Duncan pickups in the USA Series

[jwoods986]

Well I finally played a guitar with EMG 81s (LTD EC-1000) a few months ago and I really liked them. I wish Jackson would at least offer them as an option on the USA selects instead of putting JBs in just about everything.

[maxboost]

Jacksonfreak, you like the Reflex's?? I have reflex reds in a 275dlx and I hate the humbucker (single splitable) in the bridge postion. Muffling the strings sounds horrible. However, struming chords without muffling sounds good, and playing leads sounds pretty good and different then any other guitars i have. but, i haven't played it for months because i lent it to friend.


And... EMG's 81 and 89 Kickass! Nothing better for the really overdriven sound on my amps but, i also use dimarzio's, duncans, washburn's, Bill Lawrence-USA, And have removed Jackson's, and gibson's and reflex's will probably be changed out too.

[Sunbane]

Take it from someone who used to swear by EMGs but switched to passives.

EMGs are really nice pups, and have plenty of advantages over traditional passives: Tight bass, low noise, crisp highs, etc. On the back side of the ticket is the particular EMG sound. It's hard to describe, but their distorted tone is sort of a hard, "processed sounding" deal. If you like that, no problemo! I personally started going for a rawer, more organic rock'n'roll type distortion, and I couldn't get that from the EMGs. I would say that where an EMG sounds like a propane torch, a Duncan Distortion sounds more like burning oil.

People tend to say that EMGs sound the same in any guitar, and that is probably because of that particular distorted sound. Other than that, it's my opinion that you will hear plenty of difference between two guitars with EMGs in them.

As for EMGs being "sterile", I'd say both yes and no, because it depends on which pickup you're talking about. The 85 isn't sterile at all, and is a very good pickup! The discontinued 58 is a gem as well.

Then...there's the 81. I hate that pickup. You will not find any other pickup that is as sterile and dead sounding as that one. I would describe its sound as extremely dull and uninspiring. This is because it has a flat sound signature. I can't understand people who complain about "tone-sucking floyds", and then go putting an 81 in their Les Paul! I mean...so much for tone! The thing that the 81 excels at, is being clean and high output at the same time. If you play downtuned with a ton of gain, the 81 will help with keeping the bass frequencies tight and the string sounds separate. It has a fantastic string separation.

[kelly user]

The thing that the 81 excels at, is being clean and high output at the same time.

Funny i thought my 81 sounded horrible, clean, but i assume you have it in the neck position. but i agree 100% about the comparison and the torch thing was dead on.

[toejam]

EMGs kick ass. 85 bridge, 81 or 60 in the neck!

[Danacus]

I have about 25-30 guitars, some with Duncans, some with Dimarzios and some with EMG's. I also have about 15 amps. The guitars with Duncans/Dimarzios sound good with most of the amps, but the guitars with EMG's sound GREAT with ALL of the amps. Whenever I am playing one of the guitars with passives and I am not digging the tone, I grab one of the guitars with EMG,s, and it instantly sounds better, to my ears anyway.

[z1n]

It seems to me that the EMGz play/sound better with solid state amps and the SD/passives are better with a tube amp. I used to love EMG'z until I switched to rack setup (amp is solid state) and now all my guitars have SD's in them. jmo