All user reviews for the EMG 81

For years, EMG has been an instantly recognized name in heavier genres of music for their high output active pickups. And who doesn’t recognize the ‘blacked out’ look of their matte black covered pickups? Used by top acts such as Metallica, Slayer, Zakk Wylde, and MANY more modern bands, EMG has defined a sound of its own that some love, and others don’t.

The 81 a ceramic magnet humbucker usually found as the bridge pickup in EMG’s recommended sets. As with all EMG pickups, it features a quick connect interfacing of circuitry and pickup, so that pickups can be swapped easily. In an active design, pickups usually have weak magnets, and couple with a preamp (the ‘active’ part of the circuit) to boost and mold the signal. This is why EMG pickups are usually found set very close to the strings. The preamp is also why EMG’s tend to sound a bit more similar in different guitars than your average pickup.

In the bridge, the 81 is a very sharp, compressed, and percussive pickup. It offers a very quick and tight low end, which lends itself well for adding clarity to dropped tunings. The midrange is slightly scooped, and treble response is sharp. Harmonics fly off nearly every position of the fretboard with this pickup. Those looking for a constantly aggressive, tight, and quick sound tend to love the 81, though it quickly comes off as sterile when used in more mellow applications. The hot signal of the EMGs pushes an amplifier hard, so cleans can come off as harsh and even distorted. When using the 81, I like to couple it with the 18V mod, to add a little depth and undo some of the treble peak.

Oddly enough, I also find the 81 to be a GREAT neck pickup. It is much clearer than the usual 85 EMG recommends, and definitely produces a more ‘glassy’ sound. With the quick connect cables, it is easy to try this, and you might be pleasantly surprised!

The EMG 81 is one of the pickups that helped make EMG a name for itself. It’s a pickup with an active preamp inside it. That means it requires a power source. In this case, it’s a 9V battery. It’s housed in a special cover with no pole pieces and has a ceramic magnet.

The EMG 81 is a pickup that’s getting a bit dated today, but it is still a great pickup. Overall, the pickup really pushes the amplifier, despite the pickup itself actually being low output. This is mainly thanks to the built in active preamp. It’s a quiet pickup that doesn’t need a buffer for long cable runs, and it doesn’t interfere with nasty RF waves like most regular pickups do. This is what helps make EMGs more appealing, especially in a live situation.

The pickup is very tight, has some good midrange and some screaming high end, but it’s also a bit bright. It has some awesome grind going on, but this can lead to it being overly bright in the wrong piece of wood. I find it works great in more neutral to mid heavy woods such as alder and mahogany. Basswood can be a bit iffy, depending on the tone you’re going for. I don’t recommend using this in a body made of a dense wood such as maple. The pickup can be used in both the neck and the bridge. Some find it works great in the neck, but I simply find it to be too bright for the lead tones I usually go for.

The biggest issue with EMGs is that they can sound a bit “linear.” They’re very compressed, and this can lead to some guitars sounding more similar than if they’d have passive pickups. Some argue this case, but it’s true to an extent. The guitars won’t sound identical, but they’ll sound a bit more similar than if they might have a pickup that’s more picky about woods such as the Seymour Duncan JB.

Overall, the pickup is great, especially for those who play metal. It can be a bit dated sounding thanks to the boutique market, but I still feel this is one of the best active pickups on the market.

I've owned at least 3 different guitars equipped with the EMG 81, and I've bought and installed about 5 EMG 81s in different guitars that I've owned and tried them in both the bridge and neck position. If you took a medium output passive pickup, threw a boost out in front of the amp, you'd get an EMG pickup. In essence, this is what the battery does for the pickup.

as a neck pickup (CLEAN):

Not bad. It's not like any fender glassy clean nor is it like a thick humbucker pickup. But the tone is almost like a transparent, woody tone. Suprisingly, very transparent. Not too bassy or trebly or anything! Just clear and woody is the best way i can put it. Though the headroom is a little bit questionable as it sounds like it's JUST on the verge of break up, but doesn't.

