Emg Pups (active Vs Passive), For those that have alot of experience with EMGs Options

[Ivan Milenkovic]

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.

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[Danilo Capezzuto]

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

+1

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[RIP Dime]

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.

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[Marcus Siepen]

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.

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[Tjchep]

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.

+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.

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This post has been edited by Tjchep: Mar 22 2008, 09:21 PM

[Marcus Siepen]

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.

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

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