Early Bill Lawrence L-500 Wiring

[rgand]

My Tele has a very early Bill Lawrence L-500 in it. The wires are: red, black, white & bare. It's wired and working correctly right now. I had the guitar apart looking to replace the bridge pickup with something other than the one that's there now. I can just keep it wired the way it is but it bugs me to not know what other wiring options there are. Currently, the black and bare wires go to ground and the red to the pickup switch. The white one is just taped off. There isn't a green one and no sign of there ever having been one inside the plastic shield.

New Bill Lawrence pickups have red, black, white, green and bare wires so the diagrams for them don't mean much other than for standard wiring, the green and white are connected and insulated. Is it possible that somewhere inside the thing that there is a green wire connected to the white one and the white is to get grounded to run in single coil mode?

Does anyone know what the white wire does or what other combinations there can be? Thanks for any help with this.

 

[rgand]

For anyone who's interested, I got the answer to this on another forum. The white wire when grounded puts it in single coil mode. A simple switch can take advantage of that.

 

[Cagey]

Wiring Bill Lawrence pickups can be an adventure sometimes. They really need to modify/update/modernize their website. It would make so many people's lives so much easier.

 

[rgand]

Wiring Bill Lawrence pickups can be an adventure sometimes. They really need to modify/update/modernize their website. It would make so many people's lives so much easier.

Isn't that the truth. They have their own particular sound which no one else duplicates so I'll keep using them. I like to pair them with other pickups for different combinations. This one is probably going to be used with a DiMarzio Area T 615 at the bridge.

 

[Re-Pete]

Wiring Bill Lawrence pickups can be an adventure sometimes. They really need to modify/update/modernize their website. It would make so many people's lives so much easier.

Isn't that the truth. They have their own particular sound which no one else duplicates so I'll keep using them. I like to pair them with other pickups for different combinations. This one is probably going to be used with a DiMarzio Area T 615 at the bridge.

  +1.  I have a pair of L500 pickups loaded into a  guitar. One was from the late 1970s when Bill Lawrence was running it (before the acrimonious split with his business partner) & the other is from his last business - Wilde Pickups. Eerily, the construction & quality of build is identical, even though they are 30+ years apart.

The older one is a lower powered version (neck position) while the new pickup is an XL (bridge).

I wired both pickups according to the Wilde pickups site, but the neck pickup is not sounding all there. I've previously commented on another Thread that it sounded like it was in parallel rather than a series humbucker. But others may well have been correct by saying the older pickup is indeed wired out of phase with itself.

I jumped onto this site tonight, to ask what folks would do IF they had a pickup of unknown manufacture,  four wires & no further info, how would they establish what wire was what?   :dontknow:

Is there some way, other than trying 16 possible combinations, of determining the North & South magnets, start & finish wires from 4 unknown wires on a pickup?

But this Thread stood out so I may as well ask this here....  :help:

 

[Cagey]

According to the BL site, all Pickups with White/Black/Red/Green/Blue Wires - which would include the L500XL parts......

White Wire -- Hot

Black/Blue Wires -- Ground

Red/Green Wires -- Twist together, insulate with shrink wrap or electrical tape for humbucking OR solder to either a push/pull or on/off switch for split coil.

You can probably make some assumptions and tests for proof from there. Since the white wire is hot in humbucking mode, it's probably a start winding, which would make either the red or green wire the finish winding for that coil. A resistance test would tell you which - the open coil would be the opposite coil, and the one that shows some value would be the finish for the white start coil. That makes the leftover of that pair the finish winding of the opposite coil, and either the black or blue as the start. Most likely the black, as the blue is to be grounded on other pickups as well, so it's probably a case or shield wire.

 

[stratamania]

Here's a really useful video on identifying pickup wires.

[youtube]7UfxQBhqen8
[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/7UfxQBhqen8

 

[rgand]

I wired both pickups according to the Wilde pickups site, but the neck pickup is not sounding all there. I've previously commented on another Thread that it sounded like it was in parallel rather than a series humbucker. But others may well have been correct by saying the older pickup is indeed wired out of phase with itself.

This may muddy the waters some but my early L-500 is also one of the 70's ones. It is wired and working fine wired like this in the original guitar:

Black and bare wires to ground
Red to pickup switch
White not used

There are no other wires coming from it. Wouldn't that indicate that the red wire is the hot lead?

Cagey and Stratamania, thanks for the information. I'll watch the video and see if I can learn anything.

 

[Re-Pete]

Thank you for the info Cagey & Stratamania.  :headbang: