Fralin Pickups | 1 decade ago
In this video, famed guitar pickup winder Lindy Fralin personally demonstrates a set of his Pure PAF replacement pickups against a set of his Hum Canceling P-90 Replacements. Of the Pure PAF, Lindy has said "This is my favorite humbucker." He winds these to 7.5k in the neck position and 8k in the bridge and then hand-weakens the magnets to soften the treble and smooth the grind. They are clean and articulate with very good note separation. The parts used look like real PAFs and the tone is as close as you can get. These are not recommended for guitars where a coil-tap is needed.
The Les Paul Special in this video features the Fralin Hum Canceling P-90. This 2 coil pickup has the big midrange and the bright wound strings of the original P-90's. The stock set sounds the most like real "50's" P-90's. 5% under makes a very clean set and the 5% over makes a darker set. (Lindy's favorite is the "Stock" set).
This comparison is not scientific but it was recorded in a controlled environment with virtually no enhancement. The signal path for this demo was as follows:
Guitar, VVT Lindy Fralin model amp with 1/15", SM57 mic'ed about 18" off the grill cloth, RNC Compressor, Mackie XDR preamp, Apogee Duet, Logic Pro on a Macbook Pro. The signal was recorded dry although a very slight amount of compression was added to reduce clipping and a slight plate reverb was added in Logic Pro for spatial enhancement. Otherwise the sound you hear is the pure, unaltered sound of the pickups through the amp with the volume set on about "3". Learn more about these pickups at www.fralinpickups.com
