Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

[Chistopher]

I started a thread earlier about this topic, but deleted it because it wasn't written in a way that would be easy to respond to. But anyway, I'm selling my loaded EMG pickguard to get a bit of an "update" on my studio strat. I was thinking towards Lace Sensor and have narrowed my results down to the Rainbow and Hot Gold sets. What do y'all think? They will be wired through a midboost/cut knob and a TBX, which might have an effect on which one makes the cut.

I've never used Lace Sensors before, so if y'all have any experience with any of them, please share.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

My idea of an ideal Lace Sensor set for Strat would be:
Emerald Purple Dually in the neck
Emerald or Gold in the middle
Blue/Emerald or Blue/Silver in the bridge

To be honest, it's hard for me to get excited about what goes in the bridge location. The Blue isn't very compelling and I don't like the sound of the red.

I really like the sound of the original Gold, but the feel is a bit different from a true single. Hot Gold demos sound pretty good, but I don't know that I'm all that crazy about the more modern sound that they have.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I considered the dually's but my I figured that this strat would be better suited for SSS. I'm going for a modern, but hi-fi sound with equal output across all 3 pickups.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Also, how is the Blue/Silver/Red combo? I hear that's pretty popular.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

equal output across all 3 pickups.

Light Blue/Silver/Emerald?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Light Blue/Silver/Emerald?

How's the Emerald sound in the bridge? And I heard the Light Blue is just what it says on the tin, Blue with less lower frequencies. I might consider it. I'll have to look up some more demos to get an idea for them.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I have installed & recommended the Lace Sensor stuff for years. They exhibit an articulate tone with clarity - similar to EMG units, but without the compressed sound. Best of all, NO BATTERY. I especially like the Gold and Hot Gold (singles and Duallys), and I have a Red Dually in an Ibanez set up as a baritone - sounds terrific, with no mud. Lace stuff is great for stage or studio in my opinion, highly recommended.

OP also asked about TBX's.... I like them a lot, for guitar or bass. They are affordable (less than $20, and again - no battery). If you want a high performance range of control over your tone - a TBX provides that without resorting to EQ's. Excellent choice, paired with Lace Sensors or any high quality pickups.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

How's the Emerald sound in the bridge? And I heard the Light Blue is just what it says on the tin, Blue with less lower frequencies. I might consider it. I'll have to look up some more demos to get an idea for them.

Light Blue in the bridge
Silver in the middle
Emerald in the neck

The idea was more modern tone with better balance in output from each location, per your query.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Light Blue in the bridge
Silver in the middle
Emerald in the neck

The idea was more modern tone with better balance in output from each location, per your query.

Thanks for the suggestion, how would the Light Blue compare to the Purple and Blue? I'm assuming it'd be thinner than the Blue, would that be too thin for the bridge? Or is it like saying that Queen Latifa is thinner than Rosie O'Donnel?

It is good that we've managed to narrow it down though. I'm sailing in uncharted waters with Lace Sensor.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I especially like the Gold

It might be germane to share the recent makeover I did of my friend's MIM Strat. It was an abomination with a DiMarzio Fast Track 2 in the bridge with series/split/parallel, a Lace Blue in the middle and a Lace Gold in the neck. The middle tone control was on the neck and the outer tone control was a TBX on Bridge. He plays rock, funk and reggae and had since purchased a pair of Les Pauls, so it was high time to convince him to turn the thing back into a more proper Strat. The only position worth a damn was the Lace Gold in the Neck; and because he absolutely loves his Lace Gold it was a no-brainer to put another one in the middle. For the bridge, we tried a couple of things we had on hand, including the Lace Blue. We ultimately went with a DiMarzio Injector Neck in that spot. 250k pots, one standard tone on the neck and one on the bridge, sharing the same 22nF cap (Fender-style). He's still happy.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Thanks for the suggestion, how would the Light Blue compare to the Purple and Blue? I'm assuming it'd be thinner than the Blue, would that be too thin for the bridge?

I was still trying to keep it pretty Stratty. Going beyond Light Blue to Burgundy would be going a bit too far, IMO. Of all their pickups the Purple is supposed to be like a P-90 with the Burgundy being somewhat thinner. The Burgundy is in the bridge position in their Blue Fire set, so you should be able to hear some demos of that fairly readily.

I mentioned the Gold already. The Emerald is supposed to be slightly hotter and more dynamic in terms of level as well as feel. They bill it as SRV as opposed to Clapton for the Gold.

