Lace X-bar or Death bar in bridge??

[Gmork]

Ive read completely conflicting things about the death bar specifically. On the lace website its described as having more mids than the X bar.
Ive also read here on SSO of people saying that the death bar has more bass and treble and then a lace rep chiming in and agreeing lolol.
So whats the deal?

Id like a good thick and beefy even tone thats articulate and clear, ie NOT scooped. Which one would you pick & why?
All clips ive heard sound good to me. So confused.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

deathbar has more of everything, especially mids and output. Xbar is far more versatile as far as the tones it can get (it has by far the best cleans I've ever heard from an 8 string pickup) but the low end is squishier imo. Neither will give you super thick tones just from the pickups, you'd have to play with your amp eq.

 

[larsmul]

I have a deathbar in the bridge and an x-bar on the neck , of a very resonant and full sounding guitar , with solid acoustic basses .
I found that the deathbar to be too powerful for my taste , with a lot of bass and mids but no bite on treebles .
I like a more even sounding p-u , with less compression ( the deathbar even distort a clean channel ) and more precision/fast attack .
So I got an x-bar to put on the bridge spot , I will mount it in a while and report of the changes .
A good clip of the x-bar bridge is this one :

A good clip with the deathbar :

 

[lewis]

Go dual xbars.

I had the deathbar and its a nightmare.
A hifi fuzzy sheen over everything you do high gain that you cant dial out.
The xbar neck was outstanding. I wish i had gone dual xbar myself.

 

[larsmul]

So , as I was writing up , I removed the Deathbar I installed the X-bar at the bridge today and it just does what I expected .
There is not a big difference in output with the Deathbar , less bass and thickness , low strings are more lively and precise ,
more treebles , a faster attack on all strings .
It makes a much more efficient p-u for leads , and way better for rhythms as well .
Before I thought the Deathbar was bassy compared to the X-bar neck , now I found the X-bar neck too sweet compared to the X-bar bridge ,
which has power and bite , and I had to rise the neck p-u closer to the strings ...
So it works fine with dual X-bars !

 

[lewis]

So , as I was writing up , I removed the Deathbar I installed the X-bar at the bridge today and it just does what I expected .
There is not a big difference in output with the Deathbar , less bass and thickness , low strings are more lively and precise ,
more treebles , a faster attack on all strings .
It makes a much more efficient p-u for leads , and way better for rhythms as well .
Before I thought the Deathbar was bassy compared to the X-bar neck , now I found the X-bar neck too sweet compared to the X-bar bridge ,
which has power and bite , and I had to rise the neck p-u closer to the strings ...
So it works fine with dual X-bars !

yep!

exactly why i suggested that earlier in here.

the Deathbar is just too much work to use. The x bar gets a way sweeter and way more useable diverse sound so much faster.

 

[luca9583]

Interesting. I got an X Bar bridge after reading this thread and really like it. Is the Deathbar slightly muddier than the X Bar then? Would be great to know which one has more upper mid attack.

 

[lewis]

Interesting. I got an X Bar bridge after reading this thread and really like it. Is the Deathbar slightly muddier than the X Bar then? Would be great to know which one has more upper mid attack.

Its just obnoxious is its biggest problem,. And it has an odd fizz frequency you can't get rid of. Fizzy wood?
It's just really annoying. Plus tone building for it is incredibly frustrating.

The x bars are way more neutral without that annoying vibe, and balance brilliantly together as a pair and just work no problems.



Instantly you can hear obnoxious fizz nonsense they have wrong with them

 

[luca9583]

Its just obnoxious is its biggest problem,. And it has an odd fizz frequency you can't get rid of. Fizzy wood?
It's just really annoying. Plus tone building for it is incredibly frustrating.

The x bars are way more neutral without that annoying vibe, and balance brilliantly together as a pair and just work no problems.



Instantly you can hear obnoxious fizz nonsense they have wrong with them

Thanks yeah. The tone in that clip does sound a bit fizzy and flubby (regardless of the pickup maybe?). So it's probably got more bass than mids and highs then, compared to the X Bar which is pretty balanced.

 

[torchlord]

I have a Deathbar, and Xbar, never tried the Xbar in the bridge, but I tried to like the Deathbar but it was just too scooped in the mid areas or too hollow, with lots of high-end you and lots of bass. I felt like the pickups have a tendency of disappearing in recordings more than say traditional brand pickups do to the lack of mid-frequencies. I went back to the Dimarzio Blaze pickup set and they are much better in my opinion.

 

[luca9583]

Yeah all makes sense. I like the X Bar i've put in an Agile..it would be better if it had some of that upper mid attack you get from some BKPs but it can be dialed with some pre EQ. It's definitely a balanced pickup that needs a bit of tone shaping for certain things.

It's funny how a lot big pickup brands make the pickups to have all this excess bass response that then just gets dialled out with boost/eq pedals/plugins.

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

+1 for hating on the Deathbar. I had one and hated it, for all the reasons outlined in this thread

 

[bostjan]

It appears that everyone loathes the Deathbar, but I still like mine. To me, it's like a Dimarzio X2N with a bunch more upper mid and a little more high end. I've tried a shit ton of pickups in my life, and I'd put it in the top 25%. But it doesn't really sound much like a BKP Miracle Man, nor whatever all the rage right now is, so there's that.

 

[Zhysick]

I really liked my Deathbars when I had them in my 8 string.... also in neck position, so fluid!!!!

 

[wakjob]

I need to revisit the Lace 'Bars' at some point. Anyone have microphonic issues with either these?

I had the Death Bar 6 in a Warmoth build, and like others I found it just too much. But there were aspects of it that were very cool to my ears. I should've tried the regular X bar right after moving on back to traditional pickups in that guitar.

 

[luca9583]

@lewis do you know if the X Bar can be split for either inner or outer coils, or is it only one available split sound? I'm wiring a switch for a BKP that selects between humbucking, inner or outer coils but not sure if it can be done with the X Bar.

 

[lewis]

@lewis do you know if the X Bar can be split for either inner or outer coils, or is it only one available split sound? I'm wiring a switch for a BKP that selects between humbucking, inner or outer coils but not sure if it can be done with the X Bar.

Ah sorry man it was so long ago I don't remember!
I'm sure there was loads of different coloured wires so maybe plenty of options?
Might be worth shooting them an email and asking bro.

My split sound did sound unreal though. Best clean split tone I've ever had.

 

[luca9583]

Ah sorry man it was so long ago I don't remember!
I'm sure there was loads of different coloured wires so maybe plenty of options?
Might be worth shooting them an email and asking bro.

My split sound did sound unreal though. Best clean split tone I've ever had.

Yep i'll email them..i bet it's got a wicked split sound.

 

[ElRay]

@lewis do you know if the X Bar can be split for either inner or outer coils, or is it only one available split sound? ...

All but the earliest versions are "two sound" capable. They have an additional wire that can be grounded to get the 2nd, more single-coil-like sound.

 

[luca9583]

All but the earliest versions are "two sound" capable. They have an additional wire that can be grounded to get the 2nd, more single-coil-like sound.

Ah so you can't choose between inner or outer coils..you can only get one split sound. I'm waiting for Lace to reply.