fralin vintage hots

[badmuddy]

i knew it would be next to impossible to demo any of harmonic design's pickups, so i went by rudy's on 48th st. to demo the fralin woodies, blues specials & vintage hots. wound up takin' home the vintage hots & put 'em on my us strat plus. OH MY GOD!!!! these are the most amazing single coils i've ever heard! i didn't want an overdriven pickup, just a little bit of extra spit to get a good jangle (particularly on the bridge). and they clean up very nicely, too. AND, i'm able to get all the vowels outta the neck. i am VERY impressed! i was replacing a set of holy grails, which i grew to hate. i had originally intended on getting a set of kinmans to replace them, but i just couldn't afford them, & i got a good price on the fralins. plus, i think i heard one too many comments on the less than positive side re their tone, particularly as compared to a great set of un-noizless p'ups. and with no way to actually hear the kinmans, i had to give them a miss. i am so chooffed that i went with my gut instinct & bought the fralies! HIGHLY recommended!!!


ml

[afenderman67]

welcome to te club, fralins and vanzandts are tops in my opion, and i've tryed quit afew pups in my time. and i have'nt look back!!!


chris

[Don]

I put Fralin Vintage Hots in my restored/rodded '57 and they completed the guitar.

My luthier said it "sounds like the '50s" when he heard mine.

I tried Texas Specials and Cistom Shop '54s in the same guitar and they weren't even in the same league.

I tried the Fralins in my light ash bodied Strat and they didn't sound nearly as good. That guitar seems to need weaker pickups to sound right.

I didn't try Kinmans, but I'm not too bothered by noise and I've never liked noisless single coil sized pickups.

[James Tonguet]

I agree for Clean , Lindy has got it in spades.

I replaced my stock set with Laces, played them about 10 years and switched to Vintage Hots last year ( with baseplate and blender pot) . I've played my friends 57 Strat and actually like the Fralins better.

[badmuddy]

how is the baseplate mod? does it increase the bass without making the pickup hotter, or more driven?


ml

[Don]

I added the base plate to mine after using them for a while.
It gives the bridge p/u a slightly more Tele like tone without taking any of the Strat tone away. The tone seems to cut through a little better.

I have another Strat set up with the blender pot and don't like it as much as a separate switch, but I don't like extra holes on my guitars. I way put a pot with a switch in it.

[LightninBoy]

These pups are next on my list of "can't do without" after-market upgrades and I'm very excited about a/b'ing them against some of my other strats. I've heard so many good things about these pickups, and everyone I've talked to over there has seemed very eager to please, and very patient with the multitude of questions I've had for them, unlike some of the other boutique specialists...

[badmuddy]

installed the baseplate. need to live with it a bit before i can comment. as it was only $10, i figgered, what the hey? did a gig on new year's at a new club on ludlow st, and i was floored by how many comments i got on my guitar sound, from band members, other bands on the bill, & audience members. my basic setup is an aguilar db900-ashly sg100 gate-fmr "really nice compressor"-trademark 60 (i have a multi-efx box that ain't worth mentioning patched thru the send/return. there's one word that describes the tone of this setup with my vintage hots; shimmer!!! for dayz! this IS the "jimi" tone i've wanted for my strat for so-o-o long. i just can't imagine ANY other p'ups sounding this good!


ml

[LightninBoy]

My Vintage Hots arrived a couple of weeks ago and I installed them in an Alder/Maple Strat but haven't really had the chance to a/b them much since then until this weekend. I'm at the point where I'm fairly happy with everything in my current arsenal, and feel that I can conduct a decent shootout over the next several weeks between my production models.

I have Rio Grande Big Bottoms in another Alder/Maple and Fender Vintage Noiseless in an Ash/Maple. Dialing in the clean settings I was able to find a nice pickup height for each set, and have not been able to decide conclusively which I like best. The Fralins seem to have more of a Hendrixy vibe to them, the Rio Grandes a little more Texas authority but less complexity, and the VN's sound very warm and round but they don't have as much volume although I have them set no lower than the Fralins. I can't get a harsh note out of the VN's and they are very responsive.

Distorted the VN's push very hard, have lots of attitude and spit - very 'in your face' while retaining Strat tone. The Fralins are, once again, Hendrixy-sounding, cut a little brighter than the VN's but not brash - notes ring with more clarity with the Fralins and they are ballsy in every position - the middle pickup is very useful on both of these sets. Distorted, the Rio Grandes haven't impressed me so far as much as the other two, but some further changes in pickup height may very well change that. So far I'm very happy with the Fralins...

[badmuddy]

hey lightnin', give this a try. i did, & am quite lovin' the results.

http://www.peterflorance.com/install.htm


ml

[LightninBoy]

Hey Badmuddy, I saw your remarks on the Voodoo pickups a while back, and had in the back of my mind while a/b'ing the sets mentioned above, that whatever came off weakest would get replaced with either a set of Harmonic Designs, or the Voodoos. Can you give a few more comments as to what impressed you so much with the Voodoo's over the Fralins?

