Dumbass-question about Pickup Output

[JoeJackson]

Dudes, I replaced my EMG 81/81 with a Seymour Duncan SH-1 (n) and a SH-5 (b). Gotta say, that don't know shit about soldering
Nevertheless, I tried it anyway *haha*.

It took me about an hour to get the old Potentiometers and the PU's out and the new stuff in. I downloaded a wiring diagramm off of the Seymour Duncan Page (2 Volumepots and 1 Tonepot). I'm a bit clumsy, so the soldering-points do not look very professional.

Well, it sounds great and I think everything is firmly soldered.

Then I plugged the guitar into my firepod and checked, how the signal-output of the duncans compare to my ec-1000 with emg's 85 and 60. And there is a more or less huge difference. While the dry signal of the emg's peaked at -6db the duncan-guitar peaked at around -10db. The SH-5 is supposed to be a high-output humbucker, too, so I'm a bit confused by the signal-output.

Does a EMG push the Amp-Input really THAT hard compared to passive pickups?

 

[wishtheend]

Short answer ... yes 81 is ridiculously hot! I think the Duncan Invader or similar might be a little closer output wise - but active pickups are much hotter overall.

 

[Metaltastic]

Actually, I'm pretty certain EMG's aren't necessarily very hot pickups (though I know the 85 is higher output than the 81) compared with, say, a Dimarzio X2N or Duncan Dimebucker

 

[JoeJackson]

So ... no need to worry as I compare an 85 to the SH-5?!?
Some Dude with electric knowledge around? Maybe JBroll?

I heard that, too, that an 81 isn't that "hot" as always claimed.

 

[Disconnekt]

My experience with the 81 is that it has a REALLY hot pick attack (but then again, I'm using the 18V mod), but the sustain is a more normal level. When running into the instrument input of my Mbox, the attack overdrives the preamps even with the preamp gain down all the way, but the sustain isn't particularly loud. Makes for a bit of a pain in the ass taking DI; I usually just end up using the line input since impedance isn't really an issue, and that input is low enough gain to make a clean recording. That said, the really sharp attack of the 81 sounds great with my 5150. Makes for really tight fast high-gain rhythms.