TonyFlyingSquirrel
Master Member
- Messages
- 4,505
I did something I said I'd never do, go active.
I used to install the EMG-81 and the old Seymour Duncan Livewires for customers a lot, the SD's mostly in basses.
I tested them by just plugging into my rig, and not messing with anything.
Well, I always thought of the EMG-81 as too hot & too bright.
I started trying out guitars over the past year or so with EMG's of various models OEM'd in them at GuiTarget & have had to reassess my position on them. Eventually, a customer "paid" me an EMG-89, so I installed it where a Dimarzio Evolution resided, and purchased an "S" to occupy the single coil slot that my Dimarzio Chopper once lived. I adjusted my gain structure by backing off of the drive, and found that I actually had more headroom than with the passives. The only thing I've never liked about this combo is that I could never get the "S" up to the same volume as the 89.
Of all of the EMG lineup, the 57/66 combo is the "Goldilocks" of all of them, with the Het set nearly tied for the winner's circle.
This got my gears turning, and I did something else that I swore I'd never do. I took a router to my beloved TFS6 and opened up the Single Coil Neck position that has been there for 21 years, and transformed it to a humbucker hole. My Stewmac Template worked wonderfully for this as it has for loads of other projects on other guitars. I laid in all the solderless quik connect harness, and literally had the pickups and all of its controls installed and was on to re-stringing up in about 8 minutes.
A quick plug in, and a height adjustment had me balancing the outputs of both pickups to a seamless level when soloing and switching pickups as I climb up into the dusty area of the neck.
I went to my clean, and then tweed presets, and backed off of the drive ever so much, and before you know it, "Bob's your uncle".
I finally have the output and chime in a neck pickup again, and so much more headroom. My recordings are going to really benefit from this switch, and now I can't wait to throw a 7 string set into my Ibanez RG7620, but I may wait until I replace the body with a Perle FR body & do the mod all at once.
Nothing but love for this set.
I used to install the EMG-81 and the old Seymour Duncan Livewires for customers a lot, the SD's mostly in basses.
I tested them by just plugging into my rig, and not messing with anything.
Well, I always thought of the EMG-81 as too hot & too bright.
I started trying out guitars over the past year or so with EMG's of various models OEM'd in them at GuiTarget & have had to reassess my position on them. Eventually, a customer "paid" me an EMG-89, so I installed it where a Dimarzio Evolution resided, and purchased an "S" to occupy the single coil slot that my Dimarzio Chopper once lived. I adjusted my gain structure by backing off of the drive, and found that I actually had more headroom than with the passives. The only thing I've never liked about this combo is that I could never get the "S" up to the same volume as the 89.
Of all of the EMG lineup, the 57/66 combo is the "Goldilocks" of all of them, with the Het set nearly tied for the winner's circle.
This got my gears turning, and I did something else that I swore I'd never do. I took a router to my beloved TFS6 and opened up the Single Coil Neck position that has been there for 21 years, and transformed it to a humbucker hole. My Stewmac Template worked wonderfully for this as it has for loads of other projects on other guitars. I laid in all the solderless quik connect harness, and literally had the pickups and all of its controls installed and was on to re-stringing up in about 8 minutes.
A quick plug in, and a height adjustment had me balancing the outputs of both pickups to a seamless level when soloing and switching pickups as I climb up into the dusty area of the neck.
I went to my clean, and then tweed presets, and backed off of the drive ever so much, and before you know it, "Bob's your uncle".
I finally have the output and chime in a neck pickup again, and so much more headroom. My recordings are going to really benefit from this switch, and now I can't wait to throw a 7 string set into my Ibanez RG7620, but I may wait until I replace the body with a Perle FR body & do the mod all at once.
Nothing but love for this set.
