Lace Music Products Aluma P90

This is a humbucking pickup that uses small magnets and aluminum in place of copper winding. Its a passive pickup.

I had this installed on a Scale Model Guitars Spitfire II Maple Body and neck with rosewood fretboard. I had it placed in the neck and bridge position. It is replacing Stock P-90s. I am replacing the P-90s...because I did not like the sound of them.

There is one downside. It is sometimes a little big for the P-90 spaces. It will fit, just not always perfectly. Sizing is the one flaw that I can see, and its not something that is always the case.

The output is mid to high. I would say tone wise it is very mid-range to mid-high oriented. But with that being said, treble and bass response is very clear. Balanced would be the best word.

There is a great deal of clarity with this pickup. It is in no way muddy. I have not played many pickups with this type of clarity, and I would almost call it a glisten. It is a warm pickup, and not tinny. It has zero hum, but somehow retains some single coil brightness.
I am using this with a Line 6 X3 Live. Recording.

I play indie and some jazz music. Good clean tones are a necessity.

The pickups are VERY sensitive to the volume and tone knobs, so dialing in different tones works great.
I would say it falls in the same category as botique mini-humbuckers. THESE DO NOT SOUND LIKE P-90s. They sound like very good mini-humbuckers. I would like to note that to avoid comparisons. Its the closest comparison I have. P-90s just are not this clean. The Aluma 90's glisten in many ways like mini's without the downside of some minis.

I have been playing for ten years. I have been very picky about pickups. Traditional Humbuckers sounded to muddy, most single coils have noise problems, I can go through the list of my complaints with very few pickups I am satisfied with and usually they are Botique pickups. These pickups seemed to have hit some sweet spot.

My only complaint, is on sizing, its a little big to fit perfectly, which is minor. Otherwise these sound great.

Considering my other option was botique pickups which can be rather pricey in the p-90/mini-humbucker category, I would say these are a fantastic value. $70-$90 per pickup is not as bad as $125-$175 for lollars, fralins or brass knuckle PU.

I will make one observation these pickups are only as good as the guitar they are placed on. High quality guitars will shine with this pickup. These are hi-fi pickups, so they are not as forgiving as a traditional pickup. For anybody who appreciates a great, well balanced, warm clean tone with no hum, these are wonderful.

a new approach to guitar pickups, go to the lace website for an explanation. still electromagnetic, but different magnet/coil design... The idea behind the design is a very good one (not all good ideas are good "sounding" ideas?)

I put the aluma-90 pickups in both positions of my gibson les paul special double cut reissue ('97 I think). the old pickups where the stock p-90's which never really thrilled me so I wanted to try something different.

I play alt/indie pop rock, though I have a strong background in alot of styles. Think REM, wilco, radiohead, pedro the lion, the jayhawks... I use a rivera fandago combo with an assortment of overdrive pedals, delay, tremolo, etc. I try for a warm and clear overdrive sound that is natural and full. Enough drive to really rock while still being dynamic.

These pickups are HORRIBLE, let me repeat "GARBAGE"!!! They bring out all the zingy bad sounds in my strings (almost have a weird acoustic thing going on). they sound very cold, thin, and unpleasant. The bridge was unusable (way too bright), so I put the old pickup back in that spot. Kept the aluma-90 in the neck for further evaluation. After a month I decided that this pickup just doesn't pass the test. nothing I did with my setup could make these things sound good.

For "drop-in replacemetns" these pickups didn't fit quite perfectly. almost too wide to fit in the routing holes for the stock p-90 pickups. One of the pickups was made in such a way that the mounting screw hit the coil assembly, which I had to bend out of the way to get the screw to go straight down into the body.

I think that Lace claimed something about impedance problems possibly causing a bad sound in certain setups, which to me seems unacceptable since a pickup should be able to work with any current rig like any traditional pickup.

Oh, and for the record I had my guitar setup after I'd had these pickups installed and the tech didn't say anything about the pickups being improperly installed (i'd put them in myself)...

Alumitone pickup to fit in a p90 slot--totally hum cancelling--around 12.5 k ohms for neck and bridge

Installed in a VOS Gibson Les Paul 56 Goldtop, for neck and bridge-to replace the vintage p90's that it came with--the stock pickups were entirely too noisy, and I needed quiet pickups to record and perform with--

More output than a stock p90, but still retains most of the feel and sound of a p90--very balanced, nothing is too pronounced--I am using these thru a Mesa Boogie Stiletto Ace 2x12 Combo, with a Yamaha Magicstomp--The pickups are a perfect match for virtually any style of music--They have a clarity and balance that no other pickup I've ever used has--

I would definitely buy these again, and am considering putting in the Alumitones for my humbucker equipped Ernie Ball Sub1 guitar--I chose these because I essentailly had 4 choices--1)buy replacement p90's and still have hum--2)buy hum cancelling p90's and rout the body depth-wise to make them fit(which would seriously compromise the collectable value of the Gibson--3)buy a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity 11 Mini-Humbuckers with a mounting ring(which to not require and modification, but are not the p90 sound)--I called Lace and spoke with Mr.Jeff Lace and asked if the Alumitones were indeed, direct retrofits--He assured me they were--He was very helpful and professional--I think that Lace makes probably, the best sounding pickup on the market, and I've had them all--There is a lot less magnet pull, so the guitar itself simply sounds more 'alive'--I would recommend these pickups with flying colors--I play as a professional guitarist(i.e., I do this for a living)