I typically (but not always) keep a new item - whether it be a guitar, pickups, amp - for a minimum of 4 - 6 months for testing purposes, even if at first it doesn't really impress me. I wasn't happy at all with the Fender VN's until I switched out the pots and cap about 2 months after I bought them, and now I'm very happy with them. Actually, when I first tried out the Fralins, I thought that they sounded very wimpy, don't know why exactly, but I did. Plugged the same guitar in the next morning and was blown away by them - can't remember changing any settings, maybe the tubes in my amp were warmer the next day - there are so many variables (including the equipment operator vepaf ) that I'm very rarely able to make a quick judgement concerning new equipment. I guess if nothing else, the mere necessity of "exploring new tonal possibilities" with the Voodoo's would justify the purchase of yet another Strat:LC :LC :LC - I sure can't see getting rid of my Fralins any time soon.

"Yes dear, it's for 'testing' purposes."

[LightninBoy]

Oh, and thanks for the link - I'll print that out and experiment with those settings at home. I've found that I have to keep my pickups fairly low to the pickgaurd to get the tones I want, although it varies from set to set.

Thanks again...

[kuntikin]

badmuddy: I, too, would be interested in your comparison of vintage hots versus voodoo st60-bl's.

Thanx!

[badmuddy]

sorry, it's takin' me awhile to digest all of this. the only set of voodoo's i've heard have been the custom wound (they get 'em wound hotter than the stock ones) st60-bl's that ludlow guitars sells, and peter florence hasn't been all that helpful or articulate in responding to questions regarding his pups. and ludlow doesn't have any of the other sets in a guitar for me to hear; they seem pretty intent on just selling their "custom" wounds. so that does have a little to do with my cooling off on the voodoos, lightnin'. but i will reiterate, they did sound a whole lot woodier, if you will, and much louder. again, i had my fralin's height set down near the deck, and i remembered, in hindsight, that the voodoo's were set much higher, hence louder. so it may not have been a fair evaluation. i've since heard previous voodoo owners pine for the "chime" of the fralins. BUT, last week, i stumbled across the coppolo's at jimmy coppolo's store here in ny. i was actually there to demo an amp, and thought i'd demo an anderson he had, & one of his. i can't help it if i'm tripping from one pup maker to the next in such a short time, but that is exactly how it's happened. and i IMMEDIATELY heard what the coppolo's were about. seemed like the didn't lose any of the chime for the gain in wood tone. i swear, these pups sounded VERY trumpet like! kinda smooth and gritty at the same time. i just heard so much personality, in fact, what i seemed to be missing in the brute force of the voodoo's. if you give jimmy a call, i'm sure he'd be happy to explain what it entails for him to make his pups. i know he uses vintage, very hard parts to come by, hence the price, but he basically said to me, "you can't beat how fender used to make them", in answer to why they sounded so damn good. i've been playing for a very long time, and you can trust my ears, guys. they're pretty good. anyway, i've left contact info elsewhere, feel free to call jimmy, & say g'day for me (michael is my name).


ml

[LightninBoy]

Thanks for the reply Badmuddy. I can relate to the "tripping between" products or whatever - I do it alot myself, I just don't post much when I get something new because, as I'm continuously relearning, first impressions don't always last when it comes to guitars and their accessories. My wife is constantly subjected to spur-of-the-moment praise that often turns lukewarm after further review...

At this point I can say that of all my current guitars/pickups, I'm the most satisfied with my completely stock (excepting 5-way switch) NOS '60 strat, and least satisfied with the Fender VN's, which isn't to say that I don't like them at all, just not as much as some of the others I've tried. If I wind up dumping them, I may try to get in touch with Coppolo - he sounds like a decent fellow based on what you've written, although I question whether his pickups would sound as good in a production model strat as they did in the hand crafted guitar that you played. Don't think I'm trying to bust balls or anything, I just believe that has to be taken into consideration. I played a Grosh about a month ago with some Fralin VH's that sounded much better than the ones in my Ame Series strat, although mine still sounds great, just not *that* great. I can't really form an opinion on a pickup unless I've tried it in a guitar I'm familiar with - there are so many variables between guitars, even of the same 'family.' Thanks again for the reply...

:nelson

[badmuddy]

ya know, the original reason i went into n.y. guitar & bass boutique was to demo this:

http://www.smfamps.com/amp_info.htm

guess what? i put some $ down on it yesterday! this thing screams!!! i demo'd it originally back in december when i was shopping for my sg, and was pretty blown away by it. last week i noticed jimmy advertising it on his website for a "reduced price." and it's bloody loud for 15 watts! class a (el-84's), tunable reverb, & a hatchback for an open/closed cab. if you see one, check it out. it easily sounds like a $3000-4000 amp, for under $2000!


ml