Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

[JOLLY]

Over the years I've pretty much played with nothing but Duncans in my guitars. I love the tones of tons of bands that use an EMG 81/85 set, but I've never really played through any.

I've got sh!t tons of guitars, and I played nothing but Gibson Les Pauls, and/or Gibsons for years and years. However, about 8 years ago I kind of converted over to Charvels. My #1 guitar that I have been playing since then is a Charvel Telecaster shaped (style 2) guitar with a set of Duncan Blackouts in it.

I absolutely love that guitar!! I love the way it plays, and especially sounds. It sounds great through every single amp that I own, as well as through every modeling amp that I own. For those of you that don't know me, I kind of have a massive wall of amps/stacks in my kitchen. I'm not bragging, I'm just letting you know what I got, so I know what tube amps sound like.

Anyways, as much as I love my Charvel/Charvels after all these years, I feel it's time for a change. I'm just like that. So......I've converted to something that is kind of a combination of the two.

I am going to convert/converting over into an ESP LTD EC player. See, I pretty much have a guitar at arms length no matter where I am in the house. I still have all my Gibson Les Pauls and all, but it's just kind of hard to leave $2500 guitars just laying all around your house all of the time. I wouldn't mind them getting beat up if I was on tour, but I'm not.

Anyways, long story short. I just bought a LTD EC-1000T CTM model the other day. I sat here and played it for like two hours last night through my Fractal AX8. I liked it, but man.....that 81 sure did seem awful bright to me after playing the Blackouts for all these years.

I would think that the 81 would have been much darker through that all mahogany guitar with a mahogany neck, but it wasn't. My Charvel is a maple necked Alder bodied with a Floyd Rose, and it sounds much darker. It doesn't sound fuller per se, but it doesn't sound not as bright.

So. after writing all that sh!t which I guess I could have condensed to one paragraph......lol..........is the 81 brighter, and not quite as full?

Oh yeah, if you care. This is the guitar I got. The Blackouts I have to put in it are gold. I'll probably do that tommorrow.

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Oh yeah, I really did like the 85 for lead tones.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

You know, I am generally not a fan of actives. That said - I REALLY love my Duncan Blackout. Just a great all around pickup, and enough power to light a small city.

And - I get EMG's in my old age. I suppose if I were going total thrash, I might go for them. My only experiences have left me "meh" on them though. But like I said, just me. I certainly dig the sounds of more than enough bands who use them. No better advert in the world for EMG set than this IMO:

But If I ever get all active motivated I'm getting more Blackouts

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Well, Aceman. You are the man that turned me on to the Blackouts. I've been sold ever since. I pretty much went for a Jazz/Jazz set to Blackouts....lol

 

[Aceman]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Priest sounds freaking amazing in that vid though. They are all EMG loaded...so EMG can't be bad!

 

[dave74]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

This isn't the best analogy, but IMO blackouts sound and feel like a big wide linear clean-boost has been added to a passive, and the standard EMGs are more like a tubescreamer is used for the boost due to the compression and enhanced upper-midrange push.

 

[PDC]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

I played EMGs for decades. Absolutely capable of great tones / sounds - but where and how you set your amps and FX will be very different than the settings you would use with your various passive pickups. A couple years ago I tried the EMG 57 and was SO impressed that over the course of 6 weeks had swapped a 57 in every guitar I owned. Great, hot signal, but much less ‘compressed’ than the 81/85 offerings. Lightly muted passages had that great articulation and you could hear all the notes in more complex chord voicing. The two things that moved me back to passives were all the squealing through the front end of the amp at stage volume levels and the fact that the 57 - while much better than the 81/85 - just didn’t clean up nicely with the volume knob. Since switching back to passives, I have ditched my Decimator (which used to hide behind my amps) with none of that annoying squealing that I had with the EMGs. I have a TC Spark Mini on my board cracked open only about 25% for leads and I get all that full signal ‘feel’ that I had with the EMGs, but click the Spark off and the volume knob becomes the clean channel. But FWIW, if you like active pickups in general and EMGs in particular, you owe it to yourself to give the 57 a try. It is a great pickup in its own right.

 

[DonP]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

I have only EMG's no Blackouts, and IMO they go best with a Mesa or similar slightly muddy front end. I don't like them as much through my Marshalls. I tend to prefer passives over actives as well, but I do love the tones Metallica and priest get.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Try a guitar with an 81/81 set, and be sure to crank the pickups way closer to the strings than normal.

