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Posted by: Asphyxia Feeling Apr 29 2007, 11:09 PM

hi. i currently have an Ibanez RG2EX1 guitar that has passive "Designed by EMG" pickups. (basically means, low quality EMGs that have "EMG" on them to attract people).

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-RE2EX1-Electric-Guitar?sku=519783

i'm considering investing in a ESP (mainly because Ibanez has a poor selection of fixed bridge electrics):

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ESP-LTD-MH400NT-Electric-Guitar-?sku=516685

the pickups on this are active (81 and 85) what i'd like to know is, are active EMGs much different sounding then passive ones? because there is also a cheaper model of the same guitar which has EMG HZs

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ESP-LTD-MH250NT-Electric-Guitar?sku=516687

the only other difference between the two other then pickups appears to be the quality of the tuners, the 400NT has grovers.

Basically, is it worth it to pay an extra 200$ for active pickups? or should i shoot for the passives? i know, this a matter of what a person personally likes. i'm just asking your opinions. i hope to go to my local guitar store (sadly an hour and half drive, and that's if your lucky) ((it's near LA)) (((TRAFFIC))) to try the passive pickups to see if they are any better then my "DESIGNED BY EMGs". i've tried a guitar with actives. it was pretty cool.

Posted by: MickeM Apr 29 2007, 11:51 PM

I never tried the active EMG 81 & 85 but I've tried the passive Hr-Hz or whatever they're called. I didn't like the sound at all. And the 81/85 set is uninteresting since I avoid actives pu's at all times. And the reason is simple, I hate changing that damn battery.

Posted by: Mark Schiewe May 1 2007, 04:02 PM

EMG's are too muddy for my taste. If I were you I would consider getting rid of the EMG's all together and pick up some Dimarzios

Posted by: yell03 May 2 2007, 02:28 AM

If you get the EMGs get the active pick-ups.

I have the active 81/85s on my ESP LTD Viper-400 and the active 81/60s on my ESP LTD EC-400.

I love how the EC-400 plays and sounds, even better than the Viper, but I like the lower fret access of the Viper.

Howard

Posted by: Asphyxia Feeling May 2 2007, 01:48 PM

thanks for the feedback.

i actually would probably get a guitar with dimarzio's, but i can't seem to find a fixed bridge guitar with 24 frets loaded with those pups. my price range (or atleast how much i think i can save, haha) is 500-700 USD.

let me know if you guys have seen guitars like that in that price range?

Posted by: MickeM May 2 2007, 03:36 PM

What you could do is to get the Ibanez of your choice and put in the DiMarzios after.

Let's say you pay 320Euro for the RG321 with a fixed bridge. It's a H-H setup. So you'd get two pu's from DiMarzio, order from eBay or something, you'd pay less than 80 Euro a piece.

So 320 for the guitar and 160 for the pu's = 480 E or somewhere around $650 and you'll have the pu's of your choise.


Details on the pu's are that if the center-center measure between the E-strings down by the bridge is 53 mm or more you'd get an F-spaced pu for the bridge. And if the measure is 43 mm or more you get a F-spaced neck pu for the neck.
Just check these measures up before you order. One simple idea could be to just look at a guitar you like at Ibanez.com and get the same pu's for your guitar. It's all on the Ibanez FAQ.

Then it's just a matter of soldering.

If you get an other guitar besides Ibanez make sure the pots are at 500k Ohm for Humbuckers.

Right now I'm working on an old Charvel, am going to mill holes that fit a singlecoil up to DiMarzio humbucker pu size and put a Super Distortion in the bridge position and a Breed pu in the neck position. There's actually a Singlecoil pu also in the middle but I will just leave that hole empty. Also have to get those 500kOhm pots since the ones in it were too small.

If this works out well I might upgrade my Ibanez FM320 with Evolution pu's

Posted by: Mark Schiewe May 2 2007, 04:04 PM

Or you could just go to your local music shop and I'm sure they will install them for around 20 bucks a piece if you don't want to do all that work. Oh and just for the record, I would go with the Dimarzio tonezone in the bridge and a Evo in the bridge if you got the dough.

Posted by: MickeM May 2 2007, 04:54 PM

Bridge pu's are nice and all but you can't put em all there

Cool Jem, I like the coloring.

Posted by: Mark Schiewe May 3 2007, 05:11 AM

HAHAHA, whoops. I meant a tonezone in the NECK

Posted by: Asphyxia Feeling May 3 2007, 07:18 AM

wow. thank you very much for the advice! i think i may actually do that!

i'm a novice on guitar tech stuff (trying to master PROPERLY setting action / inotation right now, so i won't need to pay an outrageous fee at a shop) but there are plenty of ways to learn how to solder, and if that doesn't work i'll just pay them to upgrade for me.

update:

just look at some dimarzio pickups online. i'm liking the EVO 2 for a bridge and a Tonezone for the neck!

Posted by: moles May 3 2007, 09:04 AM

btw
EMG's battery life is something like 3000 hours plugged in.

so if you have EMG's just pull out the lead of your guitar and it will last an age


If you want to play heavy stuff i recommend the emgs (81/85)
But if you want to play a more diverse range of things, i recommend the dimarzios as above

I myself have the ec-500. im a bit of a metal head great guitar =]

Posted by: MickeM May 3 2007, 12:06 PM

Cool! I checked it up and that's a fact. So for a set with EMG 81 and EMG 85 a 9V battery life is approx 1500 hours.

