Bill Lawrence L-500R

Chrome bathtub ,alnico magnet(as i know of), blade config,hotter than a paf.Humbucking of course,passive.

In a old 70's gibson melody.all mahogany body rosewood board,nothing pretty but it rocks.I got a Lawrence K-500 MS in the bridge,check out my lame attempt at a review; never do one 2 a.m. in the morning!!!Who cares who else who 's using this pup,its your axe not theirs!!

Nice bass on the pup its like a PAF w/performance enhancing drug!for solo's on clean sounds its just totally kicks but.I play mostly 80's metal and classical and lawrences have proved to be the best over and over again.

All my axe's will ever have are Lawrence's bar none.No more Dimarzio's or duncan's.

Pickup features: passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Ralf Falk Guitars (Wuppertal, Germany)
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Dimarzio Super Distortion
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock
Reason for pickup change: This guitar sounds very loud, quite middy and bassy, which I like, but with the Super Distortion it was just over the top! So I was looking for a brighter less output pickup.

Perceived output level: medium-low, PAF-like, perhaps a bit hotter
Tone: very open, warm, balanced, slightly less bass, enough mids, nice treble - sounds wonderful
Sonic evaluation: Marshall JCM 2000 TSL, Crate 4x12 Cabinet equipped with Celestion Greenbacks

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Rock

Comments: Great pickup!!! Most people use it as a neck-pickup, but it's perfect as a medium-output bridge-pickup as well! If you want to get rid of muddy sounding high-gain bridge-pickups and would like to know how your guitar REALLY sounds - THIS IS IT!!! The perfect description for the sound is: HONEST!!! I just love it!!!

Pickup features: Passive Humbucking
Impedence or other specs: blade design

Model of guitar or bass: S470DXQMTL
Position: middle
Pickup being replaced: stock Ibanez INF1 neck humbucker
Other pickups on guitar: INF Middle-->L298SM & Inf2-->L500XL
Artists using this pickup: I don't know
You musical style(s): Jazz influenced death metal & creative original clean riffs
Reason for pickup change: need for output and clarity without going passive

Perceived output level: almost indistinguishable from the high output produced by EMG actives
Tone: warm, balanced tone leaning slightly to a bassy tone
Sonic evaluation: I either use a Line 6 PodXT with headphones OR Guitar into a Digitech 2112 into a Mesa 50 watt power amp into a guitar cab.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: clean undistorted, screaming lead, jazz inspired original death metal

Comments: I would buy these pickups again. They are easily the best pickups I have ever played. I like them more than EMG actives which I thought were "God" until I broke my procrastination and bought the Lawrences. I have been playing as a disciplined recreational studio guitarist for about 10 years. Gear is listed above all except I also own an Ibanez RG470 with dual EMG 81 Humbuckers. I love the clarity, punch, straightforward design of the pickups. No gimmick crap to invade the supreme quality of these pickups. I previously was an EMG junky, but found that after time I did not like the preamp effect of them....I found they compressed the sound a weird way and had a mild noise gate or delay type effect to them. I am completely satisfied with the Lawrences and highly recommend them to anyone.....Seriously if you are considering replacement pickups run and order these. They are inexpensive compared to almost all other pickups and sound great. When I first played with them I honest to God started smiling and was like..."Holyyyyy Shittttt" because they were that good.

Pickup features: Humbucking
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Carvin DC127, then Kramer Special
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar: Bill Lawrence L-500XL
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Blues, Rock, and Metal
Reason for pickup change: Did not like the sound of the stock pickups.

Perceived output level: One of the hottest passive pickups I've heard.
Tone: Balanced
Sonic evaluation: I bought these pickups to cover my Metal tones. I first put them into my Carvin DC127 (maple neck, ebony fretboard, swap ash wings). However, I thought it sounded too bright due to the woods used in the guitar. I then dropped them into my Kramer Special (Gibson SG knockoff) that is 100% mahogany, and the sound is now extremely dark. So, these pickups do respond to the tonal properties of the guitar's wood nicely.
The L-500R is fairly balanced, but the L-500-XL in the bridge is quite trebly. However, just make use of your tone knob, and if you are using any pedals you can squeeze some really mean sounding bass response out of these pickups for power riffs (think Dimebag Darrell). They respond very nicely to your attack. The tone of these pickups is unique (in a good way) - they almost sound like you are running a fuzz pedal, but the fuzz cleans up well as you back off the volume.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: I would probably buy something else - these pickups are just too over-the-top for my taste. I probably would have been happier with Bill's L-450 series. For you total metalheads out there - dump your EMG's and pick some of these up. I'm sure you'd be very happy with them.

