Virtual Woodshed has an interesting interview with pickup designer Lindy Fralin. If you’ve ever looked into buying aftermarket pickups for your guitar, then you know that Fralin is one of the best out there when it comes to making pickups. In the interview, he discusses tone, how he got started playing guitar, how he got started in the pickup business, and playing in his own band. Here’s his take on why he’s mostly known as a “Fender guy”:
That’s probably Hendrix’s fault. But I was always, even on an acoustic guitar or anything, I was always attracted to that bright wound string. [ed note: Fralin pickups are highly regarded by tone purists for their remarkable clarity on the bass strings] I can remember the first guitar I noticed [that on] was “Hanky Panky”. And what I liked about it was not the singing or anything else, it was when he went “duh duh duh duh”, how it started at a verse you know? And it was low guitar, but you could hear clarity on it, it was a single coil pickup sound. I liked that sound! My dad had a classical guitar, before I ever owned anything of my own. And it had real bright wound strings on it and I would just sit around and noodle on it and think how cool they sounded. I’ve always liked that to this day. I’m a big fan of single coil pickups. I like distortion too, but I like to hear where I’m playing. Especially playing rhythm, I like to hear that really bright wound string.
Check out the rest of the interview on the Virtual Woodshed site.