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wwhhhaatt « surprisingly awesome »
Published on 06/09/11 at 09:07I Installed this pickup in the neck position of an ESP SC6 which has an alder body, maple neck, ebony fret board, and tune-o-matic bridge. My main amp is a framus cobra 100 watt tube amp and I sometimes use a peavey 5150 or hughes & kettner triamp. I play a mixture of metal, prog rock, and spacey clean music.
This pickup is an unsung hero in the EMG line. Everyone raves about the 81/85 for metal but honestly after I did some searching with passives I removed and sold all my EMG pickups with the exception of the SA. This pickup sounds great and does not have that stiff hard sound like their humbuckers nor is it sterile in any way. Think of the things you like about single coils all the clarity, sparkle, and snap is there but without the noise and with an increased output. The EQ curve seems to be mid-scooped and although it's not the greatest for neck pickup lead work it is exactly what I like for clean tones. This also responds much better to playing dynamics thn the other EMGs and actually cleans up well by rolling the volume knob back. My only beef with the SA is that it is hard to work into a guitar that has passive pickups in the other positions since you have to use the EMG pots (25k) and the output is a little high to match with low-medium output humbuckers. Other than that it is a great sounding single coil.
I was playing my guitar in a shop one day and this traditional blues guy walked up really excited to see what pickup I was using. Needless to say he was shocked when he saw it was an active EMG. I think David Gilmour uses these and he can do no wrong tone wise.
This pickup is an unsung hero in the EMG line. Everyone raves about the 81/85 for metal but honestly after I did some searching with passives I removed and sold all my EMG pickups with the exception of the SA. This pickup sounds great and does not have that stiff hard sound like their humbuckers nor is it sterile in any way. Think of the things you like about single coils all the clarity, sparkle, and snap is there but without the noise and with an increased output. The EQ curve seems to be mid-scooped and although it's not the greatest for neck pickup lead work it is exactly what I like for clean tones. This also responds much better to playing dynamics thn the other EMGs and actually cleans up well by rolling the volume knob back. My only beef with the SA is that it is hard to work into a guitar that has passive pickups in the other positions since you have to use the EMG pots (25k) and the output is a little high to match with low-medium output humbuckers. Other than that it is a great sounding single coil.
I was playing my guitar in a shop one day and this traditional blues guy walked up really excited to see what pickup I was using. Needless to say he was shocked when he saw it was an active EMG. I think David Gilmour uses these and he can do no wrong tone wise.