Lawrence L-280's

[Jeff Lazare]

I have L-280's in the neck and middle positions of my Strat and an L-280S in the bridge. The output seems a bit weak as compared to the stock Fender pickups. The neck and middle measure 7.5K and the bridge 13K. Does anyone know if these values are correct?

 

[ICTGoober]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

I'm not familiar with L-280's..... Bill's usual pickups for Strats are L-250's....

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

L-280's are Wilde pickups made by Bill/Becky Lawrence. Those specs are right on, but not sure why they aren't performing like expected. Perhaps you have the wires crossed?? The color codes for the Wilde pickups are different than the "Bill Lawrence" L-250 which is an entirely different company.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

This might help
http://www.wildepickups.com/Wiring___Tech_Info.html

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

The L-250s are Bill Lawrence USA.

Wilde Bill Lawrence (aka Becky Lawrence) makes the L-280.

I would call or e-mail Becky to see what is up (the page seems to indicate they would pair the L280s with a L290 in the bridge.)

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

Indeed, generally it goes 280/280/290 bridge

 

[Jeff Lazare]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

Thanks, folks.

 

[ColeJustesen]

Re: Lawrence L-280's

I did have an order from Wilde one (out of several) where a pickups wires were wired incorrectly from the shop. Maybe something like that happened in your case. Fortunatley, mine was an easy fix... The pickup was out of phase with the other pickups, which just meant moving some wires around. Hopefully you can figure it out; Becky is usually quite helpful!

Cole

 

[ChrisJScott]

Hey, I realize this is an old thread but I stumbled onto it after just recently purchasing a set of L-280s for a Strat project and finding that the ohm outputs are:

neck @ 8.53 ohms
middle @ 9.12 ohms
lead @ 14.87 ohms

That lad value seems kinda crazy but I guess this post shows that that's what it's supposed to be! In that case, on to the installation...

 

[JamesPaul]

It is common for modern lead/bridge pickups to have a higher DC resistance, with all else being equal. The amplitude of the string vibration is lower at the bridge than the neck, so this helps balance that out. When the DCR is significantly higher, the goal is a higher output pickup.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Also when the DCR is that much higher, usually the hotter pickup was wound using a thinner gauge wire.
It's often the only way to get that many turns to fit.

 

[Drak]

I have two sets of these.
Both bought used from different people on The Gear Page at different times.
Both probably come from somewhere in the 1990's.
Both are Genuine Bill Lawrence (not BL USA) with the correct labels.
One set reads about 1k on average higher than the other.
These are all Stacked Humbuckers wired in Series.
ALL of my pickups, all six, read 'double' what you would typically see, because they're Stacked Humbuckers.

My lowest reading is 12k, which results in a 6k sounding pickup, with white/black wires.
My hottest reading is right around 20K, which yields a 10K sounding pickup, with red/black wires.
All the others are somewhere between them, just do the math and 'halve' the output to interpret for the intended position.
A 14K sounds like a 7K, and on and on.

They're all two-wire pickups, and all color-coded for position.
White/black is neck and weakest readings, green/black is middle, red/black is bridge with strongest readings.

If you're getting anything like a regular SC reading (in a 6k, 7, 8k range), I don't think you have Bill Lawrence 280's or 290's.
A BL 280 set should measure out something like this:
12K (white/black, neck, sounds 6K)
14K (green/black, middle, sounds 7K)
18K (red/black, bridge, sounds 9K)