Gibson HB-R & HB-L "The Original" Bill Lawrence Circuit Board Pickups Review

In this video I review a set of Bill Lawrence designed "Circuit Board" pickups Gibson used to make from ~late 1988 - early 1990 called "The Original" HB-R (neck) and HB-L (bridge). They came stock in models such as Les Paul Standards, Les Paul Customs, SGs and ES-335s. There are even reports of them being found stock in "Orville by Gibson" guitars.
The guitar is running through a small pedalboard with only a TC HoF Mini turned on, going into a Marshall JTM-1C with a 10" Celestion Gold miked with a Sennheiser e906.

[@americanjoe5486]

They came out a lot earlier than the 80s ,,,I was using them on installs in the mid-seventies we were a dealer!!!

[@loumonte658]

I've bought several pairs over the years. Love their sound.

[@montag4516]

I've got a pair in my stash and I may put the HB-L (around 9.3k) in the bridge position of my SG. Currently that position is filled by a bright 59' Classic (around 7.9k). What tonal differences should I expect with the HB-L in it's place?

[@Steedonline]

I own a 84 black beauty factory-fitted with Originals already. Greatest guitar, a keeper definitely

[@tomulator]

My tobacco burst 1990 Gibson LP Std has them also...good pickups.

[@franklmac]

The HB-R and HB-L "The Original" are great pickups for a Les Paul guitar.

[@gregputman]

I have these pickups in my 1989 Orville By Gibson, and they sound great.

[@mrfett]

Greg P I've heard about those Orvilles but never seen one. Have you had it for a while?

[@gregputman]

mrfett I have had mine for a few months. I bought mine from a guy who had been stationed in Japan in the 80's and 90's. He had bought it while there, as they were never offered in the American market. It's one of my favorite guitars, and I actually like it better than my Gibson Les Paul Classic. The Orville by Gibson's are essentially a Japanese-built Gibson. Same wood, same electronics. Now, there is a lower -tier which is called simply Orville. Those are still very nice though.

[@nathan8398]

I was wondering the model and particular details about your ObG. I recently got an 89 ObG LP custom in wine red. I've searched and searched and have only even found pictures of one other in wine red. There seem to be several of the regular orville in wine red, but little to no record of the ObG aside from a flier I found saying that it was available as a factory finish. I'm sure you love your ObG just as much as I love mine! They are miles ahead of anything else, even factoring in a whole nother price group up ($1000-$2000 would be my reference for that)!

[@givemeajackson]

so, i literally found a HB-L in a drawer, and i have no idea where it came from. i had to reconnect some of the wires that were ripped off the PCB, but i got it working again, and i slotted it into my MIM strat. this thing is awesome! i had a duncan SH5 in there before, and the HB-L sounds fatter, creamier, and even has a bit more output (seriously, it is a LOUD pickup). i did not expect this thing to be so good. i think it's going into my main Jackson to replace the SH6 that's currently in there. now i feel like buying every used humbucker i come across.

[@mrfett]

Ha! That's badass! Enjoy your weekend with your "new" pickup :-)

[@givemeajackson]

@@mrfett it's gonna be a work intensive weekend with lots of soldering fumes, gotta compare sh10, sh5, sh6, and now also the HB-L against each other haha

[@robhaskell4043]

Just received my 1988 Reissue dot neck 1960 ES-335 with these pickups. They are blowing me away with the tone and versatility! Nice playing and review, Mr. Fett. Cheers from Canada.

[@davidmayans4040]

Can confirm, my ObG Custom '89 has these two beauties

[@nathan8398]

Sorry to revive a post you made 2 years ago, but I'm just curious as to which color your ObG Custom is? I recently purchased a wine red "perfect 8" ObG custom from 89 with these pups and it blows every les Paul in my area out of the water! It's a very odd setup in terms of tradition, though. Its a non weight relieved (solid 1 piece mahogany body!) les Paul custom weighing 8lbs on the nose with rosewood board, long neck tenon with hide glue, and 60s slim neck profile. On paper, the only guitars Gibson ever specd out even close are the modern historic reissues. Even then, there are FEW that hit the "perfect" 8lb weight. Is this your experience, as well? Or is your custom specd out more like a true Gibson LPC?

[@theclanmorrison]

Yep! My 89' Ebony Les Paul has them and they are quite hot!

[@WayneMemphisMojo]

Great information sir ... My first electric guitar was a Gibson L6-S which had very hot Bill Lawrence pickups

[@mrfett]

Thanks, glad it was helpful! Do you still have the L6-S?

[@WayneMemphisMojo]

mrfett naw the L6-S was sold during my last year (1989) at the University of Memphis (Memphis State back then) I really wish I still had it but ... choices were made

[@Funkybassuk]

I just recently got a 1989 MIJ Orville by Gibson Les Paul with these inside. They sound wonderful!

