Jackson Bill Lawernce Pickups

[DonP]

Anyone know the scope on these (are they real BL or fake BL USA pickups)? I have a pair in a 1995 RR1. I think they sound pretty good.

I also have an L500XL OBL pickup "Made in West Germany" (very old). It looks a little different than these. The "blades" in the RR1 are thinner.

I also notice the Duncan Dimebucker's have fatter blades as well.

I don't know much about the Jackson history of when they went from Jackson pickups to BL to Seymour Duncans (what the years were).

Thanks for shedding some light on the subject!

[parntz145]

Re: Jackson Bill Lawernce Pickups

I had a Jackson custom shop that came with a fake Bill Lawerence in it. I called them up and it turned out they were buying what they thought were real Lawerence pups but were fake. I called Bill Lawerence and was on the phone with him for at least an hour about this matter. He said that he only sells his pups direct and that he never dealt with Jackson before. If you didnt buy it direct its a fake. It turned out that there was a guy that was making fake Lawerence pups and selling them to many guitar companies as the real deal. You will notice the fake ones have real thin blades in them. Just for the book, Jackson had no idea they were fake and in no way were they selling fake Lawerence pups.

[DonP]

Re: Jackson Bill Lawernce Pickups

Interesting. Mine are the fake ones then - thin blades for sure. Thanks for the info.

[Tashtego]

Re: Jackson Bill Lawernce Pickups

I have one (XL) I bought in 86 that has the thin blades. I think these older ones are true B Lawrence PUPs though, I don't believe there were any fake ones then. My understanding is that the 'fake' ones are based on this original design and made by a former partner of B.L. but they split sometime in the late 80's or early 90's. I have read complaints about the new ones made by the partner not sounding too good though. Certainly the ones wound by B.L. and his shop are greatly favoured from my reading.

[cy_berg]

Re: Jackson Bill Lawernce Pickups

I had a Dinky USA (Idon't recall the serial number, but I bought it 1994 from a music store, not second hand) that hade L500XL...I was really disappointed by the sound. It sounded really thin, and with low output. Pretty bad sustain as well...

[DonP]

Re: Jackson Bill Lawernce Pickups

That doesn't sound like my fake ones or my real OBL one. Mine have good chunk (tight bottom), fat but clear sounding, and sustain real good.