Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

[Edward203]

Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Hi,

I have a KH-602 with the EMG Bone Breakers, then I ended up getting a steal price on a new MH-350 FM with the EMG 81/85 combo, both ESP Ltd guitars. I love the look of the new guitar and the neck thru body but the tone is just similar to the Bone Breakers in terms of the compression/sterile feel and I am craving something that it will sound more like a Metal Passive pickup, nothing extreme since I play mostly leads but I was thinking either the Seymour Duncan JB, Distortion, the Pegasus or perhaps the Nazgul?

I do not feel like re wiring this guitar for passives, ideally I'd like to keep it as a EMG guitar so I may either end up buying another guitar in the future or trying one of the EMG Retro active series.

Has any of you tried any any of the EMG pups that claim to be more passive sounding? After some researching I narrowed it down to the Retro active 70 and the 77, is there any difference between them? Any other I should consider such as the 57? Thank you!!!

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: What EMG sounds a little bit less sterile and "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 56?

Re: What EMG sounds a little bit less sterile and "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 56?

56? Do you mean Fat 55 or 57?

The 70 set is just the Super 77 bridge pickup paired with the Fat 55 neck pickup.

 

[Edward203]

Re: What EMG sounds a little bit less sterile and "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 56?

Re: What EMG sounds a little bit less sterile and "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 56?

Sorry I meant the 57, I'll edit the post. Thanks for the info, the EMG website is confusing they call one set and not the other ones, they don't state how they're paired anywhere other than the PDF data sheet. So it is the same bridge pickup for the 77 and 70 set, but the neck pup is either ceramic or alnico (Fat 55) depending on what set you get. Have you tried any of them?

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Have you heard this clip yet? It might be what you're looking for.

No hands-on experience, though. Sorry.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

If you run them at 18 volts you lose the compression. I personally like EMGs better on 9 volts for guitar.

What people seem to mean when they say they aren’t “organic” is they are brighter than passive pickups. A nice warm EMG is the 58, which was the original version of the 85.

Another thing I used to do was use 100k pots. It opens the sound up a bit more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Edward203]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Have you heard this clip yet? It might be what you're looking for.

No hands-on experience, though. Sorry.

Thank you!! I watched that video before but I just realized I thought it was the fat 55 not the 57 and now I know the 77 set (bridge) is the same as the 70 set (bridge) so that is a mystery bridge on its own since it could be a 77 or a 70 depending on the set, haha! Also, apparently there is a ceramic version of the fat 55 that only comes with the 77 set in the neck :blackeye: not the same one that comes with the 70 set, I wish EMG had the audio samples and the bars showing the tone frequencies like Seymour Duncan does. That would make things way easier, they would probably have less returns.
The video is somewhat helpful, I play mostly leads but I guess it helps.

 

[Edward203]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

This video is also pretty helpful. I wish they had more demos comparing the retro actives with real passives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmvvDwYTlhM

 

[Edward203]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

If you run them at 18 volts you lose the compression. I personally like EMGs better on 9 volts for guitar.

What people seem to mean when they say they aren’t “organic” is they are brighter than passive pickups. A nice warm EMG is the 58, which was the original version of the 85.

Another thing I used to do was use 100k pots. It opens the sound up a bit more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting, maybe I should put that 85 that I barely use in the bridge instead haha. I still think they sound a little compressed, I love Metallica and EMG's but I don't know if it is that they re too bright or if they're just compressed but even the high gain SD sound a little bit less sterile in the high strings. Ideally I'd keep my 2 EMG guitars and get a third one with passives but I was trying to save some money. I guess there is no one guitar solution I'll check that 18 volt mod too. Thanks!

 

[Van Noord]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

The 57 still felt like an 81 to me.
I have an 85 in the bridge now and it's the best and my favorite active bridge humbucker.
Fat, tight (but not too tight and sterile) smooth highs that still cut and a midrange similar to a good hot passive PAF. Great output and sensitive to height adjustments too. Still some compression in the attack, but less than a typical active and more opening sounding all around.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

I love the 85 myself, and I agree that the 85 is fatter and perhaps more "organic" than the 81, so it's definitely worth a try. It fits some guitars better than the 81. I wouldn't say it's any less compressed, though. If anything, I think it's squishier with less attack and more of a fluid kinda sound.

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Just wait till you guys try the fishman fluence pickups. Light years better than any emg’s. I’ve pulled all the emg’s out of everything I had for them, the classics and moderns. They are better than the Duncan’s they were based on too. Plus they have 2 great sounds.

 

[Edward203]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Just wait till you guys try the fishman fluence pickups. Light years better than any emg’s. I’ve pulled all the emg’s out of everything I had for them, the classics and moderns. They are better than the Duncan’s they were based on too. Plus they have 2 great sounds.

Okay, I'm just learning about them now. Which one would you recommend? I guess I'll have to rewire the guitar either way? I'm checking online now.
Well, the 57 sounds better to my dumb ears, more organic, less compressed IMO, at least in this demo:

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

Re: Which EMG sounds a bit less sterile and more "organic": Retros 77, 70 or the 57??

The fishman’s plug right in to the 3 wire Emg’s harness. Now to get full use of all functions you will need to add a push pull pot or a switch or 2. The sets come with push pulls though. Just plug in the new harness, swap your pots and wire up the push pull. Most Emg equipped guitars use pretty low quality pots anyway. You can just use the jumpers to get one sound you want to try it out, but having two or 3 great sounds on board is well worth having to swap pots.

The classics start out with a Seth lover paf sound but boosted output, very clean and clear. For voice 2 they move straight into hot rod territory, think the best JB lead tone you’ve ever heard then make it better. I didn’t think I would like these as much as I do. That paf tone is great and the JB tone is even better. The open coil version have a third single coil voicing.

The moderns start with something closer to the blackouts for the active tone while the passive voice is based on the sd custom. I just put a set of these in a seven string and so far they are great too. Much more modern sounding with great definition and bite.

There are several signature sets as well, like the will Adler that uses a classic neck with a modern bridge. Listen to some demo’s online with headphones. I used Emg’s for years and other than the retro active single coils I wouldn’t go back.