help picking pickups

[Crzywhiteboy]

ok i heard alot of good stuf about this bill lawrence pickups,so i would like to try some out,i mostly play metal love the dimebag sound but dont want to buy a dimebucker i dont like using other people signature stuff.

So what is the difference between all this pickups

the L-500Clean / L-500Regular / L-500Lead / L-500eXtraLead

I want one that will pack dimebags sound as close as possible and this is only going to be in the bridge im not gettin a neck pickup yet but somewhere in the future i will,dont use the neck that much.

[skibum5545]

the 500XL IS the dimebucker, but better. If you want info on all of the pups read the reviews at Harmony Central.

[Nalo1022]

i have a 500xl in my randy rhoades v and its asmazing. clear no matter how high you crank it

[Jivin]

How versatile is it for metal tones though? I'm in the market for a metal workhorse pickup, not just something that will sound just like dimebag and thats it you know?

I have used the 500XL before but it was only for a short amount of time, so the jury is still out on that one for me :|

[lovekraft]

...the 500XL IS the dimebucker, but better...

...clear no matter how high you crank it...

And you've actually played one, so you've heard what it sounds like - what else do you need to know?

The 500XL is a hot, well-defined humbucker that (at least to me) rivals anything out there for clarity (well, maybe not EMG actives, but they're a whole 'nother ballgame). There's not a lot of lower midrange boost, so if you rely on that for your sound, it's probably not your pickup of choice. Cleans up nice with the guitar volume without losing a lot of high-end, and really sings wide open. But that's just my opinion, YMMV.

[Jivin]

Thanks

But I was more asking the question because, although I had a quick bang around on a guitar with one, I never got a chance to play with the settings at all to find out how versatile a sound it can produce. Ive had some humbuckers before that no matter what you did, they were always screamnig out ear-peircing highs's... but then when you backed off the treble a bit they just fell over completely. Basically I was just wondering if it was capable of pulling off some different sort of sounds. Sure the main thing i would be after is a hot pickup which can pull of a awesome crunchy metal tone with screaming harmonics, and that would be its primary use... but I would also like it to be able to handle a bit of downtuning (nothing drastic) and not sound like a fish out of water when i try and make it growl a bit

Maybe I should look more at EMG active's........

decisions decisions!

[monkey69962000]

what about lawrences if im looking for that nice warm classic Les Paul sound.

[Librero]

for the Les Paul sound, maybe the L-500C and R would cut it. another option would be the higher inductance L-450's.

i can't speak from experience, though. just check out their forum.

[Defiled]

I have an L-500L and an L-500C in my PRS Santana SE. The L-500L has extremely clear tones, and when it is split it almost sounds acoustic. The C sounds quite a bit warmer than the L, but for some reason the sound gets really distorted on the bass side when I'm playing clean, it is quite annoying. I waited 14 weeks for my set, so think about that. Becky also cancelled my order without telling me. I'm still kinda dissapointed with their service.