Dual EMG81's...

Whats everyone think of the EMG 81 as a neck pickup. I am picking up a pair tomorrow for $50 including all the wiring pots and jack, I guess they were installed in an ibanez and the guy played em for about an hour then removed em and they have been sitting in their original box since then and put them up on CL for about $150 below new cost so i couldnt resist. Im gonna have em installed into my Epiphone Les Paul Custom, I was going to go with passives but then i realized that if i switched guitars from my main guitar which is a charvel desolation series DS-1FR (basically a neck through LP style guitar with a real floyd a 24 fret compound radious neck) and the charvel has active blackouts so i would have to adjust all of the gain knobs on all of my modules to compensate for the change, so i figured id go for a zakk wylde kinda vybe with the epi even though zakk uses an 85 in the neck... has anyone run the 81 in the neck before? what did it sound like?
-mp-
I guess ill find out what they sound like sometime this upcoming week!

there's a cult of EMG users over at the Jackson/Charvel Forum who will immediately swap the 81/85 set around in guitar they buy that has them.

Popular opinion is that the 85 is a warmer, more pleasing bridge pickup & the 81 adds more definition to the neck position.

I've only had one 81 and I replaced it with a ToneZone.

VitaminG said:

there's a cult of EMG users over at the Jackson/Charvel Forum who will immediately swap the 81/85 set around in guitar they buy that has them.

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Guilty as charged on all counts but that of a cultist :lol:

Popular opinion is that the 85 is a warmer, more pleasing bridge pickup & the 81 adds more definition to the neck position.

Click to expand...

I found the 85 in the neck overpowering the 81 in the bridge by a mile
and very bassheavy and boomy when I installed them in my Ibanez
None of that once I swapped positions

and this wasn't the only case
buying an EMG 85/81 loaded BCR later, I figurered to keep the 81 bridge and 85 neck for tonal variety, but ran into the same problem

By itself or with a 60 in the neck, the 81 is a great bridge p'up, dual 81's probably will sound great as well
It screams more instead of slams like the 85

Though I'll admit, both guitars being made of wood giving a warmer tone (Mahogany and Nato) may have been worse than any brighter guitars

but IMO the 85 is not one to place in the neck (unless perhaps with another 85 in the bridge, but it'll have to be lowered quite a bit)

I had an 81/81 loaded ESP LTD EC-1000 and didnt care for it. In that guitar, switching pickups didnt alter the tone much at all. I am a big fan of the 85 in the neck on the alder bodied Jackson King-V that I have (which Kerry F**King King highly approves of), but I must admit it sounds good by itself too. I may put an 81-7 in the bridge of my sustainer equiped ibanez when i am done modifying it.

I am part of the 81/85 swap cult. :lol: As mentioned above I found 81 in the bridge too bright. The 85 in the neck too boomy. Swap them around & it's perfect. I have this setup in a KV PRO, a RRXMG & a SLXMG. I also had this setup in a DXMG until I put 89s in it.

I have the 81 and 85 set up bothways in my BC Rich V and in my Ibanez RG 570 with an SA in the middle.

I like them both ways, Just a different sound to work with.

Hell for $50 bucks I'll take them!

I've owned MANY MANY MANY EMG pickups... my favorite combination, by far, was a pair of 81 humbuckers... especially with a maple neck... the neck 81 just sings, IMHO of course! :lol: