Wilde USA L500L

Wilde USA L500L Shielded Passive humbucker. Coil splits and all....

I had purchased this pickup approx 8 years ago from Bill and Becky Lawrence and it went into a Carvin DC127. It was remarkable how this pickup brought the Carvin to life; the contrast with the stock pups made me wonder why Carvin wasn't putting these on their guitars (or any manufacter for that part....) I chose to place this in the bridge position, although I could see it being used as a neck pickup if you roll back the tone and volume a bit. Anyway, I ended up parting with the Carvin to join the strat ranks.

Many moons later I bought a Gibson Les Paul DC with Burstbucker Pros. It sounded like a Les Paul obviously, but the guitar begged more personality than those pickups could offer....it's now 2009 so I finally replaced the neck with a Seymour APH 2 and ordered another L500L for the bridge from the "Wilde USA" company....which is what their DBA is now. Be careful ordering these things from anywhere else!! Do your webbie homework and you'll understand.

It's been played through rack and floor effects, tube and solid state amps. Primary setup is usually Guitar -> Boss GT8 -> BBE Sonic Maximizer -> Fender HR Deville w/Celestions.

The output level can vary a great deal based on pickup height so it's not really fair to call it a high output pickup without mentioning this. Make no mistake, it will cook like no one's business but it doesn't have to be a bad boy all the time. In fact, rolling back the vol/tone yields this luscious retro-modern-timeless "perfect" electric guitar sound.

Splitting to single on a clean amp channel has the bite of a Telecaster without the myopic tele sound. Definitely not a strat sound either, but it's a perfect "other" sound. If you've never heard one of these under your fingers it's hard to imagine it really.

Put it back into humbucker configuration with whatever distortion you use....someone's gonna get slapped. It bites without being harsh, articulates without being choppy, and there is no bias given torwards any string in terms of presence and volume. You will hear how accustomed you were to your last pickup's shortcomings when you jam with the L500L for a bit. In terms of clarity, there is no equal. I suppose there may be an element of players that would not prefer the sound of this pickup, probably due to this. If you are looking for a lenient pickup that hides your mistakes, this isn't it.

I feel qualified to say it will bring the life out of your guitar regardless of make/model.....When I gave away the Carvin (which was one hell of a guitar mind you...), I ended up missing the L500L more than I did the guitar itself. After spending a princely sum on the Les Paul I tried to keep the guitar as stock as possible- I didn't want to change the aesthetic that much and knew that this pickup would. The L500L upgrade changed the infatuation I had with the Gibson to a full blown love affair. Ironically, it looks crazy cool in the LP and I can't imagine having the Bustbuckers in there again. The sound of the L500L is inspiring and impossible to ignore, and I truly love it. It's shameful for me not to encourage other lead players to get one, although I always enjoy having the secret weapon on stage- particularly when performing with other guitarists. Been playing for 19 years on the stage and in the studio, and this piece of gear will always be in my collection as long as I am a musician.

Dual rail humbucker with chrome shielding. 4 conductor.

I installed this in my beatup Ibanez RG. The guitar is mahogany with a maple top. Maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard. Edge trem and Duncan Jazz in the neck position. The 500L replaced the Duncan JB that was in the bridge position.

Only artists that I know using the pickup is Nuno Bettencourt, but I'm sure countless others do as well.

The JB never really gave me the tone I wanted. It had a fuzz to it that I didn't like, and sounded a little bit too midrangy. I tried the EMG route but didn't like that, and didn't want to go back to Dimarzio type pickups for the guitar again. It came with Dimarzio's in it, but they were too high output and ice-pick sounding for me.

The 500L is definitely a bridge position pickup, suitable for hard rock/metal lead playing. It is not quite as high output as the 500XL but sounds quite similar.

As far as tone goes, bassy, middy, muddy, trebly ... none of these. It is almost like the pickup imparts no tone of its own in a way. It is very high-fi and extremely well balanced.

I was a little put off at first by the pickups way of sounding overpowering, then once I backed off a little on the distance between pickup and strings it really started to sing and let the guitar sound through more.

I have it wired so that I can use it split as well, with the outer coil toward the neck as active. It sounds fantastic as a single coil split as well. Not Fender-ish, but very nice all the same.

I play a lot of rock and original stuff. Influences would include EVH, Vai, Gilbert, Nuno, Satch, SRV, Gilmour, Page... Huge Van Halen fan (Ed fan really) ... and have always loved Nuno's funky style and took a page from him and gave the Bill Lawrence pickup a try.

I'm using the pickup with a variety of setups ... Marshall TSL100, ADA-MP1, 5150 head, different cabs depending on the amp. For effects, none really. A little reverb or delay from my G-Major when I use the ADA rack, an MXR EVH Flanger and Phaser from time to time. The 500L really lets the guitar come through loud and clear with any of these setups.

While no pickup is perfect, for me, the pickup is a 10 soundwise. I'm always searching for new sounds so who knows, I may end up with something else down the road, but for the time being I've never been as happy with a pickup.

If something were to happen to my guitar with the 500L in it, I would certainly put together another one, and it would have the 500L for sure. To date, it is my favorite pickup that I've tried.

I've been playing for well over 20 years and have tried almost everything at some point. I've got guitars with Duncan's, Dimarzio's, EMG's, unknown pickups... the 500L stands above all of them to my ears.

I didn't directly compare it to other pickups in the same guitar, but after about two months with it, I knew the pickup was a keeper. It won't be swapped out anytime soon.

Only wish for this pickup would be a different design on how the wires come out of the housing. There's a glob of glue or something that keeps it all sealed around the plastic, and it touches the bottom of the route. When lowering the pickup it was hanging up on it and not lowering. I had to route a little bit of wood to get it sit in the cavity where I wanted it. No big deal, and probably doesn't happen on all guitars, but I'd like to see the wires worked out a little differently so that glob of glue isn't in the way.