Why did Fender move away from the Lace Sensor pickups?

Wish I could tell ya, but I love my red/silv/blue setup now.

New noiseless pickups retain classic fender single coil tones, Lace Sensors have a different tone all of their own.

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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reason = $$$

why endorse a separate company when you could be endorsing yourself and keep more production cost in house

just my opinion though.

+1

That's absolutely correct. It's cheaper for Fender to manufacture its own "Vintage Sterile" pickups than outsource them to a reputable and quality corporation. Lace sensors are great pickups.

I have no way to verify this but i remember reading that Fender wanted Lace to agree to only installing there pickups in Fender guitars and making pickup for Fender type guitars only...And Lace said no they wanted to explore the independent market..By the way you still can have Lace pickups installed as a custom shop option...

I agree that Fender went away from Lace Sensors because they could manufacture their own version of noiseless PU's and keep their product and sound. It's all about money. I have a Strat Ultra 1991 with the stock blue/gold/red dually and they are absolutely awesome, and extremely flexible. I still get 'strat' quack sounds but a whole lot more.

But they still sell a set of Golds in a 3-pack with Fender Lace emblem printed on them, right on this website. The Lace website has even more temptations.

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2007 Classic Player Baja Telecaster
1991 Strat Ultra
1990 Gibson ES-347
1986 Yamaha SBG2100
1980 Gibson L6-S
1971 Stratocaster
Fender Stage Lead Combo
Marshall MOSFET 100 watt Amp

i love my hot gold series which are in my all natural ash/birdseye strat

I think that even the Gold Lace Sensor had a superior "strat-like" tone to them over SCN- but the SCN are a good pickup The new N3 are an improvement

I prefer the Lace sensors in a Plus though- in all the models that were above the American Std spec since '88 to this day, the Lace Sensor in my opinion is the best pickup used.

Not sterile, yet they have a nice chime and they can be set as close as you want them to the strings. they are TBX/Active Mid-boost friendly, come in many options and they look cool too

it would be great to see Fender adopt the whole Lace range- at least not alumitones...

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The Red/Red Dually is the giant of the Lace Sensor series; it screams like a hot mid-boosted humbucker in steroids. Lace described the bridge unit as very fat P90/PAFish and the neck as jazzy and dark like an over-wound P90.

BTW, I never heard a clip of the dually Red humbucker with the Clapton mid-boost to see the difference. I wonder how the Red Lace humbucker sounds with both the mid-boost and TBX circuits cranked up at full force.

I think also that Mr. Don Lace died. Perhaps the contract didn't go past his death. You could ask Fender. They have a customer info section.

That's odd, contracts are usually held to companies, not individuals. I think previous posts are more accurate. Fender found a way to market their own product. I'm sure their noiseless pickup line replaced a third party manufacture....

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Tis a shame.

I'm a big fan of Lace Sensors. The Hot golds and the Red, Silver, Blue sets rock my world!

I agree with the posts above regarding Fenders Noiseless Pups coming on to the market alleviating the need for third party manufacture.

Enjoy!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

i have a mim strat with a red-silver-blue (bridge-mid-neck) configuration, but i see they now have emerald, purple, burgundy, and reverse-wound silver... any opinions on those?

i guess there are "chrome domes", too.

i just picked up a squier affinity that's a project guitar for me, and amongst other things, i figured i'd swap the stocks for lace pups.

I just checked out the Fender website and I found that the Buddy Guy Sunburst Strat does come with Lace Sensors. Purhaps the reason for moving away from them was that other players like Clapton wanted something a little different.