Surely A Tele Pickup Would Work Like A Lace Sensor?

[Masina]

I was reading this article about lace sensors:

http://www.agi-lace.com/electric_pickups/l...ensor_specs.php

and realised the only thing about them is the metal parts reducing hum and reduces the field size. Well surely a tele lipstick tube pickup would do the same thing, as the cover is made of metal?

or am I missing something?

Edited December 31, 2007 by Masina

[GregP]

Lace Sensor technology is set apart by more than the metal parts. Even the article you yourself quoted explains it in a lot more depth. It's the shape and materials of the magnet structure--not the casing--that make it respond differently. As they say, the entire magnetic field is different than a standard pickup. The metal casing of a tele pickup won't affect the magnetic field much or at all (non-magnetic materials are chosen).

Just like a covered humbucker, the casing likey DOES help reject a certain amount of noise. But not to the same extent as the Lace technology.

[edit-- didn't read the full page you linked to, but if you scroll down to the technical drawings, it's all right there. The magnetic fields of the pickup aren't caused by the casing (which is usually plastic, incidentally) but by that weird comb-shaped arrangement that takes the place of polepieces]

[Masina]

I see, yes I realized that there was some other differences (like the 'comb' structure) but thought the tele pickups seemed to be similar. didn't realize the aren't magnetic though

[GregP]

I assume you mean the cover not being magnetic.

[Mike Sulzer]

Please remember that that article you referred to is an advertisement. Not everything in it is misleading. There is nothing wrong with putting the magnets around the edge. But they are just magnets. And the claim that they draw some of the flux from magnetic interference through them rather than letting it pass through the coil has some validity. But they are not telling you anything about the core of the coil. Is it air? I doubt it because the inductance is quite high. If they use cores of magnetic material, then those cores also concentrate the field from interfering sources and so the magnetic shielding ability is limited. And also those cores tend to make the the pickup more sensitive to the part of the string right over them, and so the claim that they sense over the the whole coil is exaggerated. That article is 80% flimflam and 20% engineering. In other words, it is a great ad!