johndara Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I recently bought a Samick Explorer, beautiful guitar for the money. It came with a Duncan Design pickup. Can anyone tell me anything about these pickups, ie; are they made by Duncan?, etc. I heard they were modeled after the JB pickup. Another quick question, I put a Bill Lawerence 500L (i believe that was the model) pickup in my BC Rich Mockingbird purchased in 1980, neck-thru, really a beautiful guitar. I love the pickup and wanted to put one in my Samick, but I cant find a Bill Lawerence web site or dealer. What pickup that Seymour Duncan makes that is equivilant to my Bill Lawerence Pickup? Any help would be appreciated,,,John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarWolf Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Originally posted by johndara: I recently bought a Samick Explorer, beautiful guitar for the money. It came with a Duncan Design pickup. Can anyone tell me anything about these pickups, ie; are they made by Duncan?, etc. I heard they were modeled after the JB pickup. Another quick question, I put a Bill Lawerence 500L (i believe that was the model) pickup in my BC Rich Mockingbird purchased in 1980, neck-thru, really a beautiful guitar. I love the pickup and wanted to put one in my Samick, but I cant find a Bill Lawerence web site or dealer. What pickup that Seymour Duncan makes that is equivilant to my Bill Lawerence Pickup? Any help would be appreciated,,,Johnim not sure who makes Duncan Designed pickups but i do know that their just cheaper, lower quality p'ups modeled after the real Seymour Duncan p'ups YtseJam your Majesty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael saulnier Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 John, You asked about Bill Lawrence pickups. Did you know this is a CAN OF WORMS? There are two "Bill Lawrence" companies. One is owned by Jzchak Wajcman, the other by Willi Lorenz Stich. Willi is the one that is known as the "person" known as Bill Lawrence. Jzchak owns the "business name" called Bill Lawrence, and he is apparently the legal owner of the original designs for Bill Lawrence pickups. They each have a website that tells slightly different versions of the story of what happened, who did what to whom... But today, both sell pickups. Jzchak's website is: http://www.billlawrenceusa.com and Willi's is: http://www.billlawrence.com To make matters even more confusing... they both sell pickups with similar part numbers... I'm not sure if they are made the same or not... Willi's site doesn't directly list product names... they want you to call to talk with them about it... Jzchak's site does have part descriptions and pictures. Willi's the guy who worked for Gibson and with Kent Armstrong... and has patents and so on. If I were to pick which one was the "inventor" of the pickups... it seems to be Willi. There's LOTS of good reviews on www.harmonycentral.com about Bill Lawrence pickups... IF you can figure out who to buy them from... I would buy from Willi, personally. guitplayer I'm still "guitplayer"! Check out my music if you like... http://www.michaelsaulnier.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael saulnier Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Oh yeah, Duncan Designed. Duncan has licensed certain pickup designs to international pickup makers. They have found their way into a number of import guitar lines. Some have complained that they don't sound as good as Duncan's made in the US, but I haven't always found that to be the case. I bought a Hamer EchoTone, (a 335 like Korean import) after a blind comparison with US made Gibson 335's. (Meaning I closed my eyes, had someone else play various guitars, and listened to the difference in tone without knowing which guitar was which). I'm not saying EVERYONE would make the same choice or that ALL EchoTone's sound better than all 335's or anything... But among the group of EchoTones I tried against the group of 335's... the individual guitar I bought sounded best to me. It has "Duncan Designed" pickups and they sound great. As far as which Duncan US models they are designed after... I'm not sure if Duncan has ever stated that publicly. I have also heard that the "bridge" ones were emulating a JB and the neck a "'59"... but I don't think that's an OFFICIAL statement. guitplayer I'm still "guitplayer"! Check out my music if you like... http://www.michaelsaulnier.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Strat Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 To add to the confusion, there is an OBL brand of pickup made overseas for Epiphone guitars. The OBL name means "Original Bill Lawrence" but the name was purchased by Gibson and used on Gibson designed pickups. They sound pretty good on my Epiphone Del Rey. I think that the closest pickup to a Bill Lawrence 500L that Seymour Duncan makes is the Dimebucker. Twin blade and very hot output. BlueStrat a.k.a. "El Guapo" ...Better fuzz through science... http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndara Posted February 12, 2003 Author Share Posted February 12, 2003 Thanks to all that responded to my question regarding the Duncan Design and the Bill Lawerence pickups. I contacted Bill Lawerence and am in the process of purchasing another 500L pickup. To my ears, these are the best pickups ever made, hands down. Thanks again, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doc taz Posted February 13, 2003 Share Posted February 13, 2003 Here\'s aa page from the SD web site about Duncan Designed pickups. Direct rfrom the horse's mouth. sevenstring.org profile my flickr page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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