Mullen G2 with a 705 Pickup

Dennis Manuel · Post by **Dennis Manuel** » 6 Jan 2023 9:02 am

To all the Mullen G2 players out there. Has anyone compared/replaced a Mullen single coil pickup with a 705 pickup? If so what are your thoughts?

Roy Carroll · Post by **Roy Carroll** » 6 Jan 2023 9:13 am

I would be interested as well. I have a BL710 in mine now. It is pretty good. Even though the stock pickup in pretty good as well. I had a 17.5 in mine several years ago, but it was too bright for my taste. Whatching to see if anyone has installed a 705....

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 6 Jan 2023 11:36 am

My G2 SD10 came with a modern (black surround, non Bill & Becky) Lawrence 705. Humbucking, sounds very good, and I have never thought about replacing it. To my ears, it has a smooth sound with good upper-midrange presence - not too bright, not thin, but not muddy at all. Lately I've been using that guitar a lot with a Quilter Tone Block 201 into a high-power speaker. It works well with most of the steel gigs I've been doing the last year, which lean to country and not swing. But I think that smoothness would work with swing as well if I had it on a D10.

I am a big fan of the original Bill Lawrence 705 with chrome surround, which I have on some other guitars. I was a bit skeptical of the modern 705, but I was pleasantly surprised. I generally like the sound of a 17.5K single-coil on a couple of guitars I own, but I struggle with the noise. I have another modern 705 that I picked up in a deal with some other stuff a few years ago that I may drop into one of my D10s to mate with an original 705 - that guitar isn't getting used as much right now due to the noise while recording and at gigs. My house is particularly noise prone - using a single-coil for home recording is really frustrating.

Of course, this is all a matter of personal taste.

Roger Crawford · Post by **Roger Crawford** » 6 Jan 2023 11:55 am

I tried the 705 in my G2, but it just didn’t have the single coil tone that I like. The stock Mullen single coil is wound a little heavier than most, around 20.5K. It’s a nice balance across all strings at any fret.

Bryce Van Parys · Post by **Bryce Van Parys** » 6 Jan 2023 1:30 pm

I have a new Royal Precision. I felt the mid range, and the 6th string in general, was a little narrow and bright. I put in a new 705 from Mullen (with their quick connect) and I like it a lot better. Especially live. It's more full in the mid range, and more forgiving when I pick heavy, less brittle in general

Dennis Montgomery · Post by **Dennis Montgomery** » 6 Jan 2023 5:02 pm

Don't know about the 705, but I did replace my Mullen G2 stock 12 string pickup with an L712 and would never go back. I've always preferred the thicker sound of humbuckers over single coils in my 6 string guitars, so it makes sense that I would also prefer one on my Mullen. I wired in a coil split switch as well to have the best of both worlds, but it pretty much stays set in humbucker mode

Damir Besic · Post by **Damir Besic** » 6 Jan 2023 8:10 pm

I love original single coil Mullen pickups, and I think they are a great match for a Mullen guitars, I never felt a need to replace original Mullen pickup on any of my Mullen guitars , it is just a great sounding combination…

Justin Emmert · Post by **Justin Emmert** » 7 Jan 2023 9:48 am

I replaced the stock single coil in my G2 with a modern 705. Did not notice a huge difference, but maybe slightly less brittleness up high. A normal ear would not notice the difference, but there was something slight there for sure. Considering Tommy White uses them in his guitar, I figured it was worth a try. Right hand and volume pedal still trumps new equipment for changing tone, imo.

Roger Crawford · Post by **Roger Crawford** » 7 Jan 2023 3:50 pm

Tommy just got a new G2, and it appears to have single coil pups.

Tony Rankin · Post by **Tony Rankin** » 13 Jan 2023 11:44 am

At one time I owned two G2's; one with a 705 reissue and one with a Telonics 409. In the G2, the 409 was the clear winner to my ears. I've been very pleased with it.

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 13 Jan 2023 5:46 pm

I have 2 G2’s. A red one that has always had Mullen single coils. My other gray and black G2 has been through a few different pickups including 705’s and single coils It sounds better than I can play but has never sounded as good as the red guitar. I couldn’t tell much difference between the single coil and 705.

YMMV

Tim Harr · Post by **Tim Harr** » 14 Jan 2023 5:29 pm

I like it. Also, it is very quiet in the studio.

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 8 Sep 2024 4:24 am

I ordered a new G2 to have Becky's 705s in both necks. I am really happy with Bill Lawrence pickups and although I though about just going with the Mullen single coils, I decided to stick with my original choice and try it out. Some day down the road I may order singles and try them out. I did that before with some Jerry Wallace truetones but never installed them lol. I ended up selling them here. I am extremely happy with my bl710s in my fessenden!! The response all over the neck and attack are awsome. 705s are similar with a bit less high and a bit more mid which is what I am looking for.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 8 Sep 2024 5:11 am

I used to have a Mullen SD-12 with the stock single coil. It sounded great, but about half the places I played it would hum like crazy. Repositioning the guitar did nothing to help. Even the guitar player and bass player had this problem as they were running single coils too.

My solution was to install a Bill Lawrence XR-16. It has a third (red) wire that you can hook to a SPST switch to switch between Humbucker and single coil. I have on the E9 neck of my Carter, and soon I will also have one on the C6 neck when I rebuild the C6 undercarriage. The output of it in single coil mode on E9 is much lower that the BL-710 I now have on C6. Since I sometimes will play on both necks in a song, the output levels were an issue. This pickup gives me the best of both worlds.