Video Demo - Lace Sensors Hot Gold - Strat

[nagaro635]

I replaced the pups in my MIM strat with 3 Hot Golds I also installed the TBX pot plus ancillaries. To be honest I dont like the tone at all !!-too bright and sharp for me no bottom end punch especially in the overdrive. I also have 2 Strat Plus Deluxes (the older one with the silver, silver, blue lace config the later model with blue, silver, red lace sensors). For me the older strat plus deluxe has the sound I want. Sorry to say, I will be removing my Hot Golds in the near future and will put in the silver, silver, blue- which i should have done from the start- John

[Phostenix]

Originally Posted by 1962guitargeek

try some 500k pots...?

Then the neck & middle would be too bright. :)

The Silver bridge is working well with the 6k Hot Golds. I've made a video & am editing it now. My playing was sloppy & choppy today. Oh well.

[Teleterr]

Originally Posted by 1962guitargeek

a strat. I had a wired pickguard I planned on building a new guitar for several years ago. I loved them then, just got the tele bug bad and put my strats on hold for a while.

Your video reminded me how nice they were, so I did the deed. they are great pups IMO, and I think they are what the Golds should have been. I love the chime and they "quack" they have. Great for Dire Straits sounds.

Btw, I have the hot bridge also (13k)

Great pups at any price.

I describe Light Blues as being what Blues should have been. Makes me want to try them. I think w every p/up style there is a "Magic Wind" for its topology, so maybe the Hot Gold is it for Lace...The 13K Bridge, Do you guys think its thinner wire is a better or worse fit for the basic p/up design.(like 42 vs 43 in a Tele bridge) I find the Reds wire size seems to "agree" more w the p/up style; it makes the magnets less obvious, but its tone is too overwound.

[Derek Kiernan]

Changing to a finer wire gauge won't add inductance, or lessen highs - unless the maker can't wind it. From 42 to 43 is a relatively small change. Rickenbacker once used 54 gauge wire but abandoned it due to the increase it added for production cost. Finer wire can help minimize coil dimensions and increase coil density, decreasing the surface area acting as an antennae for noise while increasing voltage output. As the wire becomes finer, it's harder to avoid shorts in the coil, which are often introduced by winding directly on the poles in Fender-style pickups and by creating pressure points on the sides of the oblong pickup bobbin. The increased resistance of finer wire would take away some "edginess" due to the resonance of the pickup inductance interacting with cable capacitance, useful in the bridge position, as long as the maker is winding a pickup free of shorts.

[Narcoleptigon]

Looking forward to hearing the Silver combined with the Hot Golds. I guess the HG's use more powerful magnets. Hopefully they combine well. I have no experience with them, but my guess is that the HG's have more bass then the standard Golds? The inductance of the rhythm HG's is slightly lower, too. So, they'll have a slightly higher resonance at the same capacitance load. They have about the same inductance (2H) as the rhythm MicroCoils. Comparison using the same cable is more standardized, because the resonant frequency is about the same. I think the MC's have a very low Q factor, which produces the smooth highs we are not accustomed to hearing in a single coil. I don't know about the HG's Q factor. Given that the 6H bridge HG sounds rather dark even with the super low-C (116pF) Elixir cable, which gives it a resonance of ~6kHz, it's likely that it has a fairly low Q factor, and lots of bass and mids like over-wound pickups generally do. Maybe Lace should make a 3-4H bridge HG.

[Phostenix]

OK, here's the Silver bridge with the Hot Gold neck & middle. I haven't had a chance to hear the recording on anything but the laptop at this point, but I like the sound of the Silver in the bridge (from what I can tell). In the room through the PA speakers, the Silver sounds really good to me.

I really like the way the Silver mixes with the Hot Golds. I may just be able to move on to some other projects now. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ1WIBuqVxA

[Narcoleptigon]

Yeah, sounds really good. The combined sounds are very nice. The Silver might be lower output than a potential Hot Gold of the same inductance, but it works well. Definitely more Straty than the bridge HG. I only hear the left channel, though. No Biggy. Maybe you only recorded the left channel in Audacity?

[Phostenix]

Originally Posted by Narcoleptigon

I only hear the left channel, though. No Biggy. Maybe you only recorded the left channel in Audacity?

I've got both channels on 2 different computers. When I listen with headphones on the laptop, the right channel sounds louder than the left. That's probably the difference between the 2 speaker cab IRs.

[Narcoleptigon]

Yeah, I meant the right channel. Guess it's louder. Sounds great. Thanks, again.

[Tele-phone man]

I had the Hot Golds in my Strat at one time. They had replaced my first set of L280s. What I liked at the time was the firmer midrange, which cut through a mix quite well. Over time, however, I grew to miss the upper end sparkle that the L280 pups had over the Lace pups, and I just started preferring less midrange in my overall sound. I've been back to L280s in both my Teles and in my Strat for quite some time, now, and I don't see changing anytime soon.

If I had an entire stable of Strats, one would surely have the Hot Golds, because they are great pickups, and offer a lot of advantages over standard single-coils.

[1962guitargeek]

see below...

[1962guitargeek]

Originally Posted by 1962guitargeek

Wouldn't just changing the bridge tone pot to 500k on your Hot Bridge do the trick without affecting the neck & middle...?

I had forgotten, I have another strat that a dear friend of mine is using. It has a Lace Blue in the neck and Silvers in the middle and bridge...I like that one too.

I'm building a strat for him as a retirement gift to himself, he has mine as a player while he's waiting...

edit:

I just saw your new video with the Silver in the bridge..I think you have nailed it!

That is textbook Strat, IMO. Great job, and thanks for your work.

BTW, Your website is excellent! I feel the need to break out the soldering iorn...

-Ray