Difference between Dimebucker and L-500XL

[Lord_Jereth]

Hi folks,

Ok, looking for the opinion of the tone gawds on this board.

After much soul searching I am once again looking to change my bridge pickup. I have narrowed my search down to two very similar pickups:

The Seymour Duncan SH-13 Dimebucker (click)

and

The Bill Lawrence L-500XL (click)

I had the L-500XL in a guitar many years ago and am wondering what the differences between it and the Dimebucker is. I know they were both used by Dime and I'm sure it was a matter of who to endorse and how much he would get for that endorsement when he switched from Bill Lawrence to Seymour Duncan. What I am looking for is the difference between the tone of both pups.

I also know that there's at least a $50 difference between the two which is swaying me towards my old stand-by, the L-500XL. But, I've also heard some samples of the Dimebucker and really love the warmth of what I heard as well as the articulation. Admittedly it has been several years since I owned and played with the guitar that the L-500XL was installed into so my recollection of the tone is a bit fuzzy at this point.

So, anyone have a little history on these two pickups and can give me an idea of the tonal differences, if any? Is the only difference really just the extra 50 bucks for the name?

Thanks,

LJ

P.S. Wasn't sure which forum to post this question in so if it's in the wrong section, moderators feel free to move it.

[j2379]

i cant answer your question but i will throw out another great option if you like both of those, the L-500L. slightly less output than the XL, its not as bright and a little thicker/warmer sounding. never played the dimebucker. if you go with the BL, get ones from Billy & Becky, NOT the BL-USA ones.

[Lord_Jereth]

Thanks for the advice. Got my Bill & Becky l-500XL in the mail today. Should be mounting it tomorrow. Woot!



LJ

[Trussrod]

i cant answer your question but i will throw out another great option if you like both of those, the L-500L. slightly less output than the XL, its not as bright and a little thicker/warmer sounding. never played the dimebucker. if you go with the BL, get ones from Billy & Becky, NOT the BL-USA ones.

Good advice. I have a Dimebucker and read that Dime never used it. It has a lot of output, high treble and generates feedback better than the other pups I've had excluding a few early 80's BL's. Let us know what you think of your new L500XL.

[DonP]

I have BL-USA ones that came standard in USA Jacksons in the mid-90s and these sound great to me.

I have a Bill and BL-USA one because it's from the 80's and was made in West Germany.

I got a Duncan Dimebag that came free in a Fusion Pro and sold it.

I've never directly compared them but from memory they all seemed to sound similar.

[jgcable]

little to no difference between the 2

[Lord_Jereth]

Let us know what you think of your new L500XL.

Well, without going too overboard, "The Punisher" is now a face melting WMD with the L-500XL in it. After tweaking my rig to match and then chunking down on the lower 'E" string to test my tone, even my drummer, who knows nothing of guitars, was like, "HOLY SHIT!"

At high gain the lower register is tight, crisp and chunky while the higher registers absolutely scream bloody murder. It's "dry" without losing that all important full spectrum tone or headroom. Dialed back it's responsive and purrs. It also blends well with the stock neck pickup for crystal clear clean tones. I lost none of the guitar's natural warmth or resonance, which is what I was deathly afraid of, and gained back so much more. IMO, for my style of playing and the music I make, this pickup really unlocked the full potential of this instrument, which the stock PUP was actually occulting.

Installation was a snap thanks to instructions from Bruce at Juno and Shannon at Wilde. What awesome folks to work with! I used Bill's "nickel" method for tuning (spacing) the pickup and was able to very quickly dial in the height from there to get that special chainsaw "chunka-chunka" that I lust after so dearly. The one problem I had is that the high side of the pickup has the wiring coming directly out of the bottom and the PUP cavity on my guitar is relatively shallow. Since the body of the pickup is so thick there isn't much clearance between the higher strings and the top of the pickup, even when cranked all the way down, due to the harness bottoming out in the cavity and not allowing the PUP to travel further. Thank goodness I actually like the pickup to be a bit high on that side, anyway. After all, I didn't buy a high quality, high output pickup to dial it back. There is enough clearance, but if my Jackson Kelly had been built with a PUP cavity even a millimeter shallower I'd have been in trouble.

