Emg 81 And 85

[TimTheSloth]

I have one of those clear green acrylic BC Rich mockingbirds and I want to replace the pickups, I'm going for a strong metal but not grungy sound (similar to Metallica I guess). Anyway I was wondering if the EMG 85 and 81 are actually good pickups and worth the money or if I am mostly paying for the Zaak Wylde, Kirk Hammet hype. Thanks a lot guys.

[krazyderek]

They're great pickups, really hot too. They'll help you on the road to nailing that metallica tone. In the bridge i preffer the 85 myself, a bit more of a midrange scoop and a tad bit hotter then the 81, which is how i like my C tuned guitar. But i found the 81 was better with loud amps and playing within a band cause it has higher mids and creamier sound so you mix in better with a band when gigging and such...

60 is the only neck pickup i'll use in an emg guitar, but experimentation is the key to finding your own sound.

Edited March 15, 2005 by krazyderek

[TimTheSloth]

thanks for the help krazyderek.

[skyguitarworks]

i love em, but it is all opinion too, myself i love the 81 in the bridge and the 85 in the neck......another pick up you might wanna check out too is the duncan live wires, a very hot pick up, it all depends on your ears, i like the emg better but the duncan is hotter i believe.

[Ar-Pharazon]

To be honest, the 81s are my pick for both bridge and neck. It really depends on your amp... and 85 in the neck sounds better with marshalls as they have a much looser bass. 81 in the neck into a mesa or something with similar (I actually use a peavey bandit... yeah i know its cruddy but it still works well) tone works better because of the tighter bass response. Again, personal preference... depends whether you really like that kind of active eq'ed sound.

Everyone always goes on about duncans and they are fine for a more classic Guns 'N' Roses/Aerosmith... I would honestly try and find a pair of dimarzio evolutions if you want passives.

Edited March 26, 2005 by Ar-Pharazon

[borge]

yeah emgs crank

very hot, exellent harmonics

best string definition ive heard. full distorted 6 string chords easy (no mud)

some people might tell you they are one dimensional and dry

well dave gilmore of pink floyd uses emgs (not 81or85s though)

and i dont think many people would dare say his tone is one dimensional

or dry

[donbenjy]

will if dave gilmour has them then were around early 70's

[IWishICouldShred]

I've got an 81/85 set in my current live/recording guitar, and I love it. A lot of the time I use them backwards though- it's suggested that the 81 is for leads, but I think it gives a crunchier rhythm sound and the 85 is smoother for leads. I'm in a metal band but I also use it with my school's jazz band and it sounds great there too.

I've heard a lot of people say they don't sound good clean, but they have a really nice response, and through my wireless they sound exactly like an acoustic, which is kind of scary

[mj_gant]

I've had the 81/85 combo in several of my guitars used for metal mostly. The sound? Every guitar sounds the same. No tone from wood or construction, just that tight EMG sound. For this reason I have been slowly ebaying all of my active pickups and replacing with passive. Everything from Dimarzio PAF to Super Distortion and old Alan Holdsworth Sig pickups. The result? I can finally hear the guitar the way it was suppose to be. Each piece now has it's own character. I wont go on an EMG bashing, but I can tell you that IMO they steal a guitars soul. If you have one of those acrylics, EMG may be a good bet though.

[Kyle Cavanaugh]

will if dave gilmour has them then were around early 70's

←

EMG wasn't around until about 1980, David Gilmour used a stock strat back then.

If you want high fidelty and good string definition, while still having balls (plenty in this case!), EMG's ROCK! They are different than anything else out there, really.

[Executioner606]

Tripp Eisen had one of those acrylic mockingbirds and an acrylic bich with an EMG 81/81 combo in it.

Edited March 28, 2005 by Executioner606

[Maiden69]

I've had the 81/85 combo in several of my guitars used for metal mostly. The sound? Every guitar sounds the same. No tone from wood or construction, just that tight EMG sound.

I ain't starting anything here but what you are saying is completely BS. I have 3 guitars, one with 81/60, an LP with 81/85, a swamp ash with 81/81 (you can see the 60 here but it sounded too deep, so I traded it with the 81 in the green guitar), a strat with 81/81 and a 7 string with a 707 ,and all of them sound very distinct, if you can't tell the difference there is something wrong, I was going to say that some people can't tell the difference in sound but you say that after changing to passive there is a clear distinct sound.

I have used Seymour and DiMarzio, as a matter of fact, I traded the 81/60 for 3 Sduncans, matching set of SH6 and a SH10, and believeme that the guitar sound much better that it ever did with the passives.

All I'm saying is that don't BS saying that the EMG will sound the same no matter what kinda wood that guitar is, there are good passives and good actives, and there are players that prefer one over the other, and as you can see I prefer EMGs while you do passives, but the statement that they are not relevant to the material of the guitar is inacurate to say the least.

[JoJo T. Magnifficent]

EMG's are certianly good pickups, but i do agree to a certain extent, theyll sound the same in most guitars. the wood will have a small effect on tone, but because of the design of the pickups (they have weak low-impeadance coils, which is the amped up and put through an EQ etc.) it wont have as pronounced affect as it would with a passive. If your looking for that heavy metalica beefyness however, you cant look past a set of active EMG's.

If I were you (which im not) I'd still keep passives in mind though, becasue those acrylic B.C Riches have a pretty unique clean sound i think. something like a SD JB in the bridge and a 59 or jazz in the neck could work out quite well (and be alot more versitile than the EMG's). Those are my thoughts, hope you find them usefull.

[mj_gant]

All I'm saying is that don't BS saying that the EMG will sound the same no matter what kinda wood that guitar is

Relax. I don't come here to jerk people around and make false statements. By you referring to my reply as BS isn't very cool. It's just my opinion.

