Lace sensors?

[Neo Fender]

I have three Gold Lace Sensors in my currently defunct ’98 Strat Plus.  Others have pretty much hammered out the good and not so good about the pickups.  I consider them as the first generation of noiseless single coil pickups and as such, they are lacking in the tone that most decent Strat pickups have.  I haven’t played any other guitars with newer hum killing methodologies but the www party line seems to indicate that tone wise, there are more desirable options available. 

 

[greywolf]

I had a set on my Strat ( blue neck, silver mid , red bridge)  I  found them very clear and pleasant .  I eventually switched them out for a set of custom wound Fralin's .

Good pickups

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

If you decide to go with them check out lacepickupsdirect.com - incredible prices.  Or call up musiciansfriend and do a price match.  I ordered two hot gold dually's today (lacepickupsdirect doesn't have them) and a single hot gold (musiciansfriend matched the price at LPD and took another 10% off on top of that - 110% price match).

I have a red/silver in the bridge of my main strat and love it - have lace holy rails in the middle and neck which have more of a vintage single coil sound (but still quiet).

 

[Re-Pete]

I had an early Lace Sensor Gold up close experience with a guy I knew who bought a Strat Plus brand new, back in the day. I had a standard Fender Strat that had the original single coils. Side by side these guitars sounded noticeably different.
But if you just played the Strat Plus it gave a decent impression of a Strat with some noiseless pickups.

 

[Dan025]

if you are looking for authentic single coil tone without the noise for an affordable price you gotta look at the dimarzio area series. the fender noiseless are ok too but need different pots to sound right so buy the whole kit. i dont have much experience with the samarium-cobalt fender noiseless which replaced the original fender noiseless but i know they were designed by bill lawrence. i'm sure they sound great but i dont know how true they are to a traditional fender. bill lawrence also has some good ones too, and his stuff is supposedly produced by lace now that he is quite old and has had health issues in the last few years.but bills pickups don't all sound like authentic singles because that's not really his goal, though some are pretty close.

if you are looking for something other than a really authentic fender tone then you may like the sensors. they have a weird quality that they share with some active pickups and some twin rail pickups that is easy to identify but not always desired by every player. some people call them "sterile" they lack some of the fender "personality" there is a certain predictability to them but that's not all bad and they kinda have a personality of there own.

 

[LushTone]

Thanks for the input!  :headbang:

 

[mullyman]

I had an Area 61 in the center of my first Warmoth Strat. It didn't put out much unwanted noise.
MULLY

 

[Strat Avenger]

Another vote for Dimarzio Area series. There's simply no reason to waste time with Lace Sensors when Areas are available.

 

[drewfx]

Another vote for Dimarzio Area series. There's simply no reason to waste time with Lace Sensors when Areas are available.

I love the Area series too, but the OP says he is looking for a different tone, not a noiseless SC clone.

 

[stubhead]

The Sensors are not traditional pickups. People who want the same old pickups, because they are using the same old boxes and the same old amps, in order to sound like the same old guitarists from the 60's and 70's, are not going to like a different pickup through their same old rig. The major flavor of "character" that came from traditional pickups was a result of their putting out spiky, erratic, uneven frequencies. In the case of humbuckings, they are laughably poor at producing high frequencies. Traditional Strat pickups are really bad with lower-mids, and other stuff - it varied from year to year, even pickup to pickup. 

This has actually put Lace in the position of trying to screw up their pickup's frequency range, to make it more resemble the inferior electronic output of pickups with "character." Now, I, personally, prefer a rig that produces at least an adequate level of frequencies all through the early part of the signal chain, because I like how that interacts with boxes and preamps - but then I have to slam down the higher frequencies hard, right at the last stage, by using "PA"-type speakers instead of "guitar speakers." I would have no problem with using Lace pickups, though I'm happy enough with the Lawrences I use now. But then, I know why I do what I do - if you're just starting out, there's a lot of experimenting and learning to do. If you want to use Lace pickups into a traditional amp, you will probably want to roll off some of the treble frequencies at some point in the chain. And every different point has a different sound.... :toothy12:

 

[LushTone]

I'm not interested in Sensors because of the noiseless feature, though that is obviously a benefit. My amp is very, very clean, and represents my guitars almost too well. It's a Rivera. So, in my endless (obsessive) quest for my ideal tone, I learned that traditional pickups use magnets that are stronger than necessary. And, after comparing them to the other variety, like Sensors and Emgs, I noticed that the stronger magnets result in a peak (hard to describe) in volume at the beginning of a played note. This is something that has it benefits in many situations, but is why I am drawn to the more acoustic tone that can be represented by active pickups and the sensors.

But, I'm not sure how I feel about the sensors, where I like Emgs. There's something that is borderline 'cheesy' about the sensors, where Emgs balance the acoustic clarity with more electric power.

