Anyone use EMG actives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Quagmire02
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Emgs

Hi everyone just scanning through posts and I came across this thread.

Well I have been using Emgs for a long time, and in many ways alot of what has been said is correct.

Emgs sound lifeless;

Emgs sound thin;

Emgs give a metal sound.

You need a good eq setup with Emgs.

To be honest I use alot of guitars some with Emgs and some without.
And what alot of players unfortunately do is make the mistake of using the same AMP settings for their Emgs as they do for their passive pickups.

Thats the first problem.

What ever pickups you use you have to tailor your amp settings for the sound you want by taking in to consideration the guitar and pickup characteristics.

Its easy really, thin sound at more mid and bass; high treble sound back of high frequency add bass.
Guitar has trem or bolt on neck, its gonna have less sustain! so add mid and bass for fuller rhythm sound or use a pedal to add more for solos etc.

The other mistake alot of people make is they add to much crunch to their sound. Emg scream and so do passive pickups but you do not have to overload the sound as much as you think.

Emgs tend to need less preamp distortion as they have their own preamp.
Passive pickups tend to need a little more if your going for that crunchy saturation.

I can say I went through a few stages when I started using them,

first I loved them ; then I didnt, then I did again and then I didnt.

In the end I started to realise by swapping back and for guitars into the same amp (one with emgs the other with passive pickups). To get the sounds I wanted I needed to change the eq on amp quite a bit.

Well I hope that has helped someone.

Cheers

:)
 
rustyshed said:
To be honest I use alot of guitars some with Emgs and some without.
And what alot of players unfortunately do is make the mistake of using the same AMP settings for their Emgs as they do for their passive pickups.

Thats the first problem.
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Thats a definate issue right there.
 
I have an 81 and an 85 in my Prestige, they are very good for lead (81 and the bridge) but a bit on the glassy side for rhythm.
 
For those of you that think EMG's are thin, go listen to Kerry King of slayer and Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society. If that is thin, then I would love to hear what you consider heavy, because both of them are known for brutally heavy tone.

I guess if you start out with a thin strung guitar, through a thin sounding amp you could get make them sound thin, but you would have to TRY.
 
You don't think Zakk Wyldes sound is thin????!!!

I was in the studio when he was recording his recent album and I heard the sound that was coming out of the amp. I've also been around at soundcheck at a few shows over the years.

The low end that is on the albums is added at the board and then compressed. Something like 4 or 5db of 110hz then compressed to get it to pump a little more.
 
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Farwview, I hate to argue with you, because I respect your experience and IMO, most of what you say is right on the money...so lets say I respectfully disagree.

But I think what you guys are calling thin, I think of as "tight" or "crisp"
Thin implies a lack of bottom end, whereas in my experience the EMG actives have a lot of bottom end (although 'tight' and not boomy) and a clear and defined high end. So to answer your question I do not think Zakk has a thin tone. I think it is heavy, and tight, with plenty of highs - but again, this is all subjective.
Here is a short clip of a Black Label Society song:
BLS - 'Bleed for Me'

Maybe for the sake of comparison you could give an example of what tone you think of as "thick" or not thin.....
 
I was just reading up on my HZs and the EMG site said that one of the Zak Wylde models used the HZs :confused:

Actually the EMG site is kinda funny, it has this big section about how passives are old outdated technology, then right below that is their HZ range :D
 
Holy cow, that was thinner than I remembered. All the low end in that clip is coming from the bass, not the guitar.

Here is a clip from an unfinished mix I am working on. That is still a scratch bass track.

 
Farview said:
Holy cow, that was thinner than I remembered. All the low end in that clip is coming from the bass, not the guitar.

Here is a clip from an unfinished mix I am working on. That is still a scratch bass track.

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That Zak guitar tone is weak if you ask me. Yours on the other hand, is fucking fat. I'm sure you could get that with EMGs It doesn't sound like an EMG to me though I could be wrong.
 
amra said:
For those of you that think EMG's are thin, go listen to Kerry King of slayer and Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society. If that is thin, then I would love to hear what you consider heavy, because both of them are known for brutally heavy tone.

