tsl602000 Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 I was wondering if any of you strat players have an opinion on Lace Sensors.. more specific the Gold type. Please no reactions from the metalheads out there who only play high output humbuckers.... I know you hate those Lace sensors. I bought a few cheap on Ebay and am also wondering if the pick up covers can be changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snork Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 I love the lace sensors i just got. I've installed them on my oscar shmidt great great sound. to my surprise (drak) they actually had a large amount of quack in them like the holy grails. more so than the texas specials plus they overdrive well. really well. I love the sound of the lace sensor gold. Probably more than the grails because they overdrive much better. the grails are all about quack. but the golds have a bit when the tone is up and the clean on. its great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 I'm a self-proclaimed quack expert, and the gold lace sensors are the only ones I can tolerate. I knew Don Lace's brother, and it turns out, he's the brains behind the whole idea, and he holds the patents. He made APC brand pickups for awhile. The way I see it is that Don and the other people at lace were sort of "performing a play without the script." They had some of the genious but not all of it. As a result, when they started branching out to different sounds they made some bad pickups. The golds are sort of the "originals" and they are okay. They are not icy clean, like a '57 for example, so if you have an old fender or plexi amp that gets crunchy, squeaky overdrive sound from strat pickups, you'll notice a little loss in the top end that makes strats so glassy. For example, they made Buddy Guy have the lace sensors in his signature strat, but he still recorded with the vintage stuff, and when he was on TV or at a big gig he'd have the signature model. The smoothness of them does make for a smoother or "better" overdrive, though. They're more polished sounding. There is some sort of natural decrease in output on the higher strings that the APC guys told me about, so you will probably find yourself running them closer to the strings on the treble side than the bass side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 From what ive heard they are some of the best strat pickups tohave. eventually i plan to have my project guitar fitted with them but i need the cash first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strummer2k Posted March 3, 2004 Report Share Posted March 3, 2004 I have a set of Lace Golds in a '94 Am. Deluxe Strat. I have had kind of a love/hate thing going with them. You have to love how quiet they are which is why I originally bought the gtr. My '84 strat was just unbearable in a recording situation with regular single coils (before I learned about shielding). At times the Golds have sounded a bit sterile to me, but I have recently spent a lot more time than I ever have adjusting the height and playing with different combinations and I am groovin on 'em again. I have the treble sides around 1/16, 3/32, 1/16 and the bass side around 3/32 on all three(the middle one may be a bit lower). They get great quack in positions 2 and 4. However, if I play just on the bridge, I gotta roll the tone back a bit, so I may have some more tweaking to do on that one. I'm rambling a bit...but what I do really like is that they sound good overdriven. They can't do metal, but you can definitely get into some Smashing Pumpkins territory ( and that is a good thang). I think they sound great with scooped mids. BTW, I also have a TSL602 which I got off of Ebay about six months ago. I have been contemplating getting a set of Hot Golds. Supposedly they have a little more punch and more mids (but maybe it's just hype). We'll see. Hope some of that helps. Oh, I saw someone ask about changing the covers over at the Lace forum. Don said it could be done, but you gotta be extremely careful. Just search that forum, it should be easy to find the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeAR Posted March 3, 2004 Report Share Posted March 3, 2004 Yes you can replace the covers, but do so at your own risk..............Ive only ever killed one p/up befor and it was a new blue sensor...man was I pissed off. Believe it or not the covers are held in place with silicon. Like the stuff you buy from the hardware store to seal moisture out of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Page_Master Posted March 3, 2004 Report Share Posted March 3, 2004 in terms of Strat pickups, i like the Lace Sensory pickups. but in my opinion, i have heard better Strat pickups than Lace. these pickups are made by a man from my home town and he has quite a very good reputation. may i suggest people check out: Kinman Noiseless Single Coil Pickups. i have compared the Lace pickups on my uncles Jeff Beck with the Kinman pickups on his Jap Fender Strat, and i don't know, i just think the Kinman's sounded better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsl602000 Posted March 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2004 Thanks for the replies! I actually use Van Zandt pups for most of my guitars. I have a strat with John Suhrs that I like alot. I tried alot of pickups, inluding Fralin and the Kinmans. I didn't like those too much. I never tried Lace Sensors. I bought a few cheap on Ebay and when they get here, I'll give 'm a spin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strummer2k Posted March 3, 2004 Report Share Posted March 3, 2004 Frank: The way I see it is that Don and the other people at lace were sort of "performing a play without the script." They had some of the genious but not all of it. As a result, when they started branching out to different sounds they made some bad pickups. Can you expand a bit on this. I take it Don Lace is no longer with the current Lace company and not contributing to the current lineup of products? Have you heard the Lace Hot Golds? And who is "APC"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsl602000 Posted March 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2004 BTW, I also have a TSL602 which I got off of Ebay about six months ago. I used to have a TSL60 head. Didn't like it much.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank falbo Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 Can you expand a bit on this. I take it Don Lace is no longer with the current Lace company and not contributing to the current lineup of products? Have you heard the Lace Hot Golds? And who is "APC"? Well, Don Lace Sr passed away in '92. But the way I understood it was that his brother Mel actually held most of the patents, and sadly, Don, with the help of Fender, sued Mel and lost. (brother against brother ) Like Mel was saying "hey, what are you doing? A lot of that stuff is from my ideas" and they panicked, and went for blood. Obviously they're making Lace Sensors today because they have the right to do certain things, and because there was a settlement reached, and I think that money is what helped Mel start adder plus corp. I just found the website for APC (www.adderplus.com) It's a weak site and I don't know how much pickup making they're doing. They're making carts, too. And he was designing power conditioners, too. But they are good, kind people, and Mel is a genious. When I say "without a script" what I mean is like if you didn't have great computer knowledge, but you took someone else's motherboard and then tried to make a computer out of it, through trial and error. It seemed to me that the lace sensor takes some of what they can do with the patents they held, but not actually doing everything that could be done. Its APC that realized the true potential of this design. I have a few and they're fantastic. They all have big personality so you can't judge them all from hearing one. But I was good friends with those guys for awhile and I have some custom pups too. So I'm not saying that the people who started Lace left, but rather that it was started with some "borrowed" ideas. As I understand it the gold lace sensor was the original, and closest to some of Mel's ideas. As they made other pickups it was like they were going into new territory without Mel, and getting farther away from what made the gold lace sensor a good pickup. I haven't heard the Hot Gold ones, maybe they're great. And I'm not saying they suck either, but there's reasons that some people find them sort of blah. Many people swear by them, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters. The rest is fodder. But it explains why I don't really like any of them except the gold ones. Sorry for the long rant but you asked me to expand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strummer2k Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 Don't aplogize, that is exactly what I wanted. Thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 i can't say i like them; i played a strat with them in it, it didn't seem like they were anything special. i would rather have had some nice regular single coils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 No one's said it yet, but there's the 'old golds', the 'original' Lace Gold pkps, then there's the new 'Hot Golds', which, from most accounts, are much better. Snork, I'm sure, has the new Hot Golds. Just to clarify the conversation, you's guys is talking 'bout two different pkps I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.