Lace Helix 4-what's the deal w 'em?

Can't vouch for the tone becaues I held one unamplified at Bassplayer Live this year but I was impressed as can be by the lightness and ergonomic feel of it in general. The body and neck just seemed to melt into you and become part of your body. Finish and quality was also quite impressive, especially the neck through model. Mr. Lace was also a very cool, bright guy. That's my .02

 

I tried a Lace bass at a local shop. If you're adventurous, you'll dig the body shape. This is a very ergonomic, comfortable instrument, and very light. Anyone with a bad back should keep this one in mind!
The one I tried had a single pickup, with a single volume and tone control. When plugged in, the electronics are entirely silent, which amazed me. I got a fairly wide array of tones with this setup, and everything was crystal clear.
My big gripe with the Lace is that it just didn't seem to have volume; it didn't kick like a mule. I had to turn the amp up quite a bit more than when plugging in a standard P-bass, for comparison. It's as if it just couldn't put out enough signal.

 

I have a fretless 5-string - serial number 2 no less. I wrote a review which you can read here. Hope you find that useful.

 

TBH most of my criticisms affect the 5-string fretless model rather than Lace Helixes in general. I bought mine on the strength have having played a 4-string BO prototype model at a guitar show a year earlier. The only thing I'd watch is the low output. If you play strictly clean and hifi-ish then it shouldn't bother you because the pickups are completely interference-free so turning up the input gain on your amp won't be an issue. However if you like a bit of dirt in your sound or need to drive some pedals then I'd definitely recommend trying it with your rig first.

 

Might this be something solved with an EQ or preamp pedal? I mean, run it first in line to boost the signal so that the other toys on the floor have some signal to play with?

 

BigRed, the Lace folks told me they're correcting the wrong-position dot markers on the fretless models.

So far I haven't seen anyone selling the NT fretless 4.

 

they usually go really cheap for some reason.

 

That's good to hear. I'm probably going to have to get them moved on mine. If it was my only fretless, I could get used to it and it would only bother me for a bit until I learned where the correct positions were. However all my other fretless basses have the dots on the 'fretline' and so the Helix always takes me at least a song or two before I'm not playing any quartertone bends as I slide into tune!

One of the downsides with being an early adaptor I suppose.

 

There's plenty of room (or at least there is in the 2 pickup, 3 knob models). However because of the large knobs recessed into the sculpted top, you couldn't really fit any more controls without it looking very strange. The output from the pickups is quite low but it is probably the most noise-free of any passive bass I've heard. So take advantage of this, use a good quality cable and either turn the input gain up on the amp or if you need to drive some pedals a bit harder use an outboard pre-amp at the start of the chain.

Having lived with mine for a month or so now, I've come to learn that you can't really treat it in the same way as other basses. Most of the things that look like problems when you initially start playing aren't really once you think about them.

 

I won the lace helix on ebay. 1 pickup, bolt on I believe for $220

 

Sheesh!! Now I would pay that much to try one!!

 

I have to get it first guys. sorry. LOL