Lace Hot Gold--Now with Clips!

[marnold***]

As I mentioned in another thread, I installed some Lace Hot Gold pickups into my Squier '51. Hot Gold come in two varieties, a 6K and a 13K bridge. Similarly, Duallys (which are two Hot Gold in one "humbucker")can be 6K/6K, 13K/6K, or 13K/13K. I've got a standard Hot Gold at the neck and a 13K/13K Dually in the bridge. You would think that combining technically a 26K bridge pickup with a 6K neck would be stupid. You would be wrong. The middle position with or without the Dually tapped as a single 13K pickup is heavenly--the best part of these pickups by far.

I quickly recorded this clip with my Nexus 7. Unfortunately, I need to keep the amph volume low to keep the Nexus' mic from clipping. Unfortunately it STILL did with the Dually, but I think you can get the point nevertheless. I played through my Jet City JCA20H (retubed with JJs) and my JCA12S cab. All the tone controls and the presence are at noon. Preamp gain and master volume are both at 2. There are no effects engaged.

I play a quick chord followed by a brief lick. This will at least give you the flavor anyway. The only editing I did is using Audacity's noise reducer because the washer and drier are going right now. You will hear:
1) Full Dually
2) Coil cut Dually (one 13K)
3) Full Dually plus neck
4) Coil cut Dually plus neck
5) Neck only

Lace Hot Gold Test

I took a picture which I'll upload later.

[Tig***]

Wow, those sound pretty good. The dually plus neck samples sound balanced yet retain some Tele jangle.

[marnold***]

And here's the same pickup order, with the same amp settings except that the preamp gain is now at 6 and the master is at about 1.25. I wish I could turn the master up more but until I can pad the mic's input . . .

Lace Hot Gold Dirty

Interesting that as you crank the amp's preamp, the more it takes over the tone. I guess that shouldn't surprise me because with distortion comes compression and so the level differences that are so obvious when playing clean get lost (or at least hidden) when playing dirty.

Oh, and here's that picture I promised. It's a bit washed out--probably because it's so bright in my living room because of all the snow we have outside. But you get the point. I didn't screw the pickguard back down yet because I haven't decided if I want to adjust the height on the neck pickup any further. Besides the "none more black" pickups, note the similarly black new GraphTech saddles. No rattling from these! A huge improvement over stock.

[Tig***]

Nice upgrades! This is what they should sell.
It is easier to hear the distinctions between the different pickup selections on this clip, and they all sound better to me now.

[marnold***]

In the interest of full disclosure, here's some clips I recorded of the original pickups (well, the neck is a Jackson pickup from my old Charvel Model 7, the original 51 single coil is long since gone). I _think_ the gain settings were at least very close. I believe that the clean settings are actually slightly more clean. The tone controls were all set the same. One thing that is interesting to note is that Audacity's noise reduction cannot completely remove the hum from the single coils with gain. The clean clips are first followed by dirt.

Squier 51 Original Pickups

After listening to these clips, I'm even more pleased with my purchase. I accomplished my goals of reducing noise, adding some cojones, while still retaining single coily-ness when needed.

[FrankenFretter***]

I couldn't listen to the clips on my work computer, but I'll do that tonight. They sure look cool!

[Spudman***]

The new pickups do sound real good with what I would say is better overall tonal response across the whole pickup frequency spectrum. The variety of tones are distinct and musical. Very nice change indeed.

[FrankenFretter***]

Okay, just got home and listened. Like Spud mentioned, good variety of tones. They all sound good, too. That 51 is a real Swiss Army Knife of sound now!

[marnold***]

Okay, just got home and listened. Like Spud mentioned, good variety of tones. They all sound good, too. That 51 is a real Swiss Army Knife of sound now!

I agree. I'm considerably more pleased with the change than I thought I would be. I expected it to be better, but it's an entirely different animal now. The single Hot Gold sounds really nice and the Dually is an absolute beast. I still can't get over how well the full blown Dually and the single work together. I thought the Dually would massively overpower it, but it doesn't. That combo is my favorite way to use the pups actually. Glad MF was out of the 6K/6K at the time. Happy accident