Silvers are silvers are silvers. There are a lot of them out there in the wild.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I was still trying to keep it pretty Stratty. Going beyond Light Blue to Burgundy would be going a bit too far, IMO. Of all their pickups the Purple is supposed to be like a P-90 with the Burgundy being somewhat thinner. The Burgundy is in the bridge position in their Blue Fire set, so you should be able to hear some demos of that fairly readily.

I mentioned the Gold already. The Emerald is supposed to be slightly hotter and more dynamic in terms of level as well as feel. They bill it as SRV as opposed to Clapton for the Gold.

Silvers are silvers are silvers. There are a lot of them out there in the wild.

I understand now. And having listened to clips on YouTube, I think I'll pick the Light Blue/Silver/Emerald. My next questions are about the controls. For the volume pot, are there any active controls that have say, 0 to 5 being a normal pot and 5 to 10 being a boost? And also, what active mid boost/cut controls have y'all found to be the best?

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

One more thing I forgot to add: Lace Sensors are to be raised so they are quite close to the strings. They do not behave like other pickups when you lower or raise them in order to adjust their output or change their tone. There is one optimal spot and that's it.

Regarding tone controls, treat them like you would treat any other passive pickup. I don't particularly care for TBX for anything besides bright, vintage style output. From 0-5 there is a basic tone control in place (250k + 22nF) but with a nasty 82k resistor loading your pickup down, destroying its resonant peak. From 5-10 the tone goes no-load and resistance is added to the 82k until it reaches 1082k.

Mid boost is cool, but I don't think I'd want to add it to already thicker pickups.

I think the PTB thing is great, but I'm not keen on shaving bass off of Strat tone, personally.

 

[Juanhanglo]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I just restrung and adjusted the action on my warmoth strat with a lace hemibucker set with a hot gold in the middle.

What a kick ass setup. The hot gold is a thing of beauty.

I had the red/silver/blue set as well. I liked them all as well.

Check out the hot gold duallys, as well as the hot hot gold bridge pickup.

As far as the Clapton midboost goes, it was designed for the original gold sensor. With those being a glassy, somewhat scooped pickup, I would be hesitant to use it with the more mid focussed pickups. The hot gold are a more dynamic gold. They are not a hot output at all.

They also work well with 500k pots.

Good luck!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Ok, I see that the control layout is something I should have stated before asking for recommendations. I want a somewhat flat, but not sterile set of pickups that would respond well to both midrange boosts and cuts, as well as a modded TBX control. The TBX is going to have a high/low pass mod (no shunts) so that it basically acts as a PTB on one knob.

I would also like for the "neutral" tone when the mid and TBX controls don't color the sound to remain Stratish, especially in 2 and 4. I'm thinking that something that has solid lows and clear highs with a slight mid scoop would do the job well. What does Lace have that can do this?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I assume that the design of Lace Sensors doesn't allow for mag swaps? Because I think what I want is an A4 Lace Sensor, or something with an A4-ish tone.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

I'm guessing by y'alls silence that there is little info on what I am looking for, this being a SD forum and all. I think I'll start with the Hot Golds and see where I can go from there.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Hot Golds use a different magnet composition which are supposed to sound more "modern" (mids are a bit more aggressive?). There are only two types of hot gold singles: 6k and 13.2k. The 13.2k looks to be quite powerful (the output rating is similar to that of the Burgundy). They claim a 50's bell-like voicing for the 13.2k, but the inductance and resonant peak have me skeptical. A pair of Lace Sensors in series sound kind of funny to me (I suggested the Emerald Purple Dually in the neck for just either/or operation). This isn't to say you wouldn't like a pair of 6ks for the neck and middle and then a 6k/13.2k Dually in an either/or situation in the bridge (or any other type of Dually in whichever type of configuration, or just a single for that matter).

Hopefully you can tell that I'm operating mostly from the realm of speculation here, and it's about as far as I feel comfortable going. I haven't played Hot Golds, but I have listened to what demos I could find back when they piqued my curiosity.

If you take the plunge I would not consider alternate tone configurations without trying the pickups with traditional controls first. Lace Sensors are not sterile pickups begging to be sculpted with active controls. You can't swap a magnet in a Lace Sensor in an attempt to make it more malleable. However, I do see the benefit in using active circuitry in order to compensate for level differences like you talked about with the Fury Stacks, especially since Sensors don't afford you the option of adjusting their heights in order to make level and tonal adjustments.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

Hey Gregory, I like your new signature. It speaks to my heart.

 

[gregory]

Re: Has anyone tried the Lace Sensor Rainbow or Hot Gold Set?

LOL. It is only temporary. Sorry about all the edits in my previous post.