Active pup players, quick question...

[ChadVanHalen]

So I'm getting one of two new guitars for the "dropped metal song" portion of our set so I figured I should give a guitar with active pups a try. The one I'm mostly likely to get has EMG 81/85s, the other has Duncan Blackouts. One of the songs this dedicated drop C# metulz song will play has a clean verse just arpeggiating power chords and I usually just do the "roll volume down and kick a chorus and delay on" method of clean tones... Will this work with EMG 81/85's or Duncan Blackouts through a Mesa DC-10? It's a pretty beefy amp and beefy pups so I'm worried it won't be all that great. Would a better pickup/combo be better to use?

And I'm not looking for like sparkly clean jazz tones, just cleaner while it's mellow in the verses, literally like a total of a minute or two of song time

 

[jc986]

In my experience the EMG's clean up a bit better than the Blackouts. The Blackouts seem to have more output.

For a better clean tone than the 81/85 is capable of, you might consider the EMG Het Set or the EMG 66/57 set.

 

[ChadVanHalen]

In my experience the EMG's clean up a bit better than the Blackouts. The Blackouts seem to have more output.

For a better clean tone than the 81/85 is capable of, you might consider the EMG Het Set or the EMG 66/57 set.

I think the guys from Priest use the 66/57 set... I'll have to check em out eventually

And ya I kinda got the sense the Blackouts sound insane, but definitely don't clean up well

 

[Brandon Breeze]

I have EMG 81/85, Blackout, EMTY Blackout, Live Wire Metal Blackout & Carvin M22 active pickups currently. I like them all, the blackouts are definitely more brutal than the EMG's, the Carvin active pickups are the most versatile of the bunch, still tons of output, but clean up extremely well, especially if you set them up with an active/passive switch.


Oddly enough I recently did a pickup and tuning Shootout video with all these pickups and more

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=167876

 

[neilli]

For what it's worth, I like the 85 in the bridge a lot more than the 81..

 

[Brandon Breeze]

For what it's worth, I like the 85 in the bridge a lot more than the 81..

I tried this since it likerally takes about a minute to swap them. I'm not a fan of the 85 in the bridge, it's not as clear, not as high output, for metal if you want that knife edge capable pickup I don't believe the 85 will cut it in the bridge. Just my opinion of course. Many players love it.

 

[jsp]

For what it's worth, I like the 85 in the bridge a lot more than the 81..

Depends on the guitar, but, the 85 is a horrible neck pickup.

 

[cardinal]

In my experience, EMGs clean up pretty well when rolling back the volume knob.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

In my experience, EMGs clean up pretty well when rolling back the volume knob.

This is true, I'll have to see how the blackouts do with this. I know the Live Wire Metal pickup has no clean ability at all, so do not get that one unless you want a very heavy setup for that guitar.

 

[Oblivion DC]

If you're going EMGs I'd recommend 81/60 and you should be fine with the volume rolloff for your clean sounds. If you're feeling adventurous you may want to try the 18volt mod, which uses two 9volt batteries in series. You'll find it cleans up really well and has better dynamics and headroom.
When I was running EMGs I liked being able to switch between reg 9 volt operation for crunch rhythms and then 18 volts for leads and cleans.

 

[Michi]

If you're going EMGs I'd recommend 81/60 and you should be fine with the volume rolloff for your clean sounds.

+1

I was thinking the same thing. I liked that combo in my Ltd's (EC-1000 & Viper) quite a bit. Aggressive enough yeah, and reacted well to volume knob roll off too.

 

[anomaly]

I like the tone of EMG's much more. Try an emg 81 and 60 (85) with the 18 volt mod. That simple mod helps them clean up better when rolling the volume down.

 

[anomaly]

If you're going EMGs I'd recommend 81/60 and you should be fine with the volume rolloff for your clean sounds.

+1

I was thinking the same thing. I liked that combo in my Ltd's (EC-1000 & Viper) quite a bit. Aggressive enough yeah, and reacted well to volume knob roll off too.

I think the 60 is by far the best EMG humbucker for cleans

 

[anomaly]

For what it's worth, I like the 85 in the bridge a lot more than the 81..

Depends on the guitar, but, the 85 is a horrible neck pickup.

Depends on the music style too. The 85 is great for smooth neck pickup lead tones, but definitely not as good as a 60 for cleans. It's just a bit too high output.