Fralin Steel Poles

[Aussie]

Hey Louis or anyone else who's used these pickups ....
On the weekend a friend gave me a loaded strat style pickguard he bought at an auction a few years back but hasn't done anything with. It has a Fralin Steel Pole 43 in the bridge and Steel Pole 42's in the middle and neck. On paper this would seem to be something of a mismatch but I don't have much free time to do a swap out on any of my guitars at the moment to see. So I'm curious if anyone has enough experience with these pups to know if this combination can work or do I just pull them apart and re match them.

cheers, Robbie

[louis cyfer]

why do you think it would be a mismatch? i have a steelpole 43 matched with the fralin real 54's and it works really well. i have also played it matched with blues specials and steelpole 42's. it worked well with both of those. the only way it wouldn't work well if it was all steelpole 43's. i prefer lower output neck and middle and a hotter bridge, but it matches well with all those. i also have a tele with steelpole 43 matched with a p90, and another with steelpole 42 matched with a blues special.

[Aussie]

Thanks Louis
I was thinking that With the 43s rated at 10k and the 42's at 6k they may not balance too well. from memory the 54's are also about 6k so if that combo woks well all should be good. No issues with volume levels when switching to the bridge?
cheers, Robbie

[louis cyfer]

Thanks Louis
I was thinking that With the 43s rated at 10k and the 42's at 6k they may not balance too well. from memory the 54's are also about 6k so if that combo woks well all should be good. No issues with volume levels when switching to the bridge?
cheers, Robbie

none at all. remember the dc resistance is a very small part of the actual output. the 42's are hotter than the 54's or the blues specials, the difference being the construction and the magnets. the difference between the 42 and the 43 is the wire, and that is why the dc resistance is that different. also, the string at the bridge pup travels a lot less, so you need a hotter pup to get similar volume levels. one advantage with the 43 is that you don't have to get it so close to the string to try to get a balance between the 3 pups.

if all thing are equal, only the dc resistance (length of wire) is different, from my experience a balanced set would look like this.
neck 5k middle 5.7-6k and bridge 11-13k. the travel of the string in the magnetic field makes that much difference. in my sd antiquity set, the neck and middle are 6.3 and the bridge 9.7, and it is still not enough to balance well, unless the neck is far from the strings and the bridge is almost touching.
in my klein jazzy cat speacial set, the neck is 5.1k, the middle is 5.7k and the bridge is 12k. perfect match.

another thing, both the 42's and the 43's are constructed just like the mfd pups, except with an alnico magnet.

[Aussie]

Sounds good (pun to be confirmed) so I'll probably give them a run when I take some leave in October. Understand what you are saying and agree on the need fore a hotter bridge but from somewhere back in the mists of time I've had in mind that for best balance bridge resistance should be arround 12% to 25% higher than the neck/middle. 6k to 10k is well outside that ratio ... but nowhere near those Jazzy Cats! Thanks again
cheers, Robbie

[NickHorne]

I very much agree with Louis, you'll be fine. More room for maneuver to get string balance and pickup level matching right, a nice robust bridge tone, and clarity too. Should be great.