Gearhead,
The original "Cowboy from Hell" guitar, if you look at it very closely, it has the chrome housing which is only made by one man, Willy Stich (Bill and Becky) who is the real Bill Lawrence. Yes, I have checked out that site and it does give the proper description between the Bill Lawrence (Bill and Becky) and the Bill Lawrence USA (his former business partner). With the site's help, I manage to get a vintage 1983 L500XL from eBay. I was able to compare a 1983 model to a 2006 model; they still sound the same. It retains the chunky, fat, and clean sound that I love. If you get it from ebay, Make sure you get from Bruce aka Bullfighter Guitars, http://instruments.shop.ebay.com/bullfighter_guitars/m.html?_nkw=L-500*&_sacat=619&_odkw=&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3911.c0.m270.l1313. He is Bill and Becky Lawrence's ebay dealer. Usually there is a 2 week waiting time once your order made through wildepickups.com, but it looks like they have some in stock, http://wildepickups.com/L500C.html.
I am a gearhound. My main amp is a 1990 Carvin X100B running on a Crate 4x12 loaded with 2 Carvin 100w British Series and 2 Carvin 100w Vintage Series speakers. I also have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, two 5w Kustom Defender tube amps and a Crate Power Block. All my amps run on JJ tubes.
Good luck on your purchase. You will not regret it. Make sure you use 500k pots as recommend by Bill.