Tips For Strats

Anyone with Lindy Fralin pickups? How do you guys compare Fralin's and Kinman's? I'm planning on the hot vintage set but if the Kinman's better I'll go for them.
 
I had experience with Kinman Trad. Mk-IIs in a few guitars a couple years ago. And just recently had a guitar with Fralin Vintage Hot & SP 42. there was a time span of a couple years, and the guitars were different, but I'll give you my observations.

I had the Kinmans in a few Ibanez guitars, and in a MIJ strat. The Kinmans really excelled at getting some of the more aggressive strat qualities. All those descriptions Kinman uses, quack, twang, spank, shimmer & bell-tone are right on. Someone at HC described Kinman PUs as being a "characteur" of what you expect a strat to sound like. There will be no mistaking that you're playing a strat. One thing I found was that the sound clips at the Kinman site are really accurate as to what you can expect to get. Where the Trad's fell short for me was that while they could nail those quacky, digging tones, I could never get the sweet tones I was after. They were really powerful sounding, but just not musical enough for me. And the bridge position in particular had a little too much of what I generally don't like about strat bridge pickups - just too shrill, bright & twangy for me. I guess I came to feel they were kind of a one trick pony tone-wise. But they were dead quiet.

The Fralins were in a Grosh Retro Classic, which is a very resonant & full sounding guitar. These are one of the best strat sets I've ever played (albeit they were in a killer guitar). The were very musical, and could be pushed into either territory - warm and sweet or funky & aggressive. The SP42 was the only bridge position strat PU I've liked. I still prefer a humbucker, but the Fralin was very pleasing for a bridge SC.

So for me, the trade-off for noiseless strat PUs has been the "musical" thing. The Kinmans are probably the best take on noiseless, but I will still take a noisy single coil any day. If I gigged in noisy environment and it became a problem, Id get a Suhr Silent Single Coil Backplate.
 
I have a Dimarzio Area 61 in the neck of my G&L Legacy HB (alder + rosewood,) and I also shielded the guitar with shielding paint. Sounds great and is completely silent. I actually prefer it over the Grosh RC and Suhr Pro I had.
 
funkle said:
I had experience with Kinman Trad. Mk-IIs in a few guitars a couple years ago. And just recently had a guitar with Fralin Vintage Hot & SP 42. there was a time span of a couple years, and the guitars were different, but I'll give you my observations.

I had the Kinmans in a few Ibanez guitars, and in a MIJ strat. The Kinmans really excelled at getting some of the more aggressive strat qualities. All those descriptions Kinman uses, quack, twang, spank, shimmer & bell-tone are right on. Someone at HC described Kinman PUs as being a "characteur" of what you expect a strat to sound like. There will be no mistaking that you're playing a strat. One thing I found was that the sound clips at the Kinman site are really accurate as to what you can expect to get. Where the Trad's fell short for me was that while they could nail those quacky, digging tones, I could never get the sweet tones I was after. They were really powerful sounding, but just not musical enough for me. And the bridge position in particular had a little too much of what I generally don't like about strat bridge pickups - just too shrill, bright & twangy for me. I guess I came to feel they were kind of a one trick pony tone-wise. But they were dead quiet.

The Fralins were in a Grosh Retro Classic, which is a very resonant & full sounding guitar. These are one of the best strat sets I've ever played (albeit they were in a killer guitar). The were very musical, and could be pushed into either territory - warm and sweet or funky & aggressive. The SP42 was the only bridge position strat PU I've liked. I still prefer a humbucker, but the Fralin was very pleasing for a bridge SC.

