Do EMGs make any guitar sound like EMGs?

Doughboy

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I have a new build coming that will be a one piece koa body, flame koa top & pau ferro neck. I was going to put an EMG 85 & 2 EMG S in it, but having talked to my lutheir, he said it would be a shame to put EMGs in such a nice tone wood as EMGs take over the guitar & make everything sound like the EMG & make the wood, somewhat moot. Is this true? Would EMGs take away from the tonal quality of the wood somehow? More so than passive pickups?
 
Oh boy, here we go,.....................

I have EMG 81/85 & 81/SA combos in several guitars? I can tell you EMGs do not sound the same in every guitar. I know that for a fact. Wood and build style makes a difference. My PRS C24 and My Gibson LP Gothic are both equipped with 81/85 pups and neither sounds the same. My Hamer Californians with the 81/SA pups sound much different. Then throw both my Warmoth Soloist & Tele in the mix with the 81/85 pups and I can show you six different sounding EMG guitars.

Wood and amps will make the most noticeable difference.
 
Thanks Death by Uberschall.  :icon_thumright:

I was hoping this was the case, but my luthier is kinda old school, so he probably has a bias.

I just didn't want to waste a great piece of tone wood with something that would take over the sound too much.
 
Every solid body guitar sounds pretty much like its pickups. Wood and hardware material have a small effect but on the whole, it's mostly the pickups. And even then, most pickups sound pretty similar - there's only a really major difference in configuration (1 coil, 2 coils in series, 2 coils in parallel, etc) and magnet type. EMGs sound a little different to ordinary ceramic / alnico pickups but it's not a massive difference. There's a bigger difference between a Celestion T-75 and a Vintage 30.

Long story short, if you can't make an EMG-equipped guitar sound like you want it to, it's probably not the guitar that's the problem.
 
The Rockman is one of the few exceptions to the rule that most of these things merely color your sound, but overall the sound you get is a result of YOU and the sum of all of your equipment. The Rockman was actually one of the first Guitar->MIDI->Sample players, it's a shame they didn't provide the MIDI out, only the end result audio.  You can plug a nylon string'ed bigsby L5 into a Rockman and it would sound just like any other electric guitar.
 
EMG's have a very strong character. This character is definitely present in any instrument they are installed in. However, they still allow a guitars personaility to shine through as well. EMG's are a great tool to have in your arsenal. They can really provide you with a fresh approach to your playing. It's always cool to break the monotony once in a while. Like previously mentioned, you can always remove them and you should have no problem unloading them.
 
swarfrat said:
  You can plug a nylon string'ed bigsby L5 into a Rockman and it would sound just like any other electric guitar.

That's not been my experience.
I did a lot of recording using a Rockman and with 3 different guitars and they all sounded different, maintained their own distinct characters and it was also impossible to make my strat sound like my G&L ( and the opposite also ) through the Rockman or via any other method, even with 4 band parametric eq on the console and a 31 band graphic inserted.

I think a guitars character transcends signal chain. Signal chain can attempt to mask character but it's still there when comparing 2 guitars wearing the same mask.
 
EMGs have different dynamics from typical passive pickups.

The guitars wood and hardware (bridge) will affect the tone one way or another, regardless of what pickup is used. I don't know how much of a difference this affect has between active and passive pickups, as I have had only one guitar with active EMGs, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that There is a very noticeable tone difference between my LP style guitar and my ESP M-II, both of which have a Seymour Duncan JB. The LP has mahogany body & neck, with a TOM/STP bridge, while the M-II has a alder body, maple neck, and Floyd Rose Bridge. I don't know what has more affect; the wood, or the hardware, but I'm gonna guess that the Floyd makes the biggest difference.

I know that doesn't answer the original post directly, but I'm just pointing out that the notion that a pickup will sound the same regardless of what kind of guitar it's installed in, is misguided.
 
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