EMG hatred

[Blytheryn]

Jeez, this thread is making me GAS for a EMG 81 and 60 loaded axe again...

 

[Jaxcharvel]

Jeez, this thread is making me GAS for a EMG 81 and 60 loaded axe again...

That's why I made it. Wasn't really gassing for em (at all) but ended up with an axe loaded with em and it made me realize what I lived about them to begin with.

 

[JohnIce]

David Gilmour's played emg back when he was still using the red strat and still made it sound dynamic. So emg can do more than metal. Granted he was using emg SA.

Yeah, the SA's are a different beast to the typical 81/85. However, Gilmour had this to say about them:

"Those effects pedals really tended to pick up interference, as did the dimmers on the lighting rigs. And with Pink Floyd we did have extensive lighting rigs, which buzzed horribly. But when I first heard of and got hold of those EMG pickups, they stopped that dead. They sounded great - a very full and rich tone - but they didn't sound quite as 'Stratty' in some ways.

"There's something in the thinness and particular range a Strat has that makes it a Strat. With EMG pickups you tend to lose that a little bit. But nowadays, of course, everything is much better shielded and the lighting rigs operate from a completely different generator. Things are set up far better. So these days I can go back to using the older Strats live and I've been using my black Strat again, as I did at Live 8."

 

[Spectivum]

The big benefit of EMG 81/85 is that you get a record ready metal tone with one of those, straight out of the box.
With passives, you can spend years going through the ones you random picked from hundreds of different options to find your sound but can never be sure it is the best because you haven't tried all.

 

[DslDwg]

Their just a tool in the toolbox.

As a guitarist that isn't gigging. I don't need back-ups of back-ups. So every guitar being pretty different is fine and frankly what I shoot for.

If I have a go to pick-up it's probably the S/D Distortion, but definitely love the 81/60 combo and also the Dual Mode 81TW and 89.

Frankly, this board is probably responsible for a huge part of the hate for EMG's. Lots of seven strings were coming with the 7-string soapbar which at the time made changing pick-ups difficult(gotta give EMG this, if doing this was an actual decision on their part and not just a simple design convenience, it was pure genius. At least initially you kept other pick-ups out of those guitars)

Then all of the sudden your weren't a "cool" six-string" player unless you had a set of BKP or some other boutique brand of passive pick-ups in your guitar.

Through all this EMG's didn't become ..... Are they great at everything, nope. But are they really good at some things, hell yes.

 

[Noisy Humbucker]

89XR in the bridge is pretty sweet, that's what I've got in the bridge of my single pickup RR24.

 

[Konfyouzd]

^Checking this out...

 

[TankJon666]

Their just a tool in the toolbox.

As a guitarist that isn't gigging. I don't need back-ups of back-ups. So every guitar being pretty different is fine and frankly what I shoot for.

If I have a go to pick-up it's probably the S/D Distortion, but definitely love the 81/60 combo and also the Dual Mode 81TW and 89.

Frankly, this board is probably responsible for a huge part of the hate for EMG's. Lots of seven strings were coming with the 7-string soapbar which at the time made changing pick-ups difficult(gotta give EMG this, if doing this was an actual decision on their part and not just a simple design convenience, it was pure genius. At least initially you kept other pick-ups out of those guitars)

Then all of the sudden your weren't a "cool" six-string" player unless you had a set of BKP or some other boutique brand of passive pick-ups in your guitar.

Through all this EMG's didn't become ..... Are they great at everything, nope. But are they really good at some things, hell yes.

^ 100% this ^

I've used EMG's for years - from when they were cool to when they became "teh sux". I'm getting a tele built with a set of white P81 and P85 pickups in too

 

[Science_Penguin]

Then all of the sudden your weren't a "cool" six-string" player unless you had a set of BKP or some other boutique brand of passive pick-ups in your guitar.

Frankly, I don't get "boutique" pickups like that. EMG's at least have specific, unique qualities for which people might seek them out, but I swear you can get any mid-rangey Dimarzio to sound like an Aftermath with some amp tweaks... Especially considering you're probably plugging into AxeFX or compressing to the moon and back anyway, so why spend the extra money? Just dial in the settings to make it work!