Anyway, I'm working with a SD classic stack, hot for strat, and hot rails on my W. Not very relevant, but I noticed I prefer the warmer tones of alnico magnets, versus the brighter ceramic ones. Which is why I like the classic, but not so much the hot rails and hfs. The Emgs that will be in my almost finished Warmoth (bgp neck) will be a Ha and 85. Both have alnico magnets.  :headbang:

 

[Dan025]

you may like bill lawrence/wilde picks l280s. bills pickups move the magnets halfway up the pole piece so they have a wide magnetic field like a p-90 and don't have the over bearing single coil sound. the l280s is a hot pickup that should give you the warmth  you want. you can make that a more "acoustic" tone with the q-filter. my l200s pickups sound almost like a piezo if i use my faux q-filter circuit without the capacitor.

 

[LushTone]

you may like bill lawrence/wilde picks l280s. bills pickups move the magnets halfway up the pole piece so they have a wide magnetic field like a p-90 and don't have the over bearing single coil sound. the l280s is a hot pickup that should give you the warmth  you want. you can make that a more "acoustic" tone with the q-filter. my l200s pickups sound almost like a piezo if i use my faux q-filter circuit without the capacitor.

Interesting, I'll take a look!

 

[Dan025]

you may like bill lawrence/wilde picks l280s. bills pickups move the magnets halfway up the pole piece so they have a wide magnetic field like a p-90 and don't have the over bearing single coil sound. the l280s is a hot pickup that should give you the warmth  you want. you can make that a more "acoustic" tone with the q-filter. my l200s pickups sound almost like a piezo if i use my faux q-filter circuit without the capacitor.

Interesting, I'll take a look!

http://wildepickups.com/Home_Page.html

you need to look for "Wilde Pickups," not "bill lawrence usa." the bill lawrence usa are chinese knockoffs. well not really a knockoff as they legally have the right to use his name and designs. it was a bad business deal. bill has exacting quality control down to being able to test coils for shorted coils that can muddy up the tone. there may be a waiting period. but they are inexpensive. comparable to seymour duncans or dimarzio in price or cheaper.

 

[LushTone]

Oh ok!  ccasion14:

 

[mystique1]

I've been using DiMarzio Area 58s and a Virtual solo for the past 2 years, but for the previous 21 years I had Gold Lace Sensors in an '89 Strat Plus. Was very happy with them both clean and overdriven, and the Noise reduced aspect was a big bonus. Experimented with Hot Golds, Red , Blue, and Silver Sensors too, but always came back to the Golds. I bought a new Am Std a couple of years back and ordered some new Golds for it as I didn't like the hum from the stock pups. When I fitted them they sounded very weak in comparison to the set on my Strat Plus so assuming there was something wrong I returned them for a different set. These and another set afterwards all had the same problem, and even a new set of Hot Golds were a disappointment which is why I ended up with DiMarzios. I even tried the new Sensors in the Strat Plus with the same results.
The new type Sensors are manufactured in a different housing to the old type, and on the various forums its been noted that the sound changed too which is a great pity, as I was very fond of the original type.

 

[DustyCat]

[EDIT: I have not tried them personally...but] I like the idea behind most of what Lace claims their sensor pickups can do for electric guitar

reducing annoying 60-cycle hum
yielding a wider tonal range and better string balance than traditional pickups
Lace Sensors generate 36 separate magnetic "sensing" fields
Less Noise, More Harmonics
Increased Sustain, Truer Pitch
string dampening is virtually nonexistent
sustain is increased dramatically while the string holds its true pitch for the duration of the note

HD-like Tone (alumitone series)
and I don't mind if a pickup does not sound like one that has been accepted into tradition

But pickups are just not in the budget right now, nor are they the easiest things to A/B since the truest test would have different sets in the same guitar, and my gear ain't broke.

Maybe someday...

 

[LushTone]

I've been using DiMarzio Area 58s and a Virtual solo for the past 2 years, but for the previous 21 years I had Gold Lace Sensors in an '89 Strat Plus. Was very happy with them both clean and overdriven, and the Noise reduced aspect was a big bonus. Experimented with Hot Golds, Red , Blue, and Silver Sensors too, but always came back to the Golds. I bought a new Am Std a couple of years back and ordered some new Golds for it as I didn't like the hum from the stock pups. When I fitted them they sounded very weak in comparison to the set on my Strat Plus so assuming there was something wrong I returned them for a different set. These and another set afterwards all had the same problem, and even a new set of Hot Golds were a disappointment which is why I ended up with DiMarzios. I even tried the new Sensors in the Strat Plus with the same results.
The new type Sensors are manufactured in a different housing to the old type, and on the various forums its been noted that the sound changed too which is a great pity, as I was very fond of the original type.

Interesting that they've changed in that way.  :icon_scratch: