Lace Sensor Gold Dually investigations

[DaveT]

Rummaging around the interweb turned up some nice sound clips of Lace Sensor Gold Dually pickups so I ordered one.

1) a PAF it is not!
More of a mini-humbucker or even Filtertron sound, which is good because that is the territory I was aiming for.

2) when wired up to a 4-way switch we get this:-
a) pickups in series = loud humbucker sound
b) pickup nearest neck = nice single coil sound
c) pickups in parallel = thicker than the single coil sound but with some of the highs rolled off, not really any louder than a single coil.
d) the other pickup = almost indistinguishable from the other pickup, and I mean almost indistinguishable. Well, it's less than half an inch away isn't it?

That leads to switching decisions.
I am leaning towards having a simple switch to take it from series wiring to single coil and leave it that.
Rolling the treble off a bit would almost give you the same sound as the pickups in parallel.

One of the Gold/Blue or Red/Blue or other non-identical pairs would need at least 3-way switching with 4-way depending on how they sound in parallel.

I was tempted by Gold/Blue but I didn't like the Blue in the neck position so there was no point getting the Dually version.

I found only one video that showed the difference in sound between single Lace Sensors at neck and bridge in series and parallel. That was what made me get the Gold Dually.

 

[AirCap]

I like most Lace Sensors in general, but the Gold Duallys are a great choice.

 

[Cactus Jack]

I am very interested in Dually's right now. However, as you've encountered it's very difficult to find quality sound clips. As such, I very much appreciate your review.

In my opinion, Seymour Duncan Triple Shot rings seem perfect for Dually's. They allow you to get every option from the pickup: Series/Parallel/North Coil/South Coil. Mind you, I've never wired them up, but it seems like a match made in heaven. Honestly, surprised Lace didn't invent them as they seem so perfect.

Personally, I'm really interested in the Purple/Emerald combination in the neck. I too have heard the Blue/Gold is great in the neck, but some folks say the Blue is overly muddy. Never having played one myself, and again not hearing great sound clips, I think I'd pass too.

I'm having a hard time deciding on a bridge combo, but think the Gold Dually is probably where I'll land. However, if I go this route I want maximum versatility and your comment about the coils sounding near-identical would limit the available options. To get a bit more variance I've thought the 19K Hot Gold with the 6K neck combined with the 13K singles may be a good way to go. I have a question out to Reggie at Lace and hope to hear back from him soon.

Would you mind sharing the video you found? I'd love to learn more about the pickups. Have you tried any other color combos...maybe a Red/Silver?

 

[Fender.Fan]

I have the red silver dually in my Bridge, and a blue in the neck. The blue is super versatile, I myself wouldn’t consider it muddy. The dually I love, it’s super great. I have mine wired up with a push pull volume pot so I can have the red and silver in parallel or series

 

[Fender.Fan]

Holy smokes, I’m only just now realizing that I have the tone and volume knobs swapped lol. Don’t read the knobs, the pots are in the right place

 

[bagman67]

Hey, if it's good enough for Ed, whose Frankenstein guitar has the "Tone" knob on the only (volume) pot...

 

[DaveT]

I am very interested in Dually's right now. However, as you've encountered it's very difficult to find quality sound clips. As such, I very much appreciate your review.

In my opinion, Seymour Duncan Triple Shot rings seem perfect for Dually's. They allow you to get every option from the pickup: Series/Parallel/North Coil/South Coil. Mind you, I've never wired them up, but it seems like a match made in heaven. Honestly, surprised Lace didn't invent them as they seem so perfect.

Personally, I'm really interested in the Purple/Emerald combination in the neck. I too have heard the Blue/Gold is great in the neck, but some folks say the Blue is overly muddy. Never having played one myself, and again not hearing great sound clips, I think I'd pass too.

I'm having a hard time deciding on a bridge combo, but think the Gold Dually is probably where I'll land. However, if I go this route I want maximum versatility and your comment about the coils sounding near-identical would limit the available options. To get a bit more variance I've thought the 19K Hot Gold with the 6K neck combined with the 13K singles may be a good way to go. I have a question out to Reggie at Lace and hope to hear back from him soon.

Would you mind sharing the video you found? I'd love to learn more about the pickups. Have you tried any other color combos...maybe a Red/Silver?

here's the YouTube link that made me get the Gold Dually for the bridge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ-sFTPpFe4

Lace Sensor Blue are not muddy, think a very nice clear clean P90. Not at all what I wanted!
I too hoped Blue/Gold would be perfect, but my first attempt for the bridge was the Blue, didn't like it, fit it in the neck, didn't like it. It will find a home on some other guitar sometime...

Experimenting with Lace pickups? Have you seen how much they cost!

 

[rauchman]

Another Lace Sensor fan here.  In the late 80's/early 90's I picked up a Strat Ultra that had the LS Gold pups.  The guitar didn't gel with me, but I kept the pickguard with the pups and then installed on an MIM Strat, which oddly enough did gel with me.  I used that Strat to learn some things as to building a guitar, I love the sound of the pups.  Very smooth sound clean and can get a little snarly with gain.  I did a recording with that Strat with some gain, and they sound great.

Planning on getting a Warmoth Strat neck for that guitar and have no plans to get rid of those pups.

I didn't realize how many different variants they have.  Would be great if there were a resource featuring the different tonalities of their various pups.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

They have a similar appearance to the Evans pickups that I used to use years ago.