Tips for using Emgs?

B

BloodRose

Professional Scapegoat
Ok, having sold my Gibson LP and it looks like I may have to do a real house cleaning on gear, I have to REALLY chomp the bit and decide what stays and what goes.. I have a great LP (Burny) that Ive rarely played. 2 reasons. One is I dont wanna mess it up and 2 Im lukewarm on EMG Zakk Wylde set thats in it. However, now Ive been spending more time with it, Im finding its a monster player and the pups arent bad, just different. My only set of actives. Anyhow, they are alil bright and harsh thru my marshall, so I changed the EQ and found a really good tone) Is this typical? Any tips on dialing things in? What about going from the actives to passives in the same set?
Help me love them, cuz I cant afford to change em..
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

How to use EMG's?


Don't.





I find that passive pickups just give me better tone without all the battery hassles.
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

Tee hee. Phunny shtuffs :)

They do take some extra tweaking. Height can really make a difference. I had good success with mine by running the guitar volume low, like 3-4... didn't really need that extra oomph. Phaser and/or delay helped as well. Since they are full frequency, fine EQ work can make a lot of difference. Try plugging into different amps or cabs, if you have them. Swap the set around to see if you like it. If you can find someone, swap the 81 for a 60a to put in the bridge... sounds really great. It really is different though, you do feel like the pickup is producing the sound more than the guitar, so if you can get used to how it feels and get into how it sounds, you'll do fine with it. Definitely experiment with the guitar volume!

IMO batteries are not a valid reason to dismiss actives. You can't REALLY be too lazy to unplug your guitar. Seems more like a psychological block than a real thing. Even if they are under a pickguard, and they happen to die on you after their hundreds of hours of life, it takes what... 5 minutes to get the pickguard off and back on? Ouch :)
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

agreed passives are a more preferable for me, but you can still get killer tone with actives. I keep the presence way down, lots of mids, not a lot of treble, and a little bass. I also found that I really loved the 85 better in the bridge, way warmer, less sterile. It's an easy switch with the quik connects I would try it on your lp
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

I had EMG's in my basses, and they were pretty good, but just a good slightly overwound pickup got me the tones I needed. I've become very traditionalist in my guitar stuff as of late...
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

Use the 85 in the bridge, 81 in the neck, and keep them as close to the strings as possible.

As far as the battery goes, it can be a slight hassle to change. On a strat. Once every 18 months.
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

A couple of things...The setup on this guitar is outstanding.. I unplug and put guitar in case after every play.. Im not too lazy to change battery..haha
Had it over 2 yrs and never changed. Only played maybe 15 times.. (that is changing!!)

Ive thought about puting a 60 in the neck or an 85 in the bridge, but they are kinda expensive. I hate to buy a $90 + pup when Im not sure on the whole system.
I love my Custom 8 loaded axes and wonder if this paul wouldnt sound unreal with a really sweet set of pups .. But, its wicked heavy and thick and could be a real ripper this way too..
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

Just buy Blackouts, sell the EMGs and be done with it.
Blackouts are everything the EMGs are only it does it all 15 times better.
Also, none of that terrible overcompressed feeling too, Blackouts solve that.
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

you have to approach string height differently than you would with passives. EMG's have SUPER low magnet strength so put them as close as you can. i dont find that i need to change EQ TOO much but at first i thought my 81 was broken because of how bright it is. tailor your EQ to this and you find that the 81's strength is cutting through the mix in a band setting. the 85, however, shouldnt sound "harsh" at all. it has a very defined pick attack like the 81 but otherwise should be very very full sounding.

for me my volume seems to shoot up when i switch to the 85 because of how much fuller the eq on the pickup is. it also has more output than the 81, so try it in the bridge. i tried it briefly and think i will do that again. it would help balance the pickup changes and my overal tone
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Friends don't let friends put batteries in their guitars.
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

alright i tried the pickup swap and i am pretty surprised. last time i tried this i thought the swap made the pups have less character. but the 85 really thrives in the bridge. its hotter, but more organic and natural. the 81 is kind of meh in the neck....something just sounds off....like a lot of the tone is lost in the 81's eq which caters more toward the bridge so in the neck it sounds weird

this is at bedroom levels on clean so tomorrow i'll crank it up and update you
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

An 85 in the bridge and 89 in the neck is the only EMG combo worth having unless you're playing full-on Speed Metal or that TripleRec stuff. Then it doesn't matter because it's all high-gain and no definition.

