Metropoulos Forum

I read around and it is said that this BL pickup is a L90. Quoting a user:

To generalize, the L-90 is a humbucker that has a very clean, clear sound, almost like a single-coil. It's got a great, open, vintage sound, that you don't expect from a humbucker. It's great for blues, jazz, country, and rock. Most guys love it as a neck pickup because it's open and not muddy, but plenty use it as a bridge pickup too, Joe Perry and Buck Dharma love this pickup.

The L-500 is his most famous humbucker, and while it looks like a high-gain monster, it isn't necessarily. It's a less open sound than the L-90, but gets great cleans and overdrive. It's more humbucker-sounding, but it's got an extended freq. range than most humbuckers.

I'm going to be bold enough and try to ask the man directly, will let you know if I succeed!

I have the L-90XL, and it is high output. My strat overdrives my amp about as well as my buddy's Les Paul, and I have the stock 250k pot in there, so with a 500k pot it'd be even hotter.
BUT it is not muddy like high output pickups. I tried a Dimarzio Super Distortion for about 10 minutes, took it out and put the Lawrence back in. The Lawrence is much more open and articulate. It cleans up pretty well with volume knob changes.
I also had the L-500L. Haven't tried the L-500XL, but that's another great rock pickup, favored by artists like Alex Lifeson, Nuno Bettencourt and Dimebag Darrell.

And don't know anything about BL pickups but aren't the XL and non-XL models completely different? I have also read a lot of controversy on L-500[XL] and reissues differences so as always it's a complicated matter...

Listen to the tracks 'Black Out' or 'Bad Boys Running Wild' or 'Same Thrill'. Jabs got GREAT tone for sure. I'd be interested to find out which Bill Lawrence humbucker he was using. I think it was the L500 of some sort. I'm sure I got an interview with the info somewhere, question is , is whether he (Matthias) says just Bill Lawrence or if he says the model number.

He is most known for playing a Gibson explorer. I don't know which tracks he used his Strat on, if it has obvious whammy bar, then it is the Strat, and his had a Floyd Rose and a L90XL. The L90 predated the l500. It more resembled an EMG pickup with two visible rails. Steven Tyler was associated with this pickup.
Lawrence then came out with the L500 series. It looks different. It still has rails but it has visible "coils" for a more traditional look. The coils are closer together for a narrower magnetic window. Probably the main difference in tone between the L500 and L90 series.

Thanks for the info there Steady Eddie. You are right, the Lawrence in Jabs guitar was a rectangle (white) with the two blades. I agree that jabs is more associated with the Explorer, but from the 'BlackOut' album on, he used the black '63 strat with original non locking tuner floyd rose at least on half of everything. Your right, the tunes with the bar are obviously the strat.

Are these L90xl's still available ?

Tone Slinger wrote:You are right, the Lawrence in Jabs guitar was a rectangle (white) with the two blades.

So the pickup would really be L90, not a L90XL if I've got everything right Do you have pictures of this 'trouble guitar'?

The L90 and L90XL are the same visually. XL is the highest output model and I'm pretty sure that's what he has in his Strat.
BL has reissued the L90 series and that's what I have in my Strat.
High output but articulate, not a hint of mud or dullness, these are traits of all BL pickups.
Ken Fisher of Trainwreck Amps said the L90XL was his favorite pickup.
This pickup likes overdriving vintage and hot rodded Marshalls.

Cool, I'm very interested. One of these (L90 or L90xl) would look cool as hell in my strat. Thanks for sparking my interest. I heard your clips on the sound/recording page. Pretty darn good gain and crunch with your 1987 clone with ppimv using that pu. I didnt realize at first that your pu was a Lawrence like Jabs used, but now it makes sense.

I've got the channels bridged internally so I get even more gain than a normal 1987, but the Lawrence really does push it over the top.

The Lawrence pickups are also very reasonably priced.

http://wildepickups.com/Wilde_Bill_s_Twin_Blades.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you order, the 8.0 Henry version is the "XL" model. He sells them now according to their inductance, which he affirms is a better indicator of output and tone than ohms.

He also has reissued the L45, a twin blade single coil size pickup, these pickups predated Duncan's rail pickups by quite a few years.

Matthias Jabs wrote:Hi Robin,

i used a Marhall JMP 50w, no Master Volume.

With "transformer killers" I probably meant the inconsistant voltage in the US, which varies from 90 volts to 125 volts and is tough for a European Amp (230 volts) operated by a step down transformer.


Cheers,

Matthias

I asked him about the pickups in the 'trouble guitar' in return

WOW ! a reply from Matthias himself. Thats cool . So that was the unit that I recalled reading about in 'Musician' magazine back in '84/'85. They said that they brought there own system for controlling the voltage inconsistincies over here (usa).

I got lots of old pics that I could scan with that 'beat up' black '63 strat. Spinoo, see if you can get Jabs to join the metro forums, I bet he's got lots of great info/stories to tell.

Tone Slinger wrote:WOW ! a reply from Matthias himself. Thats cool . So that was the unit that I recalled reading about in 'Musician' magazine back in '84/'85. They said that they brought there own system for controlling the voltage inconsistincies over here (usa).

I got lots of old pics that I could scan with that 'beat up' black '63 strat. Spinoo, see if you can get Jabs to join the metro forums, I bet he's got lots of great info/stories to tell.

He will likely fall in the same category as Ed in the sense that he has his own signature guitars and he would refrain from speaking about manufacturers other than his own imprint...

My 2cent

I consider Love drive an era unto it's own...a transitional record......which it is.......and a good one at that......
I beleive it's Jabs on "Always somewhere" but only from reading about it.....My ears make me thinks it's Michael...It's great work,,,and probably my favorite Scorps ballad.
"Is there anybody there" has one mean solo........Jabs

Animal magnetism is my favorite Jabs era record......It's Rudy at his best!
Jabs playing did indeed really come into it's own on the Blackout record,,,Which in the Jabs era I consider a close 2nd to Animal Magnetism, I like "Love at first sting: and the guitar playing is great, just the album to me went to far in that pop direction and gathering appeal for ever younger audiences. After this were getting past the bands heyday and Jabs plays well on all those discs, even the ones I've only played once......One day I will give all these albums fair treatment.....and maybe even post the reviews here........

For me Jabs greatest achiement is the solo runs in "No one like you", That tune got played on Radio stations 20 times a day, and it was for the guitars singing melody as much as the vocal melody and chorus......It was great guitar work IMO.....

it didn't strike me as to how insane MJ is until i saw him live,3rd row at the garden
hanging off the amp racks ,doing all those fills that you take for granted on the lps
basically screaming and ripping

i think rudy once said that MJ is the perfect hybrid of EVH and brother Michael
i feel that lovedrive/animal mag and blackout had an overall very brown sound