Bill Lawrence pickups - opinions?

[tremoloman***]

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****]

Me too is curious. I have heard their noiseless pickups are great.

[Bloozcat]

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***]

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***]

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]

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]

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:

[markb]

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 range, not noiseless but very highly thought of.

[ZMAN]

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]

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]

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...."

[Jimi75]

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]

L-90's are one of those "magic" pickups IMHO. Simply fantastic. :