Bill Lawnrence L-48TL Quesitons

I just installed a pair of Bill Lawrence L-45S and a L-48TL. I installed this without modifying the stock wiring on my Highway One Tele which has the grease bucket tone circuit.

The neck sounds fine. The bridge is a little bit of a piercing high end for me. My question is this due to the grease bucket tone circuit or is this a very bright pickup? I pretty sure I have them balanced out good now but when I go to the bridge it is a tad bright for me and I definitely am always reaching for the tone control to dial it back at least a quarter of the way at least. But then it begins to take away form the dynamics of the pickup. I had the Treble rolled back off my amp but it seemed to take away the dynamics of the highs on the pickups.

Being new to pickup swaps and wiring my question is do I ditch the Grease Bucket or do I do the resistor mod for the bridge? Is 100K resistor going to be enough or go for the 200K that is shows in the BL wiring diagram?

It's possible, but unlikely, that your cable is putting the resonance of the L48TL at an unpleasant point. I think the L48TL is 2H inductance, so you'd need a pretty high capacitance cable to achieve such a resonance.

The Grease Bucket shouldn't have any affect when it's up all the way, but you could try removing it.

The resistor mod would have the same affect as rolling down the tone knob to ~5-7.

It's a bright pickup.

I was going to tell you to check out this thread (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups/331779-bill-lawrence-l-48t-l-45s-wiring-cap-pot-values.html), but you're the OP :D It's worth rereading what's said there. The L48TL doesn't have highend attenuation like many conventional pickups. This is a good thing when combined with the relatively low inductance - as Narcoleptigon pointed out, you're considerably less likely to get the coloring resonance in an unpleasant area (particularly from 3-4 kHz, which can sound harsh/bright/edgy), the resonance is considerably smoother than many pickups (won't get as "sharp"), and it's free of eddy currents that can make the pickups sound harsh.

You won't be missing highs with the tone control dialed back a bit and the dynamic response won't change besides for the lack of boost to the areas affected by the resonance. You can try the resistor (which is helpful for the bridge matching the neck on the same settings, I feel, as you'll perceive the coloration more dramatically in that position), mod the tone pot to standard function, and potentially change to a low capacitance cable to ensure you get the most highs you can, which will sound sweeter rather than brighter.

Did you adjust the bridge pickup with the nickel method? You're going to get the most dynamic response that way.

You should also spend a lot of time with your tone stack. A lot of dynamics are going to be conveyed by the fundamental and lower harmonics, rather than mostly the highs, so you're going to want to make sure you get an overall well-balanced tone. Bass will probably go down further than you expect, mids shouldn't be down more than halfway, and the highs really don't need to be very high but need to be adjusted with the two other changes. You should also consider upper-mid coloration, as mentioned in the other thread. If you like "warmth", it's a better approach than using a high inductance pickup and only costs cents for the capacitor, which you can put on your tone control like the standard wiring.

I did all the adjustments including the nickle spacing on the high side and two on the low side. I did a little more adjustments but something wasn't right.

I redid all my connections and re soldered everything. I plugged her back in and the tone was much better. I am not sure if a connection was not right or something but it sure sounds much better. I did back off a tad on the high E side a little bit and raised a little more on the low E side. I am much more pleased with the sound. I had something perhaps not making proper contact in my crappy solder job. I think a hotter solder iron is in order.

Thanks so much for everyone's help. I am happy.

Look at the one on this page: http://www.buildyourownclone.com/tools.html
I just bought one from GFS. I wish I had seen that first. Heat probably isn't the issue. It's probably a dirty, or loose tip, or a matter of technique. I sand the tip after each session. I've read that you can just tin it, but I don't know how that would guard against carbon build up.

Look at the one on this page: http://www.buildyourownclone.com/tools.html
I just bought one from GFS. I wish I had seen that first. Heat probably isn't the issue. It's probably a dirty, or loose tip, or a matter of technique. I sand the tip after each session. I've read that you can just tin it, but I don't know how that would guard against carbon build up.

Thanks for the link. yes the tip was loose and the wattage of my current solder iron is 25 watt. I will get a new solder station before I do anymore soldering.