Which combo is better??

[necro]

Which combo is better? And why??

EMG-81 (Front & Rear)

or

Seymour Duncan SH-1n (Front) /TB-5 (Rear)

[TrendkillDBD]

I'm a fan of the EMG's... much more aggressive.

[necro]

I like emgs too. But I'm saying about "combo" WHICH COMBO IS BETTER??? maybe emgs are better than duncuns but both 81 H-H may not be a good setup in a guitar but those duncuns are??? or... something else??!

[Inazone]

It totally depends on the guitar and amp. Although some people will argue that the body wood doesn't mean much when using active pickups, it's still a factor in the overall tone. Your playing style/genre will matter too. I personally don't care for EMGs much, despite playing a style (death metal) which many people find them well suited for. It really depends on the guitar though, and the amp.

[GryphonGuitar]

I'm not a fan of EMG tone at all... However if You're into the high gain stuff it may work for You, personally they sound too ceramic and glassy for me...

[satch0922]

more info needed. What tone are you looking for? What type of music are you playing? What Guitar? etc.

[necro]

Suppose it's a KV.
Music type - from rock to heavy.

[RacerX]

Music type - from rock to heavy.

OK, that narrows it down

[toejam]

Neither is better. It's all about what works best for you. What type of guitar and amp will you be using? I assume you're playing some type of import Jackson since this is in the "Import Jackson" section.

[CharvelRocker]

Depends what you are playing. For 80s hair metal and hard rock, the Jb/TB-5 (I think the TB-5 is the Custom 5?) combo. It has a nice tone on an overdriven amp, while also having a good clean tone. The EMGs are better for thrash metal, heavy metal, etc. Not the best sounding clean pickups, but one of the best sounding pickups when using a lot of distortion. They also produce more bottom end than the Seymour Duncans. I have guitars with both setups (though I had the JB/Jazz setup) and each one has its uses. To sum things up while I would have several guitars with a combo of Seymour Duncan pickups with a JB at the bridge, one guitar with EMGs is quite enough.

[memphiskat]

I just replaced the Duncan Designed bridge pickup (based on the Distortion I believe) in my KVX10 with an EMG81. I play mostly hard rock (BLS), metal, thrash metal. I like it much better than the stock pickup for everything I play, but I rarely play clean. I did just get a Crate VFX5112 all tube combo which is said to have a great clean channel and the 81 sounds great through it, though I don't have a guitar with an SD in it to compare it to. But to my ears it sounds great through the clean channel. karl