I used to have active pu's in an old guitar and the battey life was a lot shorter than that. I mean, with 1500 hours if you forget to unplug the cord it will run out in 60 days. My guitar ran out in just a few days, less than a week.

So never the less changing batteries is a pain in the @$$ but 1500 I could live with

Posted by: J.E.M May 8 2007, 04:11 AM

This is a very good page with many tips on adjusting and stuff.
http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/default.htm

Posted by: steiner666 Mar 20 2008, 09:45 PM

I've had experience with Seymour Duncan and EMG pickups. As you can tell by my sig, my ESP has that same set and I personally love it. I might have a completely different opinion if I didn't primarily play death metal, but they suite my style perfectly.

At the time, I was trying to decide whether to get a new guitar or a new amp to help improve my tone (primarily sustain). I eventually decided to invest in a new guitar and the difference between the passive SDs and active EMGs was huge IMO. Pinch harmonics are almost effortless and, with the selector on the 81 pickup in the bridge, my soloing is much more pronounced. Also, and I don't know if it was just a wiring issue with my Duncans, but the EMGs actually give off less buzz even though they're higher output (dont ask me how).

Basically, i think EMGs are the best for extreme metal.

Posted by: Toni Suominen Mar 20 2008, 10:03 PM

I had EMG 60 and 81 pickups in one of my guitars once, and although I don't like them much now, I still think that the active EMG's are a lot better than the passives. The EMG HZ's just sound quite cheap.

+1 for the Dimarzio's also

Posted by: kevin-riff-after-riff Mar 21 2008, 12:00 AM

get a dimarzio d activator... way more soul and life than emgs

Posted by: ZakkWylde Mar 21 2008, 12:08 AM

Go for the active versions, it is worth the money.

Posted by: audiopaal Mar 21 2008, 12:19 AM

EMG 81 & 85 is awesome!

MickeM is just Lazy

Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Mar 21 2008, 12:08 PM

MickeM gave you a great idea. IF you want a guitar with custom HH pickups it is better to take a good playing 400$ guitar and put in there two H pickups of your choice. It all depends on what you are playing but generally didn't heard much good thing about active EMG's on the clean channel. I think Dimarzio or SD pickups are very versatile and you can't go wrong if you follow some general guidelines in what pickups you take. They are all very good for the price.

Posted by: Goliath Mar 21 2008, 01:52 PM

if you get a cheaper one with the HZ's you can install whatever EMG pickups you want really easily since they have a wiring harness that just plugs in, no soldering necessary So if the price is more than less the cost of the pickups you want, then that might be an option, but they probably use better wood in the more expensive series.

Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Mar 22 2008, 01:05 PM

Also if you're planning to use active EMG's afterall you can buy (relatively) cheap guitar for starters. They behave very similar regardless the quality of the wood.

Posted by: Danilo Capezzuto Mar 22 2008, 01:45 PM

+1

Posted by: RIP Dime Mar 22 2008, 02:04 PM

Wow, this thread got a huge bump!
Even though I doubt the original poster is still active I'll say what I think about EMGs. I've had a EMG 81-85 set, and a 81-60 set, and I must say that the 81 is a killer pickup for high gain metal, it has a very tight responsive bass, and is extremely articulate, the 85 and 60 are like lower output models, they handle high gain well, and can get a nice crunch sound, the cleans are pretty lifeless though. In general EMGs are always quiet pickups, you don't really get lots of buzz from them, they are all clear and articulate, but they are also cold and sterile sounding, not very much dynamics and warmth to them, they also lack in versatility (the ones I've played, I've heard the single coil EMGs are quite good), they are great for high gain and that's about it. They also tend to sound the same in every guitar they are in, hell, I bet you could put 2 81s in a hollowbody and it would sound metal!

Personally I like Dimarzio, I love the Super Distortions, they are affordable and they sound great through tube amps, they have a powerful midrange I don't find in Seyour Duncan's pickups, they drive tube amps hard and give you and add tons of crunch to your sound that pickups with scooped mids don't do. The dynamics are very strong, you can turn down the volume knob on your guitar with cranked gain on your amp, and get a nice crunch sound. The cleans are also awesome, and fat in the mids, even though they are called Super Distortions the neck pickup is crystal clean, and gives you lots of dynamics for you to add feeling to your tone. The bridge has a kind of IN YOUR FACE loud clean, with a slight dirty sound, it's bright and responsive, I love the slightly dirty, loud clean I get from the bridge, great pickups.

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Mar 22 2008, 09:17 PM

If you want to get EMG'S then definitely get the active ones and forget about those passive models, they can't compete at all with the actives. I have the 81/85 set in some of my guitars and I think it is awesome. The 81 is my fave pickup, in my opinion the best pickup for metal or high gain stuff, and the 85 is perfect for the neck position.

Posted by: Tjchep Mar 22 2008, 09:20 PM

+1

Next year I'm getting a nice playing squire and putting some EMG's in it .

Sure it wont sound much different than a 900$ guitar with EMG's in it.. wont play quite as nice though.

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Mar 24 2008, 08:34 PM

Hehe, a friend of mine once said that you can put an EMG into a table and the table will sound good like that