I'm not an EMG fan by any means, but the 85, 89, and SAs are great pickups. The 89 is like a Duncan Jazz, only louder without breaking up.

The 89 can be split, since it's two SAs under the hood, and you get true single-coil tones.
However, you also get a 50% reduction in volume.


But to address your question, yes, it's normal to tweak your amp's EQ when switching from passives to EMGs. Some say it's necessary to do it between Duncan and DiMarzios and Fenders and Gibsons.

The first thing most folks try to do, when they get different pickups, is set their amp so all guitars sound identical through it.

That can't be done because all pickups are different. If you want everything to sound the same, put the same pickups in everything.

Or you can relish the tonal variety.

However, since this is your one and only guitar for the moment, you have 3 options:
Sell the EMGs for Duncans
Tweak the amp's EQ to "dress up" the EMGs more to your liking (though this will turn more into tone-shaping than merely tweaking)
Live with the tone that EMGs have
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

ok so i got a chance to crank up the alternate pickup config. the 85 sounds really good as a bridge pickup, very hot but much less sterile and compressed compared to the 81. 81 as a neck humbucker is actually pretty interesting. its really articulate in the neck unlike the 85, so overdriven leads and rythms are actually viable now. that said, switching between the two felt more like i was using two bridge pickups or altering my amp eq. so its like the individual character was lost. its much more versatile than the stock config, but also more generic sounding. i encourage you to give it a shot!

just bought some blackouts today so i'll see how those compare and get back to you
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

just tried the blackouts and i dunno....i was expecting a lot more because of all the hype. the blackout neck does sound more articulate than the 85, but have less fatnes so i guess its like a cross between an 81 and 85. the blackout bridge has me scratching my head. i have the height set the same as i did with the EMG's, really close with maybe a centimeter of space. the blackout bridge doesnt sound as ballsy to me, the output is noticably louder but the low end feels kind of spacey and the midrange has an annoying buzz saw to it.

i was expecting to have some sort of tone revelation like i did when i first used the livewire heavy metal. maybe i have to play around with it some more? also the tone control that EMG's are installed with is useless with blackouts, SD has a different value resistor on the tone control in their online diagrams. i wonder if that would kill the buzzsaw.

on the plus side cleans sounded pretty good, and there was no hum at all which i did get from the EMG's unless i changed my orientation a bit. switching between the neck and bridge reminds me of the 81 in the neck and 85 in the bridge in that the difference isnt particularly drastic. maybe i should try switching the BO's positions....but **** it i'm tired of all this string winding and unwinding!
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

trevorus said:
How to use EMG's?


Don't.





I find that passive pickups just give me better tone without all the battery hassles.
Click to expand...

Nice Avatar!! CC is awesome...Claudio Sanchez is pretty much a vocal piccolo snare...and the arrangements are wicked complex, but the songs are still pretty catchy, which I love
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

the way i use EMGs is i just play the two or three Slayer songs i know then i put that guitar down and go get something with PAF's in it.

they're heavy but they're not my kinda heavy. more fuzz less buzz please.
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

Empty Pockets said:
the way i use EMGs is i just play the two or three Slayer songs i know then i put that guitar down and go get something with PAF's in it.

they're heavy but they're not my kinda heavy. more fuzz less buzz please.
Click to expand...

guess its pretty ironic that i use EMG's to play stoner prog
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

have you tried the 18v mod? super easy. there a few ways to do it, one involves adding two extra batteries which seems weird because you can do it with just one extra battery.
 
Re: Tips for using Emgs?

alex1fly said:
have you tried the 18v mod? super easy. there a few ways to do it, one involves adding two extra batteries which seems weird because you can do it with just one extra battery.
Click to expand...

no.. How do you do it and what does it change about the tone?
 
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