Slowhand pickups in place of Lace Sensors/Mid Boost - lovely results :)

[totnesdave]

Hi all, I'm brand new to these forums, just received and used my first set of Bare Knuckles today, thought I'd quickly relate the experience in case anyone was thinking of anything similar.

I have a 1996 blonde Buddy Guy USA Signature Strat, Lace Sensor Golds, active 25dB mid boost same as the EC model. i've owned the guitar since new, it's lovely and has a fantastic neck, but I found myself not doing a lot with it any more as I had got rather tired of the Lace Sensors, they are very pure and lack harmonic complexity to my ears and the wild Claptonesque mid boost howl, while fun, became a little tiresome to me, in short given the superb feel and playability of the guitar I wanted to see what it was capable of 'in the raw' with some nice soulful traditional pickups and no onboard electrickery.

I ordered a 'Slowhand' set with baseplates fitted to all three, ready wired on a parchment white pickguard and this arrived super promptly today, which I fitted with much eagerness, removing the whole Lace loaded pickguard with all its attendant electronics and circuit boards and simply dropping in the new one, just 3 solder joints to make. Easy as pie :)

I am very, very pleased with this mod, it has effectively given me a brand new guitar which plays and sounds absolutely superbly. I don't miss the mid boost one bit, as the 'slowhands' I find have a superb tone for my usage and really 'sizzle' quite remarkably with bags of punch ... I wonder how much the baseplates affect this, it certainly reminds me of something of the sizzle of a Tele pickup. The neck pickup drives beautifully too. It really has a vintage snap and cluck that it just never had before.

I'm playing it through my Jensen equipped Blues Junior with a Carl Martin AC-Tone boost and what a great vintage sound this is, I *doubt* I will be using the Lace Sensors again !

I also have a set of David White 'Old Glories' in my Japanese re-issue Strat, also hand wound in Cornwall when they were still available, will be most interesting to compare these two guitars now.

May well post a pic or a sample, cheers :)

[38thBeatle]

Welcome to the forum,. Interesting to read your impressions of the slowhands. Mine don't have the baseplates and are installed in a Jap 1960's r/i Strat. Mine was used at a gig tonight and the guitar has that great organic tone that BKPs seem to specialise in. It is good to have another Strat player around.

[totnesdave]

Yep my Jap r/i is one of the 50's blue fotoflame variety, nice guitar also :)

Thinking about the baseplates ... I notice they are commonly added to the lead pickup to liven things up, but ... is there any reason for *not* adding them to the other positions....I'm liking the tone and punch they produce overall on the guitar, but just wondered if there's anything I'm losing through having added them throughout ?

cheers

Dave:)

[Plexi Ken]

Hi, welcome to the forum  :)

Excellent first post, I'm looking to replace the p/ups in my MIM 50's strat and you've given me food-for-thought.
My understanding of baseplates is that they add a little bass and mid (without lossing highs) bit like Tele's get with their plate on the bridge p/up.

[AndyR]

Yep, welcome to the forum :D

My understanding of the baseplates is the same. I don't think there's any reasons against adding them where ever you want - it's personal taste.

Obviously I've got one on my tele bridge - they come "standard". But I don't really know exactly what they do to the sound of a strat pickup. The impression I get from reading on here is that they "beef" them up a bit without losing the "strattiness" - I'm guessing that they're adding to the "bags of punch" you mention on yours.

[Philly Q]

I must admit when I saw the thread title I thought you were using Slowhands with the mid boost, which would be interesting.  I suspect it might be too noisy with true single-coils.  Glad it turned out well though!  :)

I have the EC mid-boost circuit but have never got round to using it, partly because I'm reluctant to rout any of my Strats for a battery compartment.  Won't be using it on my new parts Strats either, I've just bought a set of Irish Tours.

[totnesdave]

Yes, I was very tempted to build a new assembly using the Slowhands on a new white plate with the mid boost included, though you *have* to use the 50k volume pot with the active circuit (or it squeals like a pig apparently) and the TBX tone control requires a capacitor mod, so I understand, to suit 'regular' pickups, but, I dunno, the idea of having two separate drop in/drop out assemblies seemed less irreversible, and what with the active electronics being in circuit and on all the time, it can't help but affect the character of the guitar in some way, and, like I said, I wanted to try it out as a 'vintage', regular Strat, and I'm not at all sorry I decided to try that as it's created a new killer Strat like the instrument's second lease of life, and no worrying about the battery draining through leaving the lead plugged in ! Flat Battery = Dead Guitar :(

i also have the full shielding plate fitted which in theory would have helped reduce the noise levels.

