EMGs? Love em or hate em? Discuss

[isida.d]

Hi folks,

since we all post on a forum where alot of people seem to like dimarzio, or have a preference of them over other brands (thats the sorta vibe i've gotten in my time here) i would like to hear peoples oppinons on these pickups and to give thier reasons why they like or dislike them.

I'm partially asking this for research purposes based on peoples oppinons.

Thanks in advance.

Daniel

[SpikeSocietySucks]

The Emg's I have experience of are the 85 and the 81. Here's my quick thoughts on them.

All the EMG's have a habbit of ignoring the guitars wood tones, and replacing it with thier own sound colour. Therefore if you want to hear the sound of the wood realy shinning through, these pickups arn't for you.

Distorted, the above pickups have a usuable lead tone, and a lot of cut, You don't realy get round sounds out of the the box, but fiddling with the volume and tone can dull some of the harsh and shrill top end.

THe 81 as a bridge pickup is very Chuggah-Chugg-Chugg, Is well defined for heavy riffing, palm muting, and cuts through a lot in the mix. It's cleans are shrill, and if picking individual notes, imo not nice to the ear.

In the neck, It provides an unmuddy soloing tone, a useable clean, and again, provides a lot of cut.

THe 85 as a bridge pickup has more lower mids and less top that the 85. it appears to sound lounder than it is, and has a more rounded solo voice. Clean it performs slightly better than the 81, but still sterile, and in the neck it has a rounder solo voice, that at a long stretch is comperable to an air norton. The neck has nice clean sounds, and can get quite jazzy with some creative use of volume and tone.


Where these pickups really shine is in the studio, when you have lots of time to get your sound just right, live when your playing metal, and when you're a session musician and you don't want to colour someones track with your own tone.


The problem with EMGS, are that they're a one trick pony, and you pretty much dig em or you don't.

With other brands such as dimarzio and Seymour duncan, you have much more variety of choice, and can usualy find a hybridised combination of your favourite pickups quite easily. As well, they blend with your guitar rather than taking it over, and are usualy better priced.

I hope this was off help.

Spikey!x

[the.godfather]

I love them, but only at certain times. They have their specific uses thats for sure, e.g. High Gain situations. Anything clean they usually sound pants. But anything metal or anything with high gain they are awesome! I am still a DiMarzio lover, in terms of all-round flexability and usage you cant beat the range they carry.

[isida.d]

I tend to make out alot that i want to play lots of genre shattering and broad stuff but whenever i pick up my RG570 it comes down to the same thing everytime, Thrash metal, distortion, the cheesy high i feel at the distortion coming out :P

I made this thread because i wanted to hear whateveryone who had used them that wanted to share had to say, because i know alot of passive fans who will pay out emg's and boycott them like there is no tomorrow and make out that thier crap for everything. Yet i see good players and artists making good music with them all the time regardless of the metallica/bedroom shredder cliche. So i think "they cant be really that bad... surely they are exagerating"

Some people also dont know how to show the difference between thier oppion and fact. Unfortunatly when it comes to music and tone there is no Right oppinon.

[jaxadam]

I love EMG's. I think they can really sound great for a lot of different things.

[isida.d]

one extra question i would like to add to the pot.

Which EMG is most suitable for the bridge position of a rg 570

[the.godfather]

Originally Posted by isida.d

one extra question i would like to add to the pot.

Which EMG is most suitable for the bridge position of a rg 570

The EMG81 is the most obvious. But the EMG85 sounds pretty good too apparently. I'd stick with the 81 though myself, its an industry standard almost isnt it! For metal anyway.

[isida.d]

Yeah thats pretty much all i play too, i dont mean to sound like a unversatile guitarist but i guess you gotta play what you enjoy....

I actually already have an 81, i've just heard that alot of people have been shoving 85's in the bridge is all and wanted to know what people would say as suggestions.

On top of like thier oppinons on the pickups themselves etc.

[jaxadam]

I personally like the 81 in the bridge.

[jim777]

I have an SA/SA/81 setup in my Jackson Soloist, and I'm very happy with that combo. The SAs sound like good singles, and the 81 is an 81. The sustain and silence of an EMG setup is fantastic. I don't need more than 1 guitar loaded with EMGs, but it's definitely a guitar I'm keeping. The 81 is a great pickups for soloing on in a hard rock context. And as I said, they are beyond quiet, far quieter than almost everything else.

[Jemwielder]

I'm not big on EMGs. They tend to be somewhat lacking personallity. I personally prefer passive pickups. You always get the sound of your guitar and how can you argue with the whole no battery thing? I have however tried seymour duncans Live wire pickups and I was supremely impressed. It almost has closer characteristics to passive pickups with active preamp.

[jaxadam]

I have heard great things about the live wires.

[Roadstar]

dont hate or love em
i think they have thier place but the passives are much more complex in the tone and dynamics to me

[red5]

One word comes to mind here... noob!

Overcompressed, bury all character, plus sound like **** all at the same time. What more could one ask for?

Maybe they play metal good if you use it with an ultra low gain amp like a Fender, or some solid state piece of ****.... but honestly I don't see how one can use EMGs even for metal... 81s lack the balls needed for metal and have a ****load of high mids... the same high mids that give people headaches, and 85s are all messy lows suitable for korn or some crap.

[isida.d]

honestly man, why is it that your the only one being abrasive about thier oppinon here, everyone else here is saying thier oppinon without claiming to be right, when it comes down to oppinon nobody is right. People are only true to thier own oppinons, Thats the only truth at all.