Bill Lawrence "Keystones" Tele pickups

[Kmaz]

I'm referring to the Standard T set. Does anyone here have experience with them? Are they a top-notch Tele pickup set? Do they hang with other popular pickup models? Are they a vintage-style pickup?

Thanks very much!

[Boris Bubbanov]

Most pickups have a "flavor" to them, whether vintage, or barbecue flavor or whatever. Voiced to favor this while disguising that.

The Keystones are like Spring Water. You have all kinds of possibilities, raising and lowering the heights and pairing them with different amps, speakers etc.

If there's a "downside", it is that there's nowhere to hide. They pick up everything you do, including every mistake you make.

The are easily the least expensive pro quality Tele pickup you can buy today. Be careful installing them and handling them. They do not like being roughhoused and can be damaged.

[jota]

I have one on the bridge of my tele. Love it.
Clear, sparkly, transparent. Don't have much experience with other pickups other than the stock pickup that I found too bright and the stock pickup on a CV 50's I had that I loved but it not so vintage sounding. Great rock n roll pickup and I kind of miss it.
But with the keystone I can get rock n roll and twangy anytime.
I usually roll the tone knob a bit for some extra body.

The neck pickup sounded like a strat pick up. Not my thing.

[c_mac]

If there's a "downside", it is that there's nowhere to hide. They pick up everything you do, including every mistake you make.

What on earth does that mean?

[Ron Kirn]

What on earth does that mean?

they are articulate... almost a precision sound.... DO NOT mistake that for overly bright... they are quite capable of delivering a remarkable classic Tele sound...

When a pickup manufacturer makes a pickup and designs it to yield a specific sound, say a 54 Tele…or a Broadcaster, or a “62 Strat… whatever….by definition he has to skew the sound, the pickup’s audio spectrum printout, to reproduce that specific sound… thus mids, lower register, or the highs, can all be manipulated to “push” the tone in one direction or another…thus the sound is tinted in those specific areas…

What that means, as you try to readjust the tone settings on the guitar or amp, you are forced to allow for those tonal colorations…

Analogy . . . a “picture window”.. If the interior designer wants the vista to appear as though there was a perpetual sunset, he may tint the glass a particular shade… It didn’t matter what you did, that hue was there and you would have tpo work around it to do anything else.

Bill on the other hand….designs his pickups to be neutral… that, in the world of audio reproduction or generation, is the holy grail…

Such Neutrality gives you far more opportunity to be creative with tone control, FX pedals, whatever you choose to use to manipulate the sound..

Then there is just plain old quality of construction…. Most pickups look like they were part of a ’71 Plymouth Fury,…. Some look like they were part of a 7 year old computer. . . Bill’s pickups are a work of art…They look like they could have come out of a Ferrari… You can tell about a craftsman’s dedication by his attention to detail… Bills work exudes a level of quality only seen in the most esoteric of products… Vacheron & Constantin, Bvlgari, Armani, Leica, Mercedes… everything else is a wanna be… Bills are works of art..

Then there is this little tidbit… virtually every concept relative to a guitar pickup was initiated by Bill Lawrence, and the guys that went on to become some of the more noticeable names were all taught by him..

Personally, I wish people would quit ordering my guitars with other’s pups, though they are great pickups, Bills are amazing…. I would use them exclusively were it my call.

Ron Kirn

[Blue4Now]

Most pickups have a "flavor" to them, whether vintage, or barbecue flavor or whatever. Voiced to favor this while disguising that.

The Keystones are like Spring Water. You have all kinds of possibilities, raising and lowering the heights and pairing them with different amps, speakers etc.

If there's a "downside", it is that there's nowhere to hide. They pick up everything you do, including every mistake you make.

The are easily the least expensive pro quality Tele pickup you can buy today. Be careful installing them and handling them. They do not like being roughhoused and can be damaged.


this could not be a better description

[c_mac]

What I was getting at is - how does one pickup cover up your mistakes and another pickup not?