Pickup features: Passive humbucker
Impedence or other specs: 4.8 Henry

Model of guitar or bass: PRS (korean model)
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: weak and muddy stock pickups
Other pickups on guitar: L-500XL - bridge
Artists using this pickup: who cares?
You musical style(s): Rock, Blues, Jazz, Fusion (just about everything)
Reason for pickup change: Read reviews for this pickup

Perceived output level: Hot
Tone: Totally balanced. No mud at all. Very clear
Sonic evaluation: All mahogany off-shore PRS w/ Reverened Hellhound combo. At school, I'm using the same guitar w/ a Hughes & Kettner combo.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I can cover any style that I have the ability to play using this pickup combination (L-500XL bridge and L-500R neck)

Comments: I've been putting off writing a review for quite a while. But, I've been getting so many compliments on my tone recently, that I felt compelled to finally write a review.
Let me start this review with a little story. I go to a great music school with a bunch of guitarists that are always on the ultimate tone quest. There's one guy that plays an original '78 strat w/ a duncan lil '59 in the bridge, and he gets beautiful tone. It's so nice that several of the strat players in the class went out that same week and bought a lil '59 for their bridge pup. The funny thing is, the guys that had bad tone before STILL had bad tone with that fancy new $120 pickup.
I wrote this example to illustrate a point. There is no pickup that will give you THE sound. There is no "holy grail" pickup that you absolutely must have in your quest for absolute tone. Many guitar players are under the impression that they must have '59 this, or JB that, or dime-whatever, etc., to get great tone. Well, I'm sorry to say, that most of your tone is in the fingers. The other crucial part is knowing how to set your amp controls properly. A good player should be able to still sound good no matter what pickups are used (within reason).
With that being said, I believe that these pickups give me an excellent starting for creating whatever type of sound that I need. I don't find them to be muddy at all. Nor are they overly bright. The frequency response is very balanced (as it should be). Changes in frequency response from a pickup (increased mids, less mids, more bass, etc.) is typically due to flaws in the pickup's design. I find them to be quite hot (great for any type of rock, even the heavy stuff), but also capable of beautiful jangling clean tones, smooth jazz tones, and even snappy stratish tones (think Steely Dan).
It's sort of hard for me to only review one of the 2 pickups, since to me they are inseparable. They are perfectly balanced and blend together quite nicely. They also both sound excellent when switched to parallel mode (using series-parallel switches that I installed) giving a very stratish sound. It's still not quite a strat. A little closer to a p-90, but close enough for me that I only need to use this one guitar for any style that I'm playing, be it rock, jazz, funk, whatever. No matter what style I'm playing, I always get compliments on my tone. I actually had a certain player who officially endorses seymour duncan start asking about my pickups and how I was getting such a nice tone. He may even be calling the Lawrences in the near future for a set. While I don't give all the credit to the pickups, I definately get more compliments now with these pickups than I ever have w/ any other set of pickups.
Also, customer service is exceptional. It took a few weeks to get my pickups when I ordered them in November 2001, but it was definately worth the wait. And Bill's wife Becky did a great job at picking the right pickup combo for me. The Lawrences are easily reachable and extremely friendly. I recently had a problem with my L-500XL. So, I called them up and spoke with Becky. She had me check a few things, then had me ship her the pickup. Within 2 weeks, she shipped me a new L-500XL, at no cost to me!
Thanks Bill and Becky. You've made a lifetime customer out of me. Not only is your product great, but you run your business with honesty and integrity. Yours is the type of business that I want to support for years to come. I can't wait to get my strat fitted with some L280's/L290's.
Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time on ebay trying to find a used set of these. Odds are you won't find them. Because people don't get rid of these. They're that nice, and very reasonably priced. There would be no advantage to buying them used. You'll get them cheaper buying direct from Bill and Becky, and you'll know that you have the real deal. There are cheap copies being distributed by Stewmac and by several ebay sellers. Stay away from those.
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