Emg 81 Vs 85 In The Bridge Position

[erikbojerik]

OK.

Who's swapped an 81 and 85 in the bridge position of the same guitar and could give me a comparision?

[westhemann]

guess who?hehe,you could have just sent me a p.m.

yeah i hvetried it on several guitars...and i prefer the 81 at the bridge...the 85 is to "loose" in the bottom end for me.

on the other hand,the 85 is much better than the 81 in the neck.

the thing is,the 85is a "sweeter" sounding pickup,and in the bridge it does not mesh well..imo

but since the wiring harness is a plug in,yuou could easily just swap them on string change and try it through one set of strings...then you would know exactly.

[erikbojerik]

Yeah, I guess I'll just have to get 3 of them (I've already decided on a 89 for the neck).

The guitar will already be fairly bright in wood selection, which is why I'm pondering putting a 85 in the bridge spot. But as you say, it is dead easy to just swap them out and A/B them.

[crafty]

You could also try an 85 in the bridge and a 60A in the neck.

[erikbojerik]

I thought about the 60A for the neck, but I like the abillity to split the coil in the neck position that the 89 gives you.

[brewu22]

I used a 81 in a Charvel strat body with a floyd type trem, and thought it was too bright, so I put a 85 in and got a much warmer sound. I use a 81 in my other Charvel strat body, it has a flat mounted Kahler trem, With this set up the 81 was not as harsh. I dunno, same body and neck wood, only difference is the trem. They both sound very close to each other now..