Any OBL fans?

mc2NY · April 06, 2014, 09:04:02 AM

One of the bass pickups I liked were the old OBL pickups from back in the 80s.
Hamer offered them as an upgrade option back during that period.
Those OBLs have become VERY hard to come by.

But lookee what I just scored through a former Hamer dealer, that had these socked away in his parts stash!! NOS OBL P and Jazz pups from 1987.

http://s1359.photobucket.com/user/mc2NYNO/media/imagejpg4_zps67da4ccb.jpg.html?sort=3&o=10

Highlander · April 06, 2014, 12:29:46 PM

I know nothing about these ... are the J pups all the same size; presumeably "bridge" dimensions ...?

mc2NY · April 06, 2014, 01:10:18 PM

As far as I know, the Jazz pickups were the one size. I actually asked that of the dealer I got them from. He said it was the only OBL jazz PUP he ever had. There was an earlier version that had the two blades interrupted/black space in the middle of them.

Hamer mainly used PJ setups on their basses that I saw the OBLs on....or on rare occasion! I saw a P OBL with an OBL humbucker at the bridge.

They are German-made, quiet, clean, high output PUPs more for rock type music.
Gibson used the good OBLs in its guitars while Bill Lawrence was doing work with them. He left in 1989 and Gibson licensed his OBL mark but then screwed him by having crap knockoffs made in Korea to use in Epiphones. Those had a white slash/slashes after the OBL mark.

OBL stood for "Original Bill Lawrence"....even though Bill Lawrence's real name was Willi Lorenz Stich. Passed away a few month back.

Highlander · April 06, 2014, 02:08:25 PM

Now I get it ... cheers ... BL I know of ...

chromium · April 09, 2014, 10:26:42 AM

Are these OBLs technically the same as the Bill Lawrence blade humbuckers that were used in some of the BC Rich basses?

Oh and speak of the devil.... Nokturnal had sent me an Ebay link to this mighty fine OBL-equipped beast yesterday:

mc2NY · April 09, 2014, 01:22:47 PM

NICE!!

Yep....that would be one of the "and on rare occasions" OBL P and humbucker Hamer PUP configs.
See. I wasn't making it up!

Killer looking 8-string.

gearHed289 · April 10, 2014, 08:27:18 AM

I ALMOST posted that one yesterday, but had already signed out. Lovely bass! "Listing has ended"...

chromium · April 10, 2014, 11:20:22 AM

I like the stadium logo and boomers. Probably would have gone for it, had the '81 not happened (...but no regrets there)

Dave W · April 18, 2014, 02:03:07 PM

Quote from: mc2NY on April 06, 2014, 01:10:18 PM
...

They are German-made, quiet, clean, high output PUPs more for rock type music.
Gibson used the good OBLs in its guitars while Bill Lawrence was doing work with them. He left in 1989 and Gibson licensed his OBL mark but then screwed him by having crap knockoffs made in Korea to use in Epiphones. Those had a white slash/slashes after the OBL mark.

OBL stood for "Original Bill Lawrence"....even though Bill Lawrence's real name was Willi Lorenz Stich. Passed away a few month back.

As much as Bill knew about pickups and electronics, he was ignorant about legalities. He chose to license OBL to Gibson then claimed they screwed him, but the truth is that he gave them that right.

Similar situation with his former partner who still operated Bill Lawrence USA. The former partner (Wajcman) may or may not have done him wrong, but in fact he did buy the assets of the company out of receivership and that's why he can still use the name. Bill just couldn't accept this and spun a story that his former partner was ignoring court orders, etc. It's just not true.