For years (ever since my high school days) I have used EMG pickups in all of my guitars...81/85 combo specifically. Not because of Zakk Wylde (although I do worship his playing), but because that set has been an EMG recommended combination for years and after trying it I decided it was what I was looking for at the time. I'm not really much of a gear whore per se. I'm one who likes to find what gives me what I want and stick with it.
So naturally I stuck with that EMG combo for the last 15 years at least. Until I had a friend of mine come by to check out one of my amps. He brought with him a Charvel loaded with a Wilde/Bill Lawrence L500-L pickup. After hearing him play through my amps, I was like "That pickup is THE perfect match for my amps!!!"
Then he gave me a bit of history. This is when I learned about Bill Lawrence USA vs Wilde/Bill & Becky. For those who are not aware, Bill Lawrence USA pickups are NOT made by Bill Lawrence himself. Bill Lawrence USA is his old business partner, Jzchak Wajcman. If you want Bill Lawrence pickups made by the man himself, you go to "Wilde Pickups". He makes the same L500 series pickups as per the original patent. They're made to order and there is about a 3 week lead time. The beauty of it is that they're not all that expensive! A pickup that sounded that good only ran me $54 + shipping!
So I placed my order and 3 weeks later I received the pickup. The first thing I noticed was that there was no shielded wire on the pickup. So I contacted them, and Becky informed me that Bill has not used shielded wire on his pickups since the early 90s. His philosophy is that if you design and make a pickup correctly you don't need it. Skeptical, I decided to go ahead an wire the thing up.
I installed it and got it all wired up. Plugged it in and turned the volume on the guitar up and...
DEAD QUIET!!!
I was VERY impressed with the low noise offered by this pickup despite the lack of shielded wire. All I gotta say is the man must know what he's doing.
I gotta say this is probably THE best passive pickup I've used! Nuno Bettencourt also uses this pickup, and I always wondered how he can get a cleanly overdriven vintage tone while at the same time pulling off false harmonics without changing his amp settings. In my past experience I've had to dial the amp in for either one or the other, but have never been able to get both at the same time with the same settings. Wouldn't you know it...that is a characteristic of this pickup. Everything from cleanly overdriven vintage tone to all out wailing false harmonics...these pickups are VERY responsive and I've never felt so in control of the amp via dynamics with any other pickup.
Another Nuno characteristic...palm muted percussive legatto that almost sounds like speed picking...again another characteristic of these pickups. They have a high resonant peak...which amounts to accentuated attack.
Also...I can do Nuno runs on it and they sound pretty much dead on like Nuno.
All in all...I give this pickup a 10+ on the scale. If you're into the sort of tones I described above, you've gotta try one out. For the price alone it's well worth it.
So naturally I stuck with that EMG combo for the last 15 years at least. Until I had a friend of mine come by to check out one of my amps. He brought with him a Charvel loaded with a Wilde/Bill Lawrence L500-L pickup. After hearing him play through my amps, I was like "That pickup is THE perfect match for my amps!!!"
Then he gave me a bit of history. This is when I learned about Bill Lawrence USA vs Wilde/Bill & Becky. For those who are not aware, Bill Lawrence USA pickups are NOT made by Bill Lawrence himself. Bill Lawrence USA is his old business partner, Jzchak Wajcman. If you want Bill Lawrence pickups made by the man himself, you go to "Wilde Pickups". He makes the same L500 series pickups as per the original patent. They're made to order and there is about a 3 week lead time. The beauty of it is that they're not all that expensive! A pickup that sounded that good only ran me $54 + shipping!
So I placed my order and 3 weeks later I received the pickup. The first thing I noticed was that there was no shielded wire on the pickup. So I contacted them, and Becky informed me that Bill has not used shielded wire on his pickups since the early 90s. His philosophy is that if you design and make a pickup correctly you don't need it. Skeptical, I decided to go ahead an wire the thing up.
I installed it and got it all wired up. Plugged it in and turned the volume on the guitar up and...
DEAD QUIET!!!
I was VERY impressed with the low noise offered by this pickup despite the lack of shielded wire. All I gotta say is the man must know what he's doing.
I gotta say this is probably THE best passive pickup I've used! Nuno Bettencourt also uses this pickup, and I always wondered how he can get a cleanly overdriven vintage tone while at the same time pulling off false harmonics without changing his amp settings. In my past experience I've had to dial the amp in for either one or the other, but have never been able to get both at the same time with the same settings. Wouldn't you know it...that is a characteristic of this pickup. Everything from cleanly overdriven vintage tone to all out wailing false harmonics...these pickups are VERY responsive and I've never felt so in control of the amp via dynamics with any other pickup.
Another Nuno characteristic...palm muted percussive legatto that almost sounds like speed picking...again another characteristic of these pickups. They have a high resonant peak...which amounts to accentuated attack.
Also...I can do Nuno runs on it and they sound pretty much dead on like Nuno.
All in all...I give this pickup a 10+ on the scale. If you're into the sort of tones I described above, you've gotta try one out. For the price alone it's well worth it.