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some say he used a 500XL from others say he used one from ONE thing i did notice is that the ones from BL usa has thinner blades?

while bill and beckys have thicker blades,I really want to try one of these 500XL's just to hear which is the better one?

use the pickups from bill and becky. That's who dime used and they are the real Bill Lawrence.


Originally Posted by Bonesuse the pickups from bill and becky. That's who dime used and they are the real Bill Lawrence.

does anyone have a close up pic of DIMES original dean from hell?
that would cinch it, if it has a 500xl with thin blades it is billlawrenceusa
if it has the thicker blades it is no doubt from bill and becky

These are the only photos i can get of dime original axe,

looks to me that the pup has the thicker blades?

I use a Bill/Becky Lawrence L500L. It took some getting used to because it sends like every frequency your guitar can muster to the amp. The thing is FULL-ON, if that makes any sense. No noise, no feedback, all power. I almost regret not getting the L500XL, but only if I got Bill's Q Filter to calm it down and give me more tonal variation. My L500L doesn't crunch like my Duncan Distortion, but it makes the D.D. sound a little tiny in comparison I must say. Based on what I've read, Dime's quot;flippingquot; of his bridge pickup likely does not result in a different tone since on those type of blade humbuckers, there is no hotter side.

I've seen accounts that Dime used the L500L, and I've seen others that say the L500XL. Either way, I stayed clear of the quot;USAquot;/Swampcaster ones. They're the ones that had been in the Stew Mac catalogs that everyone said sucked ballz. Hmm, Stew Mac doesn't sell them anymore. Wonder why. I've read countless reviews, and there's like 2 guys that swear by the Swampcaster company and about 500 that swear by Bill and Becky.

The Swampcaster company also really plays up the Dime thing, to the point of rudeness and disrespect. Bill and Becky don't need to play up their products and post pics of Dime all over their site. It's true, Bill may be a bad business man, but like I've said before, I'd rather him be good at making pickups than stealing my money.


Originally Posted by DankerellaI use a Bill/Becky Lawrence L500L. It took some getting used to because it sends like every frequency your guitar can muster to the amp. The thing is FULL-ON, if that makes any sense. No noise, no feedback, all power. I almost regret not getting the L500XL, but only if I got Bill's Q Filter to calm it down and give me more tonal variation. My L500L doesn't crunch like my Duncan Distortion, but it makes the D.D. sound a little tiny in comparison I must say. Based on what I've read, Dime's quot;flippingquot; of his bridge pickup likely does not result in a different tone since on those type of blade humbuckers, there is no hotter side.

I've seen accounts that Dime used the L500L, and I've seen others that say the L500XL. Either way, I stayed clear of the quot;USAquot;/Swampcaster ones. They're the ones that had been in the Stew Mac catalogs that everyone said sucked ballz. Hmm, Stew Mac doesn't sell them anymore. Wonder why. I've read countless reviews, and there's like 2 guys that swear by the Swampcaster company and about 500 that swear by Bill and Becky.

The Swampcaster company also really plays up the Dime thing, to the point of rudeness and disrespect. Bill and Becky don't need to play up their products and post pics of Dime all over their site. It's true, Bill may be a bad business man, but like I've said before, I'd rather him be good at making pickups than stealing my money.

I have always wanted to try a 500xl and just want to be sure i get the quot;good onequot;
sounds to me like these are had at have the thicker blades which will give a meatier tone and output
they are only $50!
isnt there like only 4-5 people who work there?

Original Bill Lawrence pickups, like Dime used, wound by the man himself, are ONLY available from

But DOES have some cool stuff regarding dime

looking at the size of the blades on dime's original ones doesnt make any difference, cause at that time both were under the same company, right?

Yes, at the time, both werethe same company. The difference is that company split. Bill Lawrence makes the ones with the thicker blades, just like the originals. The USA ones have thinner blades.

USA supplied Washburn with the pickups to his Washburn guitars. Not suprisingly, he was quoted as saying USA didn't make the same pickup they used to, which lead him to eventually go to see Seymourduncan to copy and improve on the original Bill Lawrence pickups he used.

I read an article that said the pickup he recorded CFH is an L-500, but soon after the recording he started using the hotter XL-500.

Before Dimebag died, the consensus was that the USA ones, which were sold through Stew Mac, weren't as good as the originals, and people were tracking down Bill Lawrence to order them directly. After Dimebag's death, not suprisingly, USA is trying to promote themself as the one that produced the original pickup in his Dean From Hell blue ML.

the forum of the Dean Guitar website has quite alot of info on it.

Personally, I don't know who to beleive, but I would go with Bill Lawrence- which is a small company, and more attention to quality and detail, than USA. Bill Lawrence was called in as a consultant to design the SCN pickups on Fender's new Deluxe strats, which are getting good reviews. USA is supposedly a Japanese owned company, and who knows exactly who is overseeing production ro design.

here's good information, it turns out Bill Lawrence did supply pickups to Washburn.

from : localhost/www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Wa...chaseOrder.htm

www.billlawrence.com

If this is going to help, here's a picture of Dime's original 1981 ML Dean with a Bill Lawrence L-500-XL.just get the dimebucker dude!!!!! its supposed to be better

Dime's 500XL is a modded 500XL. It's not going to be the quot;productionquot; 500XL. So I guess the guy above is right. The Dimebucker should be better.

Here's the info straight from Duncans FAQ:

What bridge pickup did Dimebag Darrell use?
Dime was on a tone quest for a long time before he and Washburn Guitars came to us. He had tried numerous custom wound pickups, but none were giving him the tone he was looking for. At the time Dime and Washburn came to us, Dime was using a custom wound pickup that he called an XXL-500. It was not available to the public. And it was still not giving Dime his tone. That's when Dime and Washburn turned to us. We started with Dime's best-sounding XXL-500 and then made numerous tweaks. We changed the magnet type, the wire gauge, the number of turns, and other factors. Dime tested the pickups on tour, so they got real world quot;arenaquot; testing. After a few back-and-forth exchanges, we finally nailed his tone. And that's the SH-13 Dimebucker. It's the pickup that Dime used and -- for the first time -- the pickup Dime used is available to the public. It works great in Dime's solid state amps as well as tube amps. For more information about Dime and the Dimebucker, read his interview on this site. Dime did a great job describing the distortion quality of the pickup. We were very priviledged to work with Dime and we mourned his tragic death. R.I.P.
'nuff said.

Now I want a Dimebucker. Rats, that always happens to me...

No slag at the DIMEBUCKER intended but the tone on damage plan is dime worst???
I guess it was due to the KRANK amps?

If you want classic Dimebag tone, go with an original Bill Lawrence. He played that through Randalls, and with EQ got that tone. He had the Dimebucker made as an improvement over the XL-500 at the same time he switched to Krank amps. I've heard complaints that the Dimebucker is thin, and that may be needed to cut through on a Tube amp as compared to a Solid State Randall.


Originally Posted by jmh151If you want classic Dimebag tone, go with an original Bill Lawrence. He played that through Randalls, and with EQ got that tone. He had the Dimebucker made as an improvement over the XL-500 at the same time he switched to Krank amps. I've heard complaints that the Dimebucker is thin, and that may be needed to cut through on a Tube amp as compared to a Solid State Randall.

thanks i am going to buy one