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Post subject: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:27 pm
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Out of curiosity, does Fender still have any relation with the Lace folks. I have recently stumbled across the Alumitone pickups and wondered if these were in line for Stratocaster offering. I do not work for Lace and am just curious for the comparative sounds.

Has anyone made this mod? What is your humble opinion?

Okay, I already know that you purists will be jumping down my throat for even asking...

I love Strats and don't appreciate the 60-cycle hum. So what if ____________ (insert popular artist name here) was playing a Strat with Alumitones and all the chimey-ness and clarity came through? Would that be the lauchpad for a renewal of the Fender/ Lace association?


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:39 pm
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Hi brandrj, welcome to the Forum.

It so happens we've been chatting about Lace pickups quite a bit in the Stratocaster Forum recently. You'll find several Lace related threads there if you care to glance through.

Regarding Alumitones in particular, I haven't tried them yet, though I do like Sensors. I have mixed feelings about the look of Alumitones and am not sure they suit Strats on a purely visual level. But I'm curious to know how they sound.

Far as Fender are concerned, their commercial relationship with Lace ended several years ago. Once they'd come up with their own Noiseless pickups I guess they felt they'd sooner fit guitars with pickups built in-house, rather than pay out to a subcontractor.

Many of us still love the sound and look of Sensors, though.

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:11 pm
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I thought the Lace pickups in my Jazz Plus sounded great, kind of compressed. They felt good to slap against too.


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:04 pm
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That's the only complaint I have ever heard about them, the lack of tone dynamics in the neck pickup. That is really not a problem at the bridge.

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2013 8:11 am
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Ceri wrote:
Far as Fender are concerned, their commercial relationship with Lace ended several years ago. Once they'd come up with their own Noiseless pickups I guess they felt they'd sooner fit guitars with pickups built in-house, rather than pay out to a subcontractor. Many of us still love the sound and look of Sensors, though. Cheers - C


Ditto on that. Must add that Ceri's conclusion pretty much reflects a view many of us hold, based upon events [Clapton's adoption of the Vintage Noiseless pickups, Bill Lawrence's SCN's installed in the AmDlx Strat in '04 and the newer N3's which succeeded them.]
Forum member Xhefri , our Strat Plus guru, is also our point man on Lace Sensors. See the Stratocaster forum for his currently running project and visit www.xhefriguitars.com if you have not yet done so. :idea:

Doc :wink:

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2013 8:39 am
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ZZDoc wrote:
Clapton's adoption of the Vintage Noiseless pickups


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:02 am
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I too am curious. I was on their web site a few days ago and was disappointed to find that their single coil alumitone video featured a set of humbuckers instead. I hope they upload some samples soon.

On another note. The Holy Grails offer up some pretty gnarly tones and I believe they are noiseless. To my ears they had all the quack and spank of some of Fenders best.
http://youtu.be/3f5oR5gNJkU

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:59 am
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Thank you all for the input. I will take a look at the other threads, as well. I am at that point in life where tone and feel have everything to do with that spark that drives creative energy.

My brother bought a used 1963 Stratocaster in '78 and I played, enjoyed and modified it (ala Zappa and GP articles of the day). I didn't realize the amazingness of that instrument until many years later. It had more tone, squeals, and feel that most of the guitars I bought or built never touched and the craving never left. Playing humbuckers, stacks, single coils and combinations thereof has never matched the tone of the original 1960's pickups and the memory of the feel and vibe of that one guitar. I will keep on looking, because God knows I can't touch a 1963 Strat at the current vintage prices...

Thank again, All!


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:20 am
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Alumitone single coils are rather sterile to my ear. Not a typical Strat sound by any means, they are in a tone zone all to themselves. On another forum (FDR) Mark Mitchell (SMark) installed them and had some audio files made of them. To me they had a Metallic tone. It's hard to explain, but it was not any tone I have ever heard a Strat make.


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:14 am
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ZZDoc wrote:
Ceri wrote:
Far as Fender are concerned, their commercial relationship with Lace ended several years ago. Once they'd come up with their own Noiseless pickups I guess they felt they'd sooner fit guitars with pickups built in-house, rather than pay out to a subcontractor. Many of us still love the sound and look of Sensors, though. Cheers - C


Ditto on that. Must add that Ceri's conclusion pretty much reflects a view many of us hold, based upon events [Clapton's adoption of the Vintage Noiseless pickups, Bill Lawrence's SCN's installed in the AmDlx Strat in '04 and the newer N3's which succeeded them.]
Forum member Xhefri , our Strat Plus guru, is also our point man on Lace Sensors. See the Stratocaster forum for his currently running project and visit http://www.xhefriguitars.com if you have not yet done so. :idea:

Doc :wink:


Just an observation- the amount of pickup changes since the adoption of the American Deluxe line to present day, verses the adoption of Strat plus in 1987-1999. Fender had it right first time with laces- and the different pickup offerings as you went further up the price spectrum.. If you have to change out pickups that often, one has to wonder if this is a result of anecdotal feedback. ;)

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 8:25 am
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Ceri wrote:
Hi brandrj, welcome to the Forum.

