Fender Lace Gold pickups

[milko]

Hi Y’all,
I hope you’re all safe and well.
Some of you may own a Strat Plus or other Strat with Lace Gold pickups, used by Fender in the 90s I think.
I do, and always rather rejected the Lace Gold pickups as inferior for attaining ‘that sound’.
Indeed, I’ve seen it reported that Hank wasn’t keen on them either.
However, I’ve read that they were designed by Mr Lace to replicate the 50s pickups’ bell chime clear tone, but with zero noise and hum.
Indeed, they do, if they are carefully adjusted vis a vis pickup to string clearance as per the Lace pickups site:-String distance from the pickup, fretted at 21st fret - (use capo):-

1st String High “E”: 
-NECK: 1.5mm
-MIDDLE: 2.0mm
-BRIDGE: 1.0mm
6th String Low “E”: 
-NECK: 2.5mm
-MIDDLE: 3.5mm
-BRIDGE: 2.0mm

They tolerate close proximity to the strings because their magnetic pull is so much less than regular pickups,

I’ve found you need to be extremely cute with eq - using a Caline maybe - and/or a Bass roll off filter - Gemini III/Cutting Edge, but you can get very very close indeed to ‘that sound’ on Apache, Wonderful Land etc.

Now I wouldn’t suggest that you go swapping out your fave Hank tone pickups for them, but merely that you give them a chance if your Lace Gold equipped Strat is sulking unloved and unused in its case.
I’ve spent a happy hour or hundred recently fiddling with EQ, Gemini III and Cutting Edge bass roll-offs, (all through HCSE though) making guitars and amp sound ‘as near as pluck it.’
Sadly, only my NOS 56 Strat through HCSE into an AC15 is perfect, but with time on my hands, I wanted to push the boundaries on other gear. And it can be done. Lotta patience and write the settings down!
All the best, Milko

[glyderslead]

Hello Milko,

I have a couple of 1983 Fender Strat Elite’s with active pickups, similar to the Lace pickups, that have been languishing in their cases. These were used in the days before H&CSE, the Cutting Edge or Gemini 111 came into being and I haven’t, until now, thought of giving them a try with this modern equipment.

Thanks for the nod.

Cheers

Mick

[Charlie Hall]

I remember these coming out in the 80s. I had an 80s Strat Plus Deluxe that I had acquired through a swap. It was an earlier version with 2 silver Lace and one Blue Lace. I hated the silvers, they sounded clangy, but the blue in the bridge position was great. If I had persisted with it I might have swapped the silvers for golds as I considered the golds to be better sounding at that time, and probably still do. I think the TBX tone control was designed to work with the gold Lace pickups as its centre position helped to take a little of the highs away from the golds. I don't like the TBX control with normal pickups. There have been quite a few other colours in Lace pickups since then but I haven't tried any.
Regards,
Charlie

[frankmarvin]

Had a Strat plus in the 80s , three gold lace P/Ups. DREADFUL , I hated them. could never get the sound I wanted, ( not just Shadows ). ANY sound. dull, dull, dull, maybe it was just me, but I was glad to get rid of it.

Frank.

[milko]

Hi Frank,
You must have owned an early Strat Plus, since they only started making them in 1987. Worth a bit now!
I must say that to get the chime out of the Lace Gold pickups, I needed a lot of attention to multi-band EQ, Bass roll off, and EQ on the emulation amp I used; but I got a decent sound in the end.
Good enough to stop me selling the guitar!
Milko

[milko]

Hi y’all,
Some of you will have noticed I mentioned the Cutting Edge and Gemini III Bass roll-off filters. (Or high pass filters if you prefer to call them thus)
I actually prefer them to using a multi band graphic EQ.
They’re both currently out of production, but you can make a Cutting Edge if you’re neat at soldering. There aren’t many components, and it’s cheap to make.
Our very own respected Charlie Hall designed the brilliant Cutting Edge. It doesn’t use a battery, so there’s little chance of frying your echo-box, amp or guitar if you make it faultily!
If you search this site you’ll find posts which describe the usage of both bits of kit, and the circuit for the Cutting Edge, which WITH Charlie’s permission you may make for your OWN use,
Milko