[ibreakemineedtobuildem]

I just tried 81 s for the first time in at least 10 years and wasn't blown away by them.It's weird because I am born and breed on Metallica and Slayer.If they were cheaper I'd try em more often,but I don't think the extra 40$ over my XL is worth it to me anyway.

I do have to say that the pots and easy dissconnect at pickup is quite cool to have with the pickup.

Edited March 29, 2005 by ibreakemineedtobuildem

[Maiden69]

Relax. I don't come here to jerk people around and make false statements. By you referring to my reply as BS isn't very cool. It's just my opinion. 

←

I'm not putting it in a way that you are BS, just that that staement is over used and it is total BS, not YOU as a MEMBER but the actual statement, that's one of the reason the Musicians Forum has gone down the way it has. And a newbie might see your statement and with out even trying the pups will go to the next poster and reply that they are worthless pickups, which they are not.

JoJo, I'm not leaving the passives forgetten, I'm about to try a few of the new ones, and I will definately get one of those XL500 just to see if the hype is true or not.

I think that most people over react about the way to atain certain group tone like EMG for Metallica, but they don't take into account all the processors (effects) and the editing and dubbing that goes into making a record.

[crafty]

I think that most people over react about the way to atain certain group tone like EMG for Metallica, but they don't take into account all the processors (effects) and the editing and dubbing that goes into making a record.

So true. People don't understand that EMG pickups alone won't make you sound like Kirk and James. 90% of the sound comes from the player, 10% from the guitar, effects, and studio. Look at Megadeth. Dave's able to get a pretty righteous tone out of his Duncan JB/Jazz and JB/'59 combos. Dimebag had some pretty good tones coming out of his passive pickups, too.

One thing I do like about EMGs is how clean the signal is if you are using processors downstream. They have very little noise injected into the signal coming from the guitar, so the end result is a much better sound out of the processors and into the amp.

[Musicmaker]

Yeh, alot of the sounds comes form the gear they use.....if you have a Mesa, and a big sound board, you will get an even better sound.

I Prefer the 81-81 package.....jmo

[Jivin]

I agree with you there Maiden, 100%

Just like the dimebucker thing too many people are floating around with the opinion that EMG's are these dull, lifeless pickups that will sound the same regardless of what guitar they are in, and in my opinion it all starts with raggy old men working at guitar shops, that would probably swear his life on the fact his '62 strat is the best guitar in the world.... ever.

Ive tried an EMG 81 set in an ESP Standard Eclipse and an EMG 81/85 set in a swamp ash H-H strat with an ash body and maple fingerboard, and they sounded no less different than it would have if the pickups were Seymour Duncans. Sure the sounds of the two guitars had their similarities, but you would find those similarities in most passive pickups as well.

Im not saying that EMG's sound like passive duncans or anything like that; they definitely have their own sound, but they certainly aren't lifeless, and ive never heard them sound the same in every guitar. EMG's have their own niche when it comes to what they do best; some people dont like them, fine, thats their opinion, but as far as I can see a lot of people have gotten some bad info from the get-go and are just fueling the fire unnesessarily.

[Daniel Sorbera]

I know the EMG pickups are great for metal and harder stuff but are there and active systems that sound good for overdriven (as opposed to heavey distortion) Such as classic rock stuff? And that would sound good clean also? I have played EMG's in a store and I dont really think the tone is for me. It's a little too distorted for my taste. When you drive teh amp into overdrive the distortion sounds very diffrent than passive pickups. But I do love that it's active and you can do all the cool preamp things and it's a bufferd circut so It's lower noise and you can do longer runs in your cable.

what do you think of the duncan live wire classic?

Edited March 29, 2005 by Godin SD

[Maiden69]

I heard a live wire long ago, I found it to be good kinda like the 81 but a bit to much on the treble side. I know as far as classic rock that Judas Priest is using them, David Gilmour has being using them since the very early days, about 74-77 before they were known as EMG, country Vince Gill, Look here for the artist list

The nice thing about the EMGs is that they react to volume roll much better than passives do, no sudden volume drop, just the distortion goes down, you can go from Dime extreme distortion at 10, to a nice cruch at 6 , to a subtle overdrive at 4-3, then the volume drops . I will try to get some clips up later, since I don't know were to host them.

[JoJo T. Magnifficent]

what do you think of the duncan live wire classic?

←

I quite like the sound of them, but thats only going from the Seymour duncan sites sound clips. they are designed for those classic rock tones aswell, so they should fit you good. Plus I think that seymour duncan only use a preamp, and not all the EQing and stuff EMG use, so they should retain alot more of the guitars tone aswell

[selmac]

I run my emg 89 at 18v and get no distortion just imaculate clean tone. no clipping

[Matt]

I have just put in an EMG 81 and 85 set in a cheap gibbo copy to see what they sound like and they are great BUT

GO SPEEND LESS CASH AND GET A -BAREKNUCKLE 'MIRICLE MAN' SET- !!!!

www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk

seriously it sounds more like an 85 in the bridge, but i have one with double allen head screws and it sounds AWESOME. it has alot better tone and even better harmonics than either.

id reccomend Tim at Bareknuckle to anyone because of the 10/10 support and service.

anyway thats my 2p worth. but i would go for a MM set over EMG, i must admit i had my doubts but i think they must be the best out there.

Matt

[ibreakemineedtobuildem]

I just had a 2 hour jam session with the 81.All it needs is time for you to figure out good settings on your amp.It has a slight mid scoop I think.That's what I didn't like at first,but it grows on ya.

The louder you go the more this pickup likes it.

So,I guess I finally have another pickup other than my XL.

All ur guits can't sound the same.