Whats New......
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Friday --June 11, 2004 A sad week indeed. Bill's friend Dan Armstrong died this week from a stroke. He had lived with health problems for quite some time, but his mind was alert, and his spirit was strong. We spoke with Dan in the latter part of May, and I told him that Bill and I wanted to visit him. Dan had recently broken his hip in a bicycle accident, and he was still recovering so he asked me to wait. I'm so sorry I wasn't more pushy because time is the only real commodity on this earth. I told Dan once, "As long as I've known Bill, there has always been a special place in his heart for you." That old cliche, "When it rains, it pours" is true right now. President Ronald Reagan died this week as well as Ray Charles. Both touched our lives in a positive way. I watched part of President Reagan's memorial service before leaving for work and heard Margaret Thatcher's eulogy. I'll never forget it. I am more convinced that we need a woman like her in the White House What can I say, without Ray Charles, the world of music would have missed an amazing life force who helped so many others achieve their dreams! I live with an amazing life force. I've always wondered why Bill chose to work all these years in the music manufacturing business -- an industry that has yet to really appreciate his true greatness. He didn't have to stay because he's multi-talented and could have easily established himself in other professions. For example, in the late 70's, Bill was offered a position with one of the largest magnet companies as a design engineer. He refused. Could you imagine the guitar world today without Bill!! I consider the last twenty years of Bill's life as a test -- similar to the story of Job. An ordinary man may have compromised his integrity or even been totally destroyed, but Bill is never ordinary. More importantly, he's proven to be a honest man with superhuman strength who lives by solid, decent principles that can't be broken. Today, at 73 years old, Bill Lawrence is a natural resource for the music scene! I want to believe, very badly, that he is protected by the good souls who recognize and appreciate his gifted talents because, while here on this earth -- however long that may be -- Bill Lawrence has more treasures to share with us!
March 19, 2004 New Testimonials! I'm adding more real soon. Btw, we're planning to have another Open House ShinDig in July 2004. Let me know if interested in attending before we set a date. Thanks, Bill, Becky and Shannon! March 2, 2004 Here's an e-mail we just got today from one of our Wilde Canadian customers -- Hi Becky, The pickups arrived this morning. Thank you so much. I am going to give my tech a call and get them off to him today. If I am going to be in your area on the tour I will send you an invitation to one of my gigs. What’s that saying again, oh yeah...”good things are worth waiting for” Carl Thanks so much for your continued support, Carl. If you'd like to learn more about Carl, here's a link to his very cool website - http://www.carlharvey.net/carlharvey/ I'll be updating this month our Testimonials section with more lots more comments like Carl's! Becky January 8, 2004 First of all, Happy New Year to all of you! Bill and I are looking forward to our new and exciting days ahead and hope you are too. We're looking forward to a year! Several
years ago, when Bill and I shifted our company's approach to offer
products direct to you, we were very nervous so we did a test
run for one year to see if it could work. Today, we know that
going direct was the best decision we ever made. We've not only
had a blast getting to meet so many interesting, intelligent people
from all over the world and right here in the US, but Bill and
I are doing what we love to do. Don't get me wrong -- it's hard
work and our day is never finished. We're never rewarded with
that "end of the day satisfied feeling" because our
work is 24/7. The closest thing we can call a vacation is attending
the trade shows. For
this kind of dedication to you, please thank Bill Lawrence. Having
worked with Bill now almost 13 years, I've never met a more dedicated
man. Though inspiring, he's a tough taskmaster to work for, but
I've grown a lot too. I think a good measure of a man is: by knowing
him, does he better your life? Bill has helped thousands better
their lives, mostly strangers to him, and that says a lot about
him. We've
had our first price increase in almost 4 years. You'll see that
not all pickups increased. Here's a link to our Pickup
Window. Right now, we're honoring the older prices till January
15, 2004. After that, the current pricing will go into effect. One other thing, we're so busy working in the production right now that I'm having to let the voice mail take messages most of the day. I've joined the modern electronic world! I do try to answer as many of messages in the morning, and then after that, I'm in production all day. Also, I check the messages periodically during the day for emergencies. If you don't hear back from me in a couple of days, just call again and get your name back on the top of the list. I will eventually contact you! From the crew! Bill, Becky and Shannon
December
