I think I now know what EMGs are for. Again.

[DrewJD82]

Speaking of faint praise; the idea really was to get enough volume going that I could pivot the $300~ replacement pickup set money moved back over to another cabinet funding pile. I'm going to keep playing loud enough to make that dream happen

Is this to get your wife to ask you to buy a smaller cab??

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Spoiler

Drop B is DEATH. It took me a bit of acclimation to dig them compared to my DActivators. I am keeping my baby, though Brutal AF \m/

I don't like the loop of my MkV though with them. Or it doesn't like the Boss buffer? Engaging the loop is a fairly big tonesuck buzzkill. I don't notice it with the DiMarzios?

I am coming back around to EMGs though. MUCH better with some volume

 

[laxu]

I love that our bass guitar has a switch and works without battery as well. Sounds OK in passive mode to me. Guess that’s harder to achieve with passives on electrics since there are more differences in the pickups and the bass mainly is ”active” because of the preamp.

I always run my Strandberg in ”passive” mode with or without a boost. Really don’t like the standard voicing of Fluence Moderns in that guitar.

Yeah I'd honestly prefer if guitars actually had bass style preamps. Having an EQ on your guitar is way more useful than passive tone controls, but guitarists are just not accepting anything in their guitars...and then run through a whole lineup of solid-state pedals.

 

[metropolis_4]

EMG single coils >>>> EMG humbuckers

I love the T, SA, SAX, SAVX sets. I’ve never been a fan of the humbuckers though.

A Strat with 3 SAX pickups, an SPC on the bridge, and an EXG might be the most versatile pickup set there is

 

[Steinmetzify]

Dude I love me an 81.

I put it in my #1, for reasons. It’s not super articulate, it’s not a variable for volume changes but it’s consistent.

It’s a gain level I love and it’s really easy to work with. It’s not picky, it sounds mostly alike thru all amps/cabs, and it’s just super easy to play.

Can’t stand most of the Fishmans, and the older DiMarzios/Duncans I have while awesome, require much different settings to achieve the same results.

I’m not going to take those pickups out of those guitars as that’s part of the reason I bought them, but the 81 is in my main guitar for all those reasons.

They just make playing easier and more productive for me in the end.

 

[Guitarwiz007]

Love the Lukather set I put in my Warmoth build. Sound great both clean and dirty, through my Kemper or my Fractal units. Not awesome for everything but I can cover a lot of ground with them.

 

[0XI0]

EMGs have entire different dimensions of tone and feel with each 0.002 inch hight adjustment

 

[Tenebris]

Yeah I'd honestly prefer if guitars actually had bass style preamps. Having an EQ on your guitar is way more useful than passive tone controls, but guitarists are just not accepting anything in their guitars...and then run through a whole lineup of solid-state pedals.

I've always thought this but then when I *have* a guitar with an onboard EQ or an active tone stack (Yamaha Image Custom, Ibanez Musician MC500) it's not granular enough for me or it's overkill or something. It's trying to solve the same problem as EMGs are but in a more complicated way (note, same era), and I'm just not sure the guitar is the right place for a multiband EQ interface.

Edit: if I'm not mistaken the reasoning behind active multiband EQs on pro-tier basses was originally because in theory bass players were more likely to just show up at the gig with their instrument and have to adapt to whatever the backline is, and/or be playing in a jazz context with instruments that can't easily be EQd on the fly so it's up to the bass player to get out of the way.

 

[Tenebris]

Dude I love me an 81.

I put it in my #1, for reasons. It’s not super articulate, it’s not a variable for volume changes but it’s consistent.

It’s a gain level I love and it’s really easy to work with. It’s not picky, it sounds mostly alike thru all amps/cabs, and it’s just super easy to play.

Can’t stand most of the Fishmans, and the older DiMarzios/Duncans I have while awesome, require much different settings to achieve the same results.

I’m not going to take those pickups out of those guitars as that’s part of the reason I bought them, but the 81 is in my main guitar for all those reasons.

They just make playing easier and more productive for me in the end.

This. EMG 81/85s are to high gain pickups as V30s are to speakers. There are more nuanced and maybe situationally "better" choices but you'll never go wrong picking them as a default and you'll always get something you can work with.

 

[laxu]

I've always thought this but then when I *have* a guitar with an onboard EQ or an active tone stack (Yamaha Image Custom, Ibanez Musician MC500) it's not granular enough for me or it's overkill or something. It's trying to solve the same problem as EMGs are but in a more complicated way (note, same era), and I'm just not sure the guitar is the right place for a multiband EQ interface.

I honestly have little experience with built-in guitar preamps so maybe I like it more as an idea. I kinda want to put a concentric treble/bass boost/cut circuit in my Skervesen Shoggie 8 but would have to first figure out what is good.

Edit: if I'm not mistaken the reasoning behind active multiband EQs on pro-tier basses was originally because in theory bass players were more likely to just show up at the gig with their instrument and have to adapt to whatever the backline is, and/or be playing in a jazz context with instruments that can't easily be EQd on the fly so it's up to the bass player to get out of the way.

Whatever it is, on bass I find it a useful way to shape your sound on the fly.

 

[Piing]

In a band situation; they'll be fine

That's what she said... about the POD XT Live

 

[EOengineer]

Having been a very Hetfield inspired teenage guitar player, I slapped an 81 in a beat up old LP Studio the first chance I got and that was my main guitar for years, played through an old Dual Rectifier.

There were things I really liked. My guitar was nearly silent all the time, even with crushing gain. Tone suck was no longer an issue regardless of cable length. Palm mutes were brutally surgically tight. It’s almost like they recover from dynamic changes more quickly.

Unfortunately, they also seemed to make everything I plugged that guitar into a flame thrower. That become more undesirable as I outgrew Het and expanded into other genres.

I would not kick an EMG60/81 loaded Gibson or ESP out of bed, that’s for sure. Pumped that guitar is working out.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

I had a Les Paul with an 85 in the bridge and 81 in the neck. This was early 90s. That guitar slayed. It was so easy to get a good sound. I tried the same set a few years ago in an Ibanez RG and thought they sounded different. Couldn’t stand them. I think they changed something about them.

 

[Piing]

I had a Les Paul with an 85 in the bridge and 81 in the neck. This was early 90s. That guitar slayed. It was so easy to get a good sound. I tried the same set a few years ago in an Ibanez RG and thought they sounded different. Couldn’t stand them. I think they changed something about them.

Besides the appreciation for more refined sounds that sometimes is developed with maturity, could the differences between the Les Paul and the Ibanez RG have played some role in that change?