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Rockmonster
Published on 04/02/08 at 16:54
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.
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.