{"id":3140,"date":"2015-05-27T12:37:58","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T11:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com\/?p=3140"},"modified":"2015-05-27T13:00:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T12:00:34","slug":"lace-alumitone-5-way-mod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/guitarworks.thestrandbergs.com\/2015\/05\/27\/lace-alumitone-5-way-mod\/","title":{"rendered":"Lace Alumitone 5-Way Mod"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Lace Alumitone\u2122 pickups, like the X-Bar<\/a>, which we use extensively, is based on a non-conventional technology (which we will not go into here) that provides noise- and hum-free high definition full range sound in a beautiful and lightweight package. <\/p>\n They don’t consist of two separate hum canceling bobbins like a humbucker, so when wiring them, there are less options. The option that they do provide is a “split” which is more similar to a coil tap, but it is again not a conventional coil tap because it does its magic without a dramatic loss in signal. But it changes the voicing of the pickup in a very nice way.<\/p>\n Connecting one of these pickups, using the split option, can be confusing because rather than shorting out one of the bobbins or part of the coil, you actually choose a different ground but leave the hot (signal) wire alone. For a humbucker sound, connect the white\/black cable to ground and leave the white cable disconnected and for the single coil sound, connect the white cable to ground and leave the white\/black disconnected. (Leaving the white cable completely disconnected is important – resist the temptation to connect it to the other white cable, or shorting it to ground.)<\/p>\n Here is a diagram on how to use a 4-pole 5-way switch (aka “Superswitch”) to obtain split sounds in position 2 and 4. Enjoy! (Note that the white\/black cable on the pickup is depicted as black in the diagram. The very nice and free software DIYLC<\/a> was used to create the diagram.)<\/p>\n