Dimebucker vs L-500

[SavageRiffer]

How do these pickups compare? Someone I met at Guitar Center who knows just about every Pantera song swore by the L-500XL. As far as I can tell they sound quite similar except the L-500 has more overall midrange. Any preference for either?

 

[freefrog]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

Which L500? Vintage? Bill & Becky? BL USA? I own one of each kind and they all sound different.

When I've compared them in person with a SH13, I've found the dimebucker more "focused", with a narrower resonant peak, giving it more clarity and a slightly nasal upper midrange. Wired in parallel, it sounded surprisingly... Fender.
Vintage L500's weren't named "XL" but they were, technically... Mine sounds extremely powerful and gritty but relatively soft. Bill & Becky = more polite and warmer, rounder. BL USA = bright, if not harsh. The last being the "cheapest" sounding (and looking) of the bunch IMHO.
All these "Bill Lawrence L500" have still more in common than with the Dimebucker, which appeared to me as a different beast.

Of course, the experience could be different with the same pickups in other guitars than those used for my tests...

FWIW.

 

[dave74]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

SH-13 is an absolute BEAST in a roundish-toned full-mahogany guitar, especially if you're a loose/medium string-tension on a short-scale kind of guy.

 

[SavageRiffer]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

Which L500? Vintage? Bill & Becky? BL USA? I own one of each kind and they all sound different.

When I've compared them in person with a SH13, I've found the dimebucker more "focused", with a narrower resonant peak, giving it more clarity and a slightly nasal upper midrange. Wired in parallel, it sounded surprisingly... Fender.
Vintage L500's weren't named "XL" but they were, technically... Mine sounds extremely powerful and gritty but relatively soft. Bill & Becky = more polite and warmer, rounder. BL USA = bright, if not harsh. The last being the "cheapest" sounding (and looking) of the bunch IMHO.
All these "Bill Lawrence L500" have still more in common than with the Dimebucker, which appeared to me as a different beast.

Of course, the experience could be different with the same pickups in other guitars than those used for my tests...

FWIW.

Bill & Becky of course. I've never tried a BL USA.

SH-13 is an absolute BEAST in a roundish-toned full-mahogany guitar, especially if you're a loose/medium string-tension on a short-scale kind of guy.

Actually it might go in a Korina strat tuned down 1 step to D.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

How do these pickups compare? Someone I met at Guitar Center who knows just about every Pantera song swore by the L-500XL. As far as I can tell they sound quite similar except the L-500 has more overall midrange. Any preference for either?

Dime used the X500L and the L500XL

At least, that's what Grady told me.

 

[Spyder328]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

From what I know, the L500XL was originally called the L500L, then they came out with a lowered output model and decided to call that one the L500L and rename the original to the L500XL. Dime's first L500 was one of the original Bill and Becky L500L (XL) models (had curved blades and a chrome case) and that one stopped working so he got a new one which was now called the L500XL. When he said he used the L500L he also said he flipped it and it sounded better. I wonder if one of the coils was going out and flipping it and putting that coil in a different spot is why it really made a difference because that would have been the pickup that later died on him (both coils are supposed to be the same on that pickup, so if it was flipped it souldn't sound any different). He used BOTH the Bill and Becky and the Bill Lawrence USA pickups. You can see his original Bill and Becky L500L (XL) in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTvYbfDcQc4 . Now as far as they compare, I couldn't tell ya. I've only ever tried the new Bill and Becky L500XL (which comes with an A5 mag instead of ceramic. I'm not sure when they made the change, but it has supposedly been rewound to make up for it) and it is currently my favorite bridge pickup

 

[bloughlin16]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

If I recall correctly, the L500XL have alnico magnets, while the Dimebucker has ceramics. I definitely do prefer ceramics for more aggressive tones. They have a tighter low end, sharper pick attack, and that extra cut to them, though Dime definitely still had that in his tone while using the Bill Lawrences.

 

[dave74]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

If I recall correctly, the L500XL have alnico magnets, while the Dimebucker has ceramics. I definitely do prefer ceramics for more aggressive tones. They have a tighter low end, sharper pick attack, and that extra cut to them, though Dime definitely still had that in his tone while using the Bill Lawrences.

Yeah his solid-state distortion/amps kind of imparted those same "ceramic-like" qualities.

Didn't he switch to Krank tube amps about the same time the sh-13 was being developed for him? Maybe that's why he made the switch to the ceramic magnet.

