How do the Lace Alumitones work?

[laxu]

So I've got a Strandberg Boden OS 8 coming in next week and I went with Lace X-Bar pickups because I don't like EMGs. But now that I read more about the Lace pickups they seem to be a very unique design.

Can somebody explain to me how they work? Based on pics they don't have the traditional coils of wire around the pole pieces but instead look like just two bar magnets and something small wrapped in electric shrink tubing.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

So I've got a Strandberg Boden OS 8 coming in next week and I went with Lace X-Bar pickups because I don't like EMGs. But now that I read more about the Lace pickups they seem to be a very unique design.

Can somebody explain to me how they work? Based on pics they don't have the traditional coils of wire around the pole pieces but instead look like just two bar magnets and something small wrapped in electric shrink tubing.

via Imgflip Meme Generator

in all seriousness : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI8sMJVjHrY

 

[marcwormjim]

I researched these pickups last year, and was disappointed to find mostly jargon-filled hype from when they were first released - To the point that I fear describing exactly what they are and do would just invite pointless debate. The official video posted gives you an idea, but not the whole idea. Rather, I'll just describe their performance:

Think of them as humbucker-sized single coils with a hi-fi sound, and don't expect them to sound like any others - Plan to spend time dialing in amp settings just for them, with the possibility that you still won't like them at the end of the day. Expect them to sound either much weaker or much hotter than expected, at first.

I have a guitar set up with only Alumitones for when I want "that" sound, that I consider separate from my guitars with traditional pickups - Rather than consider them better or worse, I consider them apples and oranges. Some days, I feel like my clean and dirty amp sounds are a waste of the range the pickups put out, while on others I feel like they're the go-tos.

 

[laxu]

Thanks for the video, explains how it works a bit. Will see if I like them or not, they don't sound bad in videos to me at least.

 

[vick1000]

Essentially, you have a single heavy "winding" decoupled from the frame of the pickup, with magnets creating the field over the strings directly. The output from the main coil is sent into a small secondary coil that acts as a tranformer, increasing current to usable levels.