Any comments on Lawrence L-90's

[cynical1]

I've been toying with what to do with the Fernandes Sustainer guitar, and got a wild hair about pulling the bridge and middle single coils and replacing them with a pair of Wilde (Bill Lawrence) L-90's.



The plan was to put the 6.0 H or 8.0 H in the bridge, and a 4.0 H or maybe 6.0 H in the place of the middle pickup on the 5 way, but positioning it directly under the Sustainer single coil in the neck.

The thought is, with the Sustainer off, using the 5-way, it would have the single coil, single coil and neck L-90, neck L-90, neck and bridge L-90 and finally the bridge L-90. Once the Sustainer is engaged it's only the neck and bridge and the 5-way is defeated and the middle pickup is out of the circuit.

However, it's been a long while since I've heard the L-90's and would like other opinions on the re-issue, if anyone has these installed, before I pull the trigger on this one.

I've sent an e-mail off to Lawrence on the feasibility of this scheme, so pending the reply it may all be a mute point anyway...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[roadtonever]

I have an L90 4H/6H standard set in my Les Paul copy and I love it. It's the sweetest humbucker imaginable, always lush and bell-like no matter what. I'd say my set occupies a range between a distorsion humbucker and a PAF but takes on a light strat-ish treble. At least for the neck I probably wouldnt want to go higher than 4H as the 4H seems just right to me for various tones from clean to distorsion. I tend to dissagree with the promise of some P-90-like responce it's said to have though, even with .047uf caps it's not even remotely gritty as a P-90. Overall I see it as an evolved PAF, it does Zeppelin, Jeff Beck etc very well and even does a good Hendrix tone without any particular wiring tricks. Let me know and I can point you to some sound clips.

As for getting recomendations for the Lawrences I agree it may be a mute point. Bills daughter Shannon will gladly provide any info at hand but for concrete feedback your project you'd want to talk to Bill and he's quite hard to get hold of. He's still recieveing chemo to this day but if you call the Lawrences and ask nicely they might just hand him the phone if he's in that day.
If you do get hold of Bill you'll probably want to tell him up front that you only want recomendations for your application or he'll give you a lecture about AC circuits. It'll likely be an interesting lecture though.

Stop the presses! As of this day the Lawrences are taking pre-orders on on the long awaited microcoil strat pickups. These are Bills take on state-of-the-art pickup design which uses fewer turns of wire around the coils simmilar to Lace Alumitones and Villex. Far from the design and tone from L-90s but you wont need to mess with your pickup routes Just an idea though go with humbuckers if that's what you desire. Again I could point you to sound clips if just for the novelty of it.

[cynical1]

Thanks for the input. I remember the 70's L-90's as a much warmer pickup then most humbuckers. Not really a P-90, as you said, but different from the PAF.

I have read up and the most common configuration is the 6.0 H/4.0 H configuration. I am uncertain if the 6.0 H would be hot enough to work with the Sustainer driver. I can't imagine that the existing single coil bridge pickup is that hot, but I'm still waiting to hear back from Fernandes and Lawrence on the proof of concept...

And not being a huge fan of ceramic pickup I'm not drawn to the 500 series Lawrence's.

I'm looking to go Humbucker on this guitar, as Project #2 is an HSS, so I figured this would round out the arsenal...plus, the Sustainer really has me intrigued...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[roadtonever]

8H could work fine for the bridge, but that's just my speculation. Seen folks being happy with 2H/8H combos. Current L500 use alnico magnets BTW, yet are said to sound virtually identical to previous ceramic L500's. I dunno but if you want to go for a high output and not have a sound that's all pillowey maybe the L500 should be considered.

[cynical1]

I really don't go for the high output style myself. I do appreciate clean and powerful, though.

I could probably judge this better with some feedback from either Fernandes or Lawrence. I'm thinking the 6.0 H would probably do it.

The worst part is that since there's no output from said guitar I have no idea how hot the existing pickups are. This weekend I'm going to open her up and see if I can decipher the wiring off the circuit board. Hopefully the last owner just hosed something up in re-connecting everything and it'll be a quick fix.

But I'm not holding my breath...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[cynical1]

For reference, I heard back from Fernandes. The L-90's will work fine. I'm waiting for a final word on either the 8.0 H or the 6.0 H.

I heard your samples, at least I assume they're your samples...same avatar as here...on another forum and liked what I heard. I'm leaning towards the 6.0 H \ 4.0 H setup based on your configuration.

They sent me a wiring diagram, so the Fernandes is going on for exploratory surgery tomorrow to verify the diagram.

Everybody cross your fingers that the board is good since they don't have spare parts on the older boards...

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[roadtonever]

I'm glad you found those clips useful. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. The L90's through a sustainer would be a treat, I bet.

[cynical1]

The clips were a big help. And nicely done with a very full range of possibilities.

I probably should have updated this sooner, but I heard back from Becky Lawrence.

Their recommendation is to go with the 8.0 H in the bridge and the 6.0 H in the neck (modified middle) position.

I'm hoping they sound like the 70's version alnico L-90's. Never been a big fan of high output pickups, but with the Fernandes Sustainer I understand it's a requirement.

Fernandes support also signed off on the Lawrence recommendation, so now all I need to do is get the main board replaced and start tinkering.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[simes]

I've just ordered a set of L500's, an "R" and an "L". I will report back once I get them and install them.

I'm just hoping the order will come through OK, as the Wilde people aren't answering my e-mails.

[cynical1]

simes -

Bill just turned 80 this year, and Becky handles most all of the e-mails and information requests. My experience has been that if you don't hear back in a couple of week a polite reminder is cool.

Remember, Wilde is truly a Mom and Pop shop...but in my mind it's a small price to pay to go direct with someone like Bill.

I would be interested in your take on the 500's when you get them in.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[simes]

I know Bill has health issues and they were moving their workshop, so maybe that's the reason. I was just a little surprised not to get any answer at all to an e-mail enquiry that I re-sent a couple of times, because other enquiries about a year ago were answered very promptly by Shannon.

I intend to fit the L500's into an SG as a testbed in order to select the most useful options for later inclusion into a new build. I'll want to try local series/parallel, inner coils, outer coils, different cap values, etc.

I'll record sound clips too if I can get hold of a suitable recording interface.

[simes]

Update:

After another e-mail yesterday, Becky mailed me today to tell me that my PU's will be shipped this week, so a shorter delivery time than I expected.