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Hi all,
I'm thinking of changing my Strat pickups and have been looking at various types (SD stacked, EMG, Lace etc).
I've heard really good things about the Lace Sensors and want to know if anyone is using them here (with or without a Boss GT unit). The set I looked at were the mixed Red/Silver/Blue which seem to cover all bases.
The EMG's are nice but very expensive.
Any thoughts?
They were good enough for a while for Clapton, Buddy Guy, Pete Townshend, Steve Winwood, Billy Corgan etc. I had a set and wasn't too pleased with them, but that could have been that particular Strat. A buddy owns a Clapton Strat from the 90s, which came with lace sensors. He's left it unmodded and has just about worn it out physically. The LSs still sound good.
Take a look at Bill Lawrence pups too, I have a BL250 in the neck position of one of my teles and it sounds damn nice.
What I have been looking at recently are Zexcoils.
On those EMGs....
I used a set of EMG SVs for many years and liked them a lot. But I finally got tired of the "vintage" percussive pop, and when I did I found myself trying to adjust my amp and playing to mitigate it.
After talking with the guys at EMG, I recently replaced them with a set of their new X-Series pickups... specifically, the SAX set.
They may be expensive, but not more than booteek pups. And I am here to tell you they are totally worth it. I am getting the smoothest, Stratiest tone from the Zencaster ever, with an awesome analog-y "quack" and zero self-noise. The trick to using EMGs is to adjust them like you would any other pickup... Because of the low magnetic pull, a lot of players crank them up against the strings, but if you deck them, you are rewarded. Seriously, these are my favorite Strat pickups ever.
Here's a demo I recorded of clean sounds right after I installed them. Even the middle pickup alone sounds great!
X-Series pickups cleans
I've also got a slightly overdriven solo thing I'm crazy happy with, but I need to get that uploaded... I'll post it later.
After a lot of thought and listening - I'm going with EMG's.
Probably the DG-20 Gilmour set :)
:sign11:
Love the lace sensors, i use the gold lace in the neck and the middle with the red (hot) in the bridge ,you can not go wrong !