Bill Lawrence pickups

[timthetortoise]

Thought I'd start a thread after being reminded of these. Are they worth it? I'm looking at the L-500 and really thinking about picking one up. I was expecting $180 for each pickup like some people would charge but $50 is pretty damn good. What kind of stuff would these work for? Check the band link below, think it would be alright for that type of stuff? *Bes curious*

[GONZO-X]

hell yeah they're worth it!!

just do it!

[stetto]

I like mine. Covers the spectrum, clean, dirty, smegma.

I bypassed the tone control and installed a 1000K vol pot. Rolling off the volume a bit takes the treble out.

Eric

[dragonworks]

I don't get it, winding machines wind the coils, how much more can it cost to wind these pickups then others?

[skyguitarworks]

i have had a cpl of different guitars with these in them, love em.

[travelin travis]

Originally Posted by dragonworks

I don't get it, winding machines wind the coils, how much more can it cost to wind these pickups then others?

supply and demand. some fathead shells out a hundred bucks for a pickup and boasts about how it's better than anything on the planet. another guy follows suit and a boutique pickup is born. i wouldn't doubt any guy here could wind a decent pickup and get 90% there. those bill lawrence pickups are cheap in comparison to most everything else on the market that gets any hype. i owned one and i liked it.

[Anfontan]

I've had a Bill Lawrence pickup in the bridge position of my Strat since 1977 and its never given a bit of trouble--go for it!

[amra]

I ahve a 500XL in my Jackson and I really dig it....

[timthetortoise]

Then it's settled! Next week I'm ordering an L-500. I'm looking for one to go in the neck position of my Epi LP and basically want warm (but clear) cleans and crunchy distortion, any kind of the 500s that will work best for this or should I just go with an L-500R?

Edit: I know the tones will depend 99% on how I set my amp/effects up but someone wrote in a review that the L-500C was a bit too clean to get decent distorted tones out of it, so I'm just wondering if that statement has any validity to it.

[onehandpass]

If you want to hear what kinda crunch you get from a Bill Lawrence pickup, specifically the L500XL pickup, listen to any damageplan or pantera track.. Youll hear a bonafide Bill Lawrence. The lead tones, are contributed to by a Duncan 59..

Just a thought.

[RandyW]

I have a set of BL's in my tele pure tonal heaven.

You have to make double sure you get the real deals though. The guy you want to by from go's by the name Willy. He is the guy that designed SCN noiseless pickkups for Fender and also worked for Gibson for a while.

BTW, he is a very talented guitarist as well.

http://www.billlawrence.com/

If you purchase elsewhere you will be buying pickups made by his ex business partner or someone else.

He makes his own pickups and you can only buy them directly from him.
I think I only paid $90 bucks for the single coils on my tele. They are the quietess single coils I've evern played except for the SCN on my strat.

[timthetortoise]

Yep, that's the site I've been going by. I plan to order a L-500R for the neck and an L-500L for the bridge. Should be pretty shweet.

[TheRockDoc]

Having worked directly with him (Bill) for a very very very brief period of time, I can tell you that the pickups he makes are excellent.

As a person and/or his business ethics, I have nothing good to say about him.

[dragonworks]

Originally Posted by Anfontan

I've had a Bill Lawrence pickup in the bridge position of my Strat since 1977 and its never given a bit of trouble--go for it!

I have been playing guitar for over forty years and have never had any pick up give me any trouble except real cheap ones that feedback when turned up to loud. I have never had one fail.

[timthetortoise]

Originally Posted by TheRockDoc

As a person and/or his business ethics, I have nothing good to say about him.

What's bad about his business ethics?

[Supercreep]

Originally Posted by RandyW

I have a set of BL's in my tele

+1, me too.

[Anfontan]

Originally Posted by dragonworks

I have been playing guitar for over forty years and have never had any pick up give me any trouble except real cheap ones that feedback when turned up to loud. I have never had one fail.

Its probably a rare thing but I got a great deal on my Les Paul because it had a dead coil in the bridge pickup. A few days later I visited a friend and he sold me the bridge pickup from his Les Paul Custom that he had just replaced-good luck sure came my way that week!

[strungout]

BL's sound the best in a warm-wooded guitar....mohagany/rosewood/other warm woods...they can get a little thin in maple depending on the guitar.

[TheRockDoc]

Originally Posted by timthetortoise

What's bad about his business ethics?

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthr...=Bill+Lawrence

My post was #10 in the thread...

[timthetortoise]

Well, that really sucks ass. But it seems like they may just be severely misinformed about what it takes to get a business going correctly. Or, maybe they're just extremely shitty people. Anyhow, I couldn't be more excited to get these pickups.

[TheRockDoc]

Originally Posted by timthetortoise

Well, that really sucks ass. But it seems like they may just be severely misinformed about what it takes to get a business going correctly. Or, maybe they're just extremely shitty people. Anyhow, I couldn't be more excited to get these pickups.

I think you'll have some great pickups just make sure you nail a 2x4 to your ass to block any stray bullets...

[Light]

I've never liked them much. Not that they are bad, as such, they just don't sound as good to me as other pickups.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[timthetortoise]

What pickups would you recommend, Light?

[Light]

Originally Posted by timthetortoise

What pickups would you recommend, Light?

Depends entirely on what kind of music you are making, and what kind of sound you are after. I have just never heard a Bill Lawrence pickup which I thought was as good as something else for the sound it got.

I tend to go with Seymour Duncans for a big manufacturer of guitar pickups (though I've been mightily impressed with Dimarzio's Tele pickups recently), and for guys with a bigger budget I'll recommend either Lindy Fralin's, Joe Barden, Loyd Lolar's, or Kinman's pickups. Some guys, though, I'll point to the new Bartolini humbuckers, and a lot of Nu-Metal guys just can't do their thing without EMGs.

For bass, my personal favorites are Bartolini's, but for that modern sound EMGs work well too (and if you can get them, Alembic makes amazing bass pickups). For a more traditional bass sound, most guys tend to be happiest with Dimarzio's bass pickups.

{edit}O.K., I listened to your stuff on your band's Myspace, and I'd either recomend EMG's, or if you stick with passives either get yourself a buffer amp put into your guitar, or get one at the front end of your rig, cause with all the effects you seem to be using you are going to load down your pickups something fierce without one, which is more than likely the root cause of your dissatisfaction with what you have right now.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[timthetortoise]

...Who said I'm dissatisfied? Those are horrible recordings that we basically did live. I really like how my tone is set up right now but I wanted to try these pickups because I've heard great things about them. Currently I'm playing on one guitar with a Dimarzio PAF in the bridge and an SH-1 in the neck (might be the other way around, can't remember how I set it up), and on the other I'm using a pair of Fat PAF Alnicos from GFS. The effects really don't adversely affect my tone, the Musicman and Windsor are sounding really great with this setup at this point (which will be reflected in recordings that will be up in the next week or so). I can't express enough my hatred for EMGs. Talk about sucking the dynamic qualities out of a guitar, goddamn. We don't really play with much gain anyway, just run our amps hot and really loud. Anyway, I'm probably going to order the L-500s. For $50 each, there's really no reason not to.