November 20, 2000

Dear Bill,
I heard from someone that you sold your name a long time ago and just recently bought it back. Is this true? By the way, keep making your great products!
Sincerely,
Kevin B.

Dear Kevin,

I've been using "Bill Lawrence" as my professional name - both as a performer and as a designer of guitars, pickups, and other guitar-related accessories - since 1961. I can personally assure you that I've never sold the name "Bill Lawrence," nor would anybody with even a semblance of intelligence buy that name because, without me, the name is absolutely worthless! Let's look at it this way: John Doe claims that he had purchased the name "Frank Sinatra" and proceeds to promote a big concert, "Frank Sinatra at Madison Square Garden," selling thousands of tickets for $100.00 apiece. When the big night comes and a pitiful John Doe stands on the stage trying to sing like "Ol' Blue eyes, can you even imagine what the disappointed crowd would do? If anyone other than me uses the name "Bill Lawrence" to sell guitars and guitar-related products, then the consumer feels defrauded because they were under the impression they're buying an authentic Bill Lawrence product!

The William Lawrence Design Company is a division of the Bill Lawrence Guitar Corporation. All our products are currently sold under one or both of my registered trademarks - Wilde USA® (derived from "William Lawrence Design") and Bill Lawrence®.

In 1993, my wife Becky and I moved our design and manufacturing facilities to the city of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, "The Keystone State" - and since then, we've called our pickups "Keystone Pickups by Bill Lawrence". But here in Pennsylvania, the name "Keystone" is used for lots of different companies and products - "Keystone Motors," "Keystone Trucks, etc. - and it wasn't long before we were getting calls about every imaginable product and service, especially pickup trucks! Since1993, all our products are proudly made right here in Pennsylvania, and we still call them Keystone -- "The Keystone of your Sound" - but to prevent confusion we've de-emphasized that name on our website and in our other written material about our products.

November 22, 2000

Dear Bill,

I recently saw a used Bill Lawrence Tele in a local shop. Can you give me more information about them? Thanks.
Pat H.

Dear Pat,

Here is a brief history about the instrument:

At the end of the ‘70's, the Moridaira Company became the exclusive distributor for my products in Japan. During one of my visits there, Toshio Moridaira told me that he had failed to successfully market his own brand ( Morris) and asked me to help him. We agreed that we would start a joint venture - The Bill Lawrence Guitar - and the Moridaira Company would be the exclusive distributor for these guitars to be sold only in the southeast Asian market. See picture of Bill Lawrence Guitar. He would make the guitars in his Mutsumoto-based Morris factory, and I would supply them with my US- made pickups and endorse the guitars. I stayed one month in Mutsumoto at Toshio's house to teach him the marketing strategy, and at the same time, I worked in his factory to set it up and to teach the workers how to make a Class A electric guitar. In our agreement, it was made very clear, from the beginning, that I would not get involved in copy guitars.

In October of 1980, I demonstrated the guitars in all the major stores in Japan and did several press interviews. See picture of demonstration. However, during a visit to Japan in 1983, I discovered a change in the Bill Lawrence guitar program - a full line of Bill Lawrence copy guitars! I must agree that these guitars were probably some of the best copy guitars available at that time, but you can never get a sound reputation with copy guitars. My reputation is based on high quality original products.

It seems that I have a chronic problem with other people using my name. There is an easy explanation for this: the answer is money. People use the reputation of well-known and respected companies or persons to sell their products. For example, there was once a company that called their guitar "Bender", and the "B" looked like an "F", and their logo even looked like the Fender logo! These guys copied almost everything that had a value to make a buck.

Anything else, please contact me.

With regards,