L500

In 1976, Bill released the original twin blade L90 to eliminate the response losses and excess noise created by the design and production shortcomings common among traditional humbuckers while keeping their smooth attack character. While the L90 introduced an unsurpassed clarity and versatility, Bill saw the emergence of genres and styles that demanded an even greater need for maintaining clarity under increasingly high levels of gain and drive. By 1979, he had a solution – the L500, complete with its new open coil appearance and iconic chrome housing.

The L500’s high Q stainless transformer steel blades and smaller magnetic window give a tighter, punchier sound and as much voltage output as possible while maintaining clarity. Each note stands out both in chords and soloing. This made it not only a sensation among high gain rock and metal players excited by iconic adopters like Dimebag Darrell and Nuno Bettencourt, but also appreciated across genre by lapsteel, blues and jazz players for its beautiful clean sounds and note fidelity not offered by traditional humbuckers.

We offer the only authentic L500 production as designed and made by Bill! We still make every L500 to Bill’s exact specifications and quality standards, available with its chrome housing as originally released and described by his patent issued in 1982.

Recommendations and Wiring

The L-500 comes in four versions:

C = 2.8 Henry
R = 4.8 Henry
L = 6.8 Henry
XL = 9.2 Henry

The original set was L500R and L500XL with chrome housing and cream coils, but black coils quickly became players’ general preference.

The L500R has the inductance of a traditional humbucker, and both the L500R and L500C can be used in any position to fit your tonal needs and application. The L500L and L500XL are typically recommended for the bridge position due to their high inductance. For the widest variety of tonal options with the L500L and L500XL especially, we recommend the Q-filter, which can add substantial versatility by lowering the highend volume while preserving and extending the range of response. This makes the Q-tone like a crossover for using a lower inductance pickup for your highs, rather than the dramatic highend rolloff associated with traditional tone controls.

The L500 models may be used with 250k or 500k pots, with the exception of the XL that requires 500k. This allows both drop in replacement generally for most guitars with humbuckers, but also flexibility in mixing with our Noisefree Singles for Fender-style guitars. The L500L with 250k pots is tonally similar to the L500XL with 500k pots.

The L500 is a 5 conductor pickup that easily be installed for series/parallel, split coil, and reverse phase.

Pickup Lead Color Codes

Hot: White

Ground: Black and Blue

For 5 conductor pickups: Twist Red/Green wires together, insulate with shrink wrap or electrical tape for standard series humbucking.

Please see our wiring diagrams for standard wiring and parallel/split coil options.

Dimensions/Retrofit

The L500 can be retrofit in both full-size humbucker and P-90/P-100 routs. The L500 pickup is smaller than the P-90, but when installed with its mounting ring, the gaps will be covered for a finished appearance.

Gibson humbucker: 1.50" × 2.75"

Gibson P90: 1.375" × 3.375"

L500: 1.350" × 2.80"

L500 with custom mounting ring: 1.760" × 3.50" (same as Gibson humbucker with mounting ring)

L500 depth: ~0.85"

The blades are 2.205" (56mm) long, and will accommodate the string spacing of all known 6-string bridges.