EMG Pickups Better Suited To Mahogany Body?

Charvel1975 said:
You know what you brought up a good point about how close the 81 is to the strings 👍 I'll have to check the charvel and do I just adjust it as close as possible to the strings? I'll also get a new 9 volt battery too.
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IS a good point, do as you see fit. It’s definitely a need to have it closer that you would a passive; adjust bass/treble sides as you need to.

Don’t give up on that pickup man, at the right height and amp settings it does something that no other pickup can.

Speaking of that, don’t be afraid to adjust your amp settings to work with it either, it’s a different game compared to passive pickups.
 
Charvel1975 said:
You know what you brought up a good point about how close the 81 is to the strings 👍 I'll have to check the charvel and do I just adjust it as close as possible to the strings? I'll also get a new 9 volt battery too.
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Yeah, I personally like it extremely close to the strings.

I was just setting up an ESP Eclipse and actually had to remove the bridge 81 to cut a few coils off of the springs between the pickup legs and the pickup ring. Otherwise, the spring couldn't compress enough to let the 81 close enough to the strings.

Guitar went from sounding meh to sounding beastly IMHO.
 
Monkey Man said:
My take on the '89, '85 and '81:

'81
Works great on fat / warm-sounding woods such as mahogany 'cause it's the brightest and "thinnest", but not in a bad way. Rock 'n' roll all the way baby.

'85
The middle ground. Warmer than the 81, which is why IMHO it makes sense for @glpg80 to have placed it in the bridge slot and the '81 the neck.

'89
Warmest / jazziest of the 3. Do not put this in a mahogany SuperStrat if you intend to layer heavy-rhythm parts; it'll become mush.

To sum up:
They become fatter-and-duller as you move up the numbers from '81 to '89. I learned the hard way by ordering a custom guitar back in the '90s, which took 7 years to complete, with a mahogany body and '89s in HSH config. '81s would've been sensational, I learned much later when the builder, after having bought it back from me for 20% of the original cost, swapped the '89s out for '81s. You can imagine how I felt when I heard it. :doh:
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Great post and helpful! TY! Ive only ever done single coil emgs.

Does the 60 emg follow suit with the above as well? I see the jim root guitars have 60s in the necks
 
Hey, glad someone appreciated it mate!

This was based on my experience in the '90s and the only caveat I'd add to it is that you can ameliorate the "mushy" (especially if layering distorted parts) effect of the '89s in mahogany to some extent is by shaving the body down to be much-thinner.

It'll make leads sing more / poke out the mix better, but the harmonic content will likely still cause a buildup of mud if layering distorted rhythm parts.
 
Thank you all so much for the information! My other guitarist has a Ibanez RG6PKAG-NTF and the EMG pickups sound great on that guitar. That guitar has a Koa top on an African Mahogany body bolted to an eleven piece maple, walnut, bubinga neck with Rosewood fingerboard with 81 at the bridge and SA single coils in the middle and neck whereas my Charvel has neck-through construction with a maple neck and poplar body.
 
EMG 81's work great in a mahogany body & maple neck guitar in my opinion.

85 can sound great in the bridge of one as well, if you're going for that huge & full sound.
 
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