New EMG pickups with red covers

[line6man]

Apparently EMG is making pickups with red plastic covers now.
http://www.emgpickups.com/red-series.html

Red is a pretty loud color, and doesn't work with too many guitars, but I appreciate the variety, and I think that they could look great on the right build. A metallic red soloist, perhaps? Alpine white?

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Alpine white?

With a big red arcade button kill switch  arty07:

 

[bagman67]

I'd be surprised if they take the colored pup covers too far, given they pot the whole thing in epoxy or some other goo inside the cover.  Not as cheap'n'easy to fit another cover as it is for a Strat pickup.  If you're tired of red, you either paint the thing and hope for the best for wear and tear, or swap it out and hope for the best, sonically.

 

[line6man]

It seems to work on a black Les Paul. (Although they look really pink in the pic.)

How about gunmetal grey, or silver, or something in that vein? These (Q-Tuners?) look great on this guitar.

 

[Logrinn]

Not Q-Tuners. They are Alumitones by Lace:

 

[Great Ape]

...and what company actually does neck binding in red? That combo is pretty cool lookin', I must say!

 

[Timmsie95]

Not Q-Tuners. They are Alumitones by Lace:

Beat me to it! I was just going to say, The red anodized Alumitones by Lace look much classier to me!

 

[Ace Flibble]

Yup, EMG have been making red covers as OEM parts for certain manufacturers for a while, and now it's simply giving the public the option. They've done blue and green in the past, too; even as OEM parts those were less common than the red ones, but they could still make an appearance as well. The gold covers that you can now get all EMGs in started off as a one-off special order for Prince!

You'd be surprised at how much custom stuff and oddball one-offs EMG makes. Making active pickups is a trickier process than with passives, and they run everything through many more prototype stages than any other pickup manufacturer. But then, because they can't sell as many units as a company like DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan, they have to also be much stricter on what they offer the public. They can't afford to have every single permutation and option available, or it would make manufacture jump in price. Still, if you can think of it, they've probably made it at some point.

 

[Cederick]

I really wish EMG would make "uncovered" active pickups, they would look awesome like this

 

[Axkoa]

I'm not too big of a fan of all things red besides body colour. That binding and covers don't really do it for me.

 

[Cagey]

...and what company actually does neck binding in red? That combo is pretty cool lookin', I must say!

No kidding! Made me go in search of such material, and as it turns out it's available from Rothko & Frost in England, along with a variety of other styles.

Hmmm... got me playing with my mental blocks...

 

[Timmsie95]

One of my Schecters has black and red 5 ply binding on the neck. The inlays are red rings with black centers (on an ebony board) and the red is really dark. Looks nice and it's subtle.  Not as in your face as that lp style posted above.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I wish their single coils came with chrome or gold metal cover options so that I could pair an SAV or SLV or similar with a brushed gold 57.

 

[Ace Flibble]

I wish their single coils came with chrome or gold metal cover options so that I could pair an SAV or SLV or similar with a brushed gold 57.

They've tried with the Tele neck pickups. It's been next to impossible for them to work out with the closer proximity to the magnets and electronics. Basically, it's been robbing treble, even with materials which don't have much of an effect on passive pickups. You've got to remember that active pickups are way underpowered, before the amp kicks in, than passive pickups, and they're so much more sensitive to any variation in build. 'S why the metal-covered humbuckers took so long to get going.

I really wish EMG would make "uncovered" active pickups, they would look awesome like this

No, they'd look scrappy, like this  :laughing7:

Also, in kind of the opposite problem of getting metal covers to work, taking the covers off active pickups means introducing a fraction more treble and a lot more noise. They really don't sound good without all that epoxy around them, and without a case there's nowhere for that epoxy to sit.
You can get a 'blade' style pickup and sue the independent Seymour Duncan preamp pot with it, but that won't actually sound like a typical active pickup 'cause you're not getting the dynamics of highly mismatched and underwound coils. And even if you had a pickup made with blade poles but underwound and mismatched coils, you'll just end up with excess treble and noise, just like grinding the case off of an EMG.


Don't think any of these are new ideas; I can assure you they've all been tested out before and there are good reasons why they're not options that ever made it to market :icon_thumright:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Their Red ones will blend in nicely direct mounted on a body with a Red Quilt top.

I had a set of red Evans pickups in my TFS for 15-ish years before I swapped them out for some Dimarzio's, and you barely saw them.

I'd be interested to try the Tipton (Bridge) or a 57 with an S.