 

[EDX]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

actually, before dime went with duncan he was using a pickup called the L500L+, which was a one off prototype, and the dimebucker was suposedly basedoff 3 different pickups, the one pickup that died, the pickup on the burst dean ml (the far beyond driven ml, which at the time along with dime's other ml's was stored due to his washburn contract) and the L500L+ from dime's personal washburn guitar, and they went through a lot of prototypes that were tested on real world conditions (grady even joked about the dimebucker having too much output due to dime's hearing being affected after a trio of full stacks blasting at full volume during hours)

by comparison, the BL USA and Bill and Becky (Wilde) are pretty much "flat eq'ed" (the wilde sounds warmer and fuller whereas the bl usa sounds sharper and thinner) while the dimebucker has flat mids and colosal amounts of bass and treble with a fizzy texture on the high end

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

The dimebucker has flat mids and colosal amounts of bass and treble with a fizzy texture on the high end

Can you explain what you mean by fizzy texture on the high end?

My experience with the Dimebucker is clean clean power–nothing fizzy about it at all.

I think people assume the Dimebucker is just for Dimebag tones...its seriously under marketed and narrowly viewed. I got awesome country tones out of mine and even the high gain tones are clear and articulate. Also, if you love harmonics then I don't see why you wouldn't want to give it a try.

As far as the BL Wilde vs. BLUSA vs. SH-13 stuff goes, there are many threads about the history and all. BL the man invented the pickup–BLUSA still makes that pickups with basically the same machines and same way the original was. BL Wilde improved/updated his original pickup. Seymour Duncan made their version to suit Dimebag's needs/requirements.

All 3 are similar but slightly different. After owning all 3 I would say the Wilde and SH-13 were of higher quality than the BLUSA...nothing against the BLUSA but it just felt cheap.

All 3 companies have customer service issues; however, the BLUSA and Dimembucker are not customer shop orders so there is no wait time (other than standard shipping.) I waited like 2-3 months to get my Wildes last year.

 

[EDX]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

Well lets take for example a jb, play a power chord then do a squeal, then play exactly the same on the dimebucker, the very top of the jb will be like cristal while the very top on the dime will have that nice kind of fizz like a chainsaw, it will be searing thru where the jb only cuts, depending on how you eq that searing fizzy top might be more or less noticeable, but its there on the very top

Funny enough when split the dimebucker is twang town, i even laught as how twangy it is, i mean, you can sound as twangy as your average tele with a pointy metal mahogany slab, and paralell sounds like a huge single coil

sent from my crappy junk-phone

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

Well lets take for example a jb, play a power chord then do a squeal, then play exactly the same on the dimebucker, the very top of the jb will be like cristal while the very top on the dime will have that nice kind of fizz like a chainsaw, it will be searing thru where the jb only cuts, depending on how you eq that searing fizzy top might be more or less noticeable, but its there on the very top

Funny enough when split the dimebucker is twang town, i even laught as how twangy it is, i mean, you can sound as twangy as your average tele with a pointy metal mahogany slab, and paralell sounds like a huge single coil

sent from my crappy junk-phone

Hmm, my Dimebucker didn't have any high end fizz–one of the most clear and articulate pickups I've used. The JB used to be my #1 pickup and while I would say it is clear, I would describe the Dimebucker as more clear and articulate...but that was through my rig not yours. lol

And I hear ya on the twang–the Dimebucker could seriously be marketed as a Country pickup. lol

 

[EDX]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

the dimebucker it's very clear and ultra articulate, so much that i can dime the gain on the amp and kick both overdrives and the eq pedal and it won't get muddy at all, but through my rig it has been the only pickup apart from the pearly gates to show the fizzy searing texture on the very high end

i have mine wired to a push pull pot for parallel series i'm thinking of upgrading to a triple shot ring at some time, but it's tone on parallel is so single like that even the time i filled in the church band for a friend the other guitarist (which had a fender strat) told me my tone was so clean and had a really nice twang to it

 

[Demanic]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

I wouldn't bother with the Triple Shot if the push/pull gets you there.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[EDX]

Re: Dimebucker vs L-500

well, parallel mode is single coily and has a nice twang, but it ain't as twangy as split, i used to have a 2PDT with center off on the guitar to do the change and the middle off was split, but i really wasn't using split mode at the time and wanted a killswitch so i ditched the 2PDT in favour of push pull pots, really i'm considering the triple shot as i could use the push pull for something crazy, like a black ice passive fuzz or a q filter