TheGreatGreen
Well-known member
I've been in the EMG camp for years, but I'd never tried an EMG 60 until recently. I put one in the neck of my Les Paul and loved it. Turns out it's pretty much everything I want out of a neck humbucker. Plenty of low end and balanced mids, good string definition on top, blah blah you know the deal. Great for both cleans and high gain neck tones.
I got curious about the 60 and started looking more into it, and EQ-wise it's got a treble response similar to an 81, which means it's got the extended highs of the 81, but without the filtered-out low end, so it's got the lows of the 85. But it doesn't have the pushed mids of the 81 and 85, which is interesting because those mids can sound honky if you're not careful, but they're also part of what gives those pickups their signature. This also means its has slightly less peak output. To me that makes it sound on paper more like a passive pickup than EMG's main line bridge humbuckers. So... with that kind of tonal profile, maybe it could sound good in the bridge, too?
I had a 60 laying around for another pickup swap I was planning on doing, but thinking about this stuff, I decided to try it out in the bridge of my Les Paul and made a few clips.
EMG 60 Bridge into Wizard HR
EMG 60 Bridge into Mark IV - probably overdid the gain but the clarity comes through it anyway which is cool
Bonus:
EMG 60 Bridge into Peavey 5150 - this is just me screwing around trying to get close to the VH Right Here Right Now live album tone, kinda washed out with verb and delay. Had fun dialing it in though.
To my ear, the 60 has very "slick" and clear kind of sound, great string definition. Plus, the more balanced mids makes it sound like it kind of bridges the gap between actives and passives.
I like it. I'm not sure it 100% suits the Les Paul, which to me should have maybe slightly less string definition and more mids / muscle, but I think it's kind of ideal for a lean super strat sound. I think this will be my go-to active bridge pickup for strat style guitars for a while. What do you think?
I got curious about the 60 and started looking more into it, and EQ-wise it's got a treble response similar to an 81, which means it's got the extended highs of the 81, but without the filtered-out low end, so it's got the lows of the 85. But it doesn't have the pushed mids of the 81 and 85, which is interesting because those mids can sound honky if you're not careful, but they're also part of what gives those pickups their signature. This also means its has slightly less peak output. To me that makes it sound on paper more like a passive pickup than EMG's main line bridge humbuckers. So... with that kind of tonal profile, maybe it could sound good in the bridge, too?
I had a 60 laying around for another pickup swap I was planning on doing, but thinking about this stuff, I decided to try it out in the bridge of my Les Paul and made a few clips.
EMG 60 Bridge into Wizard HR
EMG 60 Bridge into Mark IV - probably overdid the gain but the clarity comes through it anyway which is cool
Bonus:
EMG 60 Bridge into Peavey 5150 - this is just me screwing around trying to get close to the VH Right Here Right Now live album tone, kinda washed out with verb and delay. Had fun dialing it in though.
To my ear, the 60 has very "slick" and clear kind of sound, great string definition. Plus, the more balanced mids makes it sound like it kind of bridges the gap between actives and passives.
I like it. I'm not sure it 100% suits the Les Paul, which to me should have maybe slightly less string definition and more mids / muscle, but I think it's kind of ideal for a lean super strat sound. I think this will be my go-to active bridge pickup for strat style guitars for a while. What do you think?
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