 

[dave74]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Well, Aceman. You are the man that turned me on to the Blackouts. I've been sold ever since. I pretty much went for a Jazz/Jazz set to Blackouts....lol

Now that's a big jump!

 

[Aliascent]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

I'm not surprised. The 81 has less bass, more mids and to my ears more treble than the blackout does. So yeah, it won't sound as full/dark/thick as the blackout, and this is also why I prefer the 85 in the bridge, 81 in the neck

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

81 is a crisp sounding, upper-mids focused pickup with a tight bottom end and a characteristic high end attack.

The Blackouts bridge model is voiced fuller, thicker and warmer with a hotter signal at the amp despite its more passive feel. It takes the edge in versatility compared to the 81, but doesn't beat out the 81 for certain styles.

An 85 in place of the 81 at the bridge will add a nice amount of body back into the sound compared to the 81, but I personally enjoy the 81's ability to cut a little more. I also recommend running the 81 and/or 85 at 18V to give them a little more breathing room.

The EMG 57/66 set adds a dose of warmth and headroom. The JH (James Hetfield) set, however, wins hands down for delivering that classic 81/60 tone with more body and a better feel.

For overall versatility, the Blackouts win, but for cut and drive with clarity in a mix, most of the EMGs are still tough to beat. Then there's Fluence...

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Well, Aceman. You are the man that turned me on to the Blackouts. I've been sold ever since. I pretty much went for a Jazz/Jazz set to Blackouts....lol

I remember you were all about the Jazz bridge in the early 2000s. What happened? :yourock:

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

I remember you were all about the Jazz bridge in the early 2000s. What happened? :yourock:

lol....I've changed. It's still a great pickup though.

 

[dave74]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

It's easy to change taste. One rig change later in the chain can make us decide we now like pickup X better than Y, and vise-versa.

 

[murat]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

If you wanna go active you should try the fishman fluences IMO. They sound amazing and offers a lot of versatility. Especially the classic set with 3 voicing seems like the best deal out there.

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Try the Emg’s at 18/24 volts. They are less compressed and more open. I used to use the Emg 81/60 set for years. The emg x series sound like the regular series at 18+ volts. You can get an adapter to fit in the 9v cavity for 24volts to try it.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/123184884292

I like the fishman fluence sets lately , the classic set go from Seth’s to JB’s. The modern set sounds more like the blackouts but voice 2 sounds like the custom.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

81/85 compared to Blackouts is almost a "not fair" comparison, but 81X/85X would be a fair comparison. The Blackouts and the EMG "X" series both have a solution baked in for the original 81/85/60 etc line's famous "lack of headroom" issue. I demoed all of them back to back in early 2018 within weeks of each other, so I was able to hear the differences clearly.

one reason why i moved backed to passives at this point, is that they all had a problem getting a super clean (no grit) clean tone. The EMGs outright clipped (both the old line and the "X" series) and the Blackouts had some grit that could not be EQ'd/gain-lowered away.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

81 is a crisp sounding, upper-mids focused pickup with a tight bottom end and a characteristic high end attack.

The Blackouts bridge model is voiced fuller, thicker and warmer with a hotter signal at the amp despite its more passive feel. It takes the edge in versatility compared to the 81, but doesn't beat out the 81 for certain styles.

An 85 in place of the 81 at the bridge will add a nice amount of body back into the sound compared to the 81, but I personally enjoy the 81's ability to cut a little more. I also recommend running the 81 and/or 85 at 18V to give them a little more breathing room.

The EMG 57/66 set adds a dose of warmth and headroom. The JH (James Hetfield) set, however, wins hands down for delivering that classic 81/60 tone with more body and a better feel.

For overall versatility, the Blackouts win, but for cut and drive with clarity in a mix, most of the EMGs are still tough to beat. Then there's Fluence...

+1 for moving the 85 to the bridge. and if you do go with blackouts, moving the A5 neck to the bridge as well.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Anybody Got An Opinion Between EMG 81/85 Set And A Duncan Blackouts Set?

Try the Emg’s at 18/24 volts. They are less compressed and more open. I used to use the Emg 81/60 set for years. The emg x series sound like the regular series at 18+ volts. You can get an adapter to fit in the 9v cavity for 24volts to try it.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/123184884292

I like the fishman fluence sets lately , the classic set go from Seth’s to JB’s. The modern set sounds more like the blackouts but voice 2 sounds like the custom.

are the fishman's able to produce a super clean (no grit) clean tone? also, does the neck or bridhe feature an A5 mag vs ceramic?