Bill Lawrence (guitar maker)

Bill Lawrence (born Willi Lorenz Stich on March 24, 1931 in Wahn-Heide (near Cologne), Germany) is a recording musician and an electric guitar pickup designer/maker and guitar designer/maker in the musical instrument industry, designing pickups and guitars for Fender, Gibson, Peavey and other companies from the 1950s to the present. In 1953, he also used Billy Lorento as a stage name and had his own guitar and string line with the German guitar manufacturer, Framus. The Framus Museum in Markneukirchen, Germany, opened in August 2007, has dedicated an entire floor memorializing Bill's long relationship and historical work with Framus. 1965 Willi Stich and Jzchak Wajcman founded the the Original "Bill Lawrence Guitar Pickup Company "Lawrence Electro Sound" Since the 1960s he has performed and recorded under the name Bill Lawrence. Since 1970, during the time period that Willi Stich lived in the United States, he never performed professionally for compensation except one time he received about $500.00. All other performances were free gig's in trade shows and Jazz jamming occasions. (Source of information: Willi Stich deposition under oath)

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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bill started winding and offering replacement pickups in the U.S. and working on professional guitarist's instruments at his Greenwich Village, New York custom guitar shop with Dan Armstrong. Players like Jeff Baxter with the Doobie Brothers and Joe Walsh with the Eagles, and many, many others in the music scene were regulars there.

Bill Lawrence's work with Fender includes developing a special-design humbucking bass pickup for the Roscoe Beck basses in 1995 and the American Deluxe Precision Bass. He was also responsible for the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless series, launched in 2004 and used on the Fender American Deluxe Series of electric guitars and basses.

Bill was the guitar consultant for the band Aerosmith for a time, and is mentioned in the liner notes of their album "Pump", released in 1989.

External links

* [http://www.billlawrence.com Official Bill Lawrence website]