EMG pickups?

Elysian Blaze

Elysian Blaze

The Blade
Aug 1, 2002
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Hagerstown, MD
I'm finally getting money to update my guitar a bit. I've got a BC Rich NJ Beast with stock pickups, which have pretty much done the job, so far. But, everyone keeps telling me to get EMG pickups. I've got to tell you, I'm not very proficient with the technical aspect of guitars, so telling me to get EMG pickups doesn't strike the bell that most guitar players feel it should. So, what I'm asking you guys for a reason why I should get these pickups, how much they cost, the best possible neck-bridge setup, et cetera. Thanks in advance!
 
You shouldn't upgrade if you don't know what difference it would make to your sound. I think EMG has become a bit of a buzzword, especially in the world of metal guitars. It's true that they are great pickups - if you like what they sound like, but there are also a lot of people who don't like them. You'll need to decide for yourself. Borrow a guitar with EMG pickups and run it through your rig. It will not sound the same as if you put EMGs into your own guitar, but it will give you an idea of their characteristics.

My opinions:
EMGs are loud and will give you a nice amount of gain with distorted playing. Harmonics come out very easilly. The sound is well articulated and bassy, but not muddy - this is the biggest reason I love EMG's. Palm muted riffs really take off with these pickups. On clean, they sound a bit "dead", since they have a very flat response curve - some creative EQ'ing is required to get a nice undistorted sound IMO.

For a mahogany guitar, I'd probably use the EMG-81 in both bridge and neck position (I mostly just use the bridge pickup though). It is brighter than its sibling model EMG-85, which has a little more mids instead. For an alder/maple guitar, I'd use the EMG-85 in the bridge and the EMG-81 in the neck (people usually put the 81 in the bridge and the 85 in the neck, but I'm not on that road of philosophy).

'bane
 
EMg's rock. I have them, and they totally kick ass. Listen, you have a BC rich, and you play metal, the only way they won't sound like what you want is if it is unplugged from the amp. Get them man. 81 in the brigde and 85 on the neck, its the Zakk Wylde set up. Metallica, Slayer, and Zakk play with em, not to mention a few others. Do they not sound good live?
 
Just stay away from the HZ's amd you should be fine. I myself plan on upgrading my ESP F200 from its HZ's to a 81 in the Bridge and 85 in the neck once I can afford both of them.
 
I agree with Sunbane. I'd add that the 81 is much brighter and cleaner than the 85. Though, it's still a high output pickup with a nice, but sterile distortion and lots of gain. The 85 is quite a bit darker, and has distortion to spare, even a bit over the top. Lately, I've been diggin the 85 in the bridge in my KV Custom. It just sounds more wicked to me, and compliment's my other guitarist's Jackson with an 81 in the bridge.

The nice thing with EMGs now, is that they have a quick change connector, so if you do have one installed, you can change from an 81 to an 85 in minutes.

Definitely try out someone's guitar before you have yours rewired, but chances are, if you're into metal, you'll probably like EMGs a little or absolutely love them.
 
I put an EMG 81 in an old big-bodied Gibson Marauder, that I had routed out the bridge area to accept a humbucker in and it was sweet. My guitar hero, Wolf Hoffmann used 81s so I thought it was for me. It made a difference, but to be honest, it wasn't that dramatic as opposed to a quality passive pickup.
A guitar with a decent quality passive humbucker is not going to sound dramatically different with an EMG put in it though. If you are not happy with your sound, your amp is the first place to look, unless you use a great deal of effects, then your effects processor may be the place to start. I don't know your particular setup, but if you are looking for dramatic results, you probably will not get that in a pickup replacement.

Bryant
 
Iron Maiden ROCKS! said:
I aint the greatest fan of EMGs but it depends what you're into, im very a dimarzio/duncan man myself, there's something about passives i like, i dunno maybe im just crazy.
Click to expand...


Agreed. I would much rather use passive pickups.
 
Are you saying that all EMG pickups are Active? shucks. I would probably go for EMG's (you choose 81/85) for no nonsense metal. I was wondering about the alternative, and could only think of the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker (Dimebag Darrell's custom) and I havn't really heard much about that. Or if you had the space you could put a Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the mid positition and at the nekh, and have a full size h/b at the bridge, like Chris Amott. It's up to you.
 
