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James... « great great great »
Published on 01/29/12 at 19:37A 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 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.