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Post subject: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:52 pm
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Hello strat players,

I haven't paid too much attention to pickups for the past 20 years. I've been focused on playing, songwriting, and more recently, amps. So I'm not up on who makes the best pickups these days. But for some reason I went on the Lace website recently and see that they have new ones--Emerald, Purple, Burgundy and Light Blue. 20 years ago it was just the Gold, Silver, Red and Blue. I bought a 1990 American Standard Tele way back then and replaced the neck pickup with a Silver, and thought it a big improvement. Then I bought a 1994 Eric Clapton strat with the 3 Gold Pickups. I remember playing other strats at the time and thought the Gold Lace Sensors sounded much better than the standard Fender pickups of the time. I did try a strat with the Red-Silver-Blue combination, but didn't like the Red or Blue sensors at all; to me they had no high end and were dull sounding.

Who's been experimenting with various pickups? What do you like? Have you tried the new Lace Sensors? Are Fender's new pickups superior to the Fender late 80's/early 90's era pickups? What about Duncan, Lollar, Fralin, etc?

This is probably a bad idea for me to post this, after hearing your opinions I'll be spending a few hundred dollars on pickups LOL.

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Fender Guitars: Am Std Tele, EC Strat, AVRI '62 Jazzmaster, Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster, Thurston Moore Jazzmaster.
Fender Amps: '61 Brownface Deluxe, '65 Champ, '59 Bassman Ltd, Tweed Champ clone, Tweed Deluxe clone.


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:31 pm
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I have been experimenting with all the various Lace pickups since they introduced the new colors (voices).

Image Image Image
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What were you wanting to know about them? Lace has a voice (color) description on their website as well.

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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:41 pm
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I've played with several of the lace sensors over the years but keep coming back to the 3 gold combo. Now I have to add that I do have other guitars to get other sounds and my strat is strickly used to get a clean to crunchy Clapton/Buddy Guy type of tone. I almost always use the 2 and 4 position and before my most recent rewire I also had it set to use the bridge and neck pickups together to get a sort of tele sound.

Recently I added the Eric Clapton mid boost and that combined with the 3 golds have really opened up some of the tones I can get. I have a lot of playing to do before I can say that I have this new setup nailed, but I do like it alot.

-Harry


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:40 pm
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Xhefri wrote:
I have been experimenting with all the various Lace pickups since they introduced the new colors (voices).

Image Image Image
Image

What were you wanting to know about them? Lace has a voice (color) description on their website as well.


Have you already tried the Emerald/Purple Sensors?


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 7:02 pm
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Thanks for the replies, Xhefri and Coach56. I should have said what sounds I'm looking for.

I'm not a blues player, so I'm not looking for the Clapton or SRV sound.

I'm looking for that clean, in-between pickup clucky/quacky sound that only a Strat can give you. The Lace Golds do a pretty good job at that, but I'm wondering if others would do better.

For other sounds I use other guitars, but when I only bring one guitar to a gig I usually bring the Eric Clapton Strat because of its versatility. For example, when I'm singing and strumming clean first position chords I would normally use a Tele, so I'd like to find a bridge pickup for the Strat that would do that better. The Lace Gold just doesn't that well. Of course, I understand there's no way to get a Strat to sound exactly like a Tele. I'd just like to get a little closer.

For distortion, the Gold works fine because of the active mid boost on the Eric Clapton Strat.

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Fender Guitars: Am Std Tele, EC Strat, AVRI '62 Jazzmaster, Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster, Thurston Moore Jazzmaster.
Fender Amps: '61 Brownface Deluxe, '65 Champ, '59 Bassman Ltd, Tweed Champ clone, Tweed Deluxe clone.


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:03 pm
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Yes, I have used all of them. On this page there is a small sample of the builds I have done with various Lace Sensors ( http://xhefriguitars.com/page5.html ) Anyhow, one of the last guitars I customized I used an Emerald in the neck. Very close to a Gold, ummm, how to describes sounds with words?? :? Anyhow more smooth sounding in a way. I loved it and was quite surprised. Now the Purple was a lot like the Blue, really. In some ways we are splitting hairs and this might be more of a marketing thing that really overwhelmingly distinguishable voice tones. Now between the Red and the and Gold or the silver and the blue, there are quite of bit of Resistance differences, and noticable tonal difference. So to have a pickup that is between a Silver and a Blue, one has a slightly cooler Blue. LOL! The light Blue, Burgundy, and the Purple are all between the Blue and Silver in resistance, but the henries are quite a bit different. So there are tonal differences, not that much, but different.

