Lace Alumitone Pickups.

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Anyone else tried them?

I took a chance and put them on my Parker PDF85 and they are outrageous!! They're not all midrangey or muddy sounding. Just big fat and sparkly. Truly wide range. I've got the neck pickup permanently set to split mode. Man I love these things and cannot recommend them enough.

One little caveat, they're deeper at the ends than most Humbuckers and I had to rout out the guitar's neck pickup cavity. Still, it was well worth it. I've never heard pickups like these before. I tried to install the Lace Aluma P90s in my other guitar but because of their design, and even though they're supposed to be "drop in replacements" for P90s, their sharp corners don't allow them to fit - even though I pulled out P90s out of my guitar. Dang! I know they'd sound amazing on that guitar too.

[zooey]

Which specific model did you get?

[TheDaveDaveDave]

I tried a few of them in a few guitars - single coil and hum bicker size in a Parker Nitefly, a Yamaha SG1500 and in a FrankenTele, but after a bit I found they had a really strange feel to the dynamics of my pick attack. It was almost like having a compressor through the midrange of attack. Normally I try to go where the guitar or amp takes me, but the Alumitones weren't getting me there... So my box of unused pickups got a little bigger.

[cruisinon2]

Buying pickups is an act of faith. Doesn't much matter what the ad copy says they're supposed to sound like. No way to know whether you'll like them until you put them in the guitar...and even then, you need to sit with them for a while to reach any real consensus.

 

Plus, because the process itself is such a pain in the arse, even if you know what you're doing (soldering, routing, etc), I think we're basically all predisposed to being initially pleased with the results, rather than immediately concede that we just wasted a bunch of time and money. 6 months later, all bets are off.

 

That being said, I do like my new Kinman "blues set" single coils that I got for Christmas...let's see if I'm still saying that at my July 4th BBQ. 😜

[taylorbeats]

It's like new golf clubs.  Buy them, play them a bunch and the game improves.  Lasts about 45 days though.  I have a strat plus with the original Gold Lace Sensors. They have really stood the test of time.

[cruisinon2]

It's like new golf clubs. Buy them, play them a bunch and the game improves. Lasts about 45 days though. I have a strat plus with the original Gold Lace Sensors. They have really stood the test of time.

Never golfed a day in my life, but I will take your word for it. ;)

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I pretty much know if something is going to work for me after a gig. I gigged with the Alumitones last weekend and they are definitely keepers for me. Tried them on two amps and the Helix and I was pleased with the sound on all three. I've probably swapped pickups more times than I care to remember and usually new pickups force me to make adjustments to my patches. While I will likely want to make a set of patches specifically for this guitar, it's not an immediate need this time around.

[hideout]

I tried a few of them in a few guitars - single coil and hum bicker size in a Parker Nitefly, a Yamaha SG1500 and in a FrankenTele, but after a bit I found they had a really strange feel to the dynamics of my pick attack. It was almost like having a compressor through the midrange of attack. Normally I try to go where the guitar or amp takes me, but the Alumitones weren't getting me there... So my box of unused pickups got a little bigger.

Interesting. That's totally the reverse of my experience with them.

[hideout]

Which specific model did you get?

I got the Deceptors. I got them because they look normal. Don't really like the looks of the other ones.