My Fender Lace Sensor Collection is Complete!

[Amp360]

I love the USA-made Fender guitars from 1987-1992. These are some of my favorite guitars from any Fender era.

Here is my collection. I just scored the first-year Stratocaster Ultra, an amazingly great guitar. It's got a one-piece maple cap. These first year Ultra models were mostly made in the Custom shop due to the wiring and ebony necks. I have to pop this one open later in the week. but boy howdy, does it sound great!

The Lace guitars can be polarizing, but I love that sound that nothing else can give.

I should be looking for a Rosewood Plus Deluxe, but I don't need it. After all these years of buying and trading, I was down to the last three guitars I wanted: an Ultra, a 12-String Rickenbacker, and a 175 or Byrdland (I should have bought the one I saw in Philadelphia two years ago!).

The Ultra checks a box. I had always wanted one and had only seen one 1990 model before - right when they came out. These were expensive, and I don't remember any stores stocking them until a few years later when the Floyd Rose bridge ones came out. The late 90s were the end of FMIC for me (YMMV/IMHO).

 

[RocknRollShakeUp]

I like Lace Sensors, they remind me of the good times of the 90’s. I thought they generally sounded great.

I gigged a Strat with a Red Lace Sensor in the bridge for many years in the 90’s!

Just to commemorate those times I’d dig having a Surf Green Jeff Beck Signature Strat with the pickup configuration like your sunburst Strat w the two bridge Lace sensors!

What does it sound like with both turned on? Are they wired in series like a humbucker?

 

[Amp360]

From the Strat Ultra website:

Here is what the "mini-switch" does to the Dually bridge pickup (and remember, too, that these settings can be mixed with the other pickups). Up) activates the front bridge pickup, which creates an out-of-phase hollow sound, which then can be combined with the middle pickups with the 5-way Super Switch.

 

[Amp360]

I like Lace Sensors, they remind me of the good times of the 90’s. I thought they generally sounded great.

I gigged a Strat with a Red Lace Sensor in the bridge for many years in the 90’s!

Just to commemorate those times I’d dig having a Surf Green Jeff Beck Signature Strat with the pickup configuration like your sunburst Strat w the two bridge Lace sensors!

What does it sound like with both turned on? Are they wired in series like a humbucker?

I almost bought a JB with a big neck, but it had neck problems. The wiring is a little different; it has an on/off button for the HB. The original Beck is a great guitar!

 

[Arch D. Bunker]

Congrats with finding this one - I never bonded with Strats until I played one of the new American Standards in 1987 when they came out, and was very surprised. I still have mine, which has the most 'live mileage' on it of all my guitars, and got a second one a few years ago. In my view, those are the guitars that saved Fender.

 

[seafood]

They look terrible ......but they sound great !!!! and quiet too !!!!

 

[Amp360]

They look terrible ......but they sound great !!!! and quiet too !!!!

I love the look, but it's nostalgic. I was a kid when the Lace guitars were introduced, and they were marketed as premium guitars at the time. I can see others not liking them.

I've always liked the Lace Sensor sound. It's clean, but it has a unique sound, such as the Journeyman/24 Nights Lace/Soldano sound.

I have also found that the quality of the necks and profiles on the 87-92/early 93 guitars is very nice. In 94/95 when Fender went back to the spaghetti logo and Moto pickguards, changed the neck profiles, and (IMHO) went down in quality a little.

The Ultra was (originally) made in very small batches. Imagine ordering a Custom Shop Stratocaster with an ebony fretboard, a one-piece maple top, and fancy switching. I love the nut on the original models, but there is a little work that usually has to be done on them (Beck was still using one last time I saw him), the pop-in tremolo arm, locking tuners, no string trees, etc. Plus, you're getting four pickups, as the Dually is two red lace sensors that can work separately or together - like the Robbie Robertson Strat.

They're beautiful-looking and playable guitars. I like everything about them, even the fancy pickguard with the routes that match the pickups. Plus, it is probably the lightest Stratocaster I own.

I have two old Strats - a 60 or 61 and a 54. I put the Plus models on the same tier. They're very special guitars that can be had in the $800 range if you look hard enough.

You have to be careful because sometimes people will pass American Standard guitars off as Plus models, but there was also a short run of American Standard with Lace pickups (I forget what they were called). Those American Standard guitars are pretty nice as well. 87-92/93 was a very good time for FMIC.

 

[Steven K]

I too own the strat plus and ultra and like the fact that Lace Sensor PU's are not noisy. Yet this does in no way compromise great tone.