DrNewcenstein
He Did the Monster Mash
Re: Defence of the holy EMG 81! (My experiences)
This. When Ebay was just a baby and you could still find used 2Cs in a local shop, the average price was under $1K. No one used these except Jazz/Fusion players (Santana cited it as one of his favorites in the late 80s), but "everyone" wanted a Marshall for those be-all/end-all Brown Sounds and AC-DC/Iron Maiden/Judas Priest/Black Sabbath tones, because the 2C's distortion channel was useless for Heavy Metal, because it didn't sound like a Marshall. The general consensus was "if you want to sound like Santana, then yeah, get a Mesa."
Once Hetfield mentioned in a popular guitar magazine that Puppets was recorded with a 2C, prices doubled overnight, then tripled, and now you can't touch a functioning original 80s 2C for under $2500 unless it comes from someone who just doesn't know, and they always get the "Metallica" tag for emphasis. Most people who have one for sale know what it is, or they find some do-gooder that tells them about the Metallica link if they don't already know.
So no, I did not play any EMGs through an overpriced used vintage amp, and I have no intention of doing so until prices drop back down to the plane of reality. It's not a better amp than it ever was simply because Metallica used it. It's still the same old amp when no one but Carlos Santana used the distortion channel.
I shouldn't have to buy a new amp just to use a pickup. I'll just spend $60 and get a new pickup (or I'd have started with SD which has a lovely 21 return policy). I can afford $60 to polish a turd. I can't afford a $2000 tube amp, nor do I have the room for it.
This. When Ebay was just a baby and you could still find used 2Cs in a local shop, the average price was under $1K. No one used these except Jazz/Fusion players (Santana cited it as one of his favorites in the late 80s), but "everyone" wanted a Marshall for those be-all/end-all Brown Sounds and AC-DC/Iron Maiden/Judas Priest/Black Sabbath tones, because the 2C's distortion channel was useless for Heavy Metal, because it didn't sound like a Marshall. The general consensus was "if you want to sound like Santana, then yeah, get a Mesa."
Once Hetfield mentioned in a popular guitar magazine that Puppets was recorded with a 2C, prices doubled overnight, then tripled, and now you can't touch a functioning original 80s 2C for under $2500 unless it comes from someone who just doesn't know, and they always get the "Metallica" tag for emphasis. Most people who have one for sale know what it is, or they find some do-gooder that tells them about the Metallica link if they don't already know.
So no, I did not play any EMGs through an overpriced used vintage amp, and I have no intention of doing so until prices drop back down to the plane of reality. It's not a better amp than it ever was simply because Metallica used it. It's still the same old amp when no one but Carlos Santana used the distortion channel.
