Lace Sensor Pickups... my 2 cents.

I own 4 Stratocaster's and 1 8502 Telecaster. I use all Boss Pedals into modified Peavey Classic Amps. I mostly play Strat's and my favorite pickups are the Lace Sensors. I bought a new Strat Plus back in 94 and it had the Red Silver Blue Sensors. I like the Red and Silver mixed, Silver by itself, and Silver Blue mixed. Red by itself is OK and Blue by itself is a bit too thick for my liking. A few years ago I went with Silver Gold Gold Sensor's. This is my favorite combination. I have a Strat Deluxe that now holds my Red Silver Blue Sensors. On another Strat I recently replaced a Rainbow Pack Sensors with Hot Gold with the Hotter Gold bridge. These Hot Gold Pickups have rave reviews but so far I'm not impressed. The Gold pickups are warm which I like. The Hot Golds are warmer which seems just a bit too warm for my taste. I notice the volume drop more in the bridge on the Hot Hot Gold bridge than with a simple Silver. I like the Silver tone in the bridge over the Hot Hot Gold too. The Rainbow pack RW Silver sounds no different than a regular Silver. The Purple and the Emerald just seem to missing Bass and Low Mids. I know my Peavey Amps are probably warmer than a Fender Deluxe Reverb so these may sound different with a different amp. I've experimented with Alnico II and V's, Seymour, Lollar, Fender, and Rio Grande Pickups. They are all good but for all around tone I keep coming back to Silver Gold Gold. The 8502 sounds like Pure Tele with the stock pickups, no need for any change there.

I own a Texas Special Strat too. It's kind of a one trick pony but what it does tone wise none of my other Strat's can do. Very bright with extremely scooped mids. Not ice picky at all in tone. The bright tones just melt together. The Texas Specials are the noisiest pickups I've ever used. I think Lace might have tried to copy these with their Rainbow Pack. All I can say is the Rainbow Pack does not even come close.

Light Blue is the Blue without the mud. Great HB style tone.

Light Blue is the Blue without the mud. Great HB style tone.

I'm going to put that on my list. Thanks!

I don't know what colour mine are....:roll:..

they look Black to me...:lol:.. black lace is kinda sexy, right?...

sure sounds good though..:smile:

Different take: I am really digging the rainbow pack right now. The emerald is one of my favorite neck pups and has plenty of bottom through my rig; I'm getting used to the purple.

I really live in the in-between positions, and love both of those on this set. I have a soul band, and the guys in the band even commented on my tone going direct into a Twin with no pedals.

The silver-gold-gold does sound like a good idea, though. :)

I'm still using my Silver/Gold/Gold on my main guitar. However a few weeks ago I bought a Tone Shaper so I can drop pickups in and out of my Strat without soldering. Last night I put in Light Blue/Gold/Emerald. I know I kind of bashed the rainbow pack above but I like the Emerald now. Maybe I had a different capacitor or bad pot on a previous setup. The sound is amazing in every position, sparkling, clean, and chime. The Light Blue is thicker than the silver, but not over the top like the regular Blue. So far I like the Light Blue better than the Silver running it by itself in the bridge. However in the Bridge Middle it is a tossup. I can tell the blue is thickening things up but there is still enough chime with the Gold Pickup to balance it out nicely.

I liked that they were quiet for the most part. As to sounding a lot different than my regular passive pickups, I just didn't see that. For difference, the EMG SAs were the ones that gave a change of character and were very hot. I still prefer weaker single coil pickups in general. My strat had dual red, blue, and silver and for some reason I liked the triple gold sound the best in other guitars. The dual red sounded great in my friend's Jackson Randy V.

I have a mixed stance on lace. Sometimes they just sound fake to me, kind of like when you put variax against the real guitar its modeling, "soft" and overly compressed. Other times they're not bad or even have me jonesing for some. :\ I love the descriptions they give and the "who it reminds us of" artist comparisons, but sometimes it just doesn't fit the sound used in demos. Do you guys have demo vids that do these things justice?

I have the older golds pulled from an 80's strat plus with tbx and the midrange boost. I really want to like them but they are quite dark sounding with not quite the shimmer I hoped.

Anyone have a clip, or vid with Lace sensors compared to other pups?

This video (http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/pickup-forum/142553-ceramic-mim-vs-lace-sensor-vs-alnico-comparison.html) is the only comparison that I've located. When someone is in the process of replacing their pups with Lace Sensors, it would be great to have a before/after video for comparison.

I have a mixed stance on lace. Sometimes they just sound fake to me, kind of like when you put variax against the real guitar its modeling, "soft" and overly compressed. Other times they're not bad or even have me jonesing for some. :\ I love the descriptions they give and the "who it reminds us of" artist comparisons, but sometimes it just doesn't fit the sound used in demos. Do you guys have demo vids that do these things justice?soft and overly compressed is how I describe the sound too. theres definitely less range for string dynamics. I notice I have to hold the string down w less pressure to get the harmonic response from it the p/up favors. If I fret like its an AlNiCo p/up the string sounds dead.I think its the soft ceramic magnets and that there is no metal projecting the field. You can always hear that aspect no matter what the color.

I like the gold sensors.Fine all around pickups. Maybe they lack a bit of character but they are smooth and very straty sounding. go well with pedals too.
I prefer them over the Custom Shop 69, but that´s just me. My old ears are pretty wasted !! (otosclerosis, tinnitus ,etc ). Nevertheless I didn't like a red-silver dually humbucker I tried.

I have the older golds pulled from an 80's strat plus with tbx and the midrange boost. I really want to like them but they are quite dark sounding with not quite the shimmer I hoped.

Alnicopu: I suggest you give those Golds another try using 500k pots. That's the way they really shine IMHO -even though LACE specifies 250k-

Alnicopu: I suggest you give those Golds another try using 500k pots. That's the way they really shine IMHO -even though LACE specifies 250k-

Thanks for that tip. I may just do that.

Ceramic magnets have a lower Gauss capacity than AlNiCo and some other types. It is possible that the sensitivity to smaller vibrations suffer. It could account for a certain aspect to the sound, but it's the attributes of the core material (poles) that really matter within the design. Sensors also have a wide aperture window, which tends to soften the perceived attack.

500k's will brighten the sound of any pickup. They may sound a bit too sharp/shrill though, in which case you can just turn the tone knob down a bit. You might first try a low C (Capacitance) cable to get more highs without the shrillness. At least Lace lists the inductance of their pickups, so you can tune the resonance using cable C.

I tried for years to "bond" with my 1996 strat plus with the Lace Sensors & TBX, but never really did. I never changed a thing on it, 100% stock, until recently; now I've carefully removed & stored the factory pickguard & tried some other things. Still in flux.

The Lace sensors are NOT "hum-free", "hum-canceling", "noiseless" or any of those other euphemisms for humbucking. They will put out a gnarly hum if you don't sit or stand in the right spot, if you step on that fuzz box, or if you are right by a computer. Same as all other single coils ever made.

I've had Lace Sensors and I've had Fender Noiseless.. The Lace sensors are far superior IMO. I want to install a set of golds into my MIM Strat..

I've also noticed that the Lace Sensors sound can change radically with different amps, and I think this may be one reason why they aren't very popular. I went through a '90s Fender Deluxe phase, and still have a couple (an Ultra and Tele Deluxe Plus) which because of the body wieght (not light!) seem to be more consistent with different amps. OR maybe, I've had too much coffee this morning!

I love the Lace Silvers and Hot Golds...2 of my strats are set up with them...:wink: