ChrisDee Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 Hey dudes Im about to buy an EMG 81 Active Humbucker, upon telling my mate he read up on an old music mag that said something along the lines of "You cant fit EMG's into your guitar if you are planning on having them accompanied by single coils and humbuckers of other make and brands" *** MATE????? is this major bullshizen, or is it for real coz im dying for this EMG pickup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 You can have other brands of pickups mixed with EMG's, you just have to have seperate pots for each brand because of the difference in impedance between pickups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 You can, but there's a catch, the passive ones won't sound as good as the EMGs. Here is a quote from their site Can I mix EMG's with passive pickups? It is possible to mix EMG's with passive pickups. There are three possible wiring configurations; one is better than the other two. Use the high impedance (250K-500K) volume and tone controls. The problem is that the high impedance controls act more like a switch to the EMG's. The passive pickups, however, will work fine. If you have a guitar with two pickups and two volume pots, with a three-way switch, there is another alternative. Use the 25K pots for the EMG, and the 250K pots for the passive pickup. This way you can use one or the other with no adverse affects, but with the switch in the middle position the passive pickup will have reduced gain and response. Use the low-impedance (25K) volume and tone controls provided with the EMG's. The problem here is that the passive pickups will suffer a reduction in gain and loss of high-frequency response. This is the best alternative. Install an EMG-PA-2 on the passive pickups. There are two benefits to doing this. With the trimpot on the PA-2, you can adjust the gain of the passive pickups to match the EMG's. The PA-2 acts as an impedance matching device so you can use the low-impedance EMG controls (25K) without affecting the tone of the passive pickups. You will also be able to use other EMG accessory circuits such as the SPC, RPC, EXB, EXG, etc. For this application, we recommend ordering the PA-2 without the switch for easy installation on the inside of a guitar. So it's your call, if it was me and you wan't to have some single coils on your guitar, you can always get the SC SA's or other from EMG. www.emginc.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 Yup. Either go -all- EMG's on the guitar or go without them altogether, it's not worth the hassle mixing them with other pkps on the same guitar. EMG sells some nice Single Coil pkps, like the SA and SAV to go along with the HB's. The Steve Lukather pre-wired rig has an 85/SAV/SAV and I love it. They could probably sub in an 81 for you if you want. They;ll also make any setup you want with their own pkps on their own pickguard. But if you were just getting a real good deal on that 81 alone, it's probably not worth it in the end, I'd take a pass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowser Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 I have a guitar with an EMG 85 in the neck and a Duncan SH11 Custom Custom in the bridge. I was actually worried about the combo because of what the site says, I was planning to buy the PA2 after I installed the EMG and all. But I ended up not having to - I left the pots alone (1 volume 1 tone and 3 way switch). The 3 way doesn't work how I want it, it is essentially the neck pickup alone (with the Duncan and the stock pup I used to get a very cool Zepp "Whole lotta love" solo tone). But the outputs from the two are about the same. I still plan to get an 81 when the opportunity presents itself, but until then I'm happy. I'm not saying that I don't think there would be an issue with mixing types of pickups - I'm sure there would be, I'm just glad that it didn't happen with mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 You can have other brands of pickups mixed with EMG's, you just have to have seperate pots for each brand because of the difference in impedance between pickups Scott's got it right - so long as you use a separate volume and tone pot for the passive pickups, the only issue you'll have to deal with is the level difference. Just don't try to use the same pots for both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 Well, that doesn't sound THAT hard to do. Heck, I stand corrected, and maybe I'll try it one day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feylya Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 I'd still have a problem with the cosmetics of the guitar if I had one emg and other pickups in it. I like all my pickups to be matching, at least in appearance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 Put covers on them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feylya Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 Last time I checked, you couldn't get black plastic covers or chrome covers for emgs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 But you can get plastic covers to make the passive look like EMGs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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