emg vs. seymour duncan?

Had both

I always felt the EMG lacked a certain warmth. It is a very quite PU when not playing however. I still have the DG-20 David Gilmour set in my Strat. I had the ZW, 81 & 85 set in a custom Les Paul that I built, but swapped them out for Duncans. For what type of music you described the Duncan would suit you better IMO...
 
Pickups don't really have all that much to do with sustain. That is more of a factor of the wood and the hardware involved. The adjustment of the pickups can make a difference in the sustain, because if they are too close they can suck the energy out of the string, but that will happen with any pickup.

For myself, I always find EMGs to be really stale and sterile. They are very clean, and there is no question they are the quietest pickups you will find, but I just always find that they have no character, no personality. The JB has character to burn, and is the pickup I would choose. The additional benefit of the Duncan is that you don't have to replace both of them at the same time. The EMGs will not work with other pickups, as their impenitence is much lower.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I recently put a Duncan JB-4 and a SH-2 in my G & L F100.

The tone is like butta, baby!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet! :):):):)

I agree with the "sterile" comment about the EMG 81's. They have no personality at all.
 
Light said:
Pickups don't really have all that much to do with sustain. That is more of a factor of the wood and the hardware involved. The adjustment of the pickups can make a difference in the sustain, because if they are too close they can suck the energy out of the string, but that will happen with any pickup.

For myself, I always find EMGs to be really stale and sterile. They are very clean, and there is no question they are the quietest pickups you will find, but I just always find that they have no character, no personality. The JB has character to burn, and is the pickup I would choose. The additional benefit of the Duncan is that you don't have to replace both of them at the same time. The EMGs will not work with other pickups, as their impenitence is much lower.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

I have a set of the original EMG Strat pickups. They have loads of personality and sound exactly like "strat" sounds. I got them in 1984. The new EMGs, however, don't sound like the old ones at all.
 
Couldn't disagree more

acorec said:
I have a set of the original EMG Strat pickups. They have loads of personality and sound exactly like "strat" sounds. I got them in 1984. The new EMGs, however, don't sound like the old ones at all.

The pickups I have in my strat are the EMG DG-20 David Gilmour set and they sound fantastic. I only purchased these last year so they are failry new. As far as the EMG 81 in the bridge position on a LP, it definetly lacks something IMO. It's not fair to lump all EMG PU models into one general statement.
 
One thing about the JB...I had one, and gave it away. The way that I got it is that someone gave it to me.

My Ibanez stalk pickup was better than the JB, and so is my current Bill Lawrence XL500

I do think that it is a good pickup, but not for the sound that I believe you are going for.

It is descent if you chug at chords (and thats it) IMO


EMG = great pickup
 
dumass said:
how does the emg-81 and the seymour duncan JB compare? im particularly interested in the sustain that they can give. any comments or suggestions on the two? i play mostly rock and "punk" and will be putting them into an epiphone les paul standard. thanks


Actually, for the style you are talking about, I would probably not suggest the JB, though it is a great pickup. The combination I would choose, personally, is a Seymour Duncan Alnico II in the neck, and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge. This is my absolute favorite combination for loud distorted rock stuff. Absolutely killer for all of it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Go to Seymour Duncan's website. There are sound clips of every SD pickup, in clean and dirty mode, neck & bridge. I have a Les Paul DeLuxe that had a dead original bridge pickup so I went there to check out replacements & ended up installing a pair of SM2s based on the sound I heard...and they sound, if anything, better in person. Wish I'd changed 'em out years ago.
 
Admittedly, I play a fairly "soulless" type of music (industrial/hard rock with a lot of clean channel parts and WAAAYYY too much processing) so by the looks of things on this thread, it sounds like the EMG's are going to be my thing. I play an Ibanez S series 7 string, so I've been looking at the 707's. Routing issues aside (am I right in thinking this pickup is a different size than the stocks?), is this something that I could do myself? Does the scrawny body on this guitar even have room for the battery and whatever else goes inside?

BTW Light, your comments on this forum are ridiculously helpful. I've been playing guitar for 16 years and it was a bit sobering to realize how little I truly knew about the bones of my instrument. Thanks for the time you put in to this site.
 
Purge said:
Admittedly, I play a fairly "soulless" type of music (industrial/hard rock with a lot of clean channel parts and WAAAYYY too much processing) so by the looks of things on this thread, it sounds like the EMG's are going to be my thing. I play an Ibanez S series 7 string, so I've been looking at the 707's. Routing issues aside (am I right in thinking this pickup is a different size than the stocks?), is this something that I could do myself? Does the scrawny body on this guitar even have room for the battery and whatever else goes inside?

BTW Light, your comments on this forum are ridiculously helpful. I've been playing guitar for 16 years and it was a bit sobering to realize how little I truly knew about the bones of my instrument. Thanks for the time you put in to this site.

Thanks for the complement.

If you are trying to replace a pickup in a seven string, you will have to find a seven string pickup. I believe Seymour Duncan makes a seven string pickup. I know that both Dimarzio and Bartolini do. Of the two, the Bartolini's are going to be closer to the EMGs, but they are passive pickups. You can get active electronics for them, but you do not need to. Personally, though I love Bartolini’s in basses, I have never been fond of them in anything but jazz guitars. But that is because I much prefer the sound of Seymour Duncan's or Joe Barden's for any other style of music. The Bartolini's are very clean, but I think they have a little more personality. I think you will also find that, for the stuff you describe, that you want guitars which have personality. You will have to be the judge.

If the shape of the pickups are different, it will likely require some routing, which you do NOT want to do your self. We do it free hand on an overarm router (actually, a drill press with a down-cut spiral router bit). I have cut quite a few pickup cavities this way, and I still find it to be intensely nerve racking. And I promise you will screw up the first few you do (I sure did. Those ones hang on MY wall). Remember the old woodworker’s adage, "measure twice, cut once." If you are handy with a soldering iron, you can probably change the pickups if there is no routing involved. If you are not comfortable with soldering, or if you haven't done it before, get it done by a professional (my constant refrain, I know, but it is true).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Yeah, the EMG707 is a 7-string pickup. I was also looking into the Seymour Duncan Invaders, since they're making those for 7's now. Any 7 string players here with an opinion on either of these? That low B can really make life a pain in the ass as far as trying to find a "balanced" sound goes...too bright up high, too wobbly down low, too whatever-the-hell...
 
what do u guys think of the dimarzio x2n...compared to those. i've read that they have shitloads of gain and noce sustain. anyone have experience?
 
Light said:
Pickups don't really have all that much to do with sustain...
What... uh...

The pickup's frequency response and gain has just as much to do with sustain as does the guitar body and design. Sounds as though you've not played many pickups at high amp gain settings.
 
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Re: Re: emg vs. seymour duncan?

Light said:
Actually, for the style you are talking about, I would probably not suggest the JB, though it is a great pickup. The combination I would choose, personally, is a Seymour Duncan Alnico II in the neck, and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge. This is my absolute favorite combination for loud distorted rock stuff. Absolutely killer for all of it
I agree that an ALNICO in the neck can be great... but I'd put a Ceramic in the bridge for Distortion... since you're comparing to an EMG. IMO the ALNICO bridge may be to soft and doesn't have the edge of the Ceramic.
 
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