Taming EMG 81 / 85 set

andyg_prs

Hi,

I'm considering a guitar with this set....normally I go for medium output pickups.....I don't like it when bridge pickups get too nasal...although that might be more of a passive high output as opposed to an active pickup characteristic?

Regardless though, normally I'd strip out the electronics and put in (passive) pickups I like...an advantage is that my pedalboard and amp settings don't really need to be changed when changing guitars in the middle of a gig.

Anyhow, I was wondering if there is an onboard mod that people might use in order to tame the overall output of active pickups to the level they want?

I know people sometimes use drive pedals to do the same.....e.g. drop the volume on the pedal so that you don't hit the front of the amp as hard.....but real estate on my pedalboard is always a challenge...

So, yeah, any recommended mods to achieve what I'm looking at.

The funny thing is, I may not even be able to grab this guitar at a price that works for me....but it's just how my brain works!

Cheers,
Andy

Funkfingers

The +18v mod should increase dynamic headroom. 

Some users swap the two pickups over. -85 in the bridge position sounds fuller than the -81 did. -81 in the neck position has greater clarity (or, should that be, less mud?) than the -85.

Obviously, this is an easy experiment to try with the Quik Connect Solderless wiring harness but a total PITA with fully hard-wired circuits.

andyg_prs

Cool - but I was thinking more of just an output trim?

Dave_Mc

You mean like a volume control?



Seriously, though, I had EMGs in my Jackson and just took them out for some passive Alegrees... I might have been tempted to swap them like @Funkfingers said, but mine weren't quick connects and I couldn't be bothered...

axisus

I put them in one of my guitars and I am loving them. 

andyg_prs

Dave_Mc said:

You mean like a volume control?

I was asking for that!!  Well, I didn't get the guitar...it was a Vigier Excalibur Ultra on eBay....there was something about the conversation I had with the guy that didn't give me the desire to bid......I was going to put a single bid in at the end...but there was another bidder....

Dave_Mc

I was only joking about the volume, I tried using the guitar's volume on mine and it didn't really work the way I wanted. I know people say that, being active, they aren't affected the way passive guitar volume controls are, but in my Jackson at least, it didn't seem to work for me that well. A passive guitar volume with a treble bleed works better for me...

Sorry you didn't get the guitar, Vigiers are lovely. But expensive, and better to be safe than sorry if you were getting a "vibe" off an Ebay seller...

ICBM

For future reference if it's useful, yes you can 'tame' EMGs and make them perform more like passive pickups if you want, by fitting a resistor in series between the circuit output (switch or volume control, whichever comes last) and the jack - this will "de-buffer" the output, reduce the volume slightly, and allow the capacitive loading of the cable to soften the tone as it does with passive pickups. I'm not sure of the resistor value - I've only done this once, and I can't remember what I used, but experimentation will be cheap since resistors are pennies. I expect it was something like 100Kohm or possibly a bit higher, maybe 220K or 470K.