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 S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Sensors) 
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Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2018 12:55 pm
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Location: Toronto-ish, Canada
Post S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Sensors)
Hello everyone! :greet: I recently got a very good condition S-500 Tribute off of Reverb, and it has some things that need sorted -- some that directly relate to base playability, others that I'm finding are preference. I was told it was PLEK'd after purchase by the previous owner, which may have been total fluff. I find the low E to be really buzzy when unfretted and depending on the day I can get mild buzz on some of the higher frets therein. I asked for the PLEK calibration information so I could compare it to the setup as is, but I probably screwed myself on that by asking for it AFTER the sale... Whoops. Anyway, it feels really nice on the other strings so I'm inclined to trust or turn a blind eye, it's just that damn low E... (Haven't changed the strings or tried to do a full setup myself, so this could be easily remedied, not sure.)

For the curious, here's the good stuff about the guitar (and it's really good):
    Excellent neck -- I usually don't like gloss finishes, and this S-500 Tribute doesn't feel sticky at all. Perhaps it's a similar formulation to the USA ones?
    - Fretwire seems to be good quality and polished well. I was told the seller took the guitar on a trade and was told by the person they got it from that it was PLEK'd -- I'm inclined to believe them, but maybe I'm just being naive here. I likely should've asked the hard questions before buying, but hey... I like the guitar.
    - The "Sonic Blue" colour (I think that's what it's called?) is beautiful. I usually find the flashy flame tops /veneers that show off the wood grain to be what I gravitate towards, but there's a lot to be said for a really good standard colour finish applied well.
    - High quality electronics -- proper volume and tone pots with decent friction that don't feel sloppy or loose.
    - The MFD Single Coil pickups are very "hi-fi" and sound great. I'm more of a humbucker person I suspect, but that's just personal preference.
    - The tremolo bridge works really well. It doesn't have locking tuners, but they don't actually seem essential, since the tuning keys are actually a high ratio and work!
    - Holy bananas, the so-called Passive Treble Bass (PTB?) system is the real deal. I don't even record myself with anything other than a looper for practicing, but it's immensely useful at shaving off frequencies on either end of the spectrum without reaching over and fiddling with the amp settings. (which I find overwhelming as I have an older modeling amp, should've got something simpler... that'll be rectified in the near future, hopefully.)

And now for the stuff that drives me a bit batty:
    - That @#$^ing low E string! I tried to find some info via Google, and it seems that it may well be that the nut slot is cut too low, especially as it's only the one string.
    - The treble tone pot uses a push / pull that's kinda hard to grip with the standard Fender style tone knobs. I'm not playing live, but it's just not that easy to grab and use for the blending option. Also, it doesn't have anywhere near as much friction as the other ones, which I find annoying, now that I know what a good knob (for my tastes) feels like!
    - 60 cycle hum since I'm often trying to figure something out while looking up references online or trying to figure out fingering or something from a video. It's probably not all that efficient as a learning method, but that's partly why I want to try swapping the pickups out for the Lace Sensors and see what happens. (I suspect I should shield the cavity and back of the pickguard as well, and I have copper tape leftover from a DIY project guitar kit, so a lot of this stuff will all happen at once.)
    - I think I prefer more tension on the vibrato, which I guess can be fixed by adding another spring or two? Something like that.
    - I have it tuned to E flat standard with the strings it shipped with -- the seller said they're D'addario EXL 110s, not sure if I want to stick with similar or start fiddling with different gauges. I assume drop tuning lower (no lower than C-standard for some doom metal type stuff) typically necessitates a thicker gauge to prevent things from getting floppy, but I'm nervous about recutting the nut. I've never refitted a nut myself, but I'm probably going to order a couple pre-cut Tusq nuts and see if I can figure that out on my cheap POS beater project guitar first. (I should've just got a cheap overseas / used one and used that as a baseline instead. Lesson learned.)

My thoughts on how I might fix some of these problems:
    - I saw a post from one of the G&L folks that was pinned (I think?) indicating that the necks can shift in shipping, so I guess I'll try that loosen and realign method, as the pickups don't quite line up with the string spacing. If it's still off, maybe I'll have to take measurements and cut myself a custom pickguard that's re-aligned slightly.
    - Regarding possibly finagling a custom pickguard of my preference, I was thinking of trying my hand at that anyway since I'm not a big fan of the standard positioning of the master volume knob on a Strat, as it's so close to the bridge and I find I stick my hand at a really weird angle and can't consistently palm mute over to the high E string. (not that I do that often, but it was something I was trying to do and couldn't pull off consistently.) I'll probably shift the Treble rolloff over as well.
    - Once I figure out what brand / value of pots are inside the guitar, I'll try to order one of the same for the Treble pot and maybe wire the neck blend switch back in as a standard mini toggle. I could get by with a push-push switch (my personal preferences, as I've had too many sloppy push pulls on my cheap guitars) but that feels like a gamble at this point.
    - I got a pack of Lace Sensors awhile ago to try out -- the Red / Silver / Blue "Value Pack" combo -- partly due to the fact that it's apparently a big part of the old Smashing Pumpkins sound, but also since they were marketed as quieter single coils, and I've been learning stuff while looking bits up on the computer, which causes electrical interference galore and tons of hum. :| I'd like to swap the pickups out while retaining the PTB system, and I'm not really sure what value of pots / caps to use with the Lace Sensors, and if any of the capacitors in the diagram should be changed or removed entirely. I read in another thread (possibly with input from Mr. Gagon, the designer of the circuit / pickups?) that the cap values are particular to filtering certain frequencies since the MFD pickups are more sensitive / higher output than a traditional single coil design, such that a bit of additional tone shaping via cap values is necessary for the MFDs in particular.
    - As mentioned, I think I should strip it down a bit to add some shielding behind the pickguard and in the cavity. I don't have any shielding paint but might order some if I can find it for a reasonably cheap price. I think I saw some on the Guitar Fetish website that was affordable enough compared to other prices I had seen, so hopefully that stuff works well if I decide to go that route.

Phew. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much! :happy0007: I'm new to a lot of this stuff, so any advice or input you have is appreciated! I tried using the search feature on the forum to find related threads to these topics to avoid topic duplication, but I didn't see anything specific at a glance. Apologies if I overlooked it.

I also tried to use the list feature to break this post up a bit, but I'm not sure if I formatted that right -- couldn't make sense of the forum code so I tried to help it along. Thanks for reading this and any insight you may have! Lurking in various threads gave me the impression that this is a rather welcoming and helpful community. Glad to be here! :D


Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:16 pm
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:59 am
Posts: 364
Post Re: S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Senso
I have a Tribute ASAT that had the same sort of buzz on the low E string when fretted at the first fret. Issue was poor fret work that my luthier took care of. I replaced the electronics on an Epiphone Dot and installed a push-pull pot for some pickup phase switching. Had the same issue with being able to pull on the top hat knob. I wanted to keep it stock looking, so I used a small triangular file to file a groove all the way around the knob body and then super glued an appropriate sized O-ring into the groove. Now easy to pull up on the knob.


Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:17 pm
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Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:23 pm
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Location: Orange County, California Republic
Post Re: S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Senso
Lace makes great pickups; Sensors aren't my favorite. They' remind me in some respect of S500 pickups (quacky, even levels,) but don't seem as assertive or sparkly as the S500 pickups; maybe it's just the guitars I've tried sensors in, but they tend to come across a bit dull. Maybe that's the point. They're also not 100% silent.

Possibly just a truss tweak is needed? A bit more relief?


Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:07 pm
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Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2018 12:55 pm
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Location: Toronto-ish, Canada
Post Re: S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Senso
Thanks for the feedback!

I'll watch some videos on proper truss rod adjustment and saddle height tweaks, assuming any of that has to be changed.

Maybe I'll take some pictures and show you what I mean about the strings being skewed or not lining up with the pickup slugs. I'm not sure if it's just a neck pocket thing, but I did notice that the aftermarket pickguard supplier that G&L recommends on their website requires that any Tribute series model send the pickguard in to be custom matched / fitted. I'm not sure why this is the case -- perhaps there's variance in batches of each overseas guitar and they tweak the pickguard production accordingly? None of the USA models from G&L or other brands seem to require that, but all the overseas ones seem to have a note indicating that the pickguard must be shipped in. Hence my desire to maybe tweak or cut up my own dimensions to better match my guitar and preferences.

