Lace Sensor - Partner Required

[capohk]

I am putting together a partscaster, literally just leftover bits in my cupboards and drawers, for my son who is just getting started. The body is a '58ish duosonic and the neck is a strat copy that has been refretted and reprofiled to 12" radius. Other parts will be decided along the way. I have one pickup so far and want to find a good partner. It is an old Lace Sensor with two leads and a metal baseplate. the label is a shiny blue. It measures 13.5 Ohms on my meter. From what I can find, these are fairly well though of.

I'm wondering which position it should go in, and what to partner it with. There is a new style lace 'silver' available locally for the right sort of cash, but is there something better/more interesting? The body, although old, has been stripped more than once, and has no real collector value, so I'm not beyond routing it for something to fit.

Cheers

Matt

 

[DougM]

The blue Lace Sensor is the one that was voiced to sound like a HB. The one that was voiced like a Strat single coil was the gold one. The silver was a fat single coil sound, and the red was the ultra hot HB. They make many other variations now too, which you can read the descriptions of here

https://lacemusic.com/products/lace-sensor-red-single-coil-pickup

This is the page for the red, but if you scroll down you'll see descriptions of all the others too

 

[capohk]

Thank you - sounds like the Blue should go in the bridge then, with maybe a silver or gold in the neck?

 

[capohk]

This is the blue - not my picture but it's the same thing. It only has 2 leads, like a vintage strat pup, The modern one I am looking at has 3. Will I need to do anything special to wire them in the same circuit?

 

[schmee]

This is the blue - not my picture but it's the same thing. It only has 2 leads, like a vintage strat pup, The modern one I am looking at has 3. Will I need to do anything special to wire them in the same circuit?View attachment 962323

The Lace Blue has blue lettering on the top. Nothing to do with the label I dont think.
Nothing special needed.

 

[Erik Thomas]

I am a big fan of the old Fender Lace Sensors and have them in my 1990 Tele Deluxe Plus and my 1993 Strat Deluxe Plus. The Blue Lace Sensor, in my opinion is one of the Top 10 Guitar Pickups ever. It has a sweet tone both clean and over driven, with pristine highs and clear bass. There is a 'hole' in the middle and its somewhat scooped. Fender always put the Blue Lace Sensor in the Neck position. My Tele Deluxe Plus v1 came with 2 Reds in the Bridge in the dual configuration, switchable to either humbucker or individually as single coils. I swapped out one of the bridge pups (closest one to the neck) to a Silver which is very nice because its more mellow than a Red and I can use that middle Tele position to run the Blue from the Neck with the Silver and its awesome for funk tones.

 

[drmordo]

The blue label means Blue pickup - 'humbucker' voicing. I'd probly put it in the bridge, but you could go for the fat neck skinny bridge config and put a Gold in the bridge.

I personally love Lace Sensors and will be using them in most/maybe all of my guitars from here on out.

 

[drmordo]

I am a big fan of the old Fender Lace Sensors and have them in my 1990 Tele Deluxe Plus and my 1993 Strat Deluxe Plus. The Blue Lace Sensor, in my opinion is one of the Top 10 Guitar Pickups ever. It has a sweet tone both clean and over driven, with pristine highs and clear bass. There is a 'hole' in the middle and its somewhat scooped. Fender always put the Blue Lace Sensor in the Neck position. My Tele Deluxe Plus v1 came with 2 Reds in the Bridge in the dual configuration, switchable to either humbucker or individually as single coils. I swapped out one of the bridge pups (closest one to the neck) to a Silver which is very nice because its more mellow than a Red and I can use that middle Tele position to run the Blue from the Neck with the Silver and its awesome for funk tones.
View attachment 962326

I've never seen that model before, but I like it! I'd want a single coil in the bridge, but otherwise it's a rock monster.

 

[capohk]

This is what I am considering as the partner - it's a modern lace silver 'middle'. With the Blue, I'm thinking 500k pots would be appropriate?

 

[Erik Thomas]

I've never seen that model before, but I like it! I'd want a single coil in the bridge, but otherwise it's a rock monster.

The bridge can be split to either pup as a single coil or together as a humbucker, using the toggle switch on the plate. Fender only made this model from 90-91 with the tremelo so they are pretty rare and are skyrocketing in price, which is great for me. I paid $850 for it new in 1993 and its a 1990 serial number.

The voicing on the Blue is supposed to have been based on a PAF, not a humbucker. Fender always put the Blue in the neck.

 

[capohk]

PAF sounds ideal. In either position.

 

[ahiddentableau]

The blue is a warm sounding pickup. Most people who use it use it in the neck position, as Fender did in its Deluxe Strat Plus model of the mid-late 90s. IMO it would be better in the neck position than the bridge, but I haven't actually taken my blue and tried it in the bridge so it's possible that I'm wrong.

The silver is like a hottish single coil. Lace says it's supposed to be like a 70s single coil, although I must confess that that's never made much sense to me (were 70s strat pickups really that much hotter than 60s pickups? The ones I've played haven't had hot pickups). I like it, and use one in the middle position of a strat. I think it would sound great as a neck pickup on a duosonic style guitar. It would probably sound OK in the bridge position too but I suspect it might not match well with a blue in the neck.

Have you considered a red? I am a big fan of and recommend the red lace sensor in the bridge position of Fender style guitars. Especially with a TBX tone control or other wiring scheme that allows for cutting bass frequencies. It's like a great higher-output humbucker, drives an amp nicely and (like all lace sensors) takes to pedals like a champ. They are often available on eBay for not much money (as in less than 50 bucks). Maybe take a look at that. The result would be a versatile guitar that would allow your son to explore everything from clean to mean. Business in the front, party in the back!

