Lawrence 705 Pickup

Dennis Manuel · Post by **Dennis Manuel** » 30 May 2002 6:35 am

I recently purchased 2 Lawrence 705 pickups and they are black instead of the chrome color. Wondering if anyone else has seen the 705s in this configuration.

Mike Weirauch · Post by **Mike Weirauch** » 30 May 2002 7:15 am

I believe those are made by a Company in California and I don't know the name or anything about them, sorry. The ones with the chrome body were manufactured by Bill Lawrence and I do know about them as I've got them on 2 om my guitars and have several extra's if I ever decide to put them on my other guitars. To me, they are one if not the best pickup Bill Lawrence made.

Danny Hullihen · Post by **Danny Hullihen** » 6 Jun 2002 1:22 pm

The pickups you have were being made by a guy by the name of "Itchack Wiserman" (probably not spelled correctly) he was from Isreal, (nick name "easy".) Sad as it is, these were a copy of the Lawrence 705 with Bill's name on them, however, that's where any similarity ends. For lack of any better way to describe it, these pickups were basically junk, or at least compared to the the real Lawrence 705's in the chrome housing. If you have "brand new" black housing 705's I would check them out with an ohm meter to make sure they even work. There were some of these being sold brand new in the box for sometime, and they didn't even work in some cases! Point and case here, beware of any Bill Lawrence pickup copies!

Glenn Austin · Post by **Glenn Austin** » 6 Jun 2002 1:57 pm

What kind of rocket scientist would create forgeries of steel guitar pickups. Sounds like a 'Get Rich Slow' scheme to me.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 6 Jun 2002 2:46 pm

Glenn - That would be much like counterfeiting quarters!

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Lee, from South Texas

Danny Hullihen · Post by **Danny Hullihen** » 12 Jun 2002 7:01 pm

It wasn't just steel guitar pickups!

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 13 Jun 2002 9:41 am

Danny, how did you find out about the person making copies of Bill Lawrence pickups? It is one thing to copy something, but having the nerve to put someone else's name on the product you have stolen makes it even worse. Dennis needs to go back to the person who sold him the pickup, and follow the trail back to the person making them. I would like to know more about who was behind that particular scam.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 13 Jun 2002 10:25 am

I have an MSA Classic SS from the late '70's that evidently had the black ring 705's on it from the factory. One of these became intermittant a couple of years ago, and I sent it to Bill Lawrence for repair. He never said anything to me about it being a copy. I also have a chrome ring 705 on a Sho Bud Pro III. Both styles sound really good, if they were on the same guitar, I doubt there would be any difference.

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

Danny Hullihen · Post by **Danny Hullihen** » 14 Jun 2002 7:36 am

Keith. As much as I would like to comment more on this, this isn't something I can elaborate on here. I'm sure you can understand that. However, if you would like to hear more about this, or more importantly, from the horses mouth, (so to speak)give Becky a call and she might be willing to tell you more details about this. It's a long story, and a very involved.