[@not28]

I have a 1990 Custom arriving and I think it has these in it. Thanks for the information!

[@inneryoga2020]

I still have them in my 1990 ES-335 Dot.

[@Rich6Brew]

As do I. :-)

[@ajd711]

To the contrary of many Gibson boo birds, the BLCB PU's are some of Gibson's better sounding PU's IMHO. I put a set in an early 200 PRS Custom 22 with coil tapping and 5 way switching and something special is happening with this configuration. I need not pickup another guitar and can use volume/tone knob combos to dial in the single coil slappy tones as needed. Once you find them then the rest is academic. Suhr Doug Aldrich PU's are also a good swap on a LP with tapping and phase altering controls.

[@ThrashinYorkie]

My double neck has two sets of these - I like them - don't hear any negative sound quality from them.

[@carls8286]

They also came with black covers on the Melody Maker Flyer Pro II in 1989. Very shortlived model though.

[@FuriousMess]

Bill's pick ups are still available through Bill Lawrence Wilde Pick Ups from Becky and Shannon (his wife and daughter). I have many different models and they all rock hard and have spoiled me for just about anything else. The 500 series are great in Gibsons. Stay away from Bill Lawrence USA they're made by the imposter.

[@acbguitarz1158]

So heres my story in a nut shell , I have a gibson les paul floyd rose , with bridge gibson 498T sounded muffled lack top end , ibe been researching duncans , dimarzio , burstbuckers , then i remembered i have a gibson Bill lawrence HB-L somewhere i found it pulled the 498T and the HB-L is killer wow its about 11.5 k love the clarity over the 498T which seems to be gibsons version of the Duncan JB . too hot for me and lacks top end . loving my tone

[@Catlinscoast]

These are the best.pickups ever created.

[@harrykadaras9459]

Gotta agree...I like them so much that I bought two '89 Les Paul's that have their original Lawrence pickups - and I am very pleased with their sound so much that I am recording an album with them. The earlier Tim Shaws are great pickups too, but I actually like the sound of these better. They seem to have more definition playing clean. It's crazy that people were pulling these like teeth back then, just because of the way they looked. But I'll put my '89 LPs with these pickups over any of the new reissue Historic ones for vintage tone

[@evertthebassist]

Haha I have one of these in my Fender Stratocaster and the other in my Fender Jag-Stang. I love these pickups!

[@john_toxic_6796]

Have a set of these in an 89 studio, LOVE! They are amazing! Looking to buy one HBL online. Includes cover (not soldered) doesn’t include springs/ screws and wiring. Trying to track down the correct parts. Any help is appreciated thank you!

[@americanjoe5486]

Bill Lawrence was 'the' pick up man probably even more so than lover

[@katieblanchfield]

1:28 Hi there, thanks for your video. You mentioned there that it makes it easy to set the pickups out of phase. Could you please kindly explained how you do that? Thanks

[@katieblanchfield]

Sorry I forgot to mention I don't want to have the push/pull option but rather have the out of phase "permanent" in the middle position? Is it just a case of switching some wires on the back of the pickup or does it involve more work?

[@mrfett]

@@katieblanchfield to permanently put your middle position into an "out of phase" sound you need to switch the wires on one of the pickups. This involves soldering. The pickups have markings on the circuit board that tells you where to connect depending on what you want to do. Let me know if you're going to do the job yourself; if so I can provide more detailed instructions. Best wishes!

[@matthewmiller3205]

My 1990 Studio has them as well

[@Vidarboots]

LOVED the sound of these in my 89 dot inlay studio. But they are INCREDIBLY NOISY and microphonic at loud volumes.

[@spankymcnugget3166]

those pickups were also in the 87's too bro.

[@lazybrollers6367]

I have these pickups in my 1988 black ES-347

[@obliviousdude9437]

This is very helpful -- thanks! Are you able to point us to the wiring diagram you used and say what push-pull pots you used?

[@mrfett]

obliviousdude this guitar has a harness made by the now defunct company MSSC (Martin Six String Customs). It was their JP#3 harness. I don't have a diagram I can point you to unfortunately. Something similar, with 2 push pulls, one for coil split and another for OOP should be only a Google away however. I'm just not sure precisely which one would mimic what's in this guitar. Jonesyblues makes a similar product and is a very reputable vendor if you wanted a pre-made option. Otherwise I'd browse the helpful Seymour Duncan forum: www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?288815-Jimmy-Page-Wiring-Harness-Recommendation

[@mrfett]

obliviousdude and here's a thread with a picture of the wiring diagram that came with the harness: www.mylespaul.com/threads/mssc-jp-3-harness-ecp-pickup-apogee-jam-and-gibson-pickups.326876/

[@obliviousdude9437]

Thanks man!