The Clapton mid boost is nice and fabulous fun to 'pull out of the bag' and surprise people (!) but it gives the guitar a certain 'full on' sound and character, which you can hear on most of Clapton's late 80s/90's albums, that huge (almost synthetic?) 'wail', and lace sensors, well they sounded like a perfect simulacrum of a Strat without somehow the 'life and soul', all personal impressions of course :) I'm not trying to 'bash' the Laces, they just have their own distinct set of uses and I'd say  smoky old vintage 'brown' sounds are outside that envelope.

Anyhow, I set the Slowhands (flat poled as the guitar has a 9.5" rad neck) to standard Fender height specs, think thats 4/64" treble and 5/64" bass, however it wolfed quite noticeably. I lowered each pickup screw down another half-turn of the screw and found that seemed to work very nicely. Anyone have any specs for the Slowhands ? I kept the middle pickup just a fraction lower than the other two as that helps '"feed the ducks", quack quack :)

I'm almost tempted to get some BKPs for my 1990 Les Paul Standard but ooooh that guitar sounds beautiful as it is :)

[FernandoDuarte]

I kept the middle pickup just a fraction lower than the other two as that helps '"feed the ducks", quack quack :)

:lol: LMAO

I'm almost tempted to get some BKPs for my 1990 Les Paul Standard but ooooh that guitar sounds beautiful as it is :)

Hummm You should try mules on it...

And about your first post: No pics = doesn't exist :D

Welcome to the forum :drink:

[totnesdave]

Here she is, in both incarnations !

Hope this works *crosses fingers* :D



Should be a clickable thumbnail :)

Dave

[Fikealox]

Mate, she looks 10 times better now. I bet she sounds as good as she looks, too :D I'm envious!

[HTH AMPS]

I preferred the look of the tortioseshell scratchplate, the white doesn't have enough contrast imo.

Congrats on the Slowhands though - they sound exactly like the set I'd buy 'if' I had a Strat (I'm 100% a Tele man when it comes to Fenders though).

I've got a 1990 Les Paul standard as well, the Gibsons of the early 90s are crackin guitars and very consistent.  I've got Mules in mine and its a fantastic tone.

[Will]

Amazing pickups.

[Philly Q]

I preferred the look of the tortioseshell scratchplate, the white doesn't have enough contrast imo.

I agree, I always like the parts to be a different colour than the scratchplate.  Still looks good though!

[ailean]

Mate, she looks 10 times better now. I bet she sounds as good as she looks, too :D I'm envious!

+1. I like the parchment.

Welcome to the forums!

As for the Gibson, I don't think they make a pickup that Tim can't improve upon :)  Just my opinion.

[totnesdave]

Mmmmm cosmetic choice is always *sooooooooo* subjective eh ? I do know what you all mean :)

It's a 3 ply pickguard though and when you see it 'in the wood' the black layer creates a much stronger accent on the shape of the guard than is obvious from the picture - looks very classy, in fact :)

Actually I really agonized over it though....

I was always very ambivalent about the tortoise-shell guard (or 'corn beef hash scratchplate' as my little bro' always used to call them). Anyhow, 12 years of looking at it and I fancied a change........

Thought about black, nah didn't fancy it, cream pearloid or gold anodised, but that's even less contrast really and pondered long and hard over white pearloid, but in the end I wanted to wind the guitar back to a more 'traditional' classic look and sound, I don't like bright white, wasn't sure about the 'mint green' like I have on my Broadcaster loaded Tele-bitsocaster and eventually picked parchment after having seen a few woodgrain 70's Strats in books which actually looked kinda nice.

I do like the new look, on the whole, I actually always fancied a Mary Kaye blonde Strat with gold hardware and this is well, edging in that direction, it certainly looks and feels more like a 'good old Strat' but the main thing is.....

.... boy does it sound like one *big smile on face ! *

Those 'in between' positions are just *there*, absolutely effortless.

:)

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