The only "Bill Lawrence" pickups I have ever had was a set of single-coils made/sold by Epiphone, marked "OBL///////////////." Perhaps not the best pups in the world, but better than many say, those people seem to be following Mr. Lawrence's lead. Still, acquiring those pups and researching them taught me a lot about the man...
I bought them at Mars Music in the very final days of their close-out sale, and paid next to nothing for them, not knowing much about them. Cheap enough that I knew they would not be there if I went home, researched them and came back, so I grabbed 'em. From my research, I learned a bit about the pups ('course, I learned more by actually playing them) and I also learned that Mr. Lawrence has little more than abject hatred for those pickups. But wait a mo- Epiphone could not have continued to make and sell them, unless they had legal permission to do so. It seems that Mr. Lawrence is not above whoring out his name from time to time, if it will result in even short-term gain. Then, when the pay-out portion of the licensing agreement expires but the company still has permission to make the stuff, Mr. Lawrence seems to get all puffed up and filled with self-righteous indignation about the things- conviently forgetting the terms of the contract he once signed. I'm not saying it is okay for corporations to take advantage of artists or other individuals, but Mr. Lawrence does not seem to have learned the lesson- so you get dualing websites/pickup makers.
So, the answer to the original question is, they are both real Bill Lawrence pickups. Mr. Lawrence seems to be much better at designing pickups and screaming at former business partners, then he is in reading the fine print on contracts.
) tells me that the "usa" is the real one...