1, 2003 Update -- We will have a price increase as of January 1, 2004. All orders prior to this date will be honored at the current prices. Stay tuned for more information..... October 11, 2003 New Testimonials!! Hi, Everyone. Lots of activity on the Wilde side -- making pickups as fast as we can! Bill and I assure you that your pickups will be shipped, and most importantly, in the Lawrence quality you expect. Current orders we're quoting 6 weeks, either 4 to 6 or 6 to 8, depending on what pickup you order and where it falls into the next batch of pickups being made. Remember that our pickups are hand-made at our workshop, many of them starting as a 24' x 36" sheet of G-10 material which is lovingly shaped and formed into our little pieces of magnetic pickup art! Because we multi-task at our company, being so small as we are, I have to schedule when I can do certain jobs. To do it well, I can only complete one job at a time. Obviously, our e-mail suffers the most because the production, packing/shipping and the daily operations takes up the bulk of my time. Please know that I am making every effort to catch up with some of it on the weekends. Even so, I have to make time to keep our home tidy and wearing clean clothes is attractive to me. One area I'd like to address briefly -- I was horribly ill the month of September which increased the shipping delay. This was no ordinary illness -- I was completely bedridden the first week of September. I had to slowly train myself every day to build up my strength -- just to sit up. The worst part is I could not walk upright without debilitating pain for almost three weeks! I had even reverted to eating baby food, because I could not digest anything else. It was really awful. The final diagnosis was just plain physical exhaustion. I realized my superwoman status was diminished another notch. I don't really care. After more than 4 weeks of looking green and pathetic, I finally feel great again, and I've gained a new appreciation for feeling well and pain-free! An important announcement -- over the past year, Bill and I have discussed our pickup program, and recently, we decided to discontinue two of our pickup series, the L-465 and the L-250. Anyone with current orders from these series will receive their pickups, but we're not taking anymore more orders for them. However, we'll continue to offer all the pickups you see on our Pickup Window page. Soon, Bill will complete an explanation for me to add on the website and the Wilde-Gate forum. Update - 10/20/03 We've added the L-495 pickups back to our program -- for all you L-495 lovers. Also, here is some information from Bill as previously promised - Click here. Any other questions, please let us know. Thanks for being here! Bill & I appreciate your support and friendship!! Becky and Bill P.S. We're planning on our open house for mid-November and will post the date and time.
July 16, 2003 Good news -- we're moving into our new workshop as of August 1st. Yahoo!!! Bill and I are excited as it's an ideal location and layout, and it's convenient to the interstate for you to visit us. Unfortunately, we'd thought that we'd be settled into our new facility no later than July 1st, but searching for it took longer than we expected. However, the place we found couldn't be more perfect. We have two front rooms, beautifully decorated with lovely wallpaper and plush carpeting -- ideal for our office, showroom and clean work area. Then we have an attached warehouse, about the same square feet as the front area, for the dirty work, like drilling, tumbling and cutting. The place is so nice we already call it our Pickup Palace, and I believe it was heaven sent! Pics will be posted once we've completed our final move, and I'll also announce the date for our open house shortly afterwards. Right now, we're still working inconveniently out of two places which is quite a hassle and a bit awkward to make pickups. Slowly, everything is coming together, and I still know, for our future, the move was the right thing to do for all of us. Though again, our extra long interim period before we're really settled has been super tough on us all. Thanks to everyone for your understanding during this crazy move, and just hanging in there with us. Also, we appreciate all the thoughtful e-mails and phone calls welcoming Bill and me here to California! Our best regards, Becky and Bill
Announcement: As of May 29th, Bill and I officially moved, personally and professionally, from our lovely home of nearly ten years, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to a wonderful and magical land in the sunny south -- Southern California! This was a tough move for us. We had many good years in Bethlehem PA. We raised Courtney and Shannon in this sleepy and quaint northeastern USA town to become self-sufficient, hardworking and compassionate young women. While in Pennsylvania, Bill worked with amazing energy and superhuman strength to reach his goals when many men his age would have found a quiet place to reflect on the past. In Pennsylvania, I grew to develop into the person I wanted to be. So, leaving our home of almost a decade was difficult to do, but since we've arrived here in California last week, I know that we've made the right decision for all of us, and this includes YOU too -- our loyal Wilde customers and friends. In the interim period of setting everything up, please be patient with us. Everything is working to schedule so far, and I'm excited about our future. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact
us on our toll-free number -- Please review our current telephone and fax numbers
and where you can mail your notes and letters to Bill and me --
Contact
Us Thanks for your support! Becky and Bill
_________________________________________________________________________ To tell you a bit about us, we do almost all our
work inhouse -- for example, the stamping, tumbling, cutting,
drilling, assembling, winding, waxing, measuring and packing!
All our
pickups utilize the Bill Lawrence precision, attention to detail
and quality craftsmanship that you've learned to expect, and because
we offer our pickups worldwide direct, YOU the consumer
pay the lowest price possible and save the middleman and advertising
mark-up! As one of our customers said to me," Patience is
a virtue. I'm looking where I can buy some!" Again, as a reminder-- for faster service, please call us and use our toll-free line - 877-647-2651 - especially for technical questions. For many of you, the e-mail is the best source for communication, especially our international friends, but it may take awhile before we can answer you so again, please be patient. Thanks so much!
P.S. A good friend made for us a prototype for
the T-shirt concept and I think it's a real possibility! I'll
keep you posted...
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