Nuno Bettencourt - Bill Lawrence model

[CarlosG]

Hi!
I love 80's hair metal sound.
I think pickups have a huge impact on the sound.
I've tried many of those years:
-JB my favourite!
-Distortion also great (but more metal than JB)
-Jackson J90c also great pickup (little dull)
-Super Distortion too muddy for me
-EMG 81 too thin for me but great for thrash metal
I know that in those years people used EMG 85 too, which I haven't tried and I'm not really interested in,
and Bill Lawrence which was used by Nuno Bettencourt and and it interests me.
I like JB probably for its midrange and harmonics. With the right setup the treble strings sound like I'm constantly doing delicate pinch harmonics and I love it, if you know what I mean.
see 0:58

I noticed Nuno achieves the same effect with his Bill Lawrence (see Pornografitti album).

However, it is difficult to find information on which model L or XL he using.
Does anyone have verified information? In my country Bill Lawrence are hard to find and I would like to buy the right one.
By the way, I saw the AH-1 model has the same feature, but it is very hard to buy in my country.

For me these sounds are fantastic, as I mentioned earlier it sound like play light pinch harmonics constantly (I don't know if it has a name)
I would also like to thank those who struggle with my not-so-good English and help me.

Best regards.

 

[AdrianSD]

I can't help you with the Bill Lawrence pickup, only popped to say there's nothing wrong at all with your English

 

[maug2122]

I have one in a partscaster Kramer guitar that I assembled, that has a Bill Lawrence XL-500 and it's rated at 11.28k ohms and are very treble.

I also have some put away in a box.
Many Bill Lawrence pickups have windings that are inconsistent. Some are irraticly wound from 11k ohms to 16.04k ohms.

They sound good in the bridge for a muscular 70's Classic Rock sound or if your into Metal the Bill Lawrence XL-500 make neck pickups, especially if they're wound below 11.50k ohms.
Drop a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot pickup ring and that pickup will give you a semi SRV tone.

 

[freefrog]

IME since 1980, Bill Lawrence models are not more inconsistent than others. On the contrary, they tend to have pretty stable specs because Bill Lawrence designed his pickups on the basis of inductance. This main feature, much more meaningful than DCR, remained the same or similar for the main BL humbucker line even after the split between "Bill Lawrence USA" and "Wilde pickups": both sell L500L's measuring 6 to 7H (with a DCR around 12k: when a L500 measures in the 14 to 16k range, it's actually a L500XL with a high inductance, beyond 9H).

What is inconsistent is the naming of BL models. What was named "L500L" in the 80's became what one calls "L500XL" now....

Useful link: http://billlawrencereview.com/BillLawrence_Timeline.html

It's not that hard to obtain a similar tone from L500L's and XL's: playing a XL through a low capacitance cable or adding parasitic capacitance to a L500L should make them tonally close to each others by shifting up and down their respective resonant frequencies.

Regarding the tonal profile at play: Bill Lawrence designed his pickup to avoid eddy currents, thx to the smallest possible amount of metallic parts (no baseplate, thin blades as magnetic poles and so on). Hence a trebly voicing. So they might require pots with a lower resistance than more conventional designs.

FWIW. HTH.

 

[Spaghetti Bolo]

I believe Nuno uses the XL.

I have both the L and XL. I've never compared them in the same guitar but they seem quite similar. The XL is the original spec for the bridge position as chosen by BIll. So I would go for the XL. Probably the best choice for parallel and splitting too.

As Freefrog points out, its a really well designed pickup and lightweight too from the lack of superfluous metal, I have the C and L in an Ibanez with an option to run both pickups together in series; the resulting sound is still clearer and less muddy than a typical humbucker.


Regarding pinch harmonics, some pickups (the JB) bring them out easier than others; the L500 will easily generate strong pinch harmonics IF you want it to.

I'd say that it's Nuno making that sound rather than the pickup. I actually dislike it when pickups sound like I'm always adding a bit of thumb; the worst was the dimarzio FRED. No matter how you attacked the string it whined. If I want that sound I'll create it with my picking hand, thank you very much.


So does the L500 do the auto-squeal thing? I would say no, but it's very responsive to generating that sound.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I wouldn't say the BL's or the JB are the only pickups that can do that screaming treble strings kinda sound. I think the trick is a bright, gainy, but not super gained out amp, maybe a boost like an SD-1 that cuts low-end and boosts mids (that one might not be necessary, depending on the amp), a pickup that's not super dark, and hitting those treble strings hard. I think, technique-wise, it's just really digging into those strings hard but controlled.

Pretty sure, given the right boost/amp settings, a '59B, a PG, or a Custom could do that sound as well. Might be harder with something dark like an Invader or an X2N.