Now to mimic a Tele bridge sound a Red Lace with a TBX tone control does a very good job of that. I really like the Blue or even burgundy in the neck to get a slightly fatter, more jazzy/bluesy tone. You mentioned you did not like the Blue as it lacked high end tone. If that be the case you would not want a burgundy or blue in the neck. The Emerald would be a good choice, or perhaps Sliver or Light Blue. Just remember, the hotter the resistance, usually the fatter the tone when using a Lace.

All this really has to do with taste. I like fat pickups in the neck and love a humbucker tone there. I find the Golds a bit to glassy sounding in the neck (they do a good job of being like a 50s singles coil). If you want bite in the bridge—red. If you want 50s tone in the neck—gold. You wants something with a little more fuller sound, but still very vintage in the neck—emerald.

I have swapped Laces around quite a bit. From reading what you wrote this would be my recommendation. Emerald in the neck/Gold in the Middle/ and red or blue in the bridge.

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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:31 am
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IceTre wrote:
Who's been experimenting with various pickups? What do you like? Have you tried the new Lace Sensors? Are Fender's new pickups superior to the Fender late 80's/early 90's era pickups? What about Duncan, Lollar, Fralin, etc?


Hmmm, I think most of us do or did.

I really like Lace Sensors. I have the older ones (mid 90s) and a set of new ones. They were the same, so I sold the new ones.
I have Texas Specials, which I don't like very much when playing on low volume. They sound thin. Only when playing at gig volumes, they start to work for me.

I tried many others, like the new SCN in Deluxes, different years of Fender USA standard pups, Seamour Duncan Hotrails, Fender Custom Shop pups....all different kinds of pups....

To be honest: I stopped experimenting.
Most of them were all very good but simply "just" different.
There is no "best pickups" but there's crap pickups.

I discovered that the search for the "holy grail" in pickups (as well as guitars, amps, pedals) is just driven by one thing: the personal dissatisfaction about not sounding the way you want to sound! That's not the equipment's fault (unless you've bought cheap junk), it's the player's fault.
Buying new and "better" stuff will not make you sound better, it'll just sound a little different soundwise.

Once you've reached a certain level of quality, there is no "better" anymore, there's just "different" but there's still (and ALWAYS WILL BE) the option to IMPROVE YOURSELF no matter how good you already are!

So: once you've found a pickup you really like, stop experimenting. Start working on your playing! That's my motto!
Same goes for guitars, amps, pedals ....

My favorite sound is the sound of the stock pickups in my two 1986/87 American standards.
I sold everything else, because after an initial "Wow, this sounds great!" there was always a "oh well, still not what I'm looking for"-factor after a while. Why? Because I MYSELF hadn't improved!

So my advice is: instead of piling up guitars, pedals 'n stuff at home, concentrate on minimalism and your playing style and - most important - GET A GOOD AMP!

It's always funny to see people buying and buying and buying different pickups, while playing a Squier via a 15 watts transistor "noise-cube" while using a distortion pedal on "full throttle". :lol:

It's as easy as this: you can't turn mud into cocoa! That stuff might be nice for beginning your musical journey but after that, you'll need at least A REAL AMP! That's the minimum, combined with the knowledge how to use the rest (guitar, pedals). Next step would be good pedals (if you need or want any). All of a sudden, your squier will sound like a custom shop model in comparison to before. When the basics are high quality, you finally can get a pro-level guitar.

Many do it the other way around: buying better and better guitars while still playing via a cheapo transistor modeling amp while using 100 pedals (50% of wich are set to 100% distortion). (I exaggerate here on purpose but I guess you know what I mean!).

Instead of investing into "improvement parts" over and over again, save money and buy high quality equipment by testing it before buying. Then work on USING your equipment! Learn to use guitar controls, learn to set up your amp, learn to use the right amount of effects, learn to use the balance between volume, settings, playing style ... etc!

