SeriesEMG Single Coil

A little background. I have used one of these in the middle position of an Ibanez rg550 along with 2 EMG 81's for about 6 years now. That alone should attest to the staying quality of this pickup. I must say up front. I have never had any issues with this pickup or any other emg pickup. No cutting out or weird noises or whatever. In fact these are the quietest pickups I have ever used. I feel like people tend to forget this about EMG's. They are super quiet compared to other pickups. The EMG S is a very different type of single coil. It's true that it's very sterile. People act like that's a bad thing. But for some styles this is fine. A lot of blues and jazz players love these for the clarity and sterile sound they produce. Make no mistake though, it is still very much a single coil. And it quacks like any single coil should. For cleans it helps to have two of them running at once, or maybe an 81 split running together with one. By itself it can have a tendency to lack bass and be a treble monster. These aren't super warm in the first place. But make no mistake they are wonderful at taking effects and not imparting their own sound into the mix. The clarity and pureness of sound comes in handy when you have a lot of delay or effects going on. Can't recommend enough, but make sure this is what sound you want. These aren't warm or organic pickups. You trade off that warm vintage sound for clarity and noiselessness. It's just a different flavor of strat pickup. Good for metal, blues, and jazz in my opinion. Not much else.

The EMG SA Strat set is basically EMG's standard set of pickups to replace the typical passive S-S-S pickups found in a Stratocaster type guitar. I purchased a Japanese made Phoenix/Tokai Strat that had originally been loaded with a set of DiMarzio pickups and later had been replaced with these EMG SA pickups in a set. This particular set was also wired with the 18 volt mod (using 2 9V batteries) which provides a thicker and clearer tone overall. It's very common for metal players to do this with their humbuckers, but I definitely think it's a decent thing for the single coils as well. The guitar in question had an ash body and a maple neck/fretboard, so it was a fairly bright guitar. The EMGs had a surpringly good sound to them that I was not expecting in the slightest. I'm not normally one to stray from my favoured vintage style single coils when I'm playing a Strat, but these pickups had a wicked tone that was awesome. They have a very cool chime/top end sparkle that is really hi-fi sounding. It's not nearly as forgiving as a set of vintage passives, but they have a perfect polished eighties sort of LA Studio sound. Applying some compression and various spatial effects brought forth the ultimate in pristine cleans. Sure it didn't sound vintage, but it did sound good. The drive tones were very controlled and smooth. They handle gain like a champ and never feel like they're being overloaded. The split coil modes sounded awesome too, very Dire Straits esque or like a modern take on the classic Little Wing tone. All in all I think the EMG SA pickup set is a great alternative for those players who want something that's more polished and pristine than a typical set of passive Strat pickups. Sure they buck tradition, but for that crystal clear sound I haven't heard better. I do prefer them wired 18V, but standard 9V wiring sounds fine too.

I Installed this pickup in the neck position of an ESP SC6 which has an alder body, maple neck, ebony fret board, and tune-o-matic bridge. My main amp is a framus cobra 100 watt tube amp and I sometimes use a peavey 5150 or hughes & kettner triamp. I play a mixture of metal, prog rock, and spacey clean music. This pickup is an unsung hero in the EMG line. Everyone raves about the 81/85 for metal but honestly after I did some searching with passives I removed and sold all my EMG pickups with the exception of the SA. This pickup sounds great and does not have that stiff hard sound like their humbuckers nor is it sterile in any way. Think of the things you like about single coils all the clarity, sparkle, and snap is there but without the noise and with an increased output. The EQ curve seems to be mid-scooped and although it's not the greatest for neck pickup lead work it is exactly what I like for clean tones. This also responds much better to playing dynamics thn the other EMGs and actually cleans up well by rolling the volume knob back. My only beef with the SA is that it is hard to work into a guitar that has passive pickups in the other positions since you have to use the EMG pots (25k) and the output is a little high to match with low-medium output humbuckers. Other than that it is a great sounding single coil. I was playing my guitar in a shop one day and this traditional blues guy walked up really excited to see what pickup I was using. Needless to say he was shocked when he saw it was an active EMG. I think David Gilmour uses these and he can do no wrong tone wise.