HeHasTheJazzHands
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking about getting an Explorer type guitar and retrying either a chrome set of Het pickups or the 57/66 sets. Just something to chug in Eb standard.
Anyone Keep Going Back To EMG?
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Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
Get the 81/60.
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
I’m really enjoying the 58/SA/58 and EXG+SPC in my Fender Player series Stratocaster. The 58 seems a bit like maybe an 85 and 60A mixed. Added just a bit of EXG and SPC is quite awesome. I need to adjust the single coil height so the 2 through 4 pickup settings aren’t so quiet.
Hoss632
SS.org Regular
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Why when the hetset and 57/66 do everything better? Especially in that tuning
HeHasTheJazzHands
Well-Known Member
Hoss632
SS.org Regular
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Fair enough. I've not tried a 60 in the neck admittedly. I have an 81/85 combo in my Schecter. Never got fully along with the 81, but I've come to like the 85 with my amp after tweaking it a bit. Still looking to probably put at least a 57 in the bridge position and move the 85 back to the neck at some point.
Kyle Jordan
Ace of Knaves
Fellow EMG aficionados, I need some advice.
The pickups in my S8 are dying a slow death that goes in bursts and they seem to have just experienced a jump yesterday. I was hoping to hold off on replacing them until my Aristides arrives in the April/May estimated timeframe, but that looks less and less likely.
One possibility is Fluence Classics, since I’d love to pop them in to the Aristides once it gets here and direct shoot them out with the 60-8XH the guitar is coming with. Ibanez however in an act of belligerent dimwittery routed the S8 with oversized routes that are a bit of a pain to deal with. They’ll fit soapbars well, but the soapbar EMGs in my experience do not sound like the 6 string versions. Fluence Moderns and Stef Carpenter pups are out as I don’t care for them, and Abasi’s are a better proposition, but still not quite there.
So, my harebrained idea is to try the EMG 40JX 5 string bass pickup. From what I can tell, it’s a legit stacked single coil inside of a soapbar housing, and the JX pickups are voiced fairly flat like the SX and SAX guitar single coils.
My thinking is that if the 40JX is in fact flat or nearly, I can use an EQ or a BTC control (if I can fit it in the guitar) to to carve away bass or boost highs if need be.
Any of you have experience with the EMG bass pickups? How do they sound? I know you’ll likely have heard them in a bass, but I’m actually liking a lot of the clips I’m hearing with them.
The pickups in my S8 are dying a slow death that goes in bursts and they seem to have just experienced a jump yesterday. I was hoping to hold off on replacing them until my Aristides arrives in the April/May estimated timeframe, but that looks less and less likely.
One possibility is Fluence Classics, since I’d love to pop them in to the Aristides once it gets here and direct shoot them out with the 60-8XH the guitar is coming with. Ibanez however in an act of belligerent dimwittery routed the S8 with oversized routes that are a bit of a pain to deal with. They’ll fit soapbars well, but the soapbar EMGs in my experience do not sound like the 6 string versions. Fluence Moderns and Stef Carpenter pups are out as I don’t care for them, and Abasi’s are a better proposition, but still not quite there.
So, my harebrained idea is to try the EMG 40JX 5 string bass pickup. From what I can tell, it’s a legit stacked single coil inside of a soapbar housing, and the JX pickups are voiced fairly flat like the SX and SAX guitar single coils.
My thinking is that if the 40JX is in fact flat or nearly, I can use an EQ or a BTC control (if I can fit it in the guitar) to to carve away bass or boost highs if need be.
Any of you have experience with the EMG bass pickups? How do they sound? I know you’ll likely have heard them in a bass, but I’m actually liking a lot of the clips I’m hearing with them.
HeHasTheJazzHands
Well-Known Member
I have heard the X-series pickups and they definitely do seem to be flatter than the other EMG bass pickups. Not as compressed as well. If anything that's why I like the original EMG bass pickups because I like how they have that "specific" sound and compression to them.
It's probably worth a shot TBH. I'm looking at the diagram for them and it looks like it should be within 8-string spacing.
It's probably worth a shot TBH. I'm looking at the diagram for them and it looks like it should be within 8-string spacing.
I've said it about others (Devin Townsend/Killswitch Engage guys) but they, and Metallica, recorded all their most recognizable stuff on the 81. I'm sure the Het set sounds good, but it's the same as if I want a Vai tone from a pickup I'd go for Evolution/Blaze rather than whatever he and DiMarzio have put out in the last 10 years.
lewis
Well-Known Member
To add to this, I don't think it's a coincidence that most guitar tones and productions these days are unmemorable, run of the mill, garbage.
Killswitch engage are a brilliant example. Gone from iconic, memorable, legendary sounding guitar tone and production, to the complete opposite.
And what's coincided with this down turn? More digital crap and more hifi sounding pickups (fishmans)
Edit: for all the nonsense about emgs sounding the same, all the bands that were using them in their heyday all sounded completely original and unique from each other.
Yet bands and fishmans now all sound the same.
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
I think the issue stems from producers being more “streamlined” in their approach, allowing presets in the DAW to handle the heavy lifting, rather than treating each band (and even song) as a separate entity. Back in the day, every other song might have a different tone or different production approach. Now it is all factory line manufacturing.
shredmechanic
SS.org Regular
KsE use an 85 in the bridge; not an 81.
Regardless, what I was saying was that all their iconic tones came from the stuff they used for 20 years.
HeHasTheJazzHands
Well-Known Member
I honestly can't think of any EMG user that got better tone when they swapped from the classic 81/85/60/etc pickups to either the X series, 57/66, Het set, etc, or moved onto Fishmans. 
Shit in the case of KsE, Trivium, and Hetfield, their tones got WORSE.
...Josh Middleton is an exception but the guy's a tone maniac.
Shit in the case of KsE, Trivium, and Hetfield, their tones got WORSE....Josh Middleton is an exception but the guy's a tone maniac.
Kyle Jordan
Ace of Knaves
I honestly can't think of any EMG user that got better tone when they swapped from the classic 81/85/60/etc pickups to either the X series, 57/66, Het set, etc, or moved onto Fishmans.
...Josh Middleton is an exception but the guy's a tone maniac.
Even kind of in Middleton’s case for me. I say his best recorded tone is from Conclusion Of An Age.
Wolf Hoffman’s tone on the last Accept album is still great and he jumped from EMG to Fishman. But that’s about the only case I can think of. And it was just a lateral move.
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
Wolf is a killer guitarist who is quite underrated.
Kyle Jordan
Ace of Knaves
^Big time. Love his writing, playing, and tone. His Framus Vs look killer too.
soul_lip_mike
Contributor
I went with 81/85 set in my ESP USA M7 hard tail and the 85 in the neck is way too bassy/boomy for my taste. I had put an 81/60 set in my other purple floyd USA M7 and I love the sound of the 60 in the neck there, so I ordered a 60 to replace the 85.
Zhysick
Well-Known Member
You could try the 85 in the bridge and the 81 in the neck.. that balances a lot better specially if it is a dark guitar. It will still sound thick and dark but at least balanced since the 81 hast more cut and the 85 more bass end
But yeah... anyway I'm looking for a 60 or 60A for the neck with the 85 in the bridge
Spaced Out Ace
Well-Known Member
I love the 85/60A setup as well as 58/58 setup. Both sound great. I also went back and forth with my EMG PS918 or whatever it is called, switching from 9 to 18v, and the difference when A/B’d like that is like night and day.