What do you all think of Seymour Duncan pickups in general? In my next guitar, I'm getting either EMGs or Duncans. EMGs are nice but I havent heard much on Duncans besides the fact they are widely used. Thoughts?
 
i like passive pickups because they have a better low freq definition. having tried an EMG, IMO the bottom end still has mids... having said this, come October, i will have an EMG equipped guitar... o_O

coming back to the Duncan, 2 of my ibanez are Duncan equipped. these are wonderful in the gain & clarity department. however, it depends on your guitar's body wood too.
 
Well one of my guitars has an EMG 81 at the bridge, i personally think its a really nice sound. Very 'sharp'. 'sterile' sounding, i think its great for lead playing but thats my opinion. Try out as many pick up sounds as you can and pick what you like best.
 
Ravenous Enemy said:
Are you saying that all EMG pickups are Active? shucks.
Click to expand...
Not all, but the passive alternatives (EMG-HZ) are not that great.

I was wondering about the alternative, and could only think of the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker (Dimebag Darrell's custom) and I havn't really heard much about that.
Click to expand...
I've heard very different things about the Dimebucker. People seem to either love or hate it, but I haven't tried it myself. If high output is what you're looking for, you'll get it in heaps with a Dimebucker - it smokes an EMG in this respect. A lot of people recommend getting a Bill Lawrence L500XL instead, since that is what "Dimebag" himself uses in his guitars. However, the word is the BL 500XL is very trebly, sometimes downright shrill. Apparently you need a high resistance volume pot to filter some of the high frequencies away - I've seen people recommend 1M pots for it. The Dimebucker is pretty much a clone of the 500XL, but I don't know if it has inherited this trait.

Again, I'm not a Duncan guy, but I've heard people say good things about the "Invader", the "Duncan Distortion" and the "JB". I've gotten the notion that these aren't quite as loud as an EMG, but I could be wrong.

Another high-output Duncan is the "Metal Livewire", which is the active version of the Duncan Distortion. I believe this is the hottest pickup available on the market, and people have reported that it even distorts the clean channels in their amps.

Then there's DiMarzio. Again, I can't provide anything but second hand information, since I haven't used their pickups in my own guitars. You've got their "Super Distortion", which is a medium output pickup. Another EMG junkie I talked to said they were nice, but were just short of the output he'd like to have - a little bit too clean for him. I've heard good stuff about their "Tone Zone" and "X2N". The dual-blade X2N is their loudest pickup (louder than an EMG). A personal friend of mine used to have a "Megadrive" in his guitar, which seemed to be a nice pickup as well. It has since been discontinued, since it's very similar to the "Steve's Special" humbucker.

It's worth to notice that DiMarzio has some odd names for some of their pickups. You've got the "Humbucker from Hell", which sounds like it would be great for metal, but really is a low output pickup, built to simulate the tone of a vintage single coil. It's a similar case with the "Screaming Demon", which - according to what I've heard - isn't a very demonic pickup at all.

The biggest reason I've stayed with EMG's for so long, is that it's a safe road to take. I'm a student and don't have the cash to try out different pickups all the time. When I buy an EMG pickup, I know exactly what it will sound like. It's just a sound that I know I will like.

'bane
 
Sunbane said:
Not all, but the passive alternatives (EMG-HZ) are not that great.
Click to expand...

I really ripped on those HZ's in earlier posts, and sitting alone at home playing, they are still the worst sounding pickups I own......but lately I've been playing my V with the HZ's in a band situation and the guitar is sounding really nice. I guess you could say they "mix" well when played with another guitar & bass. The biggest plus is that I'm not having feedback issues at all. Very controllable compared to my others. The downside is that the high's aren't cutting through like I'd like them to. I would never buy them, but I guess I don't hate them as much as I did at first.

The other guitarist in the band has a Les Paul copy with a pair of 85's in it (he doesn't bring it much though). It sounds ok, but not mind blowing. I prefer a nice balanced passive pickup, and I let the amp's overdrive do the work.
 
i have a few questions... im quite new to playing guitar, ive been playing for 8 months and this saturday im getting my jackson ke3 but i heard the pickups on that guitar suck... so i was planning on getting some emg 81's but apparantly they arent good for a clean sound and im wondering if the 85's are good for a clean sound cause i dont want pickups only good for distortion cause i like playing some clean stuff like fade to black and so on... so if i were to get an 81 and an 85 where would the best place be to put them?

..i think thats all my questions
 
Iron Maiden ROCKS! said:
I aint the greatest fan of EMGs but it depends what you're into, im very a dimarzio/duncan man myself, there's something about passives i like, i dunno maybe im just crazy.
Click to expand...

I'm the same. To me passives have more "feel" and "character". I find EMGs to be too sterile sounding.

Cheers!
:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:
 
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