Other than Seymour Duncan, Lollar & Fralin are the biggest names in the business. They’ve both been making great pickups for years. Much like Seymour Duncan, these days both Lollar & Fralin utilize a team of winders and automation to mass produce pickups. You can get these fine pickups at almost any local guitar shop and dozens of online retailers.
Fralin vs. Lollar vs. Ellis vs. Arlo – Strat Pickup Poll Live
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Virgil Arlo38% 284 / 737
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Ron Ellis24% 184 / 737
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Lindy Fralin19% 145 / 737
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Jason Lollar16% 124 / 737
According to our Best Strat Pickups shootout, boutique winders Virgil Arlo & Ron Ellis are at the top of the list for great Strat tone. We’ve received many messages from fans of Lollar & Fralin to include them in a Shootout with Ron Ellis & Virgil Arlo. Your wish is our command, watch the video’s and vote in the poll.
Listed Below in Alphabetical Order. Watch & VOTE.
Virgil Arlo
The winder known as Virgil Arlo is a bit mysterious but session players seem to really favor his pickups. You see guys posting video’s on Youtube talking about how they replaced their vintage pickups with the Arlo Pickups. The Pro’s using his pickups seem genuinely blown away by the tone in the clips we’ve seen. Like a lot of these high end winders, he doesn’t disclose his specs. We’ve seen speculation that he could be a former Fender or Gibson employee. Some forum posts have said he might be the alter ego of Jason Lollar or Don Mair, doubtful. Others have claimed that he is actually Alan Hamel working under a trade name. His website says that he is private guy that doesn’t care much for the spotlight & that the guys at Tone Specific help him out. He’s in Southern California and has 2 month wait. Are they worth the wait & expense?
Ron Ellis
If you can wait 2 years, Ron Ellis will make you an amazing set of pickups. He started in the business working for the great winder Alan Hamel (formerly of Fender Custom Shop). Ron Ellis makes his own designs in Southern California and judging by the forums, players love them. He doesn’t have a website and is difficult to track down, you might try Facebook. He doesn’t disclose the specs of his pickups but players on the forums say they sound great, Surprisingly, there are not too many video’s on Youtube but we found one above.
Lindy Fralin
Lindy Fralin has been making pickups for 30 years now. He made a name for himself making great pickups & these days he has a staff of 10 winders that assemble pickups to his specifications. He’s a savvy businessman that found a way to saturate the market with his fine product long before internet buzz existed. You’ll be hard pressed to find a guitar player that hasn’t at least played a set of Fralin at some point in their life. Want to know if Fralin’s are the real deal? Just ask Lindy, he’s a good promoter and he’ll tell you all about his Vintage Hots in the video.
Jason Lollar
Jason Lollar has been a professional luthier since 1979 & he is one of the biggest names in the guitar Pickup business. He has a large staff of winders and you can find his pickups in just about any guitar shop. He’s proven to be a savvy businessman. He named many of his pickups after popular amp slang names and then trademarked the name. He makes several sets of Strat Pickups, but our favorite is the the Blackface Dirty Set. Check out the video, how to they stack up to the Fralin’s, Arlo’s & Ellis Pickups?