...I feel like I'd be a broken record on this if I didn't post so scarcely on this forum...

 

[lewis]

all the things that Actives how going for them, i.e compressed, noise free, hot etc etc. I now get out of my Lace Deathbar/Xbar set. They look cooler, sound better (imo), dont require batteries to run and are 100% noise free.

 

[wakjob]

I don't understand the "lack of dynamics" comment I see all the time.

I recently played a friends '83 custom shop BC Rich that had an EMG 81 in the bridge. I was running through the Crunch channel of his Mesa Mark V and getting some of the best vintage Fender Tweed tones ever! Rolling back the volume knob on the guitar cleaned up extremely well, as did hybrid finger-picking nuances.

And I'm a vintage Fender amp/guitar nut.

I'm assuming it was an old cream bottom EMG 81, as if that makes any difference.

When my Viper comes back from its re-fret, and I don't care for the Lace Deathbucker/Alumitone combo that's currently in it, it's getting the EMG 81/60 treatment.

 

[wakjob]

Another EMG 81 experience I had that floored me was when I had the amp you see in my avatar.
It's a JCM 800 2204S from '86.

I modded that amp to hell and back and couldn't get it to do what I wanted at the time.

My cousin stops by with his EMG 81 loaded Godin Redline 1. Plugged straight in, no pedals, no nothing.
Amp returned back to stock specs.

Absolutely stunning.

 

[Anant Naag]

^^ When I change my picking technique with my dimarzio it makes world of a difference in sound , when I do the same with emg's in the guitar, it sounds more or less even. The difference is there but not much. This is the lac k of dynamics that bothers me.

Im curious , why is the deathbucker/alumitone combo not working for you ? Im planning to get them into my baritone 6 sometime later.

 

[Jaxcharvel]

Im curious , why is the deathbucker/alumitone combo not working for you ? Im planning to get them into my baritone 6 sometime later.

I adore the Lace pups. Definitely give em a fair shot before you ditch em.

 

[Sumsar]

I think there is nothing wrong with active pickups, they certainly have some uses (see thrash metalz!) however I do hate EMG, here is why:

\begin{rant}

Yes they did the 85 and 81 in the 1980's and they are "great" (for some uses) and fun to play with.

Much later they then did the 81-7 and the 707 for 7 string guitars and they completely cocked up on that. Even though those pickups are supposed to be 7 string versions of the 85 and 81, there is almost no resemblance. They sound like garbage: flat and bassy and makes your guitar sound like the strings are 25 years old.

Now if that was the end of the of that story it would be okay, \emph{but} they took their cock up to a whole other level:
They decided that their ....ty 7 string pickups should come in a bass housing, such that you could not easyly replace their pieces of .... with proper pickups. Next they somehow convinced many of the large companies producing 7 string guitars that they should only use these ....ty EMGs for their guitars (Jackson, Schecter, ESP, and to a certain extend Ibanez). This meant that for a long period of time you could only get 7 strings with ....ty, hard to replace pickups.

This has now changed somewhat, such that Jackson and Schecter now offer a lot of models with passives as well, while ESP still more or less only have 7 strings with 707 or 81-7 pickups.
The uses market is still more or less only 7 strings with ....ty pickups.
So yeah \bold{F&CK EMG PICKUPS!}

\end{rant}

So with that out of the way: I have never tried any of Seymour Duncans 7 string actives or the Fishman sets. I have a vague feeling that they might be what I actually want from an active pickup in a seven string guitar, I just haven't gotten to try them yet

 

[Jaxcharvel]

I think there is nothing wrong with active pickups, they certainly have some uses (see thrash metalz!) however I do hate EMG, here is why:

\begin{rant}

Yes they did the 85 and 81 in the 1980's and they are "great" (for some uses) and fun to play with.

Much later they then did the 81-7 and the 707 for 7 string guitars and they completely cocked up on that. Even though those pickups are supposed to be 7 string versions of the 85 and 81, there is almost no resemblance. They sound like garbage: flat and bassy and makes your guitar sound like the strings are 25 years old.

