EMGs vs The Other Pickup Brands.

[Nitronium Blood]

I like EMGs. I have one in the bridge of my Epiphone Les Paul Classic.

Putting aside the differences between active and passive pickups, would it be fair to say that it is the general opinion here that an EMG active could 'beat the shit' out of let's say a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker in terms of output?

I have never done an A/B comparison of an EMG 81 with an SD JB [bridge]. I am considering buying a SD JB because I am a fan of Dave Mustaine. Would this pickup render considerably less balls than the EMG 81?

:Spin:

 

[Ermz]

Most likely, yeah. The fact that the actives are battery powered would suggest they pump harder. Also if you listen to Megadeth's old guitar sound you'll hear alot of scoop and balls, but not that much distortion.

I personally preffer passive pickups. I don't like what EMGs do to the sound of a guitar. It's sort of like handing a great mix to a generic mastering plant where they squash the shit out of it and put their stamp accross it. It sounds to me like the EMGs override the natural tonality of a guitar and replace it with gain, gain and more gain. Whilst this is acceptable for metal and I'm sure more than acceptable for shit guitars, I preffer to stick with the passives.

So yeah, I'd figure if you replace the 81 with the JB you'll probably need to pump the amp gain a bit to compensate.

 

[revolver]

JB´s got nicer harmonics. It´s got less output but in my opinion that doesn´t matter with modern high gain amps. Check out Tom Anderson H3 pick-ups. After messing around with alot passive and aktiv pu´s like emgs, invaders, full shred, di-marzios dropzone and tonezone, Mastertone aktives...
After I talked to Kirk of crowbar who told me about the anderson pick-up he uses in his sg i immediately bought one. The results were amazing. I work at the Sandberg customshop here in germany and Holger (the owner, who is a friend of Andy as well) gave me the chance to mess around with different woods and hardware alot. After a very long struggle for tone with building up to 12 (!) guitars with changing necks and bodywoods, scales, set ups etc. i´m finaly stuck with the real thing which works best for me especially with downtunings. But that´s only my personal taste! What i want to say is: try things out if you got the cash and time. Results will follow, slowly maybe, but they will come. Try to document every change in your signalchain (by recording yourself) then you´ll find out what´s best for your personal style.

sorry for my bad english

 

[SickBoy]

Putting aside the differences between active and passive pickups, would it be fair to say that it is the general opinion here that an EMG active could 'beat the shit' out of let's say a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker in terms of output?

Maybe, but the real "opponent" would be DiMarzio X2N, with its massive output, I suppose it can stand up to EMG's.

I have never done an A/B comparison of an EMG 81 with an SD JB [bridge]. I am considering buying a SD JB because I am a fan of Dave Mustaine. Would this pickup render considerably less balls than the EMG 81?

I think the "balls" are rendered by player's hands more than anything else.
If you have balls in your playing, they would come out on passives, rest assured. It's just a matter of taste, if you ask me, whether you like the color of the sound EMG's put out or not. Here's an example: Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth, one of the best rhythm players in metal, uses Gibson with stock pickups IIRC and his sound is the definition of "ballsy sound", as far as I'm concerned. He used to use EMG's, but gave up on them...
As someone mentioned earlied, today's high gain amps have excessive amounts of gain to compensate for somewhat lower passive pickup output...
Seek the sound, not the gain amount itself.

 

[Dawn Patrol]

I would like to agree with the Sickboy, that is not just the pickup, its the way you handle the guitar that also matters. But of course the pickup make a different, I use the seymour invader, more lows and a bit less highs and enough output more my taste. I think the SD JB is in the right direction if you like mustaine. By the way a heard he left Jackson guitars and went to ESP, don't know if he changed his pick-ups also?

 

[commandante]

He didn't change pickups.

 

[DURBANS]

I had the stock Gibson pickups on my Flying V and then I changed them to EMG's (81 and 85). Honestly, I can't remember the difference between the older ones and the new ones, except for 2 things: 1) the 85 (neck) sounds much more "alive" and bassy and more like giant balls tone. The 81 sounds very sterile, very little lows and lots of highs and mids.

I say I can't actually tell the active ones from the stock passive pu's because aside the factor that the 85 feels louder and more alive than the 81, is the fact that I don't feel like an overall tone improvement except for the fact that I have more gain on my guitar, when I plug into an amp and then somebody else does they need to raise the gain a bit to match my sound. Thats about it. Maybe it's because the Gibson pu's wehre loud and good as well?

 

[silverwulf]

I had the stock Gibson pickups on my Flying V and then I changed them to EMG's (81 and 85). Honestly, I can't remember the difference between the older ones and the new ones, except for 2 things: 1) the 85 (neck) sounds much more "alive" and bassy and more like giant balls tone. The 81 sounds very sterile, very little lows and lots of highs and mids.

I say I can't actually tell the active ones from the stock passive pu's because aside the factor that the 85 feels louder and more alive than the 81, is the fact that I don't feel like an overall tone improvement except for the fact that I have more gain on my guitar, when I plug into an amp and then somebody else does they need to raise the gain a bit to match my sound. Thats about it. Maybe it's because the Gibson pu's wehre loud and good as well?

It's funny you say that. The stock pickups on the V you had were the Gibson 496R & 500T. I had that combo in one of my guitars not long ago, and a set of EMG 81's in another. So, I was comparing the two into my old 5150 head. When I was running the EMG's, I had the gain set around a "6" or so and I was playing with a chunky sound. When I switched to the guitar with the 500T, I had more gain and my signal was turning to mush. I actually had to turn down the gain to about a "4" to make it equal with the EMG's. So, my 500T was actually pushing more gain than the active pickup. I also had an immediate increase in bass response. It was a much "larger" bottom end available.

