This is Nihei!
Have you heard of the Lace Sensor pickup?
If you’re familiar with Clapton or Jeff Beck, you’ve probably seen it—it’s a pickup with a distinctive appearance where the pole pieces aren’t visible.
The Lace Sensor features a special mechanism called “Micro-Matrix Foam,” which makes it a low-noise pickup that can produce a rich, deep sustain.
Clapton’s Strat was equipped with the “Fender Lace Sensor Gold”—a pickup designed to evoke the sound of a 1950s Strat—but there are also other models, such as the “Red” and “Blue,” each with distinct tonal characteristics.
Since Lace had a contract with Fender for 10 years, from 1986 to 1996, the top of the pickup is marked “Fender Lace Sensor”; however, for units produced after 1996, the contract with Fender ended, so the marking was changed to simply “Lace Sensor.”
However, even though it is no longer sold under the Fender name, there have been no changes to the design, so it produces the same sound.
As for why Fender adopted the unique Lace Sensor pickup, one reason was that Fender was looking for a low-noise pickup at the time. Another factor was that Lace’s founder, Don Lace, had been working with Fender since 1967, providing consulting services and helping to improve the speaker designs for Fender amplifiers.
It is said that this led to the development of the Lace Sensor.
There was another person indispensable to Fender’s Recruit of the Lace Sensor: Seth Lover, who is also famous for developing the P.A.F.
Seth Lover had been working at Fender since 1967 and was responsible for developing pickups such as the Wide Range Humbucker.
When Lace was conducting experiments with the Lace Sensor, the guitar on which the prototype pickup was mounted was, believe it or not, an original guitar owned by Seth Lover himself!!
The fact that Seth was so impressed by the pickup was one of the key events that led to Lace being recruited by Fender!!
Of course, the pickup’s performance is a major factor, but thinking about how personal connections played a role really gets me excited, haha.
By the way, the thumbnail image shows the “Dually” model, which combines two Lace Sensors!
That’s all from Nihei!