18v emg pickup mod 2 cents

[midget donkeys]

I just tried out the 18 volt mod on the emg 81 in my ibanez jem and thought I would put forth my thoughts about it after A/B'ing for a couple hours.

The good:
1. Sure does make the leads sound way clearer. The normal 9v operation sounds real overcompressed next to the 18v.

The bad:
1. Crunch power chord riffs sound less distorted.
2. There is no damn room in my guitar for two 9 volts. So I have the batteries electric tapped to the outside body, which my wife says looks like a bomb.

I think I am going to keep doing the 18v for a while since the whole purpose of music is guitar solos (and blow jobs). I just don't know where to put the batteries.

 

[Metaltastic]

Always prefer the 81 @ 18v here, but in the rare instances (meaning, guitars) that I prefer the 85 I like it better at 9v!

 

[Rex Rocker]

I like both the 81 and 85 at 18V myself.

Not a night and day difference when I listen, but once I tracked DI's, I could definitely see (and hear) that there was quite less cliping going on at the pickup's preamp.



Still waiting for my 60A to arrive.

 

[006]

I still don't understand the talk about the EMGs clipping, looking at DIs from any project I've done with EMGs in the guitar I don't see any clipping at all. In fact, today I'm tracking this death metal band right now and his BC Rich has passives, we started with that and then he broke a string - well now we are using my Explorer with EMGs. The DI tracks look about the same...

And fuck Floyds.

 

[JBroll]

I forgot who did the DI test that showed clipping, but he had to pound the hell out of all of the strings at once and even then it wasn't too serious.

Jeff

 

[P-E]

Wasn't it Uncle Junior or something?

 

[JBroll]

No, he thought that the wood was clipping or something bonkers like that. This was quite a while ago...

Jeff

 

[006]

Wasn't it Uncle Junior or something?

Nah, his clipped because of shoddy Korean manufacturing and the wood his guitar was made out of was too powerful for EMGs.

 

[Rex Rocker]

I forgot who did the DI test that showed clipping, but he had to pound the hell out of all of the strings at once and even then it wasn't too serious.

Jeff

at 9V's?

Maybe I was doing something wrong with mine, then.

 

[Nitrobattery]

It's funny, I just 10 minutes ago brought my Caparison Angelus back down to 9v from 18v and am much happier. The compression is a big part of what I like about EMG's.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I still don't understand the talk about the EMGs clipping, looking at DIs from any project I've done with EMGs in the guitar I don't see any clipping at all. In fact, today I'm tracking this death metal band right now and his BC Rich has passives, we started with that and then he broke a string - well now we are using my Explorer with EMGs. The DI tracks look about the same...

And fuck Floyds.

your EMGs are probably not installed as close to the strings as recommended in the setup guide...
I'd highly recommend doing so (I have mine as close as possible) and then do the 18v mod.
you'll hear the difference

 

[Metaltastic]

Huge +1 to that - as some may recall, I did two comparisons of the 81 and Blackout at 9v and 18v, the second with the pickups at the ideal height (whereas they were too low for the first), and the difference was much more noticeable! (between 9v and 18v, I mean). And the clipping of 9v EMG's usually is more audible than visible, because it's not like it's happening at the preamp or converters

 

[P-E]

Nah, his clipped because of shoddy Korean manufacturing and the wood his guitar was made out of was too powerful for EMGs.

Hahahahaha indeed!

 

[Omega_Void]

The diiferent sound may not be purely due to headroom.
Running at 18V supply will increase the current drawn.
Most circuits (particularly discrete) will perform better at some particular current draw, and too little current can make for sub-optimal sound quality, regardless of whether it's clipping.

 

[Rex Rocker]

From the EMG site:

If you’ve got room for multiple batteries in your guitar, you can use two batteries wired in series to power your onboard circuitry at 18 volts. The output level will not appreciably increase, but you’ll have increased headroom and crisper transients.

I don't know what they mean by 'cristper transients'.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

does battery life last longer with 18v?? I always hated when doing alot of road shows.....seemed like every 2 or 3 shows, I had to replace them. And that gets expensive!!

 

[Metaltastic]

Nah, the only way to extend the battery life is to wire the two 9v batteries in parallel, rather than series (which will still have them operating at 9v)

 

[P-E]

From the EMG site:


I don't know what they mean by 'cristper transients'.

Less compressed, more peaks.

 

[slashvanyoung]

does battery life last longer with 18v?? I always hated when doing alot of road shows.....seemed like every 2 or 3 shows, I had to replace them. And that gets expensive!!

Jebus, how long are your shows + warm-up time? Are you sure everything was wired correctly and you didn't leave the guitar plugged in when you weren't playing?