EMG85: passive equivalent?

Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

TattooedCarrot said:
Just wow. A little oversensative. Tell you what, I'll just bail on this thread, I've nothing more to add anyway.
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LOL! I see what you did there.

EDIT: As I said, I have a lot of respect for your experience with these pickups; maybe you could expound on the similarities you have observed. I would appreciate any knowledge you can share.
 
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Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

ACH91332 said:
If you think the 85 is such an amazing bridge pickup then why are you trying to find a passive pickup that sounds like the 85? If it ain't broke don't fix it? You're never going to get a passive pickup that sounds active but you can get an active that sounds more passive. From what I "hear" the Blackouts are a blend of the tone and feel of both. Might be the closest thing to getting what you want.
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I have first hand experience with Blackouts and use them daily and the honest truth is that they sound nothing like passives at all which is precisely why I bought them, because (and no offense to SD, because they make amazing products) their passive line of pickups didn't cut it for what I wanted.
In the sense being less compressed than EMGs make them more 'passive' feeling, than yes, you're correct, but the tonality is purely within the active ballpark.
 
Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

Well I honestly don't know I've just heard stuff I'm not too big into actives, tried them before and they just aren't me. And yes I totally get you on SD's they don't really make anything I consider that meets my standards for tone either.
 
Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

juka said:
Hmm, thought about the Super-D myself, but I don't like PUs with ceramic magnets in general.

About the EMG HZ: never tried one, but I want to avoid EMG altogether. They seem to have serious quality issues in recent times.
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can you site a source for this ive been using emg's actives as long as i have been using SD and haven't ran into a problem yet.
 
Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

On a second note i have 3 guitars that have or had emg's then when the black outs came 2 of them got SD blacks , but now they all have emg X series and from what i can tell you they can be touched on these as of yet from blackouts.
 
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Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

juka said:
One thing most people are not aware of is that beside of being a quite OK neck PU the EMG85 is an absolutely amazing bridge PU.
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^^ Indeed sir

85 bridge/81 neck is another nice combo

I use an 85/18volt/1vol in my Rhoads with a poplar body in C# and it sounds amazing. I cannot achieve that with an 81, even with EQ tweaks.

Id say use the neck pup from an EMG passive setup. What would that be, an H3?? I'm not too well versed on EMG passives.

You can add a PA-2 to boost pretty much any pup to make it hotter, but to also keep the warm/darker sound that the 85 has which is what you're trying to emulate here.
That and perhaps look into getting a nice 15band rack EQ to help fine tune it (unless you already have a nice EQ range with alot of adjustment. Keep messing around and you'll get the sound thats in your head.
Sometimes its as easy as following up on someones suggestion, sometimes not.
....the roll of the dice..
 
Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

If an EMG H4/H4A is the passive version of the EMG 81/85, then the EMG 4A (alnico) is what EMG's approximation of the EMG 85 should be only in a passive sense. I have used a H4/H4A set before, but never played it in enough guitars to make the comparison to the active series. They didn't sound bad, but it wasn't like an exact passive version to me.
 
Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

kingswebe said:
I know this is an old thread, but the topic is still relevant. On that note ...

Dominus, do you recall why you recommended the H3 (ceramic) vs H3A (alnico which is in the 85)? Also, why the H3 series vs the H4 series? As the EMG site describes the H4s being the same as their 85/81 counterparts minus the preamp?
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The H3 is actually the passive counterpart to the 60, not the 85, so the H3A I guess would be similar to the 60A. :)
 
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Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

Rex_Rocker said:
The H3 is actually the passive counterpart to the 60, not the 85, so the H3A I guess would be similar to the 60A. :)
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Understood, but Dominus did name the H3 specifically as the closest 85 equivalent.... Maybe based on what his ears heard if he tried them... That's why I am asking him to chime in with clarification on why he said "H3".
 
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Re: EMG85: passive equivalent?

I've also tried the H3 in an old Jackson DXMG I used to have FWIW, and I wouldn't say it's terribly 85-ish. It definitely didn't have the squishiness or the juicy lower mid content. Granted it was the ceramic H3, not the H3A.
 
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