It so happens we've been chatting about Lace pickups quite a bit in the Stratocaster Forum recently. You'll find several Lace related threads there if you care to glance through.

Regarding Alumitones in particular, I haven't tried them yet, though I do like Sensors. I have mixed feelings about the look of Alumitones and am not sure they suit Strats on a purely visual level. But I'm curious to know how they sound.

Far as Fender are concerned, their commercial relationship with Lace ended several years ago. Once they'd come up with their own Noiseless pickups I guess they felt they'd sooner fit guitars with pickups built in-house, rather than pay out to a subcontractor.

Many of us still love the sound and look of Sensors, though.

Cheers - C



Hey Mr C!

Something to test your Italian and also showing the alumitones. : )



Check around 3:20 for paricular pickup position comparison on the same piece of music. Don't sound all that bad to me!

Cheers

Nutter

P.S.: I haven't followed the other Lace threads so apologies if this is a double post!


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:44 am
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The_Nutter wrote:
Hey Mr C! Something to test your Italian...

They're not even speaking very fast and still I can't follow most of it. Huh. Oh well...

On the plus side, at least now we know what "neck pickup" is in Italian, so that's handy. Also, that's the wackiest pickguard arrangement I've seen in a while. At first I was thinking; "What the f...", but then the reason became clear. Interesting.

Gotta say, the way the sound is coming out the little speaker on an iPad I'm less than knocked out by those pickups. But no doubt they sound better in the room.

Thanks for the link!

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:20 am
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Blertles wrote:
...If you have to change out pickups that often, one has to wonder if this is a result of anecdotal feedback. ;)

I think Fender does listen to their players/consumers, but remember, there were many pickup changes over the years without any kind of notation or notice given to the customer...the Strat pups made in the late 50's/early 60's were different than the Strat pups made in the late 60's, which were different from Strat pups made the mid- to late-70's, which were different from the Strat pups from the mid-80's...differences in personnel, machinery processes, materials, etc.

From what I have seen, the specs of pickups weren't so advertised or inspected until the late 70's, when replacement pickups (Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, etc.) started becoming viable ways to change a guitar to "your" specifications...

...nowadays, Fender, Gibson, PRS (and everybody else) tells the customer what they're installing their specific guitar or series of guitars. It's probably due to the fact that the customer is more informed.

Back in the day, the average player was probably just glad to be getting the Stratocaster or Les Paul they had been lusting after for all those years, and they weren't aware that the pickups might be different (disregarding the differences between humbuckers and P-90's on Gibsons)...

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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:42 am
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Did anyone of yours already tested the Alumitones with the «Elite» circuit?


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Post subject: Re: Fender and Lace Alumitone "sensors"
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:45 am
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Screamin' Armadillo wrote:
...the Strat pups made in the late 50's/early 60's were different than the Strat pups made in the late 60's, which were different from Strat pups made the mid- to late-70's, which were different from the Strat pups from the mid-80's...differences in personnel, machinery processes, materials, etc....

Back in the day, the average player was probably just glad to be getting the Stratocaster or Les Paul they had been lusting after for all those years, and they weren't aware that the pickups might be different...

That is so true.

Seth Lover talked about how in the '50s they wound PAFs on a machine, a row of bobbins at a time. Sometimes the winding wire on one of them would break, but it was too time consuming to stop the machine to rejoin the wire, so they kept it running till the other pickups were done and then threw the part-wound bobbins in a cardboard box. When the box was full they'd take all those unfinished bobbins, join new wire on and complete winding them. However, they had no idea how many winds each had had at the point it broke, so they'd just do them by eye, till the coils looked about right. With the result some pickups were wound considerably hotter than others.

Apparently, people who laboriously unwind vintage pickups today whilst repairing them find a huge variation in the number of winds; and that's going to affect the tone. But all the player would know back then was he had a guitar that happened to sound especially good, or not, for some indefinable reason.

Nowadays it's all meticulously controlled. In earlier times, sometimes not.

Cheers - C

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