Lace Sensors

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Lace Sensors

No. The SCN's are different and are proprietory to Fender. The Fender SCN use the Colbalt magnets, and this magnet material is not used by the L2XX series available directly from Bill and Becky.

 

[dnewhous]

Re: Lace Sensors

No. The SCN's are different and are proprietory to Fender. The Fender SCN use the Colbalt magnets, and this magnet material is not used by the L2XX series available directly from Bill and Becky.

A magnet from pure Cobalt? It sounds very expensive.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Lace Sensors

Well, I don't know if they are pure colbalt?? They are called Saranium (sp/?) Colbalt.

 

[esandes]

Re: Lace Sensors

As far as I know, the Lace Sensors aren't "true" noiseless single coils. They're quieter than most, but they don't have any noise cancelling circuit, like a humbucker or a stack.

i cannot hear any noise whatsoever from lace sensors.

gold and blue sensors sound similar to me. very nice for the neck. silver sensors sound extremely clear and well balanced. red sensors are rich in harmonics and have a higher output.

that's my 2 cents.

 

[dnewhous]

Re: Lace Sensors

i cannot hear any noise whatsoever from lace sensors.

It's true that they are not humbucking. The design is meant to minimize the pickup of hum in the first place. If you read the Harmony Central review you will see that there are some people who do experience hum.

 

[esandes]

Re: Lace Sensors

It's true that they are not humbucking. The design is meant to minimize the pickup of hum in the first place. If you read the Harmony Central review you will see that there are some people who do experience hum.

i guess i got the perfect lace sensors or something. mine are extremely silent. i'm joining a band soon so i'll have my amp louder. i'll report back my findings about noise when it's through a louder setting.

 

[dnewhous]

Re: Lace Sensors

i guess i got the perfect lace sensors or something. mine are extremely silent. i'm joining a band soon so i'll have my amp louder. i'll report back my findings about noise when it's through a louder setting.

Try putting the guitar very close to the amp while it is loud without playing.

 

[Baltar]

Re: Lace Sensors

The Lace Sensors do give a good sound, just not traditional Strat.

my 2004 Am Deluxe Strat does somehow not sound lika a traditional Strat.
for some sounds, it helps to nearly screw down the pus to the pickguard,
but it's soundquality is far away from my other strats.
i think of some options, but am not sure how i want to change it

my hardtail is great for all kinda blues, can use it for classic things with
full chores and also 80ies rock. the lil'59 is a nice and versatile thing
my other one with fender '96 stratneck ands ssl-1 pups is great for bluesrock.

the config for the am deluxe should be something versatile, perhaps
with brian may switching. but i doubt that eg a 57-62 fender pup set
would be a good idea for such a wiring .... however.
these ideas need to age a bit.

 

[dnewhous]

Re: Lace Sensors

my 2004 Am Deluxe Strat does somehow not sound lika a traditional Strat.

Doesn't that guitar come with the new Bill Lawrence pickups?

 

[Baltar]

Re: Lace Sensors

Doesn't that guitar come with the new Bill Lawrence pickups?

afaik they should be fender noiseless vintage gold.
for sure, there is no noise. but i'm not that happy with them, since
i have duncans on both other strats
i know that the lil 59 and ssl-1 are completely different in color, but compared to both of them
the fender stock pups are somehow lifeless. you must fetch the right tones to
get them out with pressure - and believe me, it's not the distance to the strings.
i did try out a lot with that.
so i definately know i want to get that pickguard with s1 switching and pups out and
replace it. ideas for vintage blues and rock so far ... fender 57/62 or the pups which
eric johnson used. lace sensors are not interesting anymore id that clapton tone is
highly preamped. i don't want that.
perhaps i should just go for the duncan blues set and switch them splittable *brood*

any input for ideas, which could fit my stlye are welcom. but as i see, it's time to check
the duncan sample cd agagin

 

[LReese]

Re: Lace Sensors

i know that the lil 59 and ssl-1 are completely different in color, but compared to both of them
the fender stock pups are somehow lifeless. you must fetch the right tones to
get them out with pressure - and believe me, it's not the distance to the strings.
i did try out a lot with that.

If I'm reading this statement right, you have the SCN-1's as stock pickups.

Never tried those, but tried several others, (EMGs, Kinmans, Hot VN's, Duncan, Dimarzio (Duncan and Dimarzios were manuf in the '80s), Lawrence)- all stacked designs. I liked them starting out, but detected a "lifelessness" in the tone compared to the previous SC pickups in the guitars I tried them in - Like some component of the tone was also being cancelled out along with the hum. YMMV

I also have a Lace Gold that I tried out in a passive setup, it also sounded a little "blah". I did like the Hot Gold - replaced those with Surfers, but may put the Hot Golds back in.

I do want to try the Stack + and the DMZ Area pickups - Those may be the ticket.

