R.I.P. Bill Lawrence

[sixstringsamurai]

A statement from Becky Lawrence this morning:

"With great sadness in our hearts, the man we know as Bill Lawrence in the music industry passed away on November 2, 2013 at approximately 9:20AM.

Bill was a strong and courageous man. Even in his last few days, Bill fought to live. He'd talk about Music, Pickups & Guitars -- and Life, and we, at his company, were still working because this is what Bill Lawrence wanted to know -- that his company & legacy is carrying on as usual.

We will miss the Bill Lawrence Mighty Force. Bill brought so much, and he wanted to stay here on earth to keep giving. One thing, yesterday as preparing the necessary paperwork, required is Designation of Race. In Honor of Bill Lawrence and his wishes, we included Human.

A Memorial Service is being planned later this week in Southern California. More details to follow.

Love, Becky"

Sad day, the music industry has lost another great mind.

 

[Dan025]

WOW. i don't know what to say. rip bill.

 

[spauldingrules]

Darn.  I just received a set of Keystones, too.  Will be bittersweet when I play them.

 

[Strat Avenger]

This is sad news. My condolences to Becky and the rest of his family.

I agree wholeheartedly with stating his "race" as human.

There's only one race, and that's the human race.

 

[Cagey]

Sad day, indeed. We lost a great one, there. He's kinda like Tesla, in that he pioneered a number of things that are often credited to others.

 

[crash]

Thanks for the pickups Bill.  You will be missed.

 

[stubhead]

I have has several long & confusing phone talks with him over the years. I'm pretty sure you have to be an electrical engineer to understand. I'm sitting here staring at 4 guitars with Lawrences... it's is of course hard on the family, but - he was 82, he did have a grand old life, and for the last several decades he's been doing exactly what he wanted, which was puttering around inventing stuff, and selling great pickups based on how much time an materials it took, rather than "what the market will bear." I've never heard of anyone else who actually manufactured a product, who cared less about money & getting rich. Somewhere in between inventing the Gibson L6S switching in 1974 (nobody else had ever though to use two coils off of two separate pickups together) and designing Fender's noiseless pickups in 1991, he had figured out that he just wasn't cut out to be an employee of someone else and from then on, he only consulted for corporations. And also ran his secret business -there's a quite staggering large number of top musicians who have an endorsement with one pickup company, but are actually playing pickups with "Duncan" or "Dimarzio" on the outside and re-wound insides by Lawrence.

 

[stratamania]

My Condolences to his family and friends.  And a personal thanks for the Original OBLs in my eighties Hamer, awesome pickups.

 

[Re-Pete]

Sad day. Caught the news this morning on the way to work via Twitter feed on phone.
Quite a dynamic figure in pickup design. His views on inductance in pickup design were revealing.
For the last 20 years he and his wife Becky ran a 'Mom & Pop" style internet business selling pickups to order.
On top of that, consulted to Fender to bring out the SCN range of pickups for them. All done at an elderly age.
As testimony to his life work I have two L500s in a guitar.
One was made in the late 1970s-80s, when he ran Bill Lawrence Inc (before the split with his then business partner - who has since caused him & Becky nothing but heartache), the other was purchased from his last business venture (Wilde Pickups) a year or two ago. You CANNOT tell the difference in the quality of manufacture, which is high. Over 20 years apart and they look identical. Soundwise they are very, very similar too.

R.I.P. Bill Lawrence. Thank you for all the research and designs.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I bought a set for my first Warmoth build.  I talked to Becky on the phone to order them.  They were incredibly priced, I said, "Are you sure?" when I got the price.  That was 4-5 years ago.  I wanted a set of those pickups more for the historical significance than anything.  They sound great as well, and were done in no time.  What has been said before has been done better than I could do, so I'll just smile and feel sad.  Can't help but miss someone like that, even if I never spoke with him.
Patrick