What do EMG pickups do that others don't?

ampjunkie

ampjunkie

Member
I see alot of EMG equipped guitars, but they're always on the latest Schecter modern cookie monster favored guitars.

What's their shtick?? I know guys like Gilmour and Zakk Wylde use them, and also Lukather (3 pretty different guitarists).

So what are their strongsuits, weaknesses??
 
Well, one of my favourite 5things about them is that they do not react to monitors and electrical interference like passive pickups, which is important to me because I record at a lot of different places right in the control room, as well as hear at home.

To me, I'm just a big fan of their voicings... I hate the way most Seymour Duncan pickups sound (especially the JB) and the EMGs just sound "right" to me.
 
I agree with the above post ... they are dead quiet .
I've been playing EMG's since 90 or so ..

I just recentley put together a Franken strat for my son . Squier body and stock pups and all that ( he's only 8 ) But I put a real nice Warmoth neck on it ...

anyway I plugged that sucker in to my DSL last night ... and it sounded great .
my point though is ... I could hear some minor hum ( very minor ) but I was sitting 5 feet away from my monitor and a bunch of other electronics . I could hear little nuances in my picking attack ( that seemed to give my phrasing some more personality )
sounded more alive ...

so as with anything I guess switching over could have the bads and the goods ..

EMG's are just the balls for metal tones though .. IMO

sorry to mindlessy inject my little story .. I just thought it was funny that your looking to go to EMG's and I'm looking to go passive
 
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Marshall Freak":43f71 said:
Sound sterile and lifeless for anything other than extremely high gain. :thumbsdown:
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well that makes absolute sense ... cause that's what I have been thinking myself . The older I get the less aggressive tones I seek .

and no lie ... I thought my son's Squier sounded better than my EMG equipped strat !!! ( on the neck pup anyway ) I still love a EMG 81 for anything metallish

but I'm getting older ... and starting to discover older material ( and tones )
 
What they basically do is distort. Being active, they have a built in preamp which overloads and distorts a bit, shaving off the peaks and compressing the signal, much like many OD pedals. If you wire them up with another battery, it increases the headroom and they don't really do that, but then it doesn't seem like there's really anything special about them. Damned if you do, damned if you don't if you ask me hehe.
 
i like passives better playing on my own with cables, just seem to feel and sound better.


but when i have people over to jam and they play my EMG guitar, they seem to sound better on it than my passives.



i look at EMG's as good preditible live pups for loud music, they aren't as prone to feedback and seem to sound better with wireless than passives.
 
they sound like poop :hys:





j/k, Some people like them, I dont really although I have heard good tones out of them.
 
What do EMGs do that other pickups don't?



SUCK.



I too find they are not for me even though play fairly distorted metal. Also, I find everyone I know likes them but me. My bandmates were not thrilled when I yanked them out of my Les Paul. I, however, was very happy to ditch 'em.

Different strokes, I guess.
 
i had emg's in my L/P for a long time. and everything i plugged into sounded awsome. then i went throught a bunch of nice passives. when i went back to emg's everyhting was horrible sounding. now i have a 7-string (cookie monster as you put it) with emg 707's and it is one of the best sounding guitars i have owned. i also just bought a new jackson with them and it too sounds incredible.

i know ALOT of people use them for different shit. but i wouldnt use them for anything except heavy rock (godsmack, black label ect) or all kinds of metal. they have alot of life in the high gain stuff but short of that i too feel they are sterile.
 
i love them, although i do play metal. to me they give you a pushed, compressed feel. alot of people say they sound the same ,in everything, but its not true. they sound different, in every guitar i own. they actually didn't sound good, in my lespaul, so i found some dimarzio's it did like. the high output dimarzio's, had that pushed feel also, just not as much bite.
 
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SgtThump":fdb99 said:
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Hey man, you rock! Cool stuff! That Egnater amp build amp sounds crazy good! Are you affiliated with the "rockstar" show somehow or did you just get two of the contestants on stage to perform in some of your YouTube videos?
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The Amp Build Seminar is crazy good, Bruce is having another one May 19/20.
We did a few Rockstar shows in Canada as their houseband, but had no "official" affiliation with the Rockstar series. We played separate shows with Dilana/Magni and Storm, then a bigger show with Lukas, Jenny Galt, Matt Hofner, Phil Ritchie. It was a blast.

Mark
 
I used EMGs for over 15 years, then one of my back up guitars on tour had passives and I had to use for a few nights....and there it was....could it be?....TONE! Never went back.
 
I like how the 81 records...but that's it. It sounds really weak and thin to me in person. The 85 sounds thicker in person, but doesn't record as well...and doesn't sound that great overall. I also don't like their clean tones, unless it's from a single coil, and the lead tones are terrible IMO.
 
I think they are very shitty. I am not a fan for the most part. You lose all kinds of natural dynamics IMO. I prefer passives but I do have some actives in a couple guitars and they are fine for metal tones but I still prefer passives. I get more more actual guitar dynamics from using passives than I do actives. Just my .02
 
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Duolos":cdfb2 said:
I think they are very shitty. I am not a fan for the most part. You lose all kinds of natural dynamics IMO. I prefer passives but I do have some actives in a couple guitars and they are fine for metal tones but I still prefer passives. I get more more actual guitar dynamics from using passives than I do actives. Just my .02
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+1 Exactly how I feel.
 
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