 

[adrian]

Re: Lace Sensors

I have two Hot Golds and a Dimarzio Breed in my HM Strat Ultra. I can split the Breed, and it works really good. The neck and the mid (only Hot Golds) has the typical smooth and relaxed sound of the Laces. When blended with the split Breed, in position II, there is a fat and nervous growling tone, more typical for a single coil. Switching between those modes is effective if one wants to alternate the tone during solo parts.

 

[dnewhous]

Re: Lace Sensors

There's a review over at Musician's Friend that says lace sensors aren't very good at holding effects or live sound. Anyone care to eviscerate that opinion?

 

[adrian]

Re: Lace Sensors

I would say the opposite. They work fine with pedals and stuff; I would even say the rumour saying the´re sterile come from people playing them all clean. They need some overdrive and some slight chorus and delay...and high volume, to sound good.

 

[beerdrinkingtech]

Re: Lace Sensors

Hello,
Lace Sucks

Best Regards
BDT

 

[Baltar]

Re: Lace Sensors

ace Sucks

:laugh2:
too many people say this. but however. it was just an idea what i could
do with my am deluxe and decdided this would be to expensive, just for
a try.

you can call me craven, but seymour already got my trust, so i again
go for them ..
i browsed through sound samples yesterday and am nearly determined ..
just need to decice if i either go for a calibrated ssl-5 set or the blues set
for strat (the 3 hums in sc-format) .. let's see. perhaps i throw a dice
both would be nice sounding and of my taste.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Lace Sensors

I had to look up what a SSL5 was. (I hate these acronyms.) It's a hot true single coil. I think it's voicing would be more along the lines of the Fender Texas Specials, or the voicing of the Lace Silvers. You may want to try and sample a SRV strat, if possible, and see if you really want the extra upper mids grind of a hotter single. Your stock American Deluxe pickups have slightly more mid content than vintage too, so hotter than traditional may not be what you want.

I don't find the hum of a true single a big problem as long there's no lights, radiation, or high gain aggravating the hum. Most of the time, hum is only noticable when not playing, because the signal is so much louder than the hum.

As long as your going non-noiseless you may want to consider the alnico II pro strats as well. These have a more traditional strat voicing, and will be very sweet sounding in the highs, and are what Jeff Beck has ofton used to record with.

BTW, I don't think the Laces suck, they just have their own single coil sound, slightly different from traditional, and there are more advanced noiseless designs out there now. Laces are slightly hotter (depending on string distance), more opaque, and more compressed sounding than traditional strat pickups, and seem to work better for overdriven tones, compared to the traditional bell like chimey cleans of the traditional vintage strat. As long as a hotter than traditional sound is wanted, they will do this, and have very low noise to boot. One of the attributes of the Laces are very low magnetic string pull. However, this does create more sustain than traditional, and this may create less dynamic pick attack, that may be precieved as more bland.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Lace Sensors

I have 2 EC Strats. Both are equipped with the Lace sensors..... and quite honestly I like them a lot. They do not do "vintage" type of tones as well as antiquities or Surfers/Texas hots do, but they are not really a SC PUP. I feel very comfortable with the tone I get out of them and in some amps they sound amazing. I play thru a Bogner Shiva, a '68 Super Reverb, a Marshall 900 50W combo and a '67 Deluxe reverb. I have a hard time getting these guitars to play clean thru the Deluxe, but in the Bogner and the SR they sound awesome. There are advantages to them (they are much quieter than a sc) and there are disadvantages to them. They don't do the classic Fender clean thing as well as a real sc does. In my case I rarely use the preamp in the guitar. His logic is he can get a HB and a sc sound out of one guitar. I don't think the preamp works well unless you are playing very loud with a lot of OD/distortion. The preamp is adding 25db to the midrange tones so in a clean arrangement it tends to get muddy. Sometimes I will roll it up to 3 or 4 and this adds a nice tubey OD type of effect to a clean tone. My preference is when you want a HB............ use a HB. I usually have a sc guitar and a HB guitar, so I just switch whenI feel I need it. IOverall I like the Lace sensors.

 

[dnewhous]

Re: Lace Sensors

I got some lace sensors to try them out and I just realized something - the pickup cable is not shielded! Unbelievable!

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Lace Sensors

I only own one Lace Sensor.... i don't even know which model it is as the colour of the writing is off the cover.... it was a used PU i grabbed off a tech for $20... It sounds amazing in the middle postion of my Warmoth that has a set of Dimarzio PAF Pro and neck PAF.... I like them...

Pete Townshend has been using the lace Sensor Golds for a long time now... 17 years or so.... he started using customized Clapton strats with locking Kahler Trems in 1989.... he also had a few with real Floyds... By 1998 he switched to Fishman bridges on his Claptons..... To this day he still uses the older Clapton electronics on his custom strats..... I oneday want to make a strat with the older Clapton pickups and mid boost just for the hell of it being a Fan of Pete's Playing....

Pete says that the late 80's Clapton necks had a better feel and were a slightly different V shape.... I heard he requests his Clapton necks be shaped like the late 80's Signature strats..... Pete has a had many over priced Gibson Signature guitars.... Plus Ric Signature... now i hear Fender is trying extremely hard to get Pete to offer a Fender Signature