What can you tell me about Lace Sensor Hot Golds?

[wrxplayer]

I'm contemplating pickup up a strat style guitar with Lace Sensor Hot Gold pickups. Any feedback on these is appreciated.

[uOpt]

The Golds are actually the least hot, the most like vintage style Strat pickups.

There is a "hot gold" which is an overwound bridge pickup so give some extra pick in the bridge. Personally I don't like that sort of thing. Overwound Strat pickups are the devil.

[Eagle1]

Totally Horrible .
Don't go there.

[9fingers]

"Hot Golds" are actually a very moderate output Strat pup, with all 3 in a regular set being 6K ohms. They are the same output as the regular Golds, but with a different magnet structure. There is an overwound "Hot Gold" bridge pup available that is 13.2 K ohms. It is thicker & somewhat louder than the 6K's but not outrageously imbalanced. Hot Golds are noise reduced, rather than noiseless and are actually true single coils, not stacks or side by side. They are quiet enough for me in any situation.

I don't get the previous 2 comments. They go from incorrect to unhelpful. I have played Strats for 40 years & own a dozen nice ones. I have tried all kinds of pickups from vintage to boutique, including lots of nice true single coils and several noiseless. The guitar with the Hot Golds is my go-to guitar. I have never played a Strat pickup so rich, complex and musical. They sound great clean and take OD smoothly and wonderfully. The 2 & 4 quack is there. I have never had a pickup that "helps" me play like these. Of course there are as many opinions on Strat pups as there are you-know-whats. If you are not into anything that is not "Vintage" then Hot Golds may not be for you. They are a new technologly and have their own sound and feel. I personally am very glad I tried them. They flat out sing!
If you want to learn about Hot Golds, go to the Fender Discussion Page, the Pup Tent forum, and search for posts by SMark (Mark Mitchell, (pro published Strat pickup reviewer) or search Hot Gold. You will get an eyefull and an earful there, as well as links to amazing recorded clips of Hot Golds posted and played by Mark.
Don't get me wrong- I am not prescribing these for anyone. We all have our own tastes and ears. All I am saying is that I and lots of others have found Hot Golds to be very nice Strat pups. They may be worth trying. They are certainly not totally horrible.

[Tone_Terrific]

Reduced noise, reduced pull, a bit more mids, a bit less snappy tone, arguably.
Sound best run close to the strings and that may be an issue if you tend to pick over the pup. Hot Golds seem slightly fatter than Golds and more 'vintagey' than scn's to me, ymmv. Certainly in the excellent pup category and deserve full consideration.

[9fingers]

Reduced noise, reduced pull, a bit more mids, a bit less snappy tone, arguably.
Sound best run close to the strings and that may be an issue if you tend to pick over the pup. Hot Golds seem slightly fatter than Golds and more 'vintagey' than scn's to me, ymmv. Certainly in the excellent pup category and deserve full consideration.

Agree with all of TT's descriptors, good summary! The reduced pull seems to help sustain & no "stratitiss" (wierd warbling & tuning issues due to magnetic string pull) with Hot Golds.

[wrxplayer]

"Hot Golds" are actually a very moderate output Strat pup, with all 3 in a regular set being 6K ohms. They are the same output as the regular Golds, but with a different magnet structure. There is an overwound "Hot Gold" bridge pup available that is 13.2 K ohms. It is thicker & somewhat louder than the 6K's but not outrageously imbalanced. Hot Golds are noise reduced, rather than noiseless and are actually true single coils, not stacks or side by side. They are quiet enough for me in any situation.

I don't get the previous 2 comments. They go from incorrect to unhelpful. I have played Strats for 40 years & own a dozen nice ones. I have tried all kinds of pickups from vintage to boutique, including lots of nice true single coils and several noiseless. The guitar with the Hot Golds is my go-to guitar. I have never played a Strat pickup so rich, complex and musical. They sound great clean and take OD smoothly and wonderfully. The 2 & 4 quack is there. I have never had a pickup that "helps" me play like these. Of course there are as many opinions on Strat pups as there are you-know-whats. If you are not into anything that is not "Vintage" then Hot Golds may not be for you. They are a new technologly and have their own sound and feel. I personally am very glad I tried them. They flat out sing!
If you want to learn about Hot Golds, go to the Fender Discussion Page, the Pup Tent forum, and search for posts by SMark (Mark Mitchell, (pro published Strat pickup reviewer) or search Hot Gold. You will get an eyefull and an earful there, as well as links to amazing recorded clips of Hot Golds posted and played by Mark.
Don't get me wrong- I am not prescribing these for anyone. We all have our own tastes and ears. All I am saying is that I and lots of others have found Hot Golds to be very nice Strat pups. They may be worth trying. They are certainly not totally horrible.