I still have a couple weeks to try out the Lace Sensors and return them if I don't like them, as per Amazon's holiday shopping guarantee. I've never spent that kind of money on pickups before, so I want to make sure it's a good fit for my preferences. The MFD pickups are great, I'm just not sure how much I can mitigate the noise via shielding alone. Only one way to find out, I suppose... (related question -- are shielded cables required in the internal cavity? how much does the quality or length of the cable(s) in your signal chain matter?)

Does anyone know what the S-500 body is routed like under the pickguard? I'm hoping for a "swimming pool" style rout if I ever decide to slap a humbucker in the bridge or do super-strat H-S-H configuration or something.


Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:54 pm
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Post Re: S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Senso
It has a swimming pool route.


Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:04 pm
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Post Re: S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Senso
fab wrote:
Thanks for the feedback!

Maybe I'll take some pictures and show you what I mean about the strings being skewed or not lining up with the pickup slugs. I'm not sure if it's just a neck pocket thing, but I did notice that the aftermarket pickguard supplier that G&L recommends on their website requires that any Tribute series model send the pickguard in to be custom matched / fitted. I'm not sure why this is the case -- perhaps there's variance in batches of each overseas guitar and they tweak the pickguard production accordingly? None of the USA models from G&L or other brands seem to require that, but all the overseas ones seem to have a note indicating that the pickguard must be shipped in. Hence my desire to maybe tweak or cut up my own dimensions to better match my guitar and preferences.


See this post in our G&L Knowledgebase forum: String alignment issues and a simple cure.

Some other references to look at:

For the factory setup see: Current Factory setup for G&L guitars with vibrato bridges. The bridge plate needs to be parallel to the body, not "tilted upward or tilted downward".

A past member's post: Set-Ups, answering some questions.

To post photos, see: Tutorial: Posting photos.

Hope this helps.

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Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:09 pm
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Post Re: S-500 Tribute Setup and Pickup Swap Question (Lace Senso
Thanks for the info, I'll check out that setup stuff this weekend.

I have a question about the S-500 wiring diagram -- I'm looking at the gut shot photo of the USA model, and in trying to cross reference it with the actual circuit. Can someone help clarify what exactly are the values and type of pots used?

If I'm reading it correctly, the Master Volume is a 250K Audio (logarithmic) potentiometer, the Treble cut is 500K Audio (logarithmic), and the Bass is... a 1 Meg K ohm potentiometer? (not sure if audio taper or linear) Please correct me if I'm not interpreting that right!

I'm not super familiar with reading circuit diagrams, so I can't really tell why they're specifically labeled VR1 / 2 / 3 in that particular order, and I don't know why the Bass is marked as VR1 1 Meg C.

Anyhow, since I'm looking at popping it open and swapping in those Lace Sensors, I'm wondering if anyone knows what values I should try for the capacitors C1 / C2 / C3 / C4 -- if some of them will stay static or if the values will change significantly.

That, and should I swap the 250K audio pot on the volume for a 500K, given that only the Silver Lace Sensor is voiced similar to a single coil? (The Blue neck and Red bridge are humbucker-ish tonalities apparently.) The standard diagram suggests using all 250K pots, but that's for standard Strat wiring, not for the PTB rolloff system like in my Tribute model. :)

The Lace website doesn't have a ton of detailed diagrams for wiring options. There's a basic one indicating the wiring of each pickup type and a generic Strat diagram for the single coil Sensors.

I'm going to order a bunch of pots from AllParts or a similar supplier and other than getting a bunch and trying to mix and match, I'm just trying to figure out what values would be appropriate.

I'll take a look at the Legacy and Legacy 2HB circuits as well to get a feel for what values might be suitable for a setup that uses a more standard vintage / classic style output singe coil pickup and humbuckers. Perhaps I'll be able to infer something from there. Thanks everyone!


Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:52 pm
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