EMG pickups - general experiences? (Active guitar pickups discussion)

Gassage

Just re EMG single coils, OBVIOUSLY at one point I owned a strat with EMG DG-20's.

Some stuff to note: they're good pups in their own right. The DG's are voiced to be middy. However, let's be real- why do pro's like EMG's? because they're playing on huge stages with masses of RFI and so on going on, lighting rigs with loads of electrons flying hither and thither- they cut out all of this.

When the EMG DG's came out, it wasn't for the mid boost (which is bloody great) it was so the massive Floyd lighting and effects stage didn't fuck up his fabled tone.

When he went back to small rigs and stages, lo! and behold, the Black Strat was unretired.

However, removing all the bollocks I just wrote and looking at them as stand alone pups, they're darned good if you like middy things.

Just don't leave a jack in the guitar socket once you've finished otherwise PP9's will bankrupt you.

richardhomer

^ It might be heresy - but I thought DG's 'Pulse' era tones were the best of his career.

When I saw him in Manchester on the 'On An Island' tour, he mainly used the Black Strat - but used the CAR/EMG one for 'Shine On'. Best tone of the night to my ears....

Gassage

richardhomer said:

^ It might be heresy - but I thought DG's 'Pulse' era tones were the best of his career.

When I saw him in Manchester on the 'On An Island' tour, he mainly used the Black Strat - but used the CAR/EMG one for 'Shine On'. Best tone of the night to my ears....

It's a definite 'tone era' for him. And I prefer Pulse to DSOT tour, but that was down to Fender/Boogie rig v Hiwatt (Pulse) rig. I agree, great tones.

My favourite tones (and assume C Numb is a tonal reference) are Live 8 and Gdansk, but the former he's using the G2, the latter the P1, with a Seymour SSL1C (not the SSL5 as many suggest)

If his tone was pate, Pulse would be a smooth pate, 2005/6 would be coarse I like grit.

p90fool

guitarfishbay;449391" said:

I do wonder how many 'purists' will be upset by the fact I'm playing a 10 top PRS without a neck pickup, tone knob, and some dings through an Axe FX.  There was some small sticker on the inside of the neck pickup cavity I think I still have it somewhere.  At this stage I'm not really worried about it anyway, there's a ding in the top and I've changed the pickups so half the PRS buying market are probably now allergic to it.

I do like the all black pickup against the cream coloured rings though!

That looks really cool, leave it like that!

Moltisanti

i like the DG EMG tones too i must admit.....

EMGs are ace live, they just work

guitarfishbay

Well I tried the 85 in the bridge and it didn't last 10 minutes - not enough bite down in drop B. I imagine it sounds awesome in standard but it is too thick for me in this situation. The 81 in the neck sounded pretty good though! I thought it would be too bright - but surprisingly it seemed quite well balanced. I was worried it'd have that Duncan Jazz style thin kind of tone, but I thought it was better balanced than I remember that being. Currently messing with heights having the 81 in the bridge and 85 in the neck. I totally see why people say the 85 can over power the bridge 81 but backed off enough it can work ok. The 85 neck is very fat and smooth and sounds decent for single note solos with gain but has quite a 'tubby' clean sound. It works for what I need it to do, I guess because it is in the same fat and bassy category as the vintage bass... But being honest? I kind of wish I had 2 81s! Or maybe an 81TW for the neck - it splits to a single coil plus in A/B tests I've heard it is a little less aggressive than the 81. I picked up some cable ties from Maplin on the way home from work and it tidied the solder less cables (which are thick and awkward lengths for this control cavity size). Also grabbed 3x battery clips to try out the 18v mod when I get s chance.

guitarfishbay

Bloody paragraph bug!

ToneControl

richardhomer said:

^ It might be heresy - but I thought DG's 'Pulse' era tones were the best of his career.

When I saw him in Manchester on the 'On An Island' tour, he mainly used the Black Strat - but used the CAR/EMG one for 'Shine On'. Best tone of the night to my ears....

I agree

I suspect he wanted a change after more than a decade with that sound - and I see he plays a few HB guitars now too, but the DG20 set worked better for me for quite a few of the classics

I have 2 with DG20 sets, I would not want to do without

Can be a little bright though with a trebly amp, I am thinking of adding a passive treble control

On another (EMG SSH) guitar, I have instead installed an active bass EQ set - BTS (same sort of controls as on my Steinberger transcale), these give the scoop, and a different EQ palette. Not as easy to get a mid boost though, but to be fair, the bass boost is usually more called for.

Ideally, I would have used a set with a mid parametric EQ too, but there was not enough space. I had to leave the active blend unused too - hard to see how to use for an SSH anyway 

ToneControl

guitarfishbay said:

Well I tried the 85 in the bridge and it didn't last 10 minutes - not enough bite down in drop B. I imagine it sounds awesome in standard but it is too thick for me in this situation. The 81 in the neck sounded pretty good though! I thought it would be too bright - but surprisingly it seemed quite well balanced. I was worried it'd have that Duncan Jazz style thin kind of tone, but I thought it was better balanced than I remember that being. Currently messing with heights having the 81 in the bridge and 85 in the neck. I totally see why people say the 85 can over power the bridge 81 but backed off enough it can work ok. The 85 neck is very fat and smooth and sounds decent for single note solos with gain but has quite a 'tubby' clean sound. It works for what I need it to do, I guess because it is in the same fat and bassy category as the vintage bass... But being honest? I kind of wish I had 2 81s! Or maybe an 81TW for the neck - it splits to a single coil plus in A/B tests I've heard it is a little less aggressive than the 81. I picked up some cable ties from Maplin on the way home from work and it tidied the solder less cables (which are thick and awkward lengths for this control cavity size). Also grabbed 3x battery clips to try out the 18v mod when I get s chance.

try active EQ before ditching the 85 pickup

my 28.6" scale Steinberger has 81 & 85, with active BTS-type EQ, and can work with baritone strings

Moltisanti

i get on well with the 60 on the neck of my LTD

guitarfishbay

Well, I've ordered another 81.

