What does the EMG 81 do?

alex1fly

alex1fly

Well-known member
Legendary pickup. I've got some GAS but don't really want to plunk down money just to try it in my rig. So I'm wondering what the EMG 81 does that's so special and how I can emulate it with other guitars. I have a Fractal FM3 and several guitars so lots of options in the tone shaping department, and for thrash metal riffage I generally dig a 5150 style tone or a cranked-to-heck-with-a-tubescreamer-out-front Fender. Any thoughts?

I know what it sounds like (cutting highs, straight to thrash city bro) and I can glean from the interwebs that it has a compressed attack. Is that it? What else makes it special?
 
formula73 said:
It makes everything sound the same. A plywood strat with an 81 sounds like a Les Paul Custom with an 81.
Click to expand...

Right so I want to play with that sound and am trying to backdoor my way into it with the gear I have. Any insight on the "how"? Is it specific frequencies hitting the front of the amp causing a particular overdrive?
 
It depends what year they were made.
1990's and before absolutely scream & ripp.
Made in Jina EMG's suck.
 
alex1fly said:
Right so I want to play with that sound and am trying to backdoor my way into it with the gear I have. Any insight on the "how"? Is it specific frequencies hitting the front of the amp causing a particular overdrive?
Click to expand...

If you listen to one clean it has a lot of highs and high mids. That’s what I hear, anyway. As far as the compression, I don’t know. 81 has a particular flavor I haven’t really found anywhere else.

You ought to be able to find one fairly cheap used. Why not give it a try?
 
formula73 said:
It makes everything sound the same. A plywood strat with an 81 sounds like a Les Paul Custom with an 81.
Click to expand...
Disagreed.

The EMG 81 is very particular because the active preamp imparts a lot of its character. Not sure how much it has to do with the preamp, and how much it has to do with the actual wind/magnet, but the 81 shaves off a lot of bottom-end, and it's not particularly sizzly (compared to passives, that is). So what it basically leaves you is an upper-mid focus that distorts very well and sounds tight without getting too scratchy. It has also got some definite compression because the preamp clips inside the pickup, so it's basically like having a boost on at all times.

It's a very particular pickup. No passive sounds like it. The closest I've found is the Fishman Fluence Modern. IMO, the Fishman does what the 81 does, but better. It has less low end, so it's tighter, and it's got a lot more clarity and string separation.
 
JMP/HBE said:
It depends what year they were made.
1990's and before absolutely scream & ripp.
Made in Jina EMG's suck.
Click to expand...
It's actually somewhere around 2017 or 2018 that they replaced the opamp they were using. I remember posting about it in this forum, and someone replied that.

I had an EMG 85 and an EMG 57/66 set from 2020 which sounded like shit.
 
alex1fly said:
Legendary pickup. I've got some GAS but don't really want to plunk down money just to try it in my rig. So I'm wondering what the EMG 81 does that's so special and how I can emulate it with other guitars. I have a Fractal FM3 and several guitars so lots of options in the tone shaping department, and for thrash metal riffage I generally dig a 5150 style tone or a cranked-to-heck-with-a-tubescreamer-out-front Fender. Any thoughts?

I know what it sounds like (cutting highs, straight to thrash city bro) and I can glean from the interwebs that it has a compressed attack. Is that it? What else makes it special?
Click to expand...

It has a special EQing, miles away from the relatively high pitched resonant frequency typical of passive pickups:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/proxy...9c5c58378e9e61

See the website named "Electrosmash" if you want other screenshots, a detailed technical analysis and even some possible mods...

EDIT - 1) In the pic above, the EMG81 seems to have been accidentally swapped with the 85.
2) The rounded response of a 81 is due to its preamp and is simply impossible to emulate with any passive pickup, EMG HZ included. Now, it should be possible to tweak a passive transducer with external components (like a series cap) in order to make responses closer to each others.
 
