Fralin Blues Special - flat, flat stagger, hybrid?

[DMace]

Does anybody know how these pickups differ sound-wise? (I checked the Fralin website, but there isn't a lot there on the distinctions). Are the "flat stagger" and the "hybrid" one and the same? Thanks for any hands-on opinions and info.

[twangcaster1]

The staggered pole type is better for clearer string separation. I've seemed to notice that the flat pole design is a little easier to dial in to get that "sweet spot" by tilting the pickups. By "sweet spot", I mean that perfect position where the base, mids, and treble are most well balanced. I have the flat pole real 54's fralins in my strat and absolutely love them, but I also have the staggered fralin blues specials in one of my teles and I absolutely love it, too. They're awesome pickupes. The blues special pickup I've got in that tele really does a great job cutting through the mix. It's got great vintage vibe in the base, but at the same time it has really sweet mids that can wail and ring out like no tele pickup i've used before. Great pickups, fralins are.

[DMace]

Twangcaster1- that's great info. Thanks.

[spankdplank]

The idea of the magnet staggers is to compensate for the curve of the fretboard, so your pickups sound balanced. However, Fender developed the stagger with the very high D and G magnet when people played with a woung G string. The Fralin hybrid compensates for the fact that most people don't play with a wound G string and for the flatter radius of modern fretboards. If you have a vintage radius 7.25 fretboard, which is a lot of arch or curve, the regular stagger or hybrid stagger will better mirror the curve of the fret board. The more modern Fender radius is a flatter 9.5 and the hybrid stagger is perfect, but the flat pole and regular stagger still works fine. To my ear, a regular stagger with an unwound G string sounds just a bit imbalanced, even on a 7.25 radius. If you have a radius flatter than 9.5 the regular stagger will probably be too imbalanced and flat would be best, but the hybrid will still be fine.

[DMace]

Originally Posted by spankdplank

The idea of the magnet staggers is to compensate for the curve of the fretboard, so your pickups sound balanced. However, Fender developed the stagger with the very high D and G magnet when people played with a woung G string. The Fralin hybrid compensates for the fact that most people don't play with a wound G string and for the flatter radius of modern fretboards. If you have a vintage radius 7.25 fretboard, which is a lot of arch or curve, the regular stagger or hybrid stagger will better mirror the curve of the fret board. The more modern Fender radius is a flatter 9.5 and the hybrid stagger is perfect, but the flat pole and regular stagger still works fine. To my ear, a regular stagger with an unwound G string sounds just a bit imbalanced, even on a 7.25 radius. If you have a radius flatter than 9.5 the regular stagger will probably be too imbalanced and flat would be best, but the hybrid will still be fine.

Actually, I'm embarrassed to admit, that after 30 years of playing, I haven't the slightest idea what radius any of my guitar necks are. The guitar in question is a Mexican Squier Series from '94. The neck is the same as the Squier Japan necks from the 80s, if my memory serves me. I never see the standard Blues Special Tele bridge pickup on Ebay; they all seem to be staggers. I wonder why...