EMG 85 vs 89 (humbucker mode and sigle coil tones vs EMG SA)

[El Chiguete]

Hi EMG says that there 89 pickup is very similar to the 85, has anyone test both to compared?


Also the say that the 89 has two pickups in one and the single coil mode is very similar than a EMG SA, anyone test this?


PS: cant you split a normal EMG humbucker to a single coil? looks like not because they have those ¨Dual-Mode¨ pickups.

[warlok]

Never compared or even tried an 89 but can answer the second part.. No, you can't split an 81, 85, etc..

[El Chiguete]

Ohh ok, well didn't know that, Thanks!

[neilli]

Yeah, I'd say that the 89 is a pretty close approximation to the 85 when it's not tapped, and that it sounds kinda like an SA when it is. Though to my ears, the tapped option sounds thinner than the SA..

[ulijdavid]

VWall guitars did a run of 10 Jackson KV2Xs about ten years ago. I had one and it had an 81 in the bridge and an 89 in the neck. The 89 was split to single mode with a push/pull volume knob. I remember the single coil mode in the neck position sounded really good. I have no reference to the SA though and can't really compare the 85 to 89 when one was in the bridge and one was in the neck. I did like the overall tone of the entire guitar.

[xenophobe]

Yeah, I'd say that the 89 is a pretty close approximation to the 85 when it's not tapped, and that it sounds kinda like an SA when it is. Though to my ears, the tapped option sounds thinner than the SA..

That was the basic point of an 89, I thought. Have 85 tone but being able to split the humbucker...

[dvscool]

That was the basic point of an 89, I thought. Have 85 tone but being able to split the humbucker...

+1- That most certainly is the point....

http://www.emgpickups.com/guitar/humbucking/dual-mode/89.html

[Newc]

The 89 is actually two separate pickups - the stacked SA and true-single S. They share the preamp. You're not splitting the pickup as with a passive humbucker, you're turning on one separate pickup and turning the other off. The main reason the "split" 89 in a 2-hum sounds so different from an SA in an H-S-S is the location of the SA - IIRC, in the 89, it's the inner coil, putting it farther away from the neck. Since singles work best on the harmonic node of the string where the 24th fret resides, you get a tonal difference with a 24 fret guitar than a 22 fret, because the single is pushed further back. With a split 89, it's compounded by the fact that it's even further away, especially on a 24 fret.

On a 22 fret 2-hum, the inner coil of a neck 89 will be in the same position as a single of a 24 fretter.

[Electric]

They also make the 89R, which puts the single coil nearer to the neck to address this issue. http://www.emgpickups.com/guitar/hum...-mode/89r.html

[El Chiguete]

Very interesting... so for the bridge pickup the should split the coil like a P-Bass so it recreates more of the slat position of a normal gridge single coil.

[Hellraiser6502]

IMO the 89 is the best EMG....have several 89 equipped guitars with a push-pull pot for selection.

It is an split-able 85.

Always sounded great to my ears.

[Newc]

They also make the 89R, which puts the single coil nearer to the neck to address this issue. http://www.emgpickups.com/guitar/hum...-mode/89r.html

Interesting, since the idea of rotating the pickup had only occurred to me when I saw this thread