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King Loudness « Not for the vintage tone snobs »
Published on 06/12/11 at 13:11The EMG 81 is probably one of the company's best known pickups and is highly regarded by the metal community worldwide for its tightness, compression and output. I've tried it in many different guitars by Gibson, ESP, Jackson, Schecter, etc and I've come to the conclusion that it's a great pickup for higher gain metal applications. However, my tastes have changed quite a bit in the last couple of years and that type of high output pickup doesn't really do too much for me anymore tone wise. However I'll try and give as unbiased a review as I can.
First off, I should mention that when I was more into active electronics, I found that EMGs wired for 18 volts (as opposed to 9 volts) sounded thicker, punchier and just BETTER overall. Not that 9 volt operation sounds bad, it's just that I (along with many others) just feel that the 18 volt wiring sounds better.
The clean tones are very interesting to me. I find that they're better in many ways, such as the amount of clarity, the top end sparkle and the built in compression. The resulting tone is one that is a little bit more high fidelity sounding when compared to a passive humbucker, which I find is great for eighties and modern clean sounds. However, if I want to really dig in and get a bluesier and more tube-like character... I don't find that this pickup gets there very well. It just has this "perfect" character that doesn't really allow for things like gutsy blues tones to shine through.
The distorted tones are very high output and killer for nineties rock through to modern metal. The added output and compression that comes from the active circuitry really helps to add a cool dimension to the sound. They retain their clarity at even the highest of gain levels, and are quite articulate as well. That being said, they definitely lack some of the openness of passive humbuckers, and doing things like volume rollback/swells or using fairly low gain levels doesn't sound all that stellar to me, so given my current (more vintage based) musical tastes... this pickup doesn't really work well for me.
All in all I feel that the EMG 81 is a great active pickup for those seeking something that is articulate and has that cool high fidelity character. However, for those wanting a more vintage vibe to their tones... look elsewhere.
First off, I should mention that when I was more into active electronics, I found that EMGs wired for 18 volts (as opposed to 9 volts) sounded thicker, punchier and just BETTER overall. Not that 9 volt operation sounds bad, it's just that I (along with many others) just feel that the 18 volt wiring sounds better.
The clean tones are very interesting to me. I find that they're better in many ways, such as the amount of clarity, the top end sparkle and the built in compression. The resulting tone is one that is a little bit more high fidelity sounding when compared to a passive humbucker, which I find is great for eighties and modern clean sounds. However, if I want to really dig in and get a bluesier and more tube-like character... I don't find that this pickup gets there very well. It just has this "perfect" character that doesn't really allow for things like gutsy blues tones to shine through.
The distorted tones are very high output and killer for nineties rock through to modern metal. The added output and compression that comes from the active circuitry really helps to add a cool dimension to the sound. They retain their clarity at even the highest of gain levels, and are quite articulate as well. That being said, they definitely lack some of the openness of passive humbuckers, and doing things like volume rollback/swells or using fairly low gain levels doesn't sound all that stellar to me, so given my current (more vintage based) musical tastes... this pickup doesn't really work well for me.
All in all I feel that the EMG 81 is a great active pickup for those seeking something that is articulate and has that cool high fidelity character. However, for those wanting a more vintage vibe to their tones... look elsewhere.