Does the AXE FX III get along well with EMG Active Pickups?

[Megadebt]

Does the AXE FX III get along well with EMG Active Pickups?

Thanks!

 

[Morphine]

No. Some years back EMG Active Pickups called the AXE FX III a poser and it has been downhill ever since.

 

[Justincase]

Yes ...but your smoke detectors will eventually hate you.

 

[Admin M@]

It does. I have an old Strat with EMG 81s and the SA midrange boost. It sounds great.

 

[Jack Napalm]

Only if you have batteries attached.

 

[GreatGreen]

EMG's sound great with mine, yep.

 

[RamboMadCow]

I can concur...I have several of James Hetfield's signature models with his active EMG Het Set and they sound glorious through my Axe III!

 

[Infuseguitar]

ANYTHING that doesn’t get along well with the AXE-FX III should be immediately shot on site.

 

[metallaholic]

I use EMG HetSet and it is amazing. There are only a few clean amps it doesn't get along with and I have to tweak the input trim......roland jazz 120.....

 

[GreatGreen]

ANYTHING that doesn’t get along well with the AXE-FX III should be immediately shot on site.

I mean, there's some truth to this, in the sense that however a pickup responds to analog gear is pretty much how it will respond to models in the Axe.

In the same sense, if it sounds like crap in the Axe, it will probably sound like crap anywhere, so yeah. Shoot on site.

 

[sandmannn69]

Also works great with the EMG passive pickups in my Jackson.

 

[Infinite Radius]

Lukather set here. Sounds killer.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Yep. Got the EMG DG-20's (Gilmour set) in a Strat, a 707 in an RG7620 and a set of Fishman's in another guitar. Just had to adjust my input because they weren't tickling the red, they were beating the shit out of it.

 

[FusionFanatic]

I haven’t had an active pickup guitar in almost 30 years. I do have 12 guitars though.. PRS’s, Gibson’s, and Fenders. All my guitars sound different.. even ones that have similar pickups. While I prefer passive pickups, not all pickups may sound good with all tones, or may need eq adjustments. I personally think that active pickups generally sound best with high gain tones and less so clean. YMMV

 

[bebaldwin]

Does the AXE FX III get along well with EMG Active Pickups?

Thanks!

Absolutely. I use them and they work great! I'm using single coil SAX. No it doesn't make you're guitar sound like a saxophone.

 

[RamboMadCow]

I use EMG HetSet and it is amazing. There are only a few clean amps it doesn't get along with and I have to tweak the input trim......roland jazz 120.....

What kind of input trim do you use? I'm curious because I use the roland jazz 120 and as long as the pick up is low and you're not beating your strings too aggressively for clean stuff, it seems to not break up for me. Though I do have to be mindful of my picking technique in the neck position, so if you've found a way to avoid that I'm interested.

 

[CipherHost]

I have an EMG 85 and 81 set in a LP copy