All of a sudden you'll notice, that working on your style get's you much closer to the sound in your head than any other new equipment will (once you've bought good quality)!

This, of course, is just my very personal view of things, a lesson I had to learn the hard and expensive way over 30 years and today I wish, somebody would have told me 20 years ago!
After piling up all kinds of equipment at home, I finally learned my lesson.
It needn't necessarily be your way to do it but giving it a very, very thorough look deep inside you, it might spark an entirely new perspective!



If not ...... ignore my blubber here! :wink:

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My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:06 am
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You raise some very good points in your post smokin frets! One thing I find with gold sensors is the jangly-almost-over-sensitive-to-the-pick trebly tone.. Argh- can't put my finger on it but I find that in positions 2 and 4 I need to roll back the tone. But in some ways it's a characteristic of the sensors I guess.

I've always wondered about Hot Gold sensors whether they would be like that too. Having said, I also like the blue in the neck and the ultra config is almost perfect for me.

I would however like to try emerald and the purple. Perhaps the emerald maybe the pickup for those who feel disappointed with Texas specials..

My other faves are SCN's and believe it or not, MIM single coil pickups. lol I don't think I would replace a red dually for a humbucker tone (not for my tastes anyway) as I have since found my Talon has dimarzio 'mystery' pickups have really hit the spot for me- thing is I don't know what they are, however people tell me that they are specially voiced for that line of guitars, however similar to evolution pickups.. :)

I guess it all comes to your own tastes, but like painting a picture you can over-perfect to the point of running around in circles messing about with palettes, that otherwise could be left to its perfect simplicity that still caters to your needs.

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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:26 pm
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Is smokin frets saying I ain't no good at playing, that is why I keep changing pickups??? :lol: :lol: When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a scientist....guess this is as close to being one as I will ever get!

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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:44 pm
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I bought a set of big dipper copies on the cheap from Tone Emporium (a canadian boutique pickup manufacturer), they're really punchy and round, but exceptionally sensitive, if I get anywhere near a computer I get all sorts of weird scratching noises coming through. Individually the pickups are really lovely, but the 4 position isn't as sweet as I was hoping for, the signal seems to drop off from the 5 and 3 positions.

I was thinking Fat 50's before I got these, and I'm still thinking fat 50's, so I think I'll get some fat 50's at some stage.


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:42 am
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I have the Red/Silver/Blue set in my Red and Black Strats. They are extremely versatile for live work and all music styles and are dead quiet.

I love them.

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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:47 pm
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Thanks for all the suggestions. Since I posted this I see that Lace also has pickups called the Holy Grails. Anybody compared those to the Sensors? Also how do the new Fender Fat 50's that come with the new American Standard Strats compare to the Sensors (and Grails, and others)?

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Fender Guitars: Am Std Tele, EC Strat, AVRI '62 Jazzmaster, Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster, Thurston Moore Jazzmaster.
Fender Amps: '61 Brownface Deluxe, '65 Champ, '59 Bassman Ltd, Tweed Champ clone, Tweed Deluxe clone.


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:38 am
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I have never used any other Lace pickups other than the Sensors and the Domes. Here is a guitar that I wired up using 2 Emeralds and a Silver Dually.

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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:15 pm
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Xhefri wrote:
Is smokin frets saying I ain't no good at playing, that is why I keep changing pickups??? :lol: :lol: When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a scientist....guess this is as close to being one as I will ever get!


Most professionals that I have seen in any endeavor, but especially guitarists, are always fiddlin with "stuff." :D


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Post subject: Re: Lace Sensors and other pickups
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:49 pm
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Xhefri wrote:
Is smokin frets saying I ain't no good at playing, that is why I keep changing pickups??? :lol: :lol:


Of course not, Xhefri. :lol:
It's just a general thought about searching the holy grail and not being satisfied with the sound.

Scientists are excluded, of course, as well as guitarists who rip apart at least one strat a day just for the fun of it. :wink:

Of course, this is just my very personal thought and perspective.
I for myself decided to stop that "fiddling around" entirely.

After all those years with trying different stuff and buying guitar after guitar, my #1 is still my #1 and it's stock! That made me think!
Since I have several other hobbies, I don't miss anything when stopping my guitar projects.

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My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


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