I did some searching and youtube watching and it seemed like the 60 has better cleans but might be a bit brighter on top.

I never use a clean neck pickup for my own stuff so it doesn't really matter to me.  I really liked the 81 in the neck when I tried it so it made sense to stick with what I know works.  I really liked how aggressive the 81 neck sounded without sounding thin under high gain.

 
The 85 seems like it'd be great in the bridge for a thinner sounding guitar or for a higher tuning, but it is a bit too fat in the bridge in my CU22 in drop B.

It is actually decent in the neck - but to get the best from it (IMO) it has to be at such a height that it overpowers the 81.  Backed off a bit to match in volume I'm finding the 85 too dull and too contrasting with the 81 bridge.  It seems to miss some kind of presence in the neck - even though the PRS vintage bass was quite bassy it still had enough presence to cut when I flipped up from the HFS.

I tried messing with the heights, amp settings etc, I just don't like that much of a contrast.  Where the 81 sounds good the 85 is too fat in the neck, where the 85 sounds good the 81 is too thin.  I do think that could work for some people but it doesn't for me.

I'm really enjoying the 81 bridge.  Pretty unsurprising given how much of a 'standard' pickup it has been for heavier music, but for some reason I'm not finding it as sharp as I expected it to be having to the height where I want it.  

I wonder if this is due to the wraparound bridge on the PRS - I feel like they've got a different attack to other bridges.  Unless I'm imagining it they seem to have marginally less snap than a trem or even tune-o-matic guitar, I know @ICBM doesn't really like the wraparound guitars and thinks the trem PRS's sound better and more 'alive' IIRC.  I prefer the feel of the wraparound bridge myself but I do think it produces a different response.  Hard to compare because I've never tried both on the same guitar, but I've played enough guitars to guess that it is contributing to the difference.

ThePrettyDamned

People slate them, but there is a reason so many people use it as a "go-to" for heavy music.

Also, I totally agree on the bridge thing. I think the trem ones have a brighter, more balanced sound - more stratty (daft as that sounds) - you can hear the difference acoustically. The stop tails had a thuddier sound, which was cool but not what I wanted, even in my "modern metal" guitar.

One guitar varies to the next, but when I was trying loads of prs guitars out to spec my own, that was a fairly consistent difference.

FelineGuitars

I've used EMGs a lot since the mid 80s and have gotten on well with them 

I think there are a few Gems in the range that get overlooked as they aren't the standard heavy metal choices.

Contrary to popular internet myth they do sound a little different in different guitars, although not as much as passives do, and they can help rescue a ton lacking guitar. 

 The other positives have been explained well by others already

The 81 was always lacking in bottom end and gave a upper mid heavy 

The 85 is good in E or maybe E flat tuning but maybe suffers below that and is better in the bridge than the neck

The 60 (and now the 60A with an alnico magnet) was always one of their better sounding pickups but was a lower output mini humbucker sound.

The 58 was one of my personal faves and is voiced to be like a P90 and also does a good vintage PAF kind of tone.

Good in either neck or bridge.

The EMG H is a great pickup a a clean pickup - it was their first one and is what they originally set out to do 

Put it in the neck humbucker slot and it serves up a great palette of clean tones . I believe it is very similar to the S single coils

The tele sets are really good and very overlooked.

ICBM

Definitely. I've played loads of them and owned two, and I just don't like them. The trem just feels and sounds far better to me, right across the whole range of models.

Loobs

Kurt Ballou always sounds amazing with his; not something I'd use personally, even if I still played heavy music.

guitarfishbay

Ok removed the 85 neck, fitted the 81. Dual 81s sounds great, exactly what I was looking for judging from playing around with them at home tonight. They don't have that (sometimes) overbearing sizzle you get from a typical hot ceramic passive like a Duncan Distortion, they're flatter but still very tight with gain. Briefly tried the 24v mod (no room for the 18 IMO) and while the cleans improve the pickups seem to get looser sounding under gain, which is the opposite of what I want. So 9v it is!

Moltisanti

sounds like you're getting there

guitarfishbay

The 81 is a bit of a revelation.

It stays really clear on the lower registers and big chords come out nicely balanced.  It may well be thin sounding in standard tuning, but in drop B it is giving me what I'm looking for.

This isn't me on this clip, and is much heavier than the style I play, but it kind of highlights what I'm hearing and includes a lot of chords with ringing notes (which is something I do).  I've always found ceramic passives to have a certain kind of sizzle to them but the EMG 81 manages to be aggressive without having that same sizzle, which IMO gives more clarity and ironically an 'easier listening' kind of tone when it comes to playing chords that include the higher strings in the tuning I'm playing in.

I prefer the EMG there, it sounds bigger and more balanced.  The Nazgul seems to remind me of a Duncan Distortion in the comparisons I've seen but voiced slightly differently, it has that sharp upper mid sizzle that works for a lot of things but I'm quite happy to have the EMG sound for what I'm doing.

Moltisanti

nice one, the two words that jump to mind mind with the 81 are balance and clarity, they are great pickups in the right application

John_P

Interesting discussion -  I'm toying with trying emg again instead of fitting the usual suhr pickups into my ce.  The 81's sounds like a good combination of clarity and punch but I'm tempted by the 57/66 pair.   I want plenty of upper mids to cut through a band mix live without a harsh top end and some low end thump without being woolly.   

Just wading through a million clips now to try and get a feel for the different options.