I guess if you start out with a thin strung guitar, through a thin sounding amp you could get make them sound thin, but you would have to TRY.
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His tone kicks ass alright, my honest problem with the 81 - 85 combo is that the 85 at the neck is way too bassy for a guitar without the tone control of a Les Paul. They work fine in a Les Paul etc because of the extra knobs and but if you swap them into an Ibanez (2-1-2) it just doesn't work that way. If I fiddle with the amp/rig settings to get a great tone off the neck, when I flip it back to the bridge it is way to tinny. Just as flipping from a nice bridge tone to the neck sucks becuase the neck is too damn bassy and a bit too loud. My bad for not researching what would work in the Prestige. Perhaps a different EMG's combo... then again I prefer regular humbuckers Dimarzio Breeds are nice. The tightest (with bottom end that holds its definition) set I have are on my EBMM Petrucci 7 string - they are the only pups I have used that can get the max out of my Triaxis and they are absolutely silent even at mega high volumes with massive ammounts of gain, no noise (my Breeds sound like there is an electrical storm when if I stand too close to my rig). If you want tight and heavy, check them out - you can get a lot of different tones out of them, not just metal.
 
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It always made more sense to me to put the 81 in the neck position and the 85 at the bridge.

BTW, that clip was recorded with emg's, 81's no less.
 
Farview said:
Holy cow, that was thinner than I remembered. All the low end in that clip is coming from the bass, not the guitar.
How true Farview-there is like NO bottom end in that Zak clip-I don't hear hardly anything below 200 Hz at all that amounts to much!
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Now I am not an expert compared to alot of guys on here, but do you really want your guitar to have much below 200? Thats mostly boom in a guitar track below that point?

Anyway, I agree with farview about the pickup placement though, I like the 85 in the bridge (as you'll notice in my post on the first page) better because it does have a little more balls.

Besides how can you argue tone with a guy who was in the studio with the guitar player who's tone your were using as an example? :o
I believe that is what is called an indefensible position on my part. I'll shut up now.
lol
I knew there was a reason I didn't argue with you, farview...
 
amra said:
Now I am not an expert compared to alot of guys on here, but do you really want your guitar to have much below 200? Thats mostly boom in a guitar track below that point?
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Most of the notes on the guitar are below 400hz. Anyway, having no low end is the definition of thin.


There is nothing wrong with Zakk's sound and there is nothing wrong with liking that tone. It just can't really be described as 'thick', 'full', 'heavy', etc...

I didn't mean to come off sounding like I think EMG's suck, they don't. But they are not the right tool for every job.
 
Farview said:
It always made more sense to me to put the 81 in the neck position and the 85 at the bridge.

BTW, that clip was recorded with emg's, 81's no less.
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Come to think of, you are probably right about that but according to the EMG website, the ZW configuration is 81 at the bridge... http://www.emginc.com/downloads/wiringdiagrams/ZWset.pdf
The more bassy 85 at the bridge would make more sense consider the 81 at the neck would be less trebly... might try swapping them over to see the difference
 
Ive been playing EMG for years. I would like some suggestions for my SG that rival the power of EMG yet have the clean dynamics of good passive. Any suggestions? We're talking death metal for tone! :P
 
VesuviusJay said:
I would like some suggestions for my SG that rival the power of EMG yet have the clean dynamics of good passive.
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That statement is exactly the opposite of the way I would characterize EMG's vs. passive pickups.

EMG's are very, very clean and thin. That's why they need the built in preamp to have any hope of pushing the front end of an amp into distortion.

I would suggest a Duncan custom, Duncan distortion, etc...

If you go to the duncan site, they have descriptions of each pickups tone. I know they were working on a CD that had a sample of each pickups tone on it, I don't know if that ever came out.
 
pick ups just like tone, guitars, etc...... it is all personal taste, personally i love emg's, but not for every job......depends what the song calls for. i have a few different set ups on different guitars.......i have the 81/85 set up on a les paul, i have a dean cadillac with duncan pearly gates/59, then on dean dime ml i have the dimebag set up with the dimebucker.......it just all depends on what sound i want, but i do love the active emg's.
 
Quagmire...
I put some Seymore Duncan 59'ers in my flying V. They sound great for many different styles of music. I like pickups that have alot of dynamics...sound clean when you play lightly and overdrive when you dig in.

I haven't tried the active humbuckers, but I really like the SD 59'ers in a Flying V.

If you have humbucking pickups with great dynamics, like the 59'ers, you can get the metal crunch from your rig/effects IMO.
 
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