Bill Lawrence Impressions and Reviews

[edder]

Picked up the whole bag of pickups from my old place last night. It took a month plus for the pickups to arrive here due to delay in some new fixture over at Bill Lawrence.

Every individual pickups are packed in their own individual bubble bag and clearly labelled. Screws are packed in another bag to prevent scratches (I presume) and some extra mounting screws are provided, very thoughtful. Hand drawn schematics for wiring and suggestions for mods are supplied and 3 postcards of Bill Lawrence was included



Upon inspection of the pickups, I was really impressed by the quality of work. All the pickups are signed, covered and wax potted unlike some ´branded´ pickups that i install all the time with exposed their coils and sometime loose winding. An especially interesting one is the L280 that has got 3 stacked coils and covered with a nice fabric material. The Tele bridge pickups are supplied with surgical tube and screws. The J45 Jazz Bass pickups are very very unique. Its usable for both 4 and 5 string spacing. There are 9 pole pieces as opposed to the normal 8 pole pieces. I´d be very keen to hear how it sounds. For my personal set which is a L490 are humbucker sized single coils for my semihollow Washburn. I could choose between slanted poles (like a strat bridge position) or straight like those P94/Rio Grande. I´ve choosen straight.



Currently I´ve got no time to wire my set, and I hope the rest of the guys will chip in their reviews after installing theirs.



To be continued...

 

[edder]

review from live33, strat middle pu´s



Wired up my L280 sometime last week. The workmanship is good, very clean and neat, though I haven´t looked at the insides. Presumably, the coils are carefully and consistently wounded to prevent any shorts in the circuit. Well, that´s according to Bill da man himself, so I´ll take his word for it. I must say that the hand-drawn schematics added that personal touch.



The pickup sounds pretty good, with clear highs and, yes, no hum =P

The outputs are now not quite balanced across the 3 pickups, but I´ve yet to tweak with them, yet. Gotta figure that one out soon. Any pointers would be much appreciated.



Cheers!

[ i n f i n i + u m ]

 

[edder]

Review from Rags, he got the L290TL for his tele bridge.



As for the L290. Quite remarkable stuff. Installed it first time but were not impressed. Didn´t have time to play too long. A few days later, I came back, adjust the height a little bit, oh my, it sounded so much better. I dial in some overdrive on my amp and that really says it all about the hype on the internet about this baby. Nice bluesy tone with great mid and low while retaining the chimey high end. All the notes are clearly defined. The sound is more edged on the modern side than the traditional. I suspect the L280 would be more raw and rootsy. The output is as high as expected being an overwound pickup but its just nice to match the neck pickup. Another thing is that its dead quiet. Overall I´m very happy with it. Thanks for bringing it in.

 

[edder]

My reviews on the humbucker sized single coil L490.



exams are finally over and did up the L490 on my washburn HB30 (335 copy).



pretty standard wiring was employed using seperate volume and tone for each pickups but with a twist.



I had push pull 500k tone controls originally on this guitar for dial a coil mod (which is essentially controlling the volume of one coil of the pickup to get a blend of humbucking, semi humbucking and single coil). So what can i do with the push pull?



for the neck tone control, the push pull was configured as a phase switch for the neck pickup so that when i combine the neck and bridge i can get the uhhhh out of phase sound... thin and reedy.



for the bridge tone control, i just had to mess around with the ´Deep´ setup of a single pickup Tele Esquire modified for the current bridge pickup. The original circuit of the Fender Esquire cut too much treble and was a bit duuhhhh.... w.t.f. is it there for? change some cap values and retained a bit more highs. I dunno when I´ll get to use this but its there because its there... I can play jazz or say play guitar to save my life but i think it should be pretty ok for jazz...



and how does the pickup sounds?



ahhh..... very much like single coils hidden in a humbucker shell. its no longer the warm semi hollow sound... the pickups are extremely clear, lows are pretty solid and have nice treble not harsh treble. its not like a classic P90 (my reference is the Duncan P90 that I´ve sold some time ago but still can remember the sound). It has got less mids than the honking P90 and can be a good thing making it more versatile.



overall I´m pleased with the sound I´m getting clean straight into the amp. have yet to check it with my infinite chain of effects hahaha... probably wouldn´t make a difference with any guitar plugged in... haha.... duhhh....



Cheers,

 

[edder]

Expect more reviews coming in, say 2 months time....

Lotsa strat people, and may a set of tele for me plus the Qfilter.

 

[edder]

wow! 2002!

Bill Lawrence ROCKS and donch choo deny it!

 

[ciel]

we love edder, the thread diggah~

 

[DarknessFury]

What's wrong with people today?! Lol...

 

[jbarks]

No lar its just the mrmisse invasion

The Bill Rawrence stuff... are the 3 postcards of him or something??? "3 postcards of bill Lawrence" sounds a bit fishy

 

[rottenramone]

..

BILL IS INSANE!! SO IS LAWRENCE!!

 

[DarknessFury]

Bill Nye the Science Guy...Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!

 

[gsonique]

200's for neck and mid and a "special made" 298 for bridge ....wicked.
takes decades to purchase but worth the wait..... for USD40 a fix ...makes the best replacement ever. tHE 'q' Filter is a must have...

 

[edder]

yay goose! Bill Lawrence rules.

One of the few pickup makers without a MARKETING budget!

 

[blahblah]

where to get bill lawrence in singapore?

 

[Weiht]

hehe, u cant get them here... only way is to order them from the man himself, n be prepared to WAIT!!!!! I mean if its fast, maybe u can get them within 3 mths, no kidding

I got some NOS bill lawrence pup, as i cant wait for the shipping.

But if u can wait, then get it. Its real gd pups, n its very affordable!!!

 

[kank_39]

200's for neck and mid and a "special made" 298 for bridge ....wicked.
takes decades to purchase but worth the wait..... for USD40 a fix ...makes the best replacement ever. tHE 'q' Filter is a must have...

Hey man.. How do they 298 sound? From the description on the BnB site, it seems to pack a punch. I'm contemplating on getting a set of L280S for my strat and I'm in the mist of deciding whether to get a 280 or 298 for the bridge. Anyone done any comparison between the two? And how long did you wait to get your set? Becky said 4 weeks.. Weiht says 3 months.. Edder said a month plus.. Gotta get the statistical average.. :wink:

 

[edder]

A month plus??????

A month plus for your first enquiry.

Another month for your amended order.

Another month for your order confirmation.

Another year for delivery.

hahahaha.... but its worth it lah. Own a piece of history. Bill Lawrence is at the same level at Les Paul, Leo Fender, Jim Marshall and all the old timers.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

insane! Lets try again, maybe he will reply you this time round

 

[ciel]

i want in if gotch order again!

 

[edder]

Should we? I don't mind really. Lets do it at the "other" place.

I'd only MO with people that I know and won't get into my every growing shitlist. hur hur hur....