What is the deal with EMG Pickups?!

LiquidAces said:
Do a search on the internet and find the same thing i found. Malmsteen was a guitar tech, he had dimarzio work closely with him and in that interview malmsteen says as well as the quote i gave you above from the website which is a technical forum. Telling you that single coils are the purest and cleanest pickup. Because humbuckers distort the signal. Its somewhere. I can't be bothered finding it anymore. I"ve invested enough time trying to educate. If you wanna learn find it yourself.
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Oh yeah, if Malmsteen thinks that, then it MUST be true. Sorry dude, we were all mistaken!
 
Personally I really enjoyed the tone that Romeo had on The Odyssey the best, and I believe that he was using the X2N and Tone Zone at the time.

I have those pickups as well, mostly because I wanted to upgrade pickups and didn't know what else to get. I really like the X2N but I think that in the future I'll be checking out a different neck pickup.

EMGs... never tried a guitar with a pair of EMGs in them, so personally I can't comment on them. From what I've heard from other bands.. its a so so feeling. Sometimes it sounds good, sometimes it sounds bad.


-off topic-

They've got to be breaking some rule with the size of their signatures...
 
LiquidAces said:
Do a search on the internet and find the same thing i found. Malmsteen was a guitar tech, he had dimarzio work closely with him and in that interview malmsteen says as well as the quote i gave you above from the website which is a technical forum. Telling you that single coils are the purest and cleanest pickup. Because humbuckers distort the signal. Its somewhere. I can't be bothered finding it anymore. I"ve invested enough time trying to educate. If you wanna learn find it yourself.
Click to expand...

I sense lack of own experience and facts...
 
My only experiences with EMG are not very good.
A guy once had me try his Ibanez with EMG's; horrible sound, it was like it was coming from the bottom of a well. I was happy to switch back to my Seymour Duncan Strat :).
Also, my bandmate put 300$ on a set of EMG on his Jackson guitar (not a high-end guitar, just the average model). I have to say that his guitar sound is one of the worst I have ever heard.
So I guess some models sound great, but the ones I tried are dreadful.

Does anyone have ever heard/played Bare knuckle pickups? The Caparison I'm trying to buy is equipped with those.
 
I love my EMGs. Got the bridge 81 installed in 1989, and then finally got the neck installed a year later. I put 'em in an old Aria Pro RS Stray Cat that I bought at the mall for $232 in 1984. I also added a Kahler flat mount, I think in 1987-ish. My memory is foggy on the dates though (must be those clinical drugs I'm addicted to).

Bottom line: Pretty much everybody who has played that guitar covets it severely. My guitar teacher wanted to trade his Strat for it.

The EMGs cut through very well, and they're versatile enough for me to switch from metal to jazz without too much ado.
 
EVERY SINGLE TIME I see this thread title I'm hearing it said in my head in Jerry Seinfeld's voice,

I'm also kinda curious about the EMG's, I've been sort of assembling the list of instruments for my studio and I know I want to have probably 1 guitar with EMG's in it. I know a lot of the more extreme metal guys use these, but personally as a player I've had much better results (sonically) playing as hard and as tight as I possibly can on my old Les Paul with factory pickups than with anything that has EMG's. So if anyone here who plays a lot of heavy rhythm (or even lead) guitar has a guitar with an 85 (because I am definitely not a fan of the 81 in the bridge and I've heard the 85 is a way different pickup) in the BRIDGE, I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.

-Jeremy
 
JesterIF said:
My only experiences with EMG are not very good.
A guy once had me try his Ibanez with EMG's; horrible sound, it was like it was coming from the bottom of a well. I was happy to switch back to my Seymour Duncan Strat :).
Also, my bandmate put 300$ on a set of EMG on his Jackson guitar (not a high-end guitar, just the average model). I have to say that his guitar sound is one of the worst I have ever heard.
So I guess some models sound great, but the ones I tried are dreadful.

Does anyone have ever heard/played Bare knuckle pickups? The Caparison I'm trying to buy is equipped with those.
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Well judging by what you are telling me hardly had a good amp either.

Nothing will sound good coming from a Marshall MG or a behringer v-tone or whatever. Good amp+EMGs=Very agressive sound.
 
the phenom said:
Well judging by what you are telling me hardly had a good amp either.

Nothing will sound good coming from a Marshall MG or a behringer v-tone or whatever. Good amp+EMGs=Very agressive sound.
Click to expand...

A good sounding amp will always help a lot, but I prefer to have a rich guitar sound at the base. Something that Imo EMG's don't provide...
 
Jeremy Krull said:
I never even considered that, that's pretty cool. Have you had the 85 in the bridge ever?
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No. Maybe I can flip 'em though.

You know, when I had them originally installed, the second tech who installed the 85 recommended it in the bridge... But, like I said, that was back in the '80's when they hadn't been around very long. And I was a teenager who didn't know much about response curves...
 
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