Bill Lawrence

[Jerry Overstreet]

I was just reading Jerry Van Hoose' 710 story. [Great job Jerry]...everything Jerry does is first class.

About Bill Lawrence the man, fascinating individual. Born Willi Lorenz Stich and later performed under the name Billy Lorento. Just when he took the name Bill Lawrence, I don't know.

I met him, like many others here at the ISGC. I recall in later years he was always demoing his Wilde guitars at the booth etc. He always had the volume cranked. You didn't want to stop and talk to him unless you weren't in a hurry. He would talk your ear off about technical data etc. that most of us would never understand at a volume much like his guitar.

I still have an old Framus f-hole bass model #BL16 and those rail pickups look very much like his design. I know he was native German same as Framus, so there's a connection and I'm pretty sure he was involved with the Framus Co.

His legacy lives on as Ricky relates and his pickups still in much demand. I wouldn't be surprised if there have not been more of his steel guitar pickups sold than anyone's starting with those L series 5, 6, 7 and 8 '05s.

Not to be confused with the current L-705 black pickups that look very similar to Bill's orignal chrome surround units of the 80s. That's a different company and another story.

Anyway, here's a link to his bio and some articles I thought some of you might enjoy if you haven't seen them before.

http://www.billlawrence.com/