Interesting... very interesting! I've tried alot of boutique pickups, and I know for sure that these are among the best. First off, the lack of noise should be worth the price of admission, then the tone. These pickups were tweaked for sound, you can tell! Each pickup does what it's designed for, as I said before. I only want to add that after over an hour on them today, with pedals and putting them through their paces, I am very impressed.

Everyone raves about the Bill Lawrence pickups, so I don't want to be another glowing review that doesn't really say anything new or informative! The 298 sounds a wee bit congested, I am thinking it might fit well with the Q filter, and'or it may have been designed for no tone control as most strats. My guitar uses a master vol, master tone. I am thinking to go with push-pull tone/Q instead, leaving the L200 off because it's already bright. I think this will help because right now, I'm not thrilled about the 298 sound. The 280 is beautiful, has a fuller SRV kind of thing going on, I love it. The 200 does its thing, helps reassure everyone that we're still in Stratland. The 298 is giving me a personality complex. Either I haven't figured it out, or I need different wiring to bring out the best in it.

FWIW, the true quality of these individula pickups comes with DIRT. Adding gain, you start to hear exactly where the eq is placed, you just don't hear it as well on clean settings. One cool tidbit is that I own a Hermida Grinder distortion pedal, completely unknownand no longer made, from Alfonso Hermida of Zendrive/Mosferatu fame. It is very high gain for 80's metal tones, and it magnifies noise like there's no tomorrow. With this Lawrence set: NADA. I can fully use the pedal and it's awesome. Doesn't even sound like a strat at this point; too much distortion (and not cheesy tweezy mosquito sounds).

Anyway here's the gist of it all for me:
-As reported, EXTREMELY versatile set
-As reported, 280 is fuller, 200 more scooped, sounds brighter and lower output, 298 more aggressive
-As reported, heigh makes a big difference
-As reported DEAD quiet (no seriously, for real)
-As reported, amazing tone and AMAZING price!

Thanks to everyone who writeshelpful reports to help folks get an idea of the sound before they buy, thanks for this forum too! And big thanks go out to an awesome company, Bill & Becky Lawrence! I am anxious to get this next guitar done so I can hear the L500's.