Emg 89 Opinions

[metallisomething]

anyone here used the EMG-89? thoughts? comments? It's the humbucker that can be 'coil-tapped' to a single coil. the single is an EMG-SA. I'm thinking about it for a bridge bucker replacement.

[GregP]

No real opinion here since I haven't tried it yet... but thought I could at least chime in to say that I did my share of research and asking questions before arriving at the '89 as the choice for both neck and bridge pickup of a recent purchase. I'm not going to "recommend" it since I have not heard it in action (other than recordings in which the guitarist is known to have used them), but if research is all you end up having to go by, let me just add that I've done my own several hours of research and still concluded that they'd be a safe purchase.

The question that always applies, though is: bridge bucker replacement for what kind of style? Do you have preferences for sound? What sort of territory do you want to be in? I assume by your handle that you're into Metal, but that might be an unfair assumption. If so, though, ask yourself if you need the single-coil mode. If you're only going to use humbucker mode, apparently it's not quite a true '85 if that mode. I'm just saying, know your goal, share it with us, and THEN you can probably get some better advice. Metal people tend to be split over the 85/81 anyhow. Most seem to favour the 81 in bridge, but I'm sure there are advocates for the 85 in bridge.

Greg

[IWishICouldShred]

No real opinion here since I haven't tried it yet... but thought I could at least chime in to say that I did my share of research and asking questions before arriving at the '89 as the choice for both neck and bridge pickup of a recent purchase. I'm not going to "recommend" it since I have not heard it in action (other than recordings in which the guitarist is known to have used them), but if research is all you end up having to go by, let me just add that I've done my own several hours of research and still concluded that they'd be a safe purchase.

The question that always applies, though is: bridge bucker replacement for what kind of style? Do you have preferences for sound? What sort of territory do you want to be in? I assume by your handle that you're into Metal, but that might be an unfair assumption. If so, though, ask yourself if you need the single-coil mode. If you're only going to use humbucker mode, apparently it's not quite a true '85 if that mode. I'm just saying, know your goal, share it with us, and THEN you can probably get some better advice. Metal people tend to be split over the 85/81 anyhow. Most seem to favour the 81 in bridge, but I'm sure there are advocates for the 85 in bridge.

Greg

I like the 85 in the bridge, myself. The 81 in the neck is so smooth!

But either way, like Greg said, the question is really how much are you going to use the coil tap? If this is a metal Tele, or you play a lot of Dick Dale, I'd say go with the 89, but otherwise, I don't see you using the bridge single coil incredibly often.

And also, you probably know this, but wiring passives and actives together is a pain... you're planning on going with EMG's for the other pickups (if you have them), right?

[metallisomething]

I assume by your handle that you're into Metal, but that might be an unfair assumption.

haha not an unfair assumption at all! I used to be into metal, when I first signed up and built my first guitar here. It's also a reference to an episode of Seinfeld.

anyway, I'm not really into metal anymore. Its a Yamaha Pacifica (humbucker, single, single) and I'm looking for good tone and lots of sustain in clean tones, but as well as distorted tones. Originally I was just going to replace the neck with an EMG-SA, then realized i can't mix active with passive without a headache, so I'm exploring my options on either converting the whole guitar to active, or trying to find a passive, noiseless, single coil with lots of sustain and good clean tones.....

listen to some songs by bands like Third eye blind and listen to their clean tones and you'll get an idea of what im looking for

Edited July 22, 2008 by metallisomething

[crafty]

Pick up an 89/SA/SA set. I love the SA set in my Strat and the 89 was designed for bridge pickup usage in a set like that. There's a new version of the 81 that is supposed to be like the 89, but uses an S ceramic single-coil instead of the alnico-5 SA.