So for me, the trade-off for noiseless strat PUs has been the "musical" thing. The Kinmans are probably the best take on noiseless, but I will still take a noisy single coil any day. If I gigged in noisy environment and it became a problem, Id get a Suhr Silent Single Coil Backplate.
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Thanks mate for the reviews. From what I've seen on youtube including some clips just comparing pickups the Fralin's sound much more pleasant to my ears than any others. I think I'll definitely go for them. Thanks again for the detailed post
 
funkle said:
Where the Trad's fell short for me was that while they could nail those quacky, digging tones, I could never get the sweet tones I was after. They were really powerful sounding, but just not musical enough for me. And the bridge position in particular had a little too much of what I generally don't like about strat bridge pickups - just too shrill, bright & twangy for me.
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I have found that lowering the Trads right down (neck pup just a hair above the pickguard) can help bring out the sweet tones.
 
All great suggestions - but if you don't want to swap your pups quite yet, do try using the gate. I like my somewhat noisy single coils (not a brand-F strat, so don't know how they compare to the so-called SCNs) because they're super expressive when clean. So when I crank the gain, I end up setting the noise gate threshold to around -71 dB (depends on the patch). This can have the effect of killing harmonics a little - to compensate, add a pedal compressor or MBC at the end of the signal chain and tweak to taste.
 
I fully-shielded my S-type guitar, and while this helped, it still hummed like crazy with the original single-coils because the stage at my church is next to a huge bank of dimmers. No matter what you do you can't kill that kind of hum except at the pickup itself.

I recently installed a set of Fender Hot Noiseless pups, and it sounds great. I can still get good single-coil bite, but without all the noise. As part of the rewire I also installed Deaf-Eddies "Half-Chromie" (thanks to mwd for the tip!), and I absolutely love it.

I would love to try the Kinman's (Woodstock Plus for my taste), but I couldn't justify the cost since my S-type guitar is an import (Parker P-30) which I paid $350 for, and I'm not primarily a Strat-type player. I think someday I'll build a custom Warmoth S-type with the Kinmans, but I think I would again wire it myself with Deaf-Eddie's "Half-Chromie" rather than paying an extra $100 for the K9 harness. Of course, some of it comes down to whether you're handy with the soldering iron and how much your spare time is worth, but for me even if money weren't the issue the Half-Chromie offers Bridge+Neck in series, which I find has a great warmth and bite.
 
I have found that lowering the Trads right down (neck pup just a hair above the pickguard) can help bring out the sweet tones.
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Just tried the same thing with my Woodstock/K9 set up .... I'm AMAZED!!! ... it totally sorted out my sound!!

Thanks for that brother!!
 
I also am a happy Kinman owner. But save yourself a lot of dough and just get some Bill Lawrence (Wilde USA - not the other guy) singles.
I have put his pickups in almost ALL my guitars. Fabulous pickups, super quite, passive design (no battery!), tremendous value and they are made in the USA! ;)
Check 'um out.
 
Six String Symphony said:
I also am a happy Kinman owner. But save yourself a lot of dough and just get some Bill Lawrence (Wilde USA - not the other guy) singles.
I have put his pickups in almost ALL my guitars. Fabulous pickups, super quite, passive design (no battery!), tremendous value and they are made in the USA! ;)
Check 'um out.
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I will second the Bill Lawrence replacements over Kinmans as I have had both. Kinmans IMO are hugely expensive for what they are. I played my Kinman loaded Strat side by side with a friend's stock Tokai Strat (single coils) and his tone killed mine. :evil:

However, I've found the Bill Lawrence bridge pickup to be muddy on the lower strings compared to true single-coils. No good for Hendrix or Dick Dale! Dimarzio Area 59/61s are good but suffer from the same condition. I ended up getting a Lollar Blackface bridge pickup. I hate the hum but for now it delivers the tone a Strat's supposed to have, so it stays. :|
 
rick0chet said:
I have found that lowering the Trads right down (neck pup just a hair above the pickguard) can help bring out the sweet tones.
Click to expand...

Just tried the same thing with my Woodstock/K9 set up .... I'm AMAZED!!! ... it totally sorted out my sound!!

Thanks for that brother!!
Click to expand...
No worries! I had the same experience - never sounded quite right until I dropped them right down..
 
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