EMG active pickups

[Nitrobattery]

Nitrobattery... do you really think passives are unsuitable for hi-gain metal?and do you know any popular metal guitarist who uses passives?
personally i love j. petrucci's tone in "Train of Thought", very fat and crunchy with his diMarzio passives... there's to say low-tuned guitars do a lot in fattening the tone. However you're right that with passives you must pay attention to muddiness...

Well you can definitely use them, but Petrucci doesn't exactly use a ton of gain. Up until recently he's gone for more of a medium gain tone from his Mark IIC+ amps, and now he's using Road Kings with the gain far from cranked.

I'd never play all out metal with EMG's period. If I had to choose an active p/u I'd go with the Duncan LiveWire Metals. The LW's are more responsive and have Alnico 5 magnets rather than a brittle and harsh sounding ceramic magnet. You say passive pickups not for metal... There are some great pickups for metal that are passive. EMG 81's have one sound and it's not a good one, as you pointed out "sterile". 'Nuff said.

Hey, to each their own. Personally, I'd never play metal with an Alnico magnet. Plus, you have to remember that the 81 is designed to be in a chunky mahogany guitar. If you're putting it into a bright superstrat, of course it's going to sound ******. But in a Les Paul, it's far from setrile for the applications I mentioned.


http://media.putfile.com/mr-crowley-47

 

[Guitarzan]

Hey, to each their own. Personally, I'd never play metal with an Alnico magnet. Plus, you have to remember that the 81 is designed to be in a chunky mahogany guitar. If you're putting it into a bright superstrat, of course it's going to sound sh!t. But in a Les Paul, it's far from setrile for the applications I mentioned.

There are several types of Alnico out there that will do Metal very well. Just ask Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, Tony Iommi, Clint Lowery(Sevendust)...Well You can't ask Dime, but all of the Pantera stuff was recorded with Bill Lawrence L-500XL's which are Alnico 5. Come to think of it I have seen several photos of Kirk Hammett with an ESP bolt on strat with 81's...Not a mahagony guitar. I will give Kirk kudos for making 81's sound tolerable. Guitarists with a predilection for tonal individuality have far set the bar in the realm of passive electronics. Which I would postulate that it differentiates memorable musicians from the insipid.

 

[paleamberglow]

how do the EMG singles compare to lace sensor pickups? are they comparable in output / henries ?

 

[MesaENGR412]

Well You can't ask Dime, but all of the Pantera stuff was recorded with Bill Lawrence L-500XL's which are Alnico 5.


Guitarists with a predilection for tonal individuality have far set the bar in the realm of passive electronics. Which I would postulate that it differentiates memorable musicians from the insipid.

Nice Jargon in the last sentences there. :lol:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7417339725

Says down towards the bottom that the XL-500 is a Ceramic magnet Pickup. And so is the Dimebucker according to SD's tonechart http://www.seymourduncan.com/compareTones/matrix.asp

To me Alnico's are more suited to Classic Rock, like Aerosmith and AC/DC etc.. But, the Ceramic Magnet, to me, is more suited to Metal, because of the tighter sound and crisper attack that you get from them. That's why Dime, Hetfield, and others use them to get their sound. I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes or their tone, but like Nitro said earlier, I'd much rather have the ceramic than the alnico for the Metal/heavy Rock tones. That's just my opinion though, so don't hate me.....


I do also find it wierd that SD would use Alnico's in their Metal Livewires, when they use Ceramics in their Dimebucker, Distortion and Custom and Invader


-AJH

 

[Guitarzan]

Well go hereand read. Actually I have spoke with Bill on numerous ocassions and he uses Alnico magnets. The Dimebucker is ceramic and that was Seymours call if you read about the design. I usually take anything that is posted on eBay with a grain of salt.

 

[MesaENGR412]

Cool, thanks for the clarification. I also forgot to mention that i got to play one of the early Washburn Dimebag models with an XL-500 through both a Peavey Triple XXX and a XXL and to me it didn't sound like all that and a bag of chips. But, I'm sure if dialed in alot more it could be alright, but unless it was wired backwards, the neck pickup had a heck of alot more chug and clarity. The bridge had alot of midrange, and not very much clarity at all. But, like i said i only spent about 15 mintues on it, but i wasn't that impressed. It was also rumored to be one of the originals that was made for Dimebag himslef to play, but i don't know if that's true. The owner of the store is still researching it. tJust another 2 cents. Like i said, even though i didn't really dig it, that doesn't mean someone else won't. Same with the EMG's. I like 'em, and i LOVE the tone i get from them, but just because i do doesn't mean that you have to like it. If everybody had the same taste in music and tone, life would be soo drab.

-AJH

 

[Nitrobattery]

Just ask Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, Tony Iommi, Clint Lowery(Sevendust)...Well You can't ask Dime

I guess we have a difference of opinion on what high gain means. I wouldn't say for a second that Dave, Marty, or Tony use a lot of gain on their amps. Yeah it's pretty dirty, but nothing over the top. And as far as Clint goes, he's not using a lot of gain either due to the lower tunings. And as of these days, he's using the PRS Tremonti pickup....which has a ceramic magnet.

 

[ytse_jam]

nitrobattery, it seems to me that you've got an extreme concept for high-gain! i can understand it from your Engl clips, you're really weaponed to kill any sound tech in front of you !!!
that said, were you able to achieve some over-the-top higain tones (or getting close to) from your markIV w/o any external effects/boosters?

 

[Nitrobattery]

Haha, well the point I was trying to make about the guys Guitarzan was talking about is that by today’s standards, they're really not using an over the top amount of gain. For old school thrash and Sabbathesque metal, passives would sound great! But for more modern metalcore and Swedish metal, passives just aren't going to cut it.

The Mark IV has more gain than anyone could actually ever use, so you'd have no problem getting some pretty high gain tones out of it. Here are some old Mark IV clips that I have kicking around. Some of them are really scooped because when I got it I was so excited that I could get the older Metallica tone...that I kind of went overboard :lol: I really wish I had recorded some Lamb of God clips before I sold it.

http://media.putfile.com/MARK-IV-MOP

http://media.putfile.com/Blackened-10

http://media.putfile.com/EL34-Mark-IV-clip

http://media.putfile.com/Dream-Theater-clip

http://media.putfile.com/Puppets-center-section

http://media.putfile.com/RIP-solo

http://media.putfile.com/mr-crowley-47

 

[Tigger Schulz]

Maybe it depends on the guitar too. I've got a mahogany gibson explorer, sounds better with the emgs. I've got a gibson voodoo explorer (swamp ash) with emgs, sounded better with the gibson pickups.

 

[nocluejimbo]

Nitro, what format are your audio clips? I got a 'playlist format not recognized' error. Using Real Audio, perhaps?

 

[ytse_jam]

Haha, well the point I was trying to make about the guys Guitarzan was talking about is that by today’s standards, they're really not using an over the top amount of gain. For old school thrash and Sabbathesque metal, passives would sound great! But for more modern metalcore and Swedish metal, passives just aren't going to cut it.

The Mark IV has more gain than anyone could actually ever use, so you'd have no problem getting some pretty high gain tones out of it. Here are some old Mark IV clips that I have kicking around. Some of them are really scooped because when I got it I was so excited that I could get the older Metallica tone...that I kind of went overboard :lol: I really wish I had recorded some Lamb of God clips before I sold it.

http://media.putfile.com/MARK-IV-MOP

http://media.putfile.com/Blackened-10

http://media.putfile.com/EL34-Mark-IV-clip

http://media.putfile.com/Dream-Theater-clip

http://media.putfile.com/Puppets-center-section

http://media.putfile.com/RIP-solo

http://media.putfile.com/mr-crowley-47

very nice clips! you made me sooo happy with that dream theater clip too !
there are some guys reviewing MKIV on harmony-central and a few of them say that it lacks gain a bit. They could be extreme-metal players, but i think, listening to your clips, that it's got all the gain i would ever use and much more (i'm not into death metal...). MkIV is still my dream amp, i hope i could afford one one day...

 

[straitouttahell]

even if they're active pickups and mainly built to deliver high-output levels, could they ever compare to passive pickups in terms of tonal shaping? i'm thinking about getting an emg 85 loaded guitar (bridge position - or could 81 be better?)...

I had a guitar fitted with a pair of 85s in the past. They sounded beautifully, but, to my ears, they retain this sort of hi-fi vibe in the top end that made me hate them after a while.

Curiously enuogh, I prefer EMG single coils better than humbuckers: because of that transparency in the upper frequencies, they really sparkle through the mix.

Anyway, it's just a matter of tastes, the best would be to try the guitar first and see if you like these pups, as per me I'd never move back to EMG humbuckers, unless I already had a dozen of other guitars fitted with traditional pups.

My 0.02

 

[trendkill1168]

Haha, well the point I was trying to make about the guys Guitarzan was talking about is that by today’s standards, they're really not using an over the top amount of gain. For old school thrash and Sabbathesque metal, passives would sound great! But for more modern metalcore and Swedish metal, passives just aren't going to cut it.

The Mark IV has more gain than anyone could actually ever use, so you'd have no problem getting some pretty high gain tones out of it. Here are some old Mark IV clips that I have kicking around. Some of them are really scooped because when I got it I was so excited that I could get the older Metallica tone...that I kind of went overboard :lol: I really wish I had recorded some Lamb of God clips before I sold it.

http://media.putfile.com/MARK-IV-MOP

http://media.putfile.com/Blackened-10

http://media.putfile.com/EL34-Mark-IV-clip

http://media.putfile.com/Dream-Theater-clip

http://media.putfile.com/Puppets-center-section

http://media.putfile.com/RIP-solo

http://media.putfile.com/mr-crowley-47

Damn man, I was just listening to those clips of yours. That Metallica Puppets tone sounds exactly like the recording. Badass.

 

[guitarmaster]

:!:

 

[MetalMatt]

I have the 81 and the 89. I can get some serious SPANK out of the 89 in single coil mode, and the 81 is just molten. I have them in the 81N/89B set up, Im going to flip them around and see what happends.

EMG's have their place in music, just not everywhere.

 

[JamesD]

I agree, they do have their place in music. It is just a matter of what you are looking for.