tell me everything you know: Lace Pickups

[JStizz]

i hear very little around here about Lace Pickups. are they looked down upon, or just lost in the mix of competition?

im really intrigued by the concept of their Alumitone series. any clips or opinions on them?

lets hear it all! the good, the bad, the ugly, the whatever!

[Tone_Terrific]

Try the Fender Forum, way more info there.
I've use Hot Gold in a couple of places and they are good, if you bond with the tone. One of the quirks, though, is that they work best close to the strings and if you pick over the pup it is easy to contact it.

[eru]

I've heard good things from their stacked humbuckers, but it seems to me that every stacked humbucker I actually play just seems to have no character whatsoever. I actually have a set I don't know what to do with. They're in a plastic bag at a friend's house. Maybe I can sell them.

As far as the alumitones, google can point you at some reviews.

I really want to try the humbucker-sized alumitones in my SG, but I can't figure out what I'd do with them if I didn't like them...it's not like I could sell something that new to guitarists....

[GDking]

Originally Posted by JStizz

i hear very little around here about Lace Pickups. are they looked down upon, or just lost in the mix of competition?

im really intrigued by the concept of their Alumitone series. any clips or opinions on them?

lets hear it all! the good, the bad, the ugly, the whatever!

I like the new lace hot gold pickups and the holy grails. Anything I have tried besides those by lace (the old gold, blue, reds stacked HBs etc) I actively disliked. The hot golds and the grails I rank right up there with Kinmans or D'Marzio VVs. (which is appropriate as lace kind of invented the whole concept about time they made a competitive one)

I have not tried the Alumitones but they look very interesting.

[JStizz]

only three responses? im disappointed! come one guys, this is the GEAR PAGE! are we off our game? let hear all the rave (and rage) on Lace pickups... i think heard a couple people hear using Lace Sensors, what are those like?

[Trowerfan]

I had the gold ones in a strat plus that I sold to a friend. We both agreed on two things about them. They only sounded good with new strings (after a week or so the tone died) and they also had a pretty good Hendrix tone. We tried other pups in that guitar and wound up putting the Gold Lace pups back in.

[candid_x]

Haven't tried the newer ones, but have used the standard gold, blue and red with decent results. Actually liked them for finger-picking or plucking on a Charvel Strat, but they were pretty dark with no sparkle at all. I switched to Fralin hots, which of course were the exact opposite of the Laces.

[Gasp100]

I have an original set of Lace Sensor Blue - Silver or White? - Red in my James Burton Tele since '89. They have a darker tone which mixes well with the woody character from the heavy-assed guitar. I did some testing last night and they compare well (still darker in tone) to Fender Noiseless, GFS (in other guitars of course). I have even considered switching them out until joining TGP so they've done me well for a long time. Apparently the newer lace sensors are a cut above the original's (Holy Grails, etc...)
IF I replace the lace sensors I will move away from them just to see how the others stack up (probably Dimarzio noiseless 58's & 61.

[Alister]

I've had the red'blue/silver combo in my Strat Plus Deluxe for 15 years or so. I have lots of other Strats, but like this guitar as well as any, esp. for studio work. The "anti-Lace" snobs invariably love the sound until they find out what pups I was really using.
In any case, as someone said, since they're essentially noiseless, there's a humbucker-like quality to them, or something close to that, although they retain the essenial strat chime, esp.in middle or in-between pu settings. They also, IMO, 'cut' as well through a lot of mixes better than my other Strats. I don't think it's necessarily a frequency response thing, but more that they're a completely different concept of microphonics.
What's-is-name from Little Feat, not Barrere but Fred what's-his-name, likes them as well as well do, apparently.

[big mike]

I have an 88 Strat Plus with original golds, i dig them. I also prefer the old clapton sig model with them.

[Smakutus]

I like them for clean tones but not distorted.

Jeff

[RDM]

I have a Lace Sensor Gold in the middle position in my Reverend. It's a great pup. 50's Bell-like tones. They sound best when raised higher towards the strings.

[Tone_Terrific]

Originally Posted by Smakutus

I like them for clean tones but not distorted.

Jeff

I like them for distortion but not so much clean.

There is a loss of top-end boinginess and a vague sense of compression, to me, that translates well to od tones (using Gold or Hot Gold here). Obviously it must be, again, a YMMV situation.

[rongtr]

I have the golds in my '92 EC strat- Love them! They have a nice fat sound to them and are extremely quiet. I was playing with a friend of mine who was playing a Les Paul- his rig was buzzing, and mine was quiet!!

[tildeslash]

I love the Drop and Gain set I have in my Nitefly-M.
I gotta say - in clean mode - they sound sweet and in hyper gain mode - they RULE. I am really surprised that it can cover a wide tonal spectrum range.