On the other hand, the EMG's were a bit "smoother," and they were definitely a little more focused. There really wasn't a lot of difference in output between the two either. I use EMG's mostly now, but that passive 500T pushed more gain and nearly as much output as the active EMG 81 did.

 

[commandante]

Yup. People always have the impression that Gibson pickups(I guess it is because of the name) have to be low-output and more inclined to a vintage sound, which is not always true. Gibson stock pickups in Vs and Explorers have pretty high amount of output, so do the Dirty Fingers and Iommi signature pickups.

 

[JV]

originally posted by silverwulf:

I use EMG's mostly now, but that passive 500T pushed more gain and nearly as much output as the active EMG 81 did.


Same here silverwulf. I have those same Gibson pickups in my Les Paul, and they freakin' scream.

 

[silverwulf]

Yup. People always have the impression that Gibson pickups(I guess it is because of the name) have to be low-output and more inclined to a vintage sound, which is not always true. Gibson stock pickups in Vs and Explorers have pretty high amount of output, so do the Dirty Fingers and Iommi signature pickups.

Dude, those Iommi pickups are awesome. They were actually my primary pickup for a few years. They have an insane bottom end to them that stays tight, and they have a pretty decent output too. Not as much as the 500T, but good for a passive pickup. I really like the tone of them.

 

[DURBANS]

What passive pickup will have the same output as the 500T?

 

[commandante]

I don't know about the same but Dimarzio X2N and Bill Lawrence L-500XLs both have high amounts of output.

 

[black sugar]

Lots of great info on this thread!

For all the passive pickup users out there, I stumbled across something pretty cool recently. Bear with me here...

I use a Les Paul Studio with a JB in the bridge and, like many people here, I like to have an overdrive pedal juicing the front end of my amp.

Since I can never leave anything as it is, I decided to I wanted to try a compressor/preamp pedal to tighten things up a bit, and one link led to another and I went for the MXR Super Comp. It's the old school Dyna Comp, but with a variable attack threshold so it's more useful for rock/metal:

http://www.jimdunlop.com/products/electronics/mxr/products/m132.html

To hopefully keep another one of my windbag posts somewhat short, suffice it to say that this thing rules.

If you use the compression very, very conservatively and boost the output just a hair, you get this amazing sustain and detail with ZERO loss of bottom end and almost no tonal coloration. I find that it adds to the mids a bit... just a hair. Plus it's true bypass, which is always nice, but I never want to turn it off.

So if you set it right, you can get "active" output from your passive pickups and drive your amp as necessary while preserving the dynamics and harmonics from your passives.

Using the same settings as I did with my LP, I tried it on a Strat with a humbucker bridge (also a JB) and a Tele with a single coil bridge and it definitely improved the tone and feel from clean to dirt settings on all the guitars.

I haven't tried it on actives or super high output passives, but this thing is a friggin' magic bullet pedal for more "standard" output passives like the JB. Best $70 I ever spent.

 

[silverwulf]

I don't know about the same but Dimarzio X2N and Bill Lawrence L-500XLs both have high amounts of output.

Yeah, both of those have a decent amount of output for a passive pickup. The Seymour Duncan Invader had a pretty good output if I remember right. And although you won't hear of a lot of "true metal" players talk about them because of who they're associated with, the PRS Tremonti Treble has a good output too. It's very similar to a 500T.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

And what about the DiMarzio Evolution 7 and the Blaze pickups ? Are they good ?

 

[Kazrog]

I am very opinionated on this topic...

EMGs kick the crap out of any passive pickups, any day, for any kind of sound. I am never going back to passives. And EMGs get more tone out of your guitar than passives do, and they sound different in different guitars/woods etc (contrary to popular myth.)

EMGs get more output but less noise than passives. Dimebuckers, for example, are VERY high output passives, but they are noisy as hell and fuzzy. EMGs get all the gain without the garbage. They aren't as "buttery" as passives, they will accentuate your technique more, whether it is good or bad, so if you make the upgrade, you may be in for some woodshedding to fix bad habits in your playing that you were previously less aware of.

This all being said, the most important thing is your playing. Your technique and ability to dial in a good tone is ultimately the most important thing. You can get good sounds out of passives, people have for decades.

 

[DURBANS]

I already have EMG's, but, if I had to go back to passives...

Which is the best known brand of passive pickups? I mean, EMG's cost like 100 bucks a piece, except from Gibson, what other brand will have such prices?

Before you flame me saying that price won't make a difference... Im just asking this for reference.

 

[evildonkeymaster]

I run a 496R and 500T in my Les Paul custom and love the tone, in another thread I talk about how I just bough a set og EMG 81/85. I decided not to mess with my Les Paul and I stuck the EMGs in my Ibanez RG621.

I treid the 81 and 85 at the bridge (thanks to emg Quik COnnect this was easy) I must say I love my Les Paul tone and I will keep the 500t in it but... The EMGs fucking rock for metal, they sound awesome when I track them and then use the Les Paul with the 500t as the 2nd guitar (EMGs left 500T right) the 500T does have more output than the EMG85 that is true.

I love the 500t cause it is warm and sloppy I love the EMG 85 cause it is tight and punchy. Put the two togehter and I am getting a killer overall tone. Both pickups are high as hell output so they drive my 5150 hard and that is good.
Later

 

[DURBANS]

Ok, between these 4 models... (as bridge pickups)

1) Bill Lawrence L-500XL
2) Di Marzio X2N
3) Seymour Duncan Invader
4) EMG 81

Which of them is of better quality, clarity, output and tone?