Lawrence 705

Mike Wilkerson · From: Luther Oklahoma

How much should I expect to pay for a 705 Lawrence slim mount for my Bud? I am wanting one extremely bad.... Slim
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S12 MSA Classic Nashville 400 with fox mods amp 1 volume pedal 1 Lil Izzy and 3 cords

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

I recently purchased a USED 705 Wide mount, excellent shape with about 10" of lead for $85 which included shipping.

I didn't care for it once installed, a bit too bright for me, so I caved and sold it for $75 , I suppose I could have sold it for $85 again but it was worth $10 for the exercise in futility ! Sad

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Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders , Eastman Mandolin ,
Pro Tools 12 on WIN 7 !
jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years

CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

Original 705's with chrome surrounds can command surprising $$ . It doesn't matter that I don't understand it. I just know that $200 and up has been a real price.

Jim Lindsey (Louisiana) · From: Greenwell Springs, Louisiana (deceased)

Mike, I think you'll love a 705. I love my 705's ... the four that are in Gary Hogue's old 1986 Mullen.

They were ordered and put in at Mullen when the guitar was built (according to Gary, because of the special wiring) and are original 705's ... however, they are not chrome surrounds, they're black ... Gary chose black surrounds when he ordered them. Sometimes people confuse them with reissues because of the black surrounds. But, like Confucius say, "All chrome surround 705's are original, but not all black surround 705's are reissues." Maybe that's where the high dollar price for chrome ones come from ... when you buy a used black one it's a 50/50 chance of being original or reissue (if you don't know the pickup's history), whereas you always know the chrome ones are original.

I once asked Gary why he chose black instead of chrome and he said he "didn't want the pickups to look too noticeable" in the guitar since there were four of them. Ironically, he told me a couple of years later that he wished he'd have chosen chrome surrounds (after he'd seen a few guitars with the chrome ones).

I've played and heard both original 705's and reissue 705's and I really hear no discernible difference. I think it boils down to appearance, really. People say black guitars sound better; maybe people think the chrome 705's sound better because they look better.

A quick example; when I bought Gary's Bombay mahogany finished 1995 Mullen, it also had original 705's that were black surrounds. I had a few steel player buds that were always dogging my pickups because they thought I had 705 reissues in it. They just couldn't bring themselves to believe that there are original 705's out there that are black instead of chrome. One day, when I was deep detail cleaning the guitar, I decided to get some chrome tape and go around my pickups to give 'em that nice chrome look. When my buds came to a gig to watch us play, they noticed the chrome look of my pickups from where they were sitting and began to rave about how much better my guitar sounded with the "new" pickups! Laughing

I let them rave a bit and then took them up on stage and showed them they were the same black 705's they'd been dogging and how I'd simply put chrome tape around them. You should have seen their faces! Laughing

I'll keep my eye out for you, Mike, and if I run across a slim mount 705, I'll give you a call and let you know. Smile

By the way, I don't see 705's for sale too much, but when I do run across them for sale, the prices I see usually range from around $100 to $150 ... the chrome ones nearly always more than the black ones.
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1986 Mullen D-10 with 8 & 7 (Dual Bill Lawrence 705 pickups each neck)
Two Peavey Nashville 400 Amps (with a Session 500 in reserve) - Yamaha SPX-90 II
Peavey ProFex II - Yamaha R-1000 Digital Reverb - Ross Time Machine Digital Delay - BBE Sonic Maximizer 422A
ProCo RAT R2DU Dual Distortion - Korg DT-1 Pro Tuner (Rack Mounted) - Furman PL-8 Power Bay
Goodrich Match-Bro by Buddy Emmons - BJS Steel Bar (Dunlop Finger Picks / Golden Gate Thumb Picks)

Billy Carr · From: Seminary, Mississippi, USA (deceased)

Hey Jimbo. How you doing?

Rick McNamara · From: Michigan, USA

Howdy,
Since I"m a newbie I don't want to sound like a promo for eBay but,You can find NOS 705's right now on eBay for around $70 bid + S&H. According to the Gentleman selling them(he has some stock), He got them from Gretsch along with a lot of other Sho~Bud stuff they were selling off. I bought one and It looks just like the chrome 705 I bought back in the early Eighties. They aren't chrome but I read a post here on the Forum about someone using the polished aluminum tape as a covering and they look like the real deal-if you need the bling. FWIW(For What It's Worth).
Regards,
Rick

Bruce Derr · From: Lee, New Hampshire, USA

I bought some of those eBay 705s and they indeed appear to be late-'70s or early-'80s originals. The seller describes them as NOS Baldwin/Sho-Bud/EMCI surplus. They are wide-mount, so perhaps these were from EMCI. I wondered if they had originally been supplied with both mounting plates included, as the original retail version was, so I asked the seller if he had come across any narrow plates, but he has not. (I also unscrewed the base plate and tried to gently pry it off but it didn't want to come loose, and I didn't want to force it.)

They have never been mounted or soldered. They are not the 4-wire version, just a black single-conductor shielded coaxial cable, 12" long, with the end stripped and tinned. The cable exits the pickup at a corner of the base plate, like I've seen in photos of other original 705s, not at the center as with the reissues. The base plate's rounded corners have the smaller radius of the originals. They are a little dirty but in nice condition overall. They measure in the 20K range as described. The workmanship is nicer than that of the reissues; not that the reissues are bad but there is a slight difference.

NOS originals selling for less than the price of a new reissue... If these had been the "chrome surround" version he would have probably sold them all in a few hours.

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