At first blush I was a bit taken aback by the use of cut sections of rubber tubing instead of springs for mounting spacers - just seemed cheap to me - but I have to say that since the tubing flexes outward when compressed and pushes against the body, it makes for a nice, rock solid mount. At first I entertained the idea of just reusing the springs from the old pickup that I was replacing, but then thought I'd try the tubing first and fall back to plan "B" if necessary. Bill has been such an innovator over the years that I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt since he probably had his reasons for doing it this way - other than that the tubing is probably a cheaper production part. I'm actually glad I did. I'm not quite as anal as some about eliminating all possible extraneous mechanical vibrations from the guitar, but it's nice to know that should I ever get that to that stage, even at high gain I'll have one less vector to worry about.

All in all, I am very satisfied with my purchase. I won't say that the L-500XL is perfect for every application, of course. I'm sure most jazz and folk guitarists - and even some rock guitarists - would find it a bit too bright and active. But, for my purposes, it's exactly what I was looking for. After all of the minor modifications I did to this guitar to achieve the dream of "My Perfect Axe" she finally sounds as dangerous as she looks and feels.

LJ

[Trussrod]

Well, without going too overboard, "The Punisher" is now a face melting WMD with the L-500XL in it. After tweaking my rig to match and then chunking down on the lower 'E" string to test my tone, even my drummer, who knows nothing of guitars, was like, "HOLY SHIT!"

Lol. I'll have to pick one up at some point. I've been using tubing instead of springs on a few guitars w/out issue for about 20 years. It works especially well on pups directly mounted to wood.

[Lord_Jereth]

I've been using tubing instead of springs on a few guitars w/out issue for about 20 years.

I have to admit, I've never seen such a thing. Either way, it works very well. Thanks for the reply.

LJ

[lynchfan6]

i cant answer your question but i will throw out another great option if you like both of those, the L-500L. slightly less output than the XL, its not as bright and a little thicker/warmer sounding. never played the dimebucker. if you go with the BL, get ones from Billy & Becky, NOT the BL-USA ones.

I can second that!!! I took out the original BL pickup in my Washburn N4 and ordered a Bill and Becky BL pickup (L-500XL). The difference was night and day. The Bill and Becky
BL pickups are the real deal, and don't sound like the imposter.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

but how do they both compare to the X2N?

[Grim]

In my opinion, one is shit (the 500-XL) and one is shittier (Dimebucker). But that's me.

I like the X2N better - much more balanced. I find that both the 500XL and Dimebucker have a nasty high end that does not go well with the ungodly amount of output.

[Lord_Jereth]

In my opinion, one is shit (the 500-XL)

Hmmm. Well, I guess that it's true what they say: there's just no accounting for taste, 'eh?

LJ

[FloydRose4Prez]

... if you go with the BL, get ones from Billy & Becky, NOT the BL-USA ones.

Yes. I can attest. I bought the the non-Bill & Becky p/u and I knew there was something wrong. It's in my Dinky Rev Pro now and will be replaced at some point. These are made by some guy with a Polish name. Still calls himself BL...

[VoiceX3]

I have both pickups and NEITHER is a great bridge pickup in my honest opinion. First, the 500XL sounds good, but is missing that grindy edge a good high gain low noise pickup should have. Tried it in several guitars in all tunings and it never did it for me in the bridge position. It now lives in my Kelly mounted upside down and wired as a split neck pickup. Nice warm dirty noodle or clean playing pickup there. The Dimebucker went thru several guitars and tunings and came REALLY close to getting thrown out of the window of a moving car. I absolutely HATED this pickup. Noisy with an ugly tone.....bleschk! I know that's not a word, but it's the best I could use to describe my dislike for the tone. As a last ditch effort I put it in my Warrior Pro for drop A tunings (korn/soulfly/sepultura...etc) and low and behold way down register tunings are what this pickup was born to do. Glad I kept it for that as it is the best low drop tuning pickup I've come across.