Thanks for the info. With this, a little reading in the fender forum, and the two posts following yours, it sounds like there's no reason to avoid the transaction because of a sure and imminent need to swap the pickups.

[Eagle1]

Lace sensor are not hum canceling and have no particular character, "and" you loose the highs, they are utterly generic and rob the guitar of its unique voice .How could you recommend these to anyone.
As I said HORRIBLE .(unless you like processed ready sliced white bread.)

[9fingers]

Have you tried the Hot Golds? They are different from the other Lace Sensors, some of which I do find rather bland. I personally have chosen the Hot Golds over Fender CS 69's, 57-62's, SCNs, actual '73 grey bottoms, Am Std's, Hot Noiseless, & CS 54's, Fralin Vintage Hots, SP 42 & 43, Van Zandt Blues, Duncan SSL's & APS's, Bill Lawrence 280 & 200's, and a host of others I can't even remember right now.
If you want a very traditional Strat tone the Hot Golds may not be it. If you want a harmonically complex, singing, sweet, very musically useful tone they may be worth a try.
Different strokes for different folks.
Contrasting opinions are what keeps a forum interesting and informative!

[Tone_Terrific]

Different strokes for different folks.
Contrasting opinions are what keeps a forum interesting and informative!

And what people hear from or expect out of their gear will remain a mystery.
For pups, however, there no substitute for trying them yourself, preferably in your own guitar with your own rig. HG's generate great tone, you will never know if you like it until you try.

[BlueHeaven]

I personally LOVE them...however, my ears are OBVIOUSLY not as good as Eagle1's seeing as they are so horrible.:rolleyes:

[uOpt]

Lace sensor are not hum canceling and have no particular character, "and" you loose the highs, they are utterly generic and rob the guitar of its unique voice .How could you recommend these to anyone.
As I said HORRIBLE .(unless you like processed ready sliced white bread.)

They are noise reduced, the noise is somewhere between a real single coil but it's not entirely canceled like in a humbucker.

Among all noise reduction Strat pickups I had the Lace Sensor Gold (not hot) is clearly the closest to a real Strat sound. Didn't try the Holy Grails yet.

My comment about bad Hot Golds was exclusively aimed at the overwound (and/or thinner wire) hot bridge pickup. I like the regular Sensor Golds but not the fat bridge thing.

[GtrDr]

I installed a pair of Red Duallies in a Godin LGX-SA. I have always had a negative view of Lace Sensors. But this Godin came alive. Tons of switching options with 4 single coils. This customer has brought me several others wanting them as well. I became a Lace reseller.

[KHAN]

I personally LOVE them...however, my ears are OBVIOUSLY not as good as Eagle1's seeing as they are so horrible.:rolleyes:

Me too.

Off to see the audiologist.

[tildeslash]

If you want to know what pickups sounds like; the best advice I ever got was to buy them and try them. If you end up listening to other people - you'll most certainly get rid of them anyways as you are basing your perception on what was said about a certain pickup.

Do what I do - but them - try them and if they don't do what I want - sell them and try something else. You'll learn what to settle on eventually. You'll like something or get tired or soldering them and just keep something that is good enough.

Just try it.

[12pack]

I've had these pickups on my strat when I was doing some home recording. I liked it then because the noise was low for the recording and I was running amp simulation through software anyway.

Now that I am playing live I haven't used them - there just isn't enough there. They almost sound muffled as if I had compression on them somehow.

[SoCalSteve]

The Hot Golds are terrific. I had a set with the 13.6k bridge in a MIM Strat a few years ago and that was a very versatile guitar.

Another TGP'er off to make an appt. with an audiologist.