emg passives

fullfistrock21

fullfistrock21

New member
ya know emg passives like the H4 kind of have a bad rap.... its a swell pickup....alexi laiho from children of bottom uses and ives seen people shred on the epiphone zakk wylde model and it sounded great...it seems like the popular trend is that anything that comes with emg HZ's is to rip them out of the guitar immediatly even before playing and get an active set or a different pickup. I think it was a bad way to market these pickups to put them only on poor quality foreign guitars....now everybody attributes their terrible sound to the pickups rather to their lack of playing or poor constructed guitar built with cheap materials....overall this pickup can scream and shred and it seems people just cant get over the HZ on it or the fact that they appear on lower end guitars.....emg is now putting actives on crappy guitars which people will soon probably attribute to crap too just because the suckiness of the guitar

truly i wish all guitars were built with a least moderate quality in mind but thats not the case....a truly crappy guitar makes your whole rig sound bad and usually there is no reason for it to get made other than to get rid of crappy lumber:fing25:
 
Re: emg passives

this is so true. i heard a neck HZ in an ibane and it sounds great. i liked it better than the bridge 81 which was too trebley. and im comparing the 81 to other bridge pups i've heard.
 
Re: emg passives

I hate them, had them in a couple guitars and they are terrible, have no sustain and have an even more sterile sound than the actives IMO
 
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the only pickups ive ever heard sound sterile are foreign made pickups like ibanez v8's or emg selects...EMG HZ's are made in America and sound pretty good... other pickups just have a different sound not all pickups have warmth and organicness some sound more modern and synth style....the
H4's and active 81's are not made for warmth thats what vintage pickups are for....a lot of people think pickups with a lot of cut are sterile and i think the H4 sustains fine....as long as you adjust the pickup height and guitar...i mean the sustain does end after awhile...its not like the actives or air buckers but i mean how long does a note have to sustain for? if it sustained for like ones second it would probably be broken and would suck but i think it sustains fine...all in all emg 81's or H4's are about crunch right not about soulful warmth....if you wanted a mixture of warmth amd crunch you could get a custom...but i mean if your guitar already comes eqipped with a beast like the H4 and you play metal why not just leave it there
 
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Re: emg passives

I had a set of H4s in my VB-200 and my ears hurt each time after using them. They're like twice as sterile and ice-picky as the 81 is.

The H1s sound much more alive and GOOD compared to the H4s, the H1s are actually pretty good pickups, just way overpriced.
 
Re: emg passives

fullfistrock21 said:
the only pickups ive ever heard sound sterile are foreign made pickups like ibanez v8's or emg selects...
Click to expand...

I put a set of Selects in an old Jackson Dinky... they sounded pretty decent for Korean pups; though, a little on the dark/bassy side. Now the guitar has real EMGs in it, an 85 in the bridge and 60 in the neck, and it does have more gain and sounds better.
 
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i have emg designed johnsons in my johnson les paul.
there not bad as stock pickups if you want a screaming gnr sound,
but in general i'd say they are biting too much, absolutely unuseable
for blues and the bridge ones affinity to peep (bad waxed or not waxed)
is horrible

i gas for some rockinger pafs
 
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I had a set of EMG HZ's in my (pleaze don't larrf) Epi Zakk Wylde dartboard, and did not like 'em one bit !

Zakk Wylde project - http://jackfuzz.blogspot.com/ - need to be updated asap !

What are yhe EMG HZ's s'posed to be ???

I prefered (by a country mile) my stock pu's of my Epi LP Gold Top at the time ! Now the GT is blessed w. '59(b)/SLover(n).
 
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I am not a fan of them ,but i know some guys use them and get descent results.A friend of mine uses them for 3 years now (HZ1 set) ,and he recorded with those 3 albums now (logar's diary and desilence).So different strokes for different folks.
 
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had them. thin buzzy pieces of crap. even compared to a JB.. though i am used to the HUMONGOUS tone of the warpig, but still.. wouldnt use em, even if i was paid for it
 
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the bridge H1 has always sounded pretty thin to me. the neck H1 isnt bad at all IMO, in fact i still have one left stock in one of my guitars. i recently got an LTD laiho, and the H4 in that isnt bad. its looser and more trebly than id like, but not bad overall.
 
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I still say that EMG makes good alnico pups. I don't care for their ceramics.

SD should buy them out like Fender did with Jackson. Then they would have an edge on the active pup market. I'm sure there will be a flood of people who disagree about that, but I can see the potential.
 
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I had a set of HZ 3s or 4s in my Jackson DXMG which is by far not a poor quality axe(anyone who ever handled a japanese jackson can attest that) and those pups where horrible as hell. Anemic, thin, buzzy, shrill and sterile. No way way to describe them in any other way. The set of Dimarzio Evolutions made a night and day difference in that guitar and made it a killer(shouldn't have sold it).
 
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dimarzio and seymour duncan obviously have an edge over emg in pickup making....the H4 may sound sterile but its an alright lead pickup its just not organic or anything like a dimarzio or a duncan....i think they sound better than duncan designed though...duncan designs i would change automatically they sound like seymour duncans that are like being played in the room next to you...or they have a blanket over them....its like they have the duncan voice but its all muffled and there isnt that much clarity....but the neck pickups can be warm somtimes
 
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I think the EMG-HZs sound pretty good. I agree that the big mistake was making them stock on "affordable"-class guitars. I liked the way they sound, and I was considering them for my Epiphone, but the fact that they are commonly found on less expensive guitars makes me uncomfortable with their price.
 
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This nice looking Cort (very good looking in preson, and they play - acoustically - very nice) come std. w. these HZ's, but if i buy one of these "super-value-for-your-money" guitars (same price as an Ibanes AX overe here), i will def. make this a "pick-up-project-guitar" :

http://www.cort.ch/EGuitars/EVL_Serie/EVL_Z4.htm


I wanted an AXG70 for a long time now (as project-axe), but i might get one of these instead.
 
Re: emg passives

Davey said:
had them. thin buzzy pieces of crap. even compared to a JB.. though i am used to the HUMONGOUS tone of the warpig, but still.. wouldnt use em, even if i was paid for it
Click to expand...

The warpig got my attention a long time ago. How does it sound in terms of clarity, attack, tightness. Is the crunch located in the low/low-mid area or the higher one (resonance peak)?
I've heard clips but the recording chain can alter reality.

Sorry for the hijack.....:blackeye:
 
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A lot of people use emg's passive and active and they get great results and sound good....like alexi laiho (H4) or metalica (81,60) and tons of other top notch guitar players....maybe a quality tube amp and effects have somthing to do with this sterilness everyone is talking about....I mean Zakk wylde has one of the best metal tones ever! so why would he use a sterile sounding pickup like the 81? people also knock the dimebucker all the time too and JB....i mean dime and Mustaine! anyway moost people here are tonefreaks and probably swap pickups a hundred times a year or so.
 
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