[@michel333100]

Hi mrfett, I have a set of these in chrome off of my 1988 les paul standard. Would you happen to know where I could yet a set of these gold pickup covers and screws to change my pickups for a les paul custom. Gibson covers will not fit these pickups . It's strange that this guy Lawrence would make these pickups to an odd dimension and not just make it the same as a Gibson. I presently have a $5000.00 Las Paul Custom with I believe are 490 and 498 pickups in it. Don't care for them much. Seems they are rather bassy sounding. The dimensions of these covers are a tad taller than standard Gibson covers plus the screws are just slightly bigger in diameter.

[@mrfett]

hmm i think that's going to be a hard one. you might find someone on a forum (mylespaul or lespaulforum) who is willing to trade you chrome for gold hardware. Other than that though, finding a match likely means buying another set :-(

[@michel333100]

@@mrfett , yeah , just thought I'd add something else. I just installed these without the covers on my custom black beauty. You know It's really strange, I paid $4000.00 for my Gibson Custom Shop Custom Les Paul only to find out it had a Richlite fingerboard on it. That's absolutely scandalous to pay that kind of money from the Custom Shop and to not get real ebony on the board. Every other company uses ebony. I could see it, if it were a cheaper model guitar, but from the Custom Shop? I tried out these pickups that I've had sitting around for 20 odd years and they sound surprisingly much brighter than the stock pickups. Ideally , I would like to have some Wizz or Throbak pickups, but they would cost me a king's ransome. That would be like $650.00 in Canadian dollars. Way too much for me. I had replaced these pickups in my 88 Standard with Seymour Duncan Antiquities and to tell the truth, those are not that incredible. I did flip the magnet in them for the Greeny mod. To my ears it sounds just a tad better ,flipping the magnet as opposed to wiring the pickups out of phase with a push pull pot. But from what I've heard those Wizz pickups are the real deal . Apparently, Bill Lawrence's wife and daughter still run the business in Los Angeles since he died a few years ago. It's funny, that Troglies guitar show on KZbin, said he would not advise paying big money for a set of these pickups for a personal build. Then he contradicts himself and turns around and is selling these for $365.00 USD on Reverb. What a rip for pickups that originally sold for about $150.00 a set. Even now, My Gibson Custom Shop Custom really does not sound all that great. But pickups definitely make a difference. The installation of these pickups was a real pain. I had to switch out the screws for the 6 poles with gold screws. Even the screws to put these pickups in a Les Paul is hell as well. The screws to mount the pickups are slightly larger. Used the regular Les Paul gold screws instead. But trying to find gold covers now is probably impossible. Nice demo you did of the pickups. A lot people have always hated these pickups. Not sure why.

[@PK22-b7v]

What bridge is that? Is that an ABR-1 locking bridge ?

[@metricdeep8856]

I have them also in my 89 LP Custom....I assume it''s magnet type and strength...as well as wire diameter and # of windings. I don't see how that ground has not been covered by other pup mfgs. Nonetheless...these have a unique sound....as far as I know.

[@thomascowan1825]

I would like to have a set to install. Where could I get a set ? Thanks for the info.

[@mrfett]

Thomas Cowan you just have to setup a saved search on eBay and add them to your feed on Reverb. They come up for sale every now and then, you just need to be looking. Good luck!

[@Bognerman14]

Weird - my HB-Lis about 12K

[@montag4516]

Yes. My HB-L reads at 9.3k, although I don't currently have it in guitar to hear it. At 12k your's must be notably hotter. How does it sound?

[@Bognerman14]

@@montag4516 sounds great! I know they were inconsistent.

[@zodiacloveteam]

These are Alnico 5 or ceramic magnets?

[@mrfett]

zodiacloveteam hey thanks for watching. The magnets are reportedly Alnico 5, but that’s just from someone on a forum. The way these pickups are built make it difficult to get at the magnets and see them.

[@zodiacloveteam]

@@mrfett Thanks for the reply! I have an '89 Les Paul Custom and only know the pickups based on the extra large height screws. I like these pickups. I actually gigged this guitar in a r&b group and it had a nice jazz tone in the Hb-r. Unique sounding Les Paul for sure.

[@johngonzalez7967]

What year is the white Les Paul? Ebony fretboard? What type of pickups in other guitar?(PAF style)

[@johngonzalez7967]

Sorry, just watched again, you said Imperials.

[@israeljacob100]

cuanta salida tiene la del puente

[@Bognerman14]

My HB-L is 12 or 14K...I forget

[@loumonte658]

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