If you think EMG pickups are ‘sterile’...

[Colamander]

...you’re just not playing with enough gain!

Seriously though, EMGs are cool pickups. Sustain for days, meaty sound, super quiet. If I had only 1 guitar, I wouldn’t choose one with these pickups, but being lucky enough to have multiple guitars, it certainly is fun to have one with ‘em.

 

[abby_normal]

I have a DG20 pick guard that I had installed on my Strat Plus that is now waiting for another strat to be installed in when I find one. I now use mojotone quiet coils and they sound much more like single coils than the active EMG’s did, and they play better with fuzz, too. They are amazing clean and very hifi sounding. I’ll have to try them again with higher gain as I have a variety of OD’s I didn’t have back when I was using them.

 

[MIM#1]

Whole heartedly agree, except I love their clean tone too! EMG 'S's on my strat and tele and 'H' single coil-humbuckers on my bigsby equipped Dearmond [great rockabilly tones]
I guess that makes me a fan! Love the fact that 'tone suck' and noise are non-issues too!

 

[drbob1]

If anyone thinks you can't be soulful with EMGs, check out Michael Hill's Blues Mob. He uses an EMG Steinberger and sounds absolutely killer. Not really high gain, but probably loud!

 

[MIM#1]

If anyone thinks you can't be soulful with EMGs, check out Michael Hill's Blues Mob. He uses an EMG Steinberger and sounds absolutely killer. Not really high gain, but probably loud!

Oh, and Prince swore by them. Good enough for me!

 

[david57strat]

I had posted this in another thread, but:

A couple of weeks ago, I installed a set of EMG DG20 David Gilmour pickups in my '96 Standard Strat. OMG...amazing sounds I'm getting now - and noise-free!!!!. No more 60 cycle hum.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss! !

Those poor strings have had it. I'll replace them this evening, or some time tomorrow.

All these years, I've only been able to enjoy positions 2, and 4, on the 5-position pickup switch, in this room, no matter how I wired stuff, or what I used, to reduce the hum, electronically; but now, everything works, and smooth as glass. I have this incredible tonal flexibility that I've never had before, with this one. So many new possibilities.

Much older picture (Pre-DG-20 installation), but similar rig setup. I'm collecting pedals now, so that'll change things drastically. I'm only eight pedals in, so it's gonna take a while. In the meantime...

I use the the top rack for my electrics, and the bottom for the acoustics.

I'm in love with this guitar all over again. Another guitar you'll have to pry away from my dead hands.

 

[Classic09]

I regularly use a Luke II which has EMG’s and it’s the best superstrat I’ve played - and I’m a die hard LP player!

 

[Wyatt Earp]

They sound fabulous when used with a Boogie Mark series amplifier.

 

[InAbsentia]

Really want to try the DG20s in a strat at some point. Gilmour coaxed some awesome sounds out of them.

 

[david57strat]

Really want to try the DG20s in a strat at some point. Gilmour coaxed some awesome sounds out of them.

I think you would love them. I've always enjoyed Gilmour's tones, and this upgrade took me a step closer to that, as well as just having substantial tonal options, on my Strat, that I never believed possible, previously.

I don't know why I waited so long to take the plunge; but, I have no regrets, whatsoever. Absolutely love them!

 

[Lucidology]

Use almost nothing but in my single coil axes.
Check out Larry Carlton's live Last Night album ..
Some of best guitar tones you'll ever hear

 

[Frank67]

Although Gilmour is reported to not care too much about the EMGs and only had them because they are noise free, many agree that his tone with them was stellar. I have an EMG Strat with SA pickups and a SPC midboost but a regular tone control rather than the EXC which I found useless. To me, the tone I am getting with that setup is great - both clean and distorted. The SPC is the icing on the cake. If one wants more ooommmpphhh, it is all there. Check it Gilmour playing Shine on with the EMGs and tell me that this is not a great clean tone ... just sayin‘

 

[jimmycupo]

Love them!! The white ones sound better! The 89R is my fav lead position pickup! They are so full sounding & of course quiet!!!

 

[Mayhem13]

Can’t agree all around, BUT for clean and high gain metal, there’s a tightness to the 100hz area you just don’t get with passives. But edge of breakup, fuzz and rock tones?..........too sterile for my liking.

That being said, the problem is likely eQ, and if I had the patience to dial them in they’d probably be a better all around pickup but ain’t nobody got time for that! Lol. When I’m done playing Anthrax of L.O.G, back on the rack it goes.

 

[Produktsumme]

There is nothing better than an EMG loaded guitar for gigging with a band (except when the battery goes dead in the middle of a song). They are articulate (60, 81, 85, 89, and all of the singlecoils), of course noiseless, and cut through.
However, at home, they leave a lot to be desired. The unique characteristics of the guitar, the „wood“, is getting suppressed. I think I have ten guitars I gig with, all EMG loaded (first thing I did when I got them, bought EMGs and soldered them in), but at home...no. I want to feel the guitar 100% for inspiration and that - for me at least - EMGs do not do.

Edit: I should not have written „singlecoils“. All EMGs are humbuckers. The single coils are just slimmer.

 

[Space Jazzer]

My young metal self fondly remembers the Esp Eclipse armed with EMGs that stood him by through live gigs, rehearsals and random abuse. They really sounded glorious through my old Boogie rig.

 

[p.j.]

My son's guitar teacher has them in a Tele. Not my choice (I have 3 Bardens in mine) but it works for him and he sounds great.

 

[AxeVictim52]

These days I tend to think of "sterile" as a word people use to blame gear that exposes weaknesses in their technique. The reason for this is whenever I actually hear the "sterile" tone someone's complaining about, it sounds more like a lack of control over their picking dynamics, which is being exposed by gear that very immediately and accurately reproduces the transients in the input signal, rather than a problem with the gear itself.

So my take on this thread is: If you think EMG pickups are sterile, practice more.

 

[abby_normal]

My active EMG's didn't like distortion or fuzz. Maybe I just wasn't doing it right. OD was just OK. I now have passive quiet coils that work much better with dirt.

 

[kmoed]

Love my DG20 set in my strat! Nothing Sterile to be found here.