Duncan Passive Match for EMG 81/60
- Thread starter skelt101
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I was thinking Black Winter/Jazz. What is the Black Winter neck based on?
Ascension
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You can't run a passive neck together with an active bridge. You would have to have separate jacks for each.
Now if you are looking for a tonal match with passives from Duncan I would say maybe a DD bridge and neck. I find the 81 in particular to be really bright and on the harsh side. The closest Passive set i can think of to a EMG 81/60 set would be a set of Kiesel Lithium's. Have EMG's in only one guitar but it's a 85 bridge H 60 A neck with A5 mags in both. .
Now if you are looking for a tonal match with passives from Duncan I would say maybe a DD bridge and neck. I find the 81 in particular to be really bright and on the harsh side. The closest Passive set i can think of to a EMG 81/60 set would be a set of Kiesel Lithium's. Have EMG's in only one guitar but it's a 85 bridge H 60 A neck with A5 mags in both. .
Not looking to run passive and active together. Just going for the tonal match. I'm trading in an ESP Eclipse with EMGs (it actually has the 81x/60x) for a Gibson Flying V. I'm not too sure I want to go through the hassle of trying to cram the active's pots/hardware in the V's control cavity. The distortion neck is an interesting suggestion, one I'm not familiar with. I hear good things about the newer Kiesel pickups, but they don't seem to be available without a guitar attached...
How does the Jazz hold up in the bridge under heavy distortion?
Ascension
New member
Got it. Dimarzio DeActivators may also be a good choice.
on the Kiesel pickups they are available direct but are pretty pricy. If you check Reverb you can normally find a set relatively cheap in particular the Lithiums some love them some hate them and for many Kiesel models they are the defaults so--.
Here is a DeActivator vs 81 comparison. Got a guitar with them that I pulled as just not what I needed for what i do but thought they sounded good for the really heavy stuff.
They are very clear sounding. They don't get mushy like higher output pickups do.
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
Hate to be the party pooper, but I'd say Black Winters are not much like the 81/60 combo. Yes, they're mid-forward for passives and attacky, but they've still got more of a wide passive EQ than the EMG's band-passed sound. Plus the Black Winter Bridge is considerably hotter than the 81, IME.
Honestly, I haven't found any passive that does what the active EMG's do. Not even their HZ line.
The Jazz is more of a departure even from the 60. To me, they're not even close by a mile, IME.
If you really have to go Duncan, Then yeah, my vote goes for the set of 'Winters. I love those pickups, but keep in mind, they're not gonna be all that close. JMO.
Honestly, I haven't found any passive that does what the active EMG's do. Not even their HZ line.
The Jazz is more of a departure even from the 60. To me, they're not even close by a mile, IME.
If you really have to go Duncan, Then yeah, my vote goes for the set of 'Winters. I love those pickups, but keep in mind, they're not gonna be all that close. JMO.
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Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
Much like the bridge, I'd be willing to bet on the Distortion SH-6N.
Dahla
New member
True, but you *can* run active and passive together if you let go of the middle position. Two pickups, two volumes and a 2-way toggle switch that acts like an a/b to the output works.
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Inflames626
New member
Mincer , any reason why the Jazz bridge doesn't get much attention? I wasn't sure if it was even available as a production model.
skelt101 , closest you'll find to EMG 60/81 in passive is an EMG HZ3/HZ4 set. These are the 60 and 81 without the active preamp.
I know you said you wanted SD but of the SDs I have tried the Distortion has way more highs and output than the 81. The Distortion has about 6-9 db more output than the 81 on my DAW. The Distortion also sounds scratchier than the 81. The EMG 81 will have the lows and highs chopped off so it sounds more mid forward. The active preamp will also make it sound more consistent with pick attack (to my ear) than most passive pickups. Other people hear this as sterile.
The closest I've found to an EMG 60 that SD makes is a Jazz, but I've had to run it in parallel out of phase to thin it out. The Full Shred neck and maybe even the Screaming Demon (?) might be a good choice. I haven't tried the Demon in the neck, but I've heard people talk about it. In the bridge it had really good string clarity.
Surprisingly, the JB also works well for me in the neck for cleans, especially split. I like to think of it as sort of an EMG 85 as a humbucker and an EMG 60 when split in the neck. But that's stretching an analogy to the breaking point.
That is a great choice too.
I think some are missing the point of the OP. He doesn't care about being the same db of output, he wants them to produce a perceived gain level from the amp that feels like that "boosted" 81/60 saturation. Lower-medium output passives will need a tubescreamer or the like to make the amp's distortion feel like the 81/60, or even get to that ballpark.
Black Winter, D'act, X2N, Invader, Distortion, Nazgul ,ect,,,,,,,,all will get you that near active feel.
Anyone can turn the knobs on the amp to adjust EQ, but you will need a high-output mid-pushing crusher to get out of the gate right.
With a big mid-booster pedal you can get there with a Jazz set I'm sure.
Inflames626
New member
If saturation is the goal, I had to use a boost on just about everything I tried to match what I heard on records. With EMGs or without.
Running straight to an amp, be it a 5150, Dual Rec, JCM2000, or something a little different like a Mesa Nomad or a Carvin Vai Legacy...I had to boost. The dirty channel only sounded too much like the mid gain channel on a three channel amp. If I added in additional gain from the amp, it became a fizzy mess--like I was trying to play rhythm on a lead boost channel.
It was only after the advent of the modern DAW and impulse responses around 2010 that I got exactly the tone I heard in my head. But even in that environment I prefer a boost of some kind.
But this also probably depends a lot on whether you like to get your tone early in the chain or later. I very much prefer later in the chain these days.
If the OP truly wants saturation, maybe the AB or PA2 will be worth a try. And they should work with either passive or active pickups.
The EXG midrange control is also very nice for notching out problematic mids. I find it works well to get a scooped Marshall crunch.
Running straight to an amp, be it a 5150, Dual Rec, JCM2000, or something a little different like a Mesa Nomad or a Carvin Vai Legacy...I had to boost. The dirty channel only sounded too much like the mid gain channel on a three channel amp. If I added in additional gain from the amp, it became a fizzy mess--like I was trying to play rhythm on a lead boost channel.
It was only after the advent of the modern DAW and impulse responses around 2010 that I got exactly the tone I heard in my head. But even in that environment I prefer a boost of some kind.
But this also probably depends a lot on whether you like to get your tone early in the chain or later. I very much prefer later in the chain these days.
If the OP truly wants saturation, maybe the AB or PA2 will be worth a try. And they should work with either passive or active pickups.
The EXG midrange control is also very nice for notching out problematic mids. I find it works well to get a scooped Marshall crunch.
I agree a boost can help no matter what when you want death/black-metal levels of tight saturation, even with actives. Which boost I choose depends on mostly the pickups, but everything else matters too of course.
I will admit I've never tried a jazz bridge, so maybe I've missed a real gem since we tend to boost anyways.
