Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

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Hi everyone,
on a Fender Highway 1 strat i've decided to put a Lace sensor Red in the bridge solely for the purpose of getting this early Smashing Pumpkins sound i love so much. But other than the heavy FUZZ, i don't care much about Lace pickups. They sound really sterile with clean sounds. I would rather rely on something more traditional for the cleans, which i use a lot.

I've been thinking about it non stop for like a month, and came to the conclusion that my best bet was mixing it with completely different pickups. After all i've noticed that even on a normal strat there can be a huge difference between the 3 pickups, so why not go hybrid all the way and get the sounds i like all together on the same instrument ?

However in terms of output i am not sure what other pickups i should get.

I'm looking for pure vintage strat tone in the neck position, percussive lows and sparkling highs, like my bare knuckle irish tour, i was thinking surfer.

In the middle i was looking for that funky rythm, very airy and light, to play chords that would sound almost like an acoustic. Like i could play tonight tonight or diisarm, or emulate a campfire night ! Although i'm not too sure how the 4 position with the red lace would perform, but i never really used it that much anyway.

Thanks for the input.
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

I concur with your conclusion that Lace Sensors cope far better with overdrive than with squeaky clean, traditional "Fender" tones. I also agree that the FLS Red has a distinct identity all of its own that nothing else quite nails.

On a vintage replica Stratocaster, I like the Ant2 Surfers very much. Five-Twos are nice too - unless you are left-handed.

Two other considerations.
1) The H1 fingerboard radius may be considerably flatter than a vintage style Fender magnet height stagger pattern was designed to accommodate.
2) A closed cover Sensor is going to look "wrong" next to two conventional Stratocaster pickups. Fortunately, a version is now available with false polepieces to maintain appearances.
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

Yeah i thought it would look wrong an actually i was thinking if you do something wrong do it right i think i'm gonna get this pickup in black and make it visibly different.

Aren't surfers going to be too low in terms of output ?
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

Aiming for a particular era of Smashing Pumpkins?

I watched a Guitar Center Sessions with them just last night, and both of his Strats had DMz rail-types in 'em.
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

jtougas said:
Aiming for a particular era of Smashing Pumpkins?

I watched a Guitar Center Sessions with them just last night, and both of his Strats had DMz rail-types in 'em.
Click to expand...

Pumpkins now isn't Pumpkins anymore. I like Billy, but it's a whole different animal now. His most well known stuff was made with the Lace red.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

corgan's early day distorted tones were the result of dozens of overdubs. his clean tones were decent but nothing to write home about.

i had a red lace sensor in the bridge position of my strat US plus deluxe for years. i found it to be weak sounding for my tastes so i got a HSS pickguard and installed a humbucker in its place.
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

The albums that matter were recorded with lace pickups. The red kicks ass and the reason i like it is specifically because it's not a humbucker, it's an interesting alternative a bit special but still belonging to the "strat" sounds, as opposed to the dimarzios on the corgan signature which make it sound like an SG or something.

I don't want my strat to become a superstrat or a frankenstrat, i want a real strat with a bridge pickup that can actually handle heavy distortion.I love the clean tones of a strat and i am in love with the fuzz of the siamese dream album (mayonaise..). The clean tones however, as esandes said, are good but nothing out of this world, and in fact i'm getting much better clean tones out of my mexican strat with BK's Irish Tour pickups and my Koch Amp already.I want the best of both worlds.

My question wasn't really about getting the Sp Distorted tones, I know exactly what Billy Corgan used and how the albums was recorded because Butch Vig answered questions bout it on a forum last year.

It was more about how Lace pickups blend with regular ones. I couldn't find much information most people seem to install all 3 lace pickups.

I've thought about it and i guess i'm going to start buy installing the Red Sensor in my strat and see by myself how it blends with the stock pickups. Which are far from bad actually. Then i'll upgrade to duncans depending on the results i'm getting. I'll try to make a video after installing it.
 
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Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

I'd say your best bet for an early Pumpkins tone would be from an opamp based muff. There was a lot of that on those albums.
 
Re: Single Coils to mix with a Lace Sensor Red... = Smashing Pumpkins sound

Ok so i received my pickup today and couldn't wait to install it in my Highway 1.
Haven't done that for about 5 years and had to unscrew the neck, but that was actually the easiest pickup swap i've done.

My pickup is a Fender Lace Sensor, with a fender logo on it. I don't think it makes a difference, it bought it because it was cheap on internet.

I need to say i have been waiting for years to try this one.
In the Neck and Middle positions i keep the fender stock pickups, which are decent, as i wanted to test mixing the red with regular pickups before eventually ordering my surfers or SSL5's.

First of all these pickups are exactly as i imagined, based on countless reviews and videos.
I am not disappointed and actually got that pumpkins sound, with a help of my big muff and soon to come fuzz factory.

As expected the heavily overdriven sounds are awesome and have a surprisingly clear and very balanced sound. Sound nothing like a humbucker actually. With the the big muff and more bass i get that heavy Siamese Dream sound. With regular distortion from my amp i get this great sound in the offsprings' "The kids aren't all right" which usually require JB type humbuckers.

The cleans are actually better than i expected, not awesome but actually pretty good. Modern but not too much, they retain some of the strat sound with a nice bell like sound.

The regular overdriven sounds are not great. Sounds too modern to achieve great LED ZEP, ZZ top or Deep Purple type tones. That's when i knew i made the right choice getting only the RED in the bridge and keeping my stock pickups.

The part i didn't like but actually got used to is the dynamic response.
Over the years i've come to expect a very good dynamic that would push the amp when you hit the strings hard. It also makes your guitars harder to play and make every little mistake show, which is great because it makes the way you play so important.

These pickup have a flat response. Its weird because no matter how hard you hit the strings the sound is the same. However, it makes playing easier and i realise that some of the smashing pumpkins material that sounded weird earlier suddenly make sense.
The rythm part in love or jelly belly for example are easier to achieve and require less attention to technique and more focus on the tone, as the upstrokes and downstrokes are barely different and the muted sound powerful and fat, with highs that manage to cut trough without ever being harsh at all.

The part that surprised me the most was how reactive these pickup is to my amp settings. I've never seen that before. The slightest change has a huge impact on the sound.
It makes dialing the right tone harder but also more precise.
You pretty much know when it's right.

The pickup blends quite well with the fender stock alnico 3's.
Position 4 is really trebly and unusually bright but i think i like it for funk, which was what i was looking for.

Overall i'm happy with this pickup, it's exaclty what i was looking for. I wouldn't recommand it to put on you main stratocaster, but it's a damn good way to upgrade your second guitar especially if you need more balls on the bridge to play heavier and more modern distorted sounds without having to buy a humbucker.

Now i need to decide whether i should get the Surfers or SSL5 for the neck an dmiddle (or anything else...)
 
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