My only ownership experience with Bill Lawrence pickups was with one of Bill's L-250's back in the 70's. It was one of his first designs and had a single blade. It was ok, but nothing that I would call great.
Despite that experience, I've played some of the newer L-280's and an L-290 and they are very sweet pickups indeed. They have a single coils type sound in a Strat and are completely noisless. When pushed, they deliver a very nice OD tone. Having said that, I wouldn't say as some have, that they are like vintage toned single coils. They just don't have that vibe. That doesn't mean they're not good, they're just good in a different way than straight single coils. I think of them as a good addition to your tone if you already have a Strat with traditional pickups, not as a replacement for one.
BTW: For those who don't know this, there's a controversy over the name "Bill Lawrence." There are two companies marketing pickups under the name - the real Bill Lawrence, and his former partner who claims the right to still use the name. I haven't had any direct experience with the partners pickups, but I've heard they're pretty good. The pickups actually made by Bill Lawrence are the one's that I was speaking of. Bill Lawrence still hand makes his pickups himself by order, so if you want a set there's a few week wait to get them. I don't think it's more than about four weeks though.
