I never really AB'ed pickups to see just how ridiculously hot EMGs are

[psychodave]

I didn’t read the thread but my takeaway with emg’s is that they are not necessarily hotter than regular pups just different. Compression can be a factor. To have them at their best you really need the emg 25k pots imo. Most people just wire them on to their existing pots. Also the 24 v mod changed the game for me with emg’s. Totally opens them up and the articulation is next level. Turned me from a emg blah person into a fuck yeah emg’s rock guy. And my 85 seems to have a lot more output than my 81….

The vintage EMG’s don’t need the 24v mod. In fact, they sound mushy and terrible at 18 or 24 volts. At 9volts they are already open sounding.

 

[JackBootedThug]

The vintage EMG’s don’t need the 24v mod. In fact, they sound mushy and terrible at 18 or 24 volts. At 9volts they are already open sounding.

I disagree my nacka… I have an old set that I bought off spiderwars…. Ordered the 24v mod off eBay and it was day and night between the two. Well not day and night but there’s a definite difference. I have now become an emg fan because of it. Before I thought emg’s were just mediocre…okay but I didn’t get the hype. Now I would be fine with emg’s in every one of my guitars. It made that much difference with my Sykes.

 

[shadow]

The only guitar I've had up here with me for months has been my Chubtone, with an 85 in the bridge and 2 SAs, and anything besides position 1 or 2, the output is far weaker. Anywho, I've gotten used to playing it, and how easy it is to make any note sound out on this hotrodded Marshall patch on my practice amp. Harmonics, pinch harmonics, etc just jump out effortlessly.

Yesterday, I brought the rest of my guitars up here with me and played the Epiphone Les Paul first and was like wow these pickups are fairly weak. But, they're Epiphone pickups. Then I plugged in one of my Warriors with a JB/59 combo and it's really not much hotter than the Epiphone. This morning, I hooked up my other Warrior with dual X2N pickups and it's a wee bit hotter, but still no where near as much as the Chubtone. I'm having to relearn how to play to hit each note harder to make them sound out as much as others and having to work a lot more to make stuff sound right. EMG humbuckers are apparently like the Konami cheat code, but for guitar.

85 = hot as shit, but muddy
81 = slightly less hot as Duncan dist, nowhere near hot as 85
57 = not sure, probably like 85, but not muddy
all in bridge pos

 

[Kagami]

My fixed cable and modular 81s all sound the same so I just use the modular ones in case I feel like swapping them out, the S/SA are a lot lower output than the humbucker models though which is kind of annoying.

 

[Tone Monster]

Love 81s with the 18V mod

 

[Beyond Black]

Hah yep that would be polarizing. I don't agree! Here's my "in defense of people saying EMGs are lifeless and sterile" clip I post from time to time. I think it also works as an answer for people who say "5150's have LITERALLY UNCONTROLLABLE amounts of gain all the time!"



EMG 89 in the neck position, first in single coil mode (basically equivalent to an SA) then in humbucking mode (equivalent to an 85), then I swapped to an 81 in the bridge. Guitar volume is on 10 the whole time. Amp is an EVH 5150 III 100w EL34 on the Blue channel. Amp is stock. Amp gain is set maybe around 0.6 or 0.7 out of 10.

Great hands and playing, TGG. It would sound even better with a nice juicy humbucker.

 

[Eazy-ESP]

They are the ENGL of pickups.

I used to hate active pickups. But I’ve become addicted to my Fishmans to be honest. That said, I am under no illusion that rolling back my volume knob is giving me a nice PAF tone or anything.

 

[Dave L]

When setting them up roughly the same as passive pickups they´re not excessively hot and pretty easy to work with. I think EMG really shot themselves in the foot by insisting that you should have them almost touching the strings for all those years, if you ask them today they tell you to start with a more or less standard 3mm measurement and tweak from there.

I´m more of a rock guy, though, so for me the fatter 85 was always number one with the 81 being more at home as a neck humbucker.