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EMG 60
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EMG 60

Humbucker guitar pickup from EMG belonging to the Active series

21 reviews

Buy new EMG 60

  • Thomann Not available / N/A €89.00

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4.5/5
(21 reviews)
57 %
(12 reviews)
38 %
(8 reviews)
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MGR/The FinchMGR/The Finch

EMG EMG60

EMG 60Published on 07/18/04 at 15:00
Product was purchased as an upgrade from www.gak.co.uk.

It cost around £71.

The humbucker was packaged with everything required to solder it together and also included a very easy to understand instruction manual. Thanks to this and EMG's quick connect installation system, I had this baby up and running within 20 minutes.



Without a case or clip to stabilise the required 9v battery into my instrument, additional modifications became necessary.

The pickup is decorated in an attractive black case that seems quite solid and scratch resistant. Usually I end up accidentally wearing the manufacturers logo's away from my pickups during playing but since the EMG logo is imbedded into the...…
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Product was purchased as an upgrade from www.gak.co.uk.

It cost around £71.

The humbucker was packaged with everything required to solder it together and also included a very easy to understand instruction manual. Thanks to this and EMG's quick connect installation system, I had this baby up and running within 20 minutes.



Without a case or clip to stabilise the required 9v battery into my instrument, additional modifications became necessary.

The pickup is decorated in an attractive black case that seems quite solid and scratch resistant. Usually I end up accidentally wearing the manufacturers logo's away from my pickups during playing but since the EMG logo is imbedded into the pickup itself, I can't see that happening.

In the bridge position, the EMG.60 add's more warmth, dynamic range and clarity to a distorted signal than the EMG.81 which is strange considering that it's marketed as a neck pickup.

It adds much needed beef to the thin and overly bright sounding EMG.81 when used in the neck position but use it alone in the neck and you'll find that it sounds muddy and flat through distortion.

Whether in the bridge or neck, the EMG.60 can simulate some wonderful 'acoustic' sounds when played clean and is also capable of producing incredible blues and jazz tones.

It gives off hardly any hum or feedback and has also added more realism and depth to my amp modelling units in the studio! Bonus!

I use the EMG.60 in the bridge of my guitar with the 81 in the neck. I find this set-up more adequate to my style of playing which is mostly rock and metal.

This is the best humbucker I've ever used for my playing but it loses one point for being a truly lousy neck pick-up.




This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
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ejendresejendres

Great pickup

EMG 60Published on 11/10/11 at 10:48
The 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...…
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The 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.
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King LoudnessKing Loudness

Actively lead

EMG 60Published on 10/11/11 at 09:32
The EMG 60 is a pickup that is a variation on the typical EMG humbuckers. It is commonly paired in the neck position of a dual humbucker loaded guitar with an 81 or an 85 at the bridge position. I have one as stock in my ESP Eclipse II and I can certainly see the appeal in this pickup for active pickup users. Compared to the 81 or even the 85 it's a a fairly bassy sounding pickup, and it has a certain tightness in the low end that is optimum for really thick sounding lead work. Compared to the 85 as a neck position pickup, the EMG 60 definitely has more output going through it which makes it ideal for higher gain applications. The 85 is a bit more vintage in character and has a slightly...…
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The EMG 60 is a pickup that is a variation on the typical EMG humbuckers. It is commonly paired in the neck position of a dual humbucker loaded guitar with an 81 or an 85 at the bridge position. I have one as stock in my ESP Eclipse II and I can certainly see the appeal in this pickup for active pickup users. Compared to the 81 or even the 85 it's a a fairly bassy sounding pickup, and it has a certain tightness in the low end that is optimum for really thick sounding lead work. Compared to the 85 as a neck position pickup, the EMG 60 definitely has more output going through it which makes it ideal for higher gain applications. The 85 is a bit more vintage in character and has a slightly more classic quality to it to my ears.

I'm not particularly a fan of this pickup's clean tones. This is where you really start to hear the output that this pickup has. I don't find it to be a particularly dynamic pickup either. Played into clean amps, I find the tone to have too much gain and compression to sound good. It is kinda cool if you're going for that broken up clean tone, but I wouldn't say this pickup is pristine. The drive tones on thr other hand, are wonderful and I think the EMG 60 makes for an excellent compliment to the 81 in my ESP. It's very thick and fluid, and the harmonic overtones are simply astounding. For what it's worth, I still have an issue with the compressed nature of EMGs, but I find that this pickup has a great fluid tone for modern rock or metal riffage. I don't think it's a dynamic enough humbucker for blues or classic rock - that's a job for the 85. All in all I think the EMG 60 is a cool pickup for someone looking for a killer high gain pickup to compliment something like the 81. Though it lacks some dynamics and headroom, it's still definitely worth checking out if you're an EMG player doing hard rock or metal music.

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tjon901tjon901

One trick pony EMG

EMG 60Published on 06/30/11 at 12:46
For many years EMG was the only name in the active pickups department. The EMG active pickups use a pair of rail magnets with a built in preamp. As you probably know active pickups require a battery to power them. Rail magnets are better than the normal magnets used in pickups because there is no gap in the signal. When you bend a string with normal pickups the string moves slightly away from the magnet that string is associated with, and you get a slight decrease in signal. With rail magnets there is no gap in detection of the string vibration. With EMG's they can also use weaker magnets due to the fact that the signal will be boosted in the preamp. With the weaker magnets the magnets...…
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For many years EMG was the only name in the active pickups department. The EMG active pickups use a pair of rail magnets with a built in preamp. As you probably know active pickups require a battery to power them. Rail magnets are better than the normal magnets used in pickups because there is no gap in the signal. When you bend a string with normal pickups the string moves slightly away from the magnet that string is associated with, and you get a slight decrease in signal. With rail magnets there is no gap in detection of the string vibration. With EMG's they can also use weaker magnets due to the fact that the signal will be boosted in the preamp. With the weaker magnets the magnets cause less interference with the strings. The strings are very sensitive to how powerful your magnets are. High output passive pickups can reduce the sustain of your guitar with all the magnetic drag These active pickups run on a battery to power the preamp. You will need a 9v battery in your guitar to make these pickups work. The 60 is designed to be clean alternative to the 81 and the 85. This limits the pickups use in metal where you would normally use active pickups. This pickup is pretty much a neck only pickup. This guy does not have the output of the 81 or the 85 and does not sound that great with high gain distortion. This pickup is best for cleans. Its most famous user is James Hetfield from Metallica. He used this pickup in the neck position of his guitars for many years and used it for its clean tones. Clean tones are something that Is usually not too good in active pickups so EMG made one just for cleans. So this is a good neck position pickup if you are running an active bridge pickup and dont intend on using the neck position for any high gain stuff.
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Tech. sheet

  • Manufacturer: EMG
  • Model: 60
  • Series: Active
  • Category: Humbucker guitar pickups
  • Package weight:245 g
  • Added in our database on: 04/30/2004

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Other names: 60 black, 60black, 60 black