Hey guys im looking to put one of these 2 sets of pups in my strat and I'm having a hard time choosing lol. I play real clean and melodic stuff for my worship team at church, but also have to use some grit every now and then. So I wanted to get some of you guys input on the main differences between the 2 pups.

Thanks!

The Vintage Hots are wound hotter (who'da thunk it?) and provide a grittier punchier tone. Likely the Blues Specials are more appropriate for your specific app.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

agreed

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I only have experience with the Blues Specials,which I installed a set in a '57 Strat RI that was an improvement over the stock pups.
They have a nice vintage Strat tone in that guitar,which can also get a blusier grit when pushing the amp harder....alot of this depends on what amp you're using and the volumes....since I'm a firm believer that you can get a wider variety of tone from different amps,than more variety from a couple of different sets of pups in a guitar and one amp at church level (or bedroom level) volumes if you're playing fairly clean.
Low volume tone can be changed alot with pedals also.
I usually play plugged straight in,but have several amps to fit different situations.

I would go with Blues for the neck and middle and vintage hot for the bridge. Give lindy a call over at his shop and he probably will put together a set like this for you. He is a very friendly and knowledgeable guy

I have to respectfully disagree with the previous posts regarding which set is wound hotter.

This was taken from the Lindy Fralin website:

Vintage Hots: 6K(neck) 6K(Middle) 6.8K(Bridge)

Blues Specials: 6.2K(neck) 6.2K(Middle) 7.2K(Bridge)

while they are both similiar, the Blues Specials will be slightly hotter but not by much. The Vintage Hots, due to their lower output, will be slightly cleaner with more harmonic content. The Hotter a pickup is, the more output....this is very true, the downside of that is you loose clarity and definition.

Fender 1010 -

I play in a worship band in church with a bass player, piano, drums and a few singers. I'm playing an alder body strat with a rosewood neck through a deluxe reverb. I to was looking for a clean sound. At first I had Fralin Real 54's in my strat which were a nice upgrade from the stock p/u's but still didn't give me the bite I wanted. Once I put in vintage hot's I found every sound that I wanted. I have a wonderful clean fat sound.

Regarding grit..... Why don't you use a pedal for the grittier stuff? that way you can stay clean for some stuff and then add the grit when it's needed.

Also...what type of amp are you playing through? Is it a high gain amp that is designed to break up easily? Or is it more cleaner the way a fender or peavey might be? that also has a big effect on your sound.

I always believe that you should build a clean sound from your guitar and amp and then add grit/dirt/overdrive or whatever you want to call it on top of that. Build a good basic foundation and then add whatever you want to on top of that.


good luck in whichever set you choose.

A Deluxe Reverb will be clean....for awhile,I have three right now,a '65;'66,and'67....they all stay clean and will start into breakup at different levels...if you play them at volumes at around 4/5 or lower.
Yeah you need to get a good foundation for clean sound and can if you only play in church,but at higher volumes a DR will break up....different amps for different situations...or go the SS route....tubes amps like to get gritty if they are not a Twin Reverb,to get a Twin to OD,there will be no windows in a square block area.

thats the point i was trying to make . by putting a vintage hot in the bridge poo(lead) he will have a more defined sound for leads

You can't go wrong with a hot humbucker in the bridge position for a screaming fat lead sound to complement these babies.

For example you can pair two Blues Specials (neck & middle) with a Real PAF (bridge) or blend a pair of Vintage Hots with a splittable Unbucker pickup.

Of course there are many cool combinations for any taste.

I've had a set of Fralin Blues Specials for sometime now... they are very hot and high output compared to all the other pickups I tried. What's weird is that to me they only sounded really good in one Strat, I tried them in 2 other Strats and it didn't work for me, way too powerful IMO. Unfortunately I have a set of Don Mare in that Strat now and I love the tone too much so I can't put the Fralins back in. Maybe it's time to sell 'em and try a set of Vintage Hots...

The bridge pickup (7.2k) with the base plate sounds very sweet! One of the best bridge pickups I heard. So you might consider doing VH in the neck and middle and BS in the bridge, just make sure you add the base plate.

Yeah I have a whole pedal board rig set up. And I agree, I want a Very clean sound when I don't have pedals engaged. And It sounds like the VH's are the cleanest. And I play out of a Vox ac15.