Last edited:
Rex_Rocker said:
It's actually somewhere around 2017 or 2018 that they replaced the opamp they were using. I remember posting about it in this forum, and someone replied that.

I had an EMG 85 and an EMG 57/66 set from 2020 which sounded like ****.
Click to expand...



Well that's plausible. I bought a Zakk set for a LP Custom and could not get rid of them fast enough. They sounded like a bad distortion pedal in a guitar cold & very sterile.
I have an EMG-81 from the 90's in an 86' Chavel and it absolutely destroys.
 
jeremy said:
so my old pre-quick connect emg81 is more valuable than a current one?
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Do you mean quick-connect on the back of the casing, or the whole quick setup?

The complete quick setup debuted when they changed the EMG logo. So the opamp inside was still like the old logos for quite awhile even after the logo change and the quick-setup.

It was indeed around 5yrs ago when they were forced to use a new opamp, and from that point people have complained. I have not compared the two myself. All mine are actual old logo that literally look like "EMG".
 
mine is white with the small emg logo, i put it in a guitar in '94 but the pup was probably a few years older than that id guess
 
If you are new to active pickups try the GFS red active series. They are affordable and are every bit as good as EMGs. I have successfully mixed them with Blackouts, LiveWires, EMGs, and Dragonfire pickups in the same guitar.
 
My experience with 81 85 combos has been pretty good. They do metal very well, they tend to be very quiet when they are just sitting, not squealy or throwing lots of feedback.

They can be a little sterile, not spongy or very dynamic, but they can sound pretty good. I haven't noticed much if any difference in when they were made. I've played old and new and never noticed.

I agree that they sound pretty much (not exactly) the same in most guitars I've had them in. They do have their own character and aren't influenced by the guitar nearly as much as passive pickups.

They feel quite compressed and not a whole lot of what I'd call extra organic harmonics going on with them, compared to passives or even Blackouts.

To me, middle aged Slayer is the sound of the EMG 81 - 85.

I think if you're curious, get a used set (with all electronics of course) try them out. You can always sell them off and go back if you hate em.

My humble 2 cents worth.
 
80's_Thrash_Metal said:
My experience with 81 85 combos has been pretty good. They do metal very well, they tend to be very quiet when they are just sitting, not squealy or throwing lots of feedback.

They can be a little sterile, not spongy or very dynamic, but they can sound pretty good. I haven't noticed much if any difference in when they were made. I've played old and new and never noticed.

I agree that they sound pretty much (not exactly) the same in most guitars I've had them in. They do have their own character and aren't influenced by the guitar nearly as much as passive pickups.

They feel quite compressed and not a whole lot of what I'd call extra organic harmonics going on with them, compared to passives or even Blackouts.

To me, middle aged Slayer is the sound of the EMG 81 - 85.

I think if you're curious, get a used set (with all electronics of course) try them out. You can always sell them off and go back if you hate em.

My humble 2 cents worth.
Click to expand...
They're good for metal precisely because they are sterile and not spongy.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk
 
If you want something similar without going active try the EMG HZ4, EMG's passive version of an 81, they came on a few guitars as a sub for the actives and many players would automatically replace them with 81/85 without giving them a chance, which means you can buy them used for peanuts. They actually sound pretty damn good! The Epi Zakks used to come stock with these in years long past, Alexi Laiho always used the HZ4 in the bridge of his ESPs exclusively, even the Custom Shop ones, to give an idea.
 
Rex_Rocker said:
Not really. The 81X is barely different from the regular EMG 81. It's just pretty much an 18V-modded 81 with a little less output.
Click to expand...
I noticed quite a big difference in my personal experience. I had an ESP Eclipse that I bought used. The previous owner threw in a set of 81x/60x pickups. The stock 81/60 set sounded pretty dull compared to my other passive pickups. As soon as I swapped in the X series pickups, the dullness went away, and the bottom end tightened up. It was night and day/chalk and cheese for me. Check Mike Stamper’s comparison:
 
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