decided to get a loaded pick guard with 3 Vintage hots. The wiring job is immaculate to say the least. My build was somewhat “complicated” as I had the volume pot to pull into a bright switch and the middle tone to pull to change from a magic cap to a standard cap, leaving the 3rd tone to be used as a blender knob. Whew! How does it sound? Really fantastic! This went into my 89’ Ultra Strat that has hosted many different pickups. This has to be my favorite set up yet for this guitar. I wanted to make it more “sparkly/quacky” which I’ve done. The Magic cap is really magical and transforms the pups to a warmer ala Les Paul sound. Overall a great experience and highly recommended.

I got the Steel Pole 43 pickups because my favorite guitar recently has P-90s, which I’ve come to really love. That guitar however has a relatively large rockabilly style body and isn’t much fun to wear for an hour. This pickup set lets me split the difference by having a similar sound in my much more ergonomic Strat. As for the build quality: everything you’ve heard about Lindy Fralin pickups is true. They match and then exceed the quality of pickups from the Fullerton days. Plus I got knowledgable guidance over the phone. Highly recommended.

For the neck and middle pickups of my strat I bought steel pole 42s, and for the bridge a steel pole 43. I’m very happy with the results. These pickups are a really unique deal for a strat. I can get fat tones, but with lots of feel and nuance.

Their pre-wired pickguard was easy to drop in. These Blues Specials are the best 60s strat pickups I’ve ever heard. Couldn’t be happier and will be back.

A few moths back I bought a Fender American Professional Strat. The stock pickups were ok but nothing special. I got a pre-wired pickguard with Vintage Hot pickups and now that is one smokin’ guitar. Easy install with good instructions. Plus when I had a question, Lindy himself called me with the answer.

This is the 3rd loaded strat pick-guard I have had from Fralin, I still have the other 2 which I will not part with. I also have a custom built Trevor Binford Short-scale Bass with Fralin Split-coil P-Bass pickups [primarily for recording].
Fralin is able to consistently reproduce the best of 50’s/ 60’s Fender tones, and its not an expensive “hit and miss” exercise like the originals were.
This loaded pickguard is loaded with “real 54’s” which are everything they claim , and I am very pleased with them as I am with the previous two which both have “Vintage Hots”. All sets have the plate under the bridge pickup which I also recommend.
This is professional grade vintage style tech which represents amazing value for money, do not hesitate ,this is Hand made quality that does not disappoint.

Great Blues Special set for my Black Strat partcaster project.
Just my only small gripe is the allparts single-ply pickguard arrived a bit warped and not sitting evenly on the body so will probably have to change it to a new one.
Other than this great stuff!

I am late submitting this. The pickguard Lindy and company are terrific. Working with Lindy on the phone, I had them wound a little cooler than the Blues special set but spec’d the Blues Special “pink” wire. Included the “magic cap” feature, base plate added, .02 cap. This setup is stunning in tone and very versatile. It is installed in a ’96 50th anniversary of Fender guitar. Absolutely wonderful. The tone is rich and full, with clarity and sparkle in the top end when needed.

Everything impecable as expected.

I purchased the following Pickguard set.

Pickguard Color: White Single Ply
Neck Pickup: Real ’54
Middle Pickup: Real ’54
Bridge Pickup: Real ’54
Pot Style & Value: 250K Split Shaft
Tone Cap: .02mfd

Review?
The high harmonics are perfectly controlled and I feel the beauty of it.
It’s a very nuanced pickup.
There is sound pressure, and the sound does not fade even in the bridge position of Stratocaster.
It’s not a powerless pickup.
Half-tone is also very beautiful.
I think one of the vest pickup.

Just one thing:
Even with the same pickup number, the sound is different between the old one and the current one.
Both sounds very beautiful, but it’s a bit disappointing because I was expecting the older one.
Either way, it makes a very beautiful sound.

About installing:
My guitar is a Fender custom shop Stratocaster, but the position of the body counterbore and the pickguard wiring bundle were misaligned.
Be careful when installing Pickguard with a similar guitar.
It might be a good idea to send some images of your guitar when ordering.
I just clicked on the website without asking anything when making a purchase.

Change point:
The one with .022 capacitor that was originally attached was not bad, but the effect of tone control is not so much, and the feeling of bite and withered is so-so.
I replaced the capacitor with a very old wax type one.
The value is .1 – 200V.
The manufacturer is called SPRAGUE.
I’ve tried a lot, but this is the best for me with this pickup.
I’ve tried a few high mfd capacitors, but be careful as the sound is too muffled.
Also sometimes .05 is more muffled than .1.
I think old wax type is important.
The withstand voltage should be low.

I also changed the wiring from the volume pot to the output jack to old (40’s) LENZ’s 22AWG stranded wire .
The solder used is very old Dutch Boy 50/50 with a black label and does not contain solder paste. (Separate solder paste is required.)
This is the very very vest output jack wire for this pickup.
If you like the treble feel of this pickup.

I replaced all solder but the pickup eyelets and output jack wire with this solder below.
I used the solder is very old Alpha Energized Rosin 63/37.
I feel the original solder is very similar to the sound of the Kester 44.
This is also nice, but it’s a little off my taste.

I noticed when I sucked up the original solder, but it was a very polite work because the wiring was properly entwined with the parts.
Very excellent.

This product is highly recommended.

Thank you very much.

Best sounding pickups on the market. I bought these for a family member and he was completely blown away by how good the Vintage Hots sound.