Active EMGs in a dark sounding guitar?

[Blue_Fingers_Jay]

I was playing with a friends guitar that's loaded with a set of EMG actives (85+81) I actually liked the sound of actives for the first time, they sounded very hi fi, and had a nice snap I found the bridge pup to be a bit bright but nothing that the tone knob wouldn't fix.
Thing is the guitar was an LTD maple neckthru with mahogany wings and it was naturaly brigh.
Has anybody here tried that set of EMGs on a dark sounding guitar?
Do they become muddy?
Or does the type of wood matter less with active pickups than with passives?

[frankfalbo]

On the contrary. The EMG's would liven up a dark sounding guitar a little too. The EMG 60 is a very bright pickup good for dark sounding guitars. The stereotype to EMG (true or not) is that they tend to mute out some of the dynamic range of the guitar and impart their own tonal footprint onto the sound. While I don't completely buy into that notion, in my experience if you had 10 guitars ranging from the darkest and dullest to the brightest and tinniest, it's NOT that they'd all sound the same, but none of them would sound terrible. Put a set of 59's in the same 10 guitars and some will sound fantastic while others sound terrible.

If you liked the EMG81/85 in your friend's guitar, you'll probably like them in a different guitar as well.

[Blue_Fingers_Jay]

Thank you very much Frank, that was the info I was looking for.

[Venometal]

Cmon, don't fool yourself Frank, all 10 guitars would sound the same with a set of EMG's. hahaha

[alashredder]

While I don't completely buy into that notion, in my experience if you had 10 guitars ranging from the darkest and dullest to the brightest and tinniest, it's NOT that they'd all sound the same, but none of them would sound terrible. Put a set of 59's in the same 10 guitars and some will sound fantastic while others sound terrible.

If you liked the EMG81/85 in your friend's guitar, you'll probably like them in a different guitar as well.

+1 Frank you're right! From my experiences, the EMG's sound different in every guitar I owned, yet none were "terrible".

[ParameterMan]

EMGs are like any pickup. They retain their basic character in any instrument but are just as sensitive to different guitars as anything else out there. We don't knock a JB for sounding like a JB in any guitar. It also alters the dynamic range and imparts it's own tonal footprint. The difference is most Duncan users prefer it(who knew?).

It's actually been my experience that the SA sounds like a completely different model in different strats. It's very hi-fi and has little coloration of it's own. It still sounds like an EMG though, so if you're biased against the basic EMG sound you still won't like it.

[some_dude]

Has anybody here tried that set of EMGs on a dark sounding guitar?
Do they become muddy?

The 81 will not sound muddy in anything.

The 85 in the neck can sound a touch too bassy in a Les Paul, but lowering it away from the strings seems to help.



Other than that I agree with the others... EMGs pickup just as much of the wood as any other pickup, they just sound like EMGs doing it. Much the same as a PAF sounds like a PAF no matter what kind of guitar you put it in.