Now if that was the end of the of that story it would be okay, \emph{but} they took their cock up to a whole other level:
They decided that their ....ty 7 string pickups should come in a bass housing, such that you could not easyly replace their pieces of .... with proper pickups. Next they somehow convinced many of the large companies producing 7 string guitars that they should only use these ....ty EMGs for their guitars (Jackson, Schecter, ESP, and to a certain extend Ibanez). This meant that for a long period of time you could only get 7 strings with ....ty, hard to replace pickups.

This has now changed somewhat, such that Jackson and Schecter now offer a lot of models with passives as well, while ESP still more or less only have 7 strings with 707 or 81-7 pickups.
The uses market is still more or less only 7 strings with ....ty pickups.
So yeah \bold{F&CK EMG PICKUPS!}

\end{rant}

So with that out of the way: I have never tried any of Seymour Duncans 7 string actives or the Fishman sets. I have a vague feeling that they might be what I actually want from an active pickup in a seven string guitar, I just haven't gotten to try them yet

I ordered my DC700 with the active Carvin pups (even worse if you can believe that) and I hated them. I got a set of Blackouts to replace them with, and while they were better than the stock Carvins, and better than any 7 string EMGs I've played, they still retain that sterile active character. IMO if you don't like EMGs you won't like Blackouts either.

 

[Steinmetzify]

I don't understand the "lack of dynamics" comment I see all the time.

Different perception....mostly for me it was because I used EMGs for a long ass time and got used to what they sounded like, and then changed to passives, and it was different. EMGs can do cleans and have some dynamics, just different from what passives do.

I prefer the dynamics from passives vs the dynamics from actives, given the gear I use, is all. People hear different things with different pieces of gear....if I was running EMGs into pedals into a vintage Fender I'd probably hear them differently as well. Clean amp with certain freqs boosted via pedals? Yeah, EMGs are going to sound different than a volume roll off in front of a 5153 with a Decimator and 10 band in the loop and an 808 in front. I don't know anyone that's been playing the last 25 years that'd call the Crunch channel of a Mark IV 'super high gain', not that you were saying it was...

I think what people are running INTO has a lot more to do with what they hear than the pickups they're using, but that's just IMO.

 

[Blytheryn]

Different perception....mostly for me it was because I used EMGs for a long ass time and got used to what they sounded like, and then changed to passives, and it was different. EMGs can do cleans and have some dynamics, just different from what passives do.

I prefer the dynamics from passives vs the dynamics from actives, given the gear I use, is all. People hear different things with different pieces of gear....if I was running EMGs into pedals into a vintage Fender I'd probably hear them differently as well. Clean amp with certain freqs boosted via pedals? Yeah, EMGs are going to sound different than a volume roll off in front of a 5153 with a Decimator and 10 band in the loop and an 808 in front. I don't know anyone that's been playing the last 25 years that'd call the Crunch channel of a Mark IV 'super high gain', not that you were saying it was...

I think what people are running INTO has a lot more to do with what they hear than the pickups they're using, but that's just IMO.

This is exactly what made me make the jump from EMGs. I simply got bored of the tone, having only one guitar at the time. I did like the tone, but it just felt really sterile. This was around 2 years ago when SD started putting out the Nazgûl, Black Winter etc... When I actually got passives installed in my guitar I heard nuances in my playing and little things I hadn't heard before, which just sounded so much more interesting for the stuff I was playing at the time.

I wouldn't mind having an EMG loaded axe now, because they do sound great, but I don't know if I would rather try the EMTY's instead. Still, EMG 81 and 60 = best thrash tone you will ever get.

 

[Andromalia]

Not getting the 707 hate, I recently bought a guitar with them and expected to have to change them since most of SSO is dissing on them and they sound fine.

 

[TankJon666]

Not getting the 707 hate, I recently bought a guitar with them and expected to have to change them since most of SSO is dissing on them and they sound fine.

Me neither!

Though my Ltd Viper 407 with 707's in sound WAY different to my Hagstrom Deuce with 81/85 in. Different body woods though. The Hagstrom has more upper midrange than the Ltd though which sounds naturally very scooped. My Gibby SG sits somewhere between the two with 81/85s in.

So to anyone that says that EMG's make every guitar sound the same as the next clearly hasn't spent much time with them!