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ejendres « Great pickup »
Published on 11/10/11 at 10:48The EMG60 is an active humbucker, usually put in the neck position. The thing I like most about it is that it is a warm pickup that still retained the EMG clarity. That said, it is a really compressed pickup, I prefer a more open sounding neck pickup.
For clean tones it is a little high output to be considered pristine, but I actually really liked the clean tone. It’s warm and unique, with still a bit of an edge to it. It is very cool. That little bit of edge adds this sweet punchiness that I loved for single note runs and fast arpeggios. With a little bit of delay, it is beautiful. However it is possible to lessen that bite or even get rid of it completely with a little compensation on your amp. Dial back the gain and you will be fine. The tone is kind of bland without that edge, but still very nice and useable.
Where this pickup really shines is for liquid lead tone. That punchiness I mentioned in the clean tone is still there, which makes it awesome for syncopated riffing, especially on the lower strings. It sounds really huge which is great. It is also really smooth on the higher string, perfect for that liquid lead tone a lot of people are after. Also, the active circuitry lends itself to an absurd amount of clarity, so even with a truck load of gain this pickup does not get muddy.
In my opinion this pickup is way too compressed. It just cannot nail that open, vintage sounding lead tone I am after. However, just because it doesn’t work for me does not mean it is not a good pickup. That compression that I dislike is part of what makes it such a smooth and articulate pickup with tons of gain, it also adds to its unique clean sound. So if you are looking for vintage tone, look elsewhere, but if you’re looking for smooth modern lead tone definitely try one out.
For clean tones it is a little high output to be considered pristine, but I actually really liked the clean tone. It’s warm and unique, with still a bit of an edge to it. It is very cool. That little bit of edge adds this sweet punchiness that I loved for single note runs and fast arpeggios. With a little bit of delay, it is beautiful. However it is possible to lessen that bite or even get rid of it completely with a little compensation on your amp. Dial back the gain and you will be fine. The tone is kind of bland without that edge, but still very nice and useable.
Where this pickup really shines is for liquid lead tone. That punchiness I mentioned in the clean tone is still there, which makes it awesome for syncopated riffing, especially on the lower strings. It sounds really huge which is great. It is also really smooth on the higher string, perfect for that liquid lead tone a lot of people are after. Also, the active circuitry lends itself to an absurd amount of clarity, so even with a truck load of gain this pickup does not get muddy.
In my opinion this pickup is way too compressed. It just cannot nail that open, vintage sounding lead tone I am after. However, just because it doesn’t work for me does not mean it is not a good pickup. That compression that I dislike is part of what makes it such a smooth and articulate pickup with tons of gain, it also adds to its unique clean sound. So if you are looking for vintage tone, look elsewhere, but if you’re looking for smooth modern lead tone definitely try one out.