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View Full Version : Bill Lawrence pickups - opinions?



tremoloman
May 25th, 2006, 12:21 PM
Do any of you own Bill Lawrence pickups? They seem to be very highly regarded as excellent hardware. I've ordered a couple for my Jagmaster upgrade, so if you have any opinions or experience with them I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Robert
May 25th, 2006, 12:48 PM
Me too is curious. I have heard their noiseless pickups are great.

Bloozcat
May 31st, 2006, 01:29 PM
My only ownership experience with Bill Lawrence pickups was with one of Bill's L-250's back in the 70's. It was one of his first designs and had a single blade. It was ok, but nothing that I would call great.

Despite that experience, I've played some of the newer L-280's and an L-290 and they are very sweet pickups indeed. They have a single coils type sound in a Strat and are completely noisless. When pushed, they deliver a very nice OD tone. Having said that, I wouldn't say as some have, that they are like vintage toned single coils. They just don't have that vibe. That doesn't mean they're not good, they're just good in a different way than straight single coils. I think of them as a good addition to your tone if you already have a Strat with traditional pickups, not as a replacement for one.

BTW: For those who don't know this, there's a controversy over the name "Bill Lawrence." There are two companies marketing pickups under the name - the real Bill Lawrence, and his former partner who claims the right to still use the name. I haven't had any direct experience with the partners pickups, but I've heard they're pretty good. The pickups actually made by Bill Lawrence are the one's that I was speaking of. Bill Lawrence still hand makes his pickups himself by order, so if you want a set there's a few week wait to get them. I don't think it's more than about four weeks though.

Spudman
May 31st, 2006, 02:00 PM
I've used the L 500 and thought it was fantastic. Clean when you rolled the volume back and driven and tone-y when ran full open. Yes is all I have to say.

tremoloman
June 2nd, 2006, 10:22 AM
I'm putting to L-500s in my Jagmaster, so once they get here I'll post an update and soundclips. (They take 3-4 months to ship).

jrad
March 30th, 2009, 07:05 AM
I'm putting to L-500s in my Jagmaster, so once they get here I'll post an update and soundclips. (They take 3-4 months to ship).

Well?

I had the xl 500ls in a jackson and they were hot as hell. Either gonna put them or Dimarzio x2n's in my ibanez.

mrmudcat
March 30th, 2009, 11:01 AM
I've used the L 500 and thought it was fantastic. Clean when you rolled the volume back and driven and tone-y when ran full open. Yes is all I have to say.


Same here! I like the B.L.offerings!!

My american deluxe tele has the S.C noiseless pups he designed .They sound great:AOK:

markb
March 30th, 2009, 02:56 PM
The Fender SCNs are a Bill Lawrence (aka Willi Stich, aka Billy Lorento, aka Wilde Pickups) design, the vintage and hot noiseless are not. I remember Nils Lofgren raving about his BL noiseless strat pickups in an interview back in the 70s. His strat sounded kind of OK iirc.

BL also do their Keystone (http://www.wildepickups.com/Wilde_Bill_s_Keystones.html) range, not noiseless but very highly thought of.

ZMAN
April 1st, 2009, 02:09 PM
I have a set of Bill Lawrence pickups in my 1990 ES335. They are the circuit board pickups. They are very nice. Amazingly loud compared to others but also with a sweet tone to them.

valriver 1940
April 5th, 2009, 04:58 PM
i have a set of bl's keystones in my telecastar. they sound great and are noiseless. this guitar i built from parts and has a 4-way switch.

delander
August 3rd, 2009, 10:33 AM
My new guitar is on it's way to me so I haven't 'first-hand' info to share, but, more importantly, here's what Ron Kirn(the builder) has to say about the guitar.

"I did a mahogany Tele with a pair of BIll Lawrence's L90s and the Hannes bridge.... it is probably the cleanest sounding...., Clean . . . NOT BRIGHT . . Tele I have ever done... I don't yet know if it's just everything coming together at a point in time, or is it's a combination of the Schaller Hannes bridge and the L 90s. It may be interesting to note, Bill touts the sonic properties of lighter bridges... kinda makes ya say, Hummmmm.."

"I gotta tell ya... that is among the finest sounding teles I have had the pleasure of doing, the Bill Lawrence Pups with the Schaller bridge is simply stunning...."

http://fototime.com/A647B578179EB1E/standard.jpg

http://fototime.com/D5BACAE7AF1B40C/standard.jpg

http://fototime.com/443F0E5EE90CB42/standard.jpg

Jimi75
August 13th, 2009, 02:15 AM
Back in the 90's a friend of mine had a Nuno Bettencourt model that was equipped with a Bill Lawrence L500 I think. That thing sounded great and was very reactive to playing with the volume pot.

JohnnyGtar
August 18th, 2009, 11:34 AM
L-90's are one of those "magic" pickups IMHO. Simply fantastic. :dude: