Schecter Damien Elite Solo 6 and 85 DESTROYS 81!

[eet fuk]

Thick mahogany body, bolt on maple neck with rosewood fretboard, tonepros bridge, 18:1 tuners, emgs built in with battery compartment in the back. Brighter than expected, I have an Ibanez RG that suprisingly can hang with this guitar for meaty chunk. Basswood might be my favorite. Anyways, I had an Epiphone Les Paul with floyd rose, but I hated the placement of the bridge pickup, which is way too far from the bridge. So I got the Schecter instead, which is great. The floyd-less Pauls have good close placement of the PU, though, I might spring for one later. Anyways, I plugged it in my Mark IV, and yep, there it was, that same tinny, screechy, punchless, lifeless grind. I had a really annoying resonance from the PU springs, so I swapped em out, and for sh1ts I swapped the emg 85 in the bridge position instead of the 81 and ...










HOLY SH1TBALLS BATMAN










It's like the 85 should be called the bridge pickup and the 81 should be the neck pickup, everyone has it backwards. I can't believe it's the other way around. More gain, punch, meat, easier pinch harmonics, not wooly or mushy or muddy at all. Tons of attack and grind. I still wanna check out blackouts, but this 85 is the **** and I am very freaking happy.

 

[domct203]

Schecter makes a decent axe for the money, my Hellraiser is a great playing guitar for sure, but nothing like my Les Paul or Carvin CT6M. EMG players have been putting an 85 at the bridge for years, when I had EMG's in my Les Paul I loved the 85 at the bridge with a 60A at the neck. The best thing about the EMG's is how easy it is to swap pickups.

Dom

 

[Jackie]

I think the 85 is one hell of a neck pickup too. Creamy as it gets with an active.

My friend had an Epiphone LP Prophecy that had the good ol' combo of 81 neck 85 bridge and we swapped it and IMO it sounded better but the 85 is a good PU for sure. Depends on the guitar. Glad you found your combo.

And yes, Dom I fully agree. Why can't everyone have a system so easy, you could roll pickups like tubes without spending time with the soldering iron between changes.

 

[mastora]

I had emg 81 and 60. in my mahogny yamaha guitar and hated them. It sounded horribly thin but would sustain forever. I never thought that the guitar itself would make such a difference with pick up choice but it really does. Anyway, I sold the emg's and put in D-ActivatorX's in them and really like them.

 

[markwayne]

I've been using EMG pickups since 1984 (primarily for low noise to avoid having to have a string ground) and the 85 is the only recent pickup of theirs that I like in the bridge. I prefer the 60 to an 81.

 

[Nitrobattery]

I run an 85 bridge and 81 neck combo in my Ibanez prestige RGA321 and it slays. Absolutely love the way it sounds. In my ESP Horizon I run a traditional 81/85. Just depends on the guitar. I've had dual 85's in both guitars in the past as well depending on the the project I've been in and the tuning used.

 

[DWAKO]

The 85 is by far my favorite EMG, but now that I've moved on to Bare Knuckle pickups there is really no looking back. They are really as good as everyone says they are.