as a neck pickup (DIRTY):
Great! Smooth distortion, not too bright and not too much bass. There's enough gain on tap to do any of the shreddy stuff. Low-medium gains is nothing to write home about however. But it tracks very well under high gain!

as a bridge pickup (CLEAN): The clean is decent. Some people have said that it breaks up but I personally haven't had that same experience, it may depend on the pickup height however.

as a bridge pickup (DIRTY): Very subjective here. Over the years it's been claimed to be either great, or shrill and sterile. I personally think it is a relatively bright pickup, and slightly gritty. I've used this pickup on standard tuned guitars and downtuned guitars, both of which sound good. Of course on a downtuned guitar the overall sound is smoother than if tuned in standard. A lot of metal players use these pickups for this reason. It keeps the tone tight when downtuned. Harmonics leap out effortlessly.

Overall great metal pickup. Very tight, and clear even with downtuned guitars. Clean is not something this pickup excels at. Doesn't clean up with the volume control but it is quiet since it's active. The battery thing is a necessity with these pickups, it DOES help with taming ground noise and whatnot. I do not find it troublesome, though some people do. It's completely subjective these days as a lot of other guitar gear works the same way.

* For how long have you been using it? I received it last week and got into the stride, no problem.

* What thing do you like most/least about it? What really pleasant surprise is the quality of packaging, assembly plan super simple (even in English) that is in the Plugg !!!!( excellent, no need for soldering iron ...!) and especially SOUND!

* Did you try many other models before getting this one? No, I was already 85, I knew what to expect.

* What is your opinion about the value for the price? For 71 € is really present in German. Included in the pretty box: the 81, 1 volume, 1 tone, 1 jack, battery buss, various cables and pickup buss B157.

* Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice? Yes without hesitation. Roll on next! Mount it on my old Epi SG 99 (Set-Neck, Mahogany), I thought it could sound and indeed it sounds!

Used this pickup in an Ibanez RG550 for over a year... Basswood has a very balanced smooth tone, so.. I think it was a forgiving canvas for a pickup to make an impression. I have had extensive experience in tone dissatisfaction.. so I am always changing stuff in and out of guitars.. It IS a disease! I have used Fender, Gibson, Paul Reed Smith, EMG, Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Carvin, etc, etc.
Alright. So, now the pickup. EMG81. The pre-eminent metal pickup of choice for all the Nu-Metal kiddies. This pickup has been around FOREVER. I think I was using this 12 years ago.. maybe longer... so this is definitely not the new piece of gear lots of people think it is. Very high output, neutrally voiced pickup. It has a lot of clear, boosted signal. Kind of the opposite gain approach of the Dimarzio HS-3.. which is a low output... very, VERY neutral pickup. Zakk Wylde seems to love this in a Les Paul.. I imagine it might be a good choice in that guitar.. as the maple may add brightness.Let me also add that he has a maple neck, so.. this has a small bit of impact as well. In the Ibanez, it was opaque. Flat. Neutral. Can't think of any other boring adjectives to describe it. The good news is.. it should take on the characteristics of your rig. If you have a good preamp... or a Marshall JCM800.. with a bunch of Boss pedals in front of it.. you might be able to get a nice dark, heavy tone. (like Zakk) Not particularly complex.. pretty straightforward, high gain. Easy pinched harmonics, but not rich and detailed sounding. The best way to get a rich sound would be if you have a crunchy amp.. and use this to push it into higher gain. I'm sure Zakk Wylde's rig would not scream quite so loudly if you played a Strat thru it. The best part about this is that it is verbose. Huge. Fat. Like playing a regular humbucker with a clean boost. (One good way to avoid buying this, changing your pots and adding batteries) But if you want a dead quiet, high output solution.. need your notes thick and meaty (and your rig provides the character you want) this is the way to go. You hear it on lots of heavy albums nowadays... the question one has to pose themselves is... Do I want to create my OWN sound? This might be it... but there are lots of other options.