My Strat Plus is probably the only guitar I've kept completely stock. It does have a different sound, but in a lot of good ways. Especially for studio recording.

I've always been a big fan of the Lace silver middle. Recently, I made a pretty cool discovery using one.

I bought a guitar that has a HSS configuration which isn't usually my cup of tea. I like a bold HH setup for what I do these days. I put the guitar together using a Gibson 498t in the bridge, Duncan JB jr. in the neck, Lace silver middle.

I decided to wire the pickups to a single 500k volume pot. I typically don't use my tone knobs live, so why bother.

What ended up happening surprised me in a good way. The Lace Sensor middle sounds like a good bridge pickup hooked up to a 500k. So I ended up with a nice powerful humbucker bridge sound, and a nice single coil bridge sound in the same guitar. Much better to my ears than tapping a bridge hum. And well, it's dead quiet as you can imagine.

It balanced perfectly with the two hums. Great pickup.

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You said that you like a "bold HH setup".

But with a silver lace single-coil in the middle you got an HSH setup instead of the HH you're opting for the heavier stuff as the Duncan Jeff Beck Jr is a stacked humbucker. So your guitar is not an HSS Strat but an HSH.

Personally I prefer the versatility of an HHH layout with coil tap/split and active MDX mid-boost/TBX treble/bass expander circuits.

With this configuration you can bevy a wide array of killer tones ranging from shimmering single-coil clean to fat and dirty humbucking crunch and so on.

HA! Close but not quite!

I swapped out the Lace Sensors for a set of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups (not the Vintage Noiseless) because that particular Strat is the only guitar I own with cavities big enough to house them!



FHN's are huge!

Those Lace Sensors will be housed in another project soon enough!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

Right. Most of my guitars nowadays are HH. 2 of them are EMG 81/85 sets, and a few have Gibson 498t bridges and either 490r or Dimarzio Tone Zone neck pickups. One of my new Teles has a Lil'59 bridge and Fender blacktop neck... You get the picture.

The reason I bought this guitar was because it's a Switch Vibracell guitar. I always wanted to try one out, but never ran across any in person. well, it finally happened. According to Switch guitars (now out of production), the guitar can withstand weather conditions better than normal wood production guitars. The whole guitar is some sort of composite plastic (Vibracell body and neck, ebonite fretboard). I'll soon find out if that claim is true. We even have a show lined up in Austin Texas in March.

Anytime I go to play in San Diego or Southern California, and especially when I went to Hawaii, my guitars freak out on me. The necks bow and noodle out. So I decided to give this guitar a shot. It's like a freaking boat with strings attached..

It just so happened to be a HSS configuration, but I wanted to modify it to have a HSH setup. I certainly didn't want a hole in the middle, so I popped the Lace Silver in it to see what happens. The JB jr. and 498t are both pretty bold, and in my opinion so is the Lace at 7k in the middle.

Great setup. I'm really digging it. And the Switch guitar feels very solid and gets nice action. You really don't have to worry about letting the neck settle in to a truss rod adjustment. It's not even wood. So where you set it is where it sits from the second you do it. The guitar just looks a little funky. As all of them do.

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An HHH setup is much bolder than HH or HSH layouts, as the middle humbucker gives more power than a single-coil pickup, ideal for chunky rhythm and chugging power chords.

Just swap the silver for a red lace sensor or throw a duncan hotrail humbucker in the middle position and get an HHH configuration.

I appreciate the advice, but I'm cool with the pickup setup the way it is. It's very versatile. I practiced with it tonight, and it has a good contrast of characteristics between the 3 pickups.

I'm not really in the market for pickups right now. I just used what I had left over from other guitars. It made an interesting concoction of sounds. I'm glad I did it.

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