 

[Erik Thomas]

The blue is a warm sounding pickup. Most people who use it use it in the neck position, as Fender did in its Deluxe Strat Plus model of the mid-late 90s. IMO it would be better in the neck position than the bridge, but I haven't actually taken my blue and tried it in the bridge so it's possible that I'm wrong.

The silver is like a hottish single coil. Lace says it's supposed to be like a 70s single coil, although I must confess that that's never made much sense to me (were 70s strat pickups really that much hotter than 60s pickups? The ones I've played haven't had hot pickups). I like it, and use one in the middle position of a strat. I think it would sound great as a neck pickup on a duosonic style guitar. It would probably sound OK in the bridge position too but I suspect it might not match well with a blue in the neck.

Have you considered a red? I am a big fan of and recommend the red lace sensor in the bridge position of Fender style guitars. Especially with a TBX tone control or other wiring scheme that allows for cutting bass frequencies. It's like a great higher-output humbucker, drives an amp nicely and (like all lace sensors) takes to pedals like a champ. They are often available on eBay for not much money (as in less than 50 bucks). Maybe take a look at that. The result would be a versatile guitar that would allow your son to explore everything from clean to mean. Business in the front, party in the back!

The Silver Lace is midrange, medium not to hot not too bright. Its chimey but in a natural way. The Reds are much hotter. I really like the Silver. It compliments the Blue when combined in the middle position. This is how I think Fender should have sold the Tele Plus v1 with Blue, Silver, Red not Blue, Red, Red.

 

[wildschwein]

I had an '89 Strat Plus Deluxe with the red, silver & blue combo -- they're all great sounding pickups and excel at stage volumes with long cable runs and big effects chains. They have their own sound which is different from traditional Fender fare. I know the marketing sort of tried to place them inside an understood structure of Fender-type sound categories but I didn't hear it myself. I thought they were flatter with less dips and peaks in their sound than old school single coils. I also didn't think the red sounded like a Humbucker. Thes Laces have a different magnetic character than other pickups and it means they do sense the strings differently. All the discussions I have seen state that the Golds are the most traditonal sounding but I haven't tried them myself.

 

[Gclef]

This is what I am considering as the partner - it's a modern lace silver 'middle'. With the Blue, I'm thinking 500k pots would be appropriate?View attachment 962332

The green is a ground. You generally twist the whote and green and solder to ground, unless you are doing some crazy wiring stuff.

Blue is more p90 sounding than HB, IMO. Still a great sound either way.

Red bridge, blue neck
Blue bridge, silver, gold, or hot gold (6k) neck
Hot hot gold (13.2k) bridge, blue neck
Blue/blue

I wouldn't put a lower output lace sensor in the bridge.


The funny thing about lace sensors is that while they are wound to sound hotter (anything but the golds), they aren't really and louder than the others.

You get the eq of a hotter pickup without the volume bump.

The duallies and their humbuckers are louder though.

I love the hemibuckers btw. A 7k/10k hot vintage set.

The red is a really cool heavy pickup too.

Lace holy grails sound good for a noiseless single coil vibe. I think fralin is using the same sidewinder tech, now that lace's patent expired. That speaks volumes, IMO.

I am definitely A lace pickup fan. But then, I tend to live in the space between singles and buckers mostly.

 

[Andy B]

Silver makes a great neck pickup!

 

[naneek]

How would you describe the sound of the 89 strat lace red bridge pickup? I have one of the old "Fender-Lace" models in my parts drawer.

For my next project, I'm hoping for a well balanced sounding pickup that isn't too harsh in the bridge position. I'm getting creative and pairing it with some old teisco pickups, so I can get some radically different sounds out of one guitar.

The teisco pickups are very thin and jangly treble-y, so I'm trying to decide whether the lace red should go in bridge or middle position to provide some contrast with a fuller higher output sound.

Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions about this concept?

They have their own sound which is different from traditional Fender fare. I know the marketing sort of tried to place them inside an understood structure of Fender-type sound categories but I didn't hear it myself. I thought they were flatter with less dips and peaks in their sound than old school single coils. I also didn't think the red sounded like a Humbucker.

I'm still not sure if they re-voiced their pickups to sound more like traditional designs, or if they just changed their marketing and branding. I remembered them being sold as a high tech, high fidelity single coil pickup with almost no hum.

I found an original 90s fender print description of the lace sensor red which says:
"Full range frequency response with red-hot, mega output sound."

compared to the new description on the lace website which says:
"Red Sensors are perfect for the bridge position when a fat and punchy Humbucker sound is desired from a single coil sized pickup."

it doesn't sound like they are describing the same pickup.

 

[naneek]

@capohk Let us know how the project is shaping up, sounds like fun. I'd love to see some photos when you get around to building it.

 

[Peegoo]

The body is a '58ish duosonic and the neck is a strat copy that has been refretted and reprofiled to 12" radius.

Have you got the scale length sorted yet? A Duo-Sonic's geometry (neck pocket and bridge location) is configured for a 24" scale length. A Strat/Tele neck is fretted for a 25.5" scale length. Mating that neck to that body will result in the inability to properly intonate along all the frets.

You will have to change the location of the bridge.

 

[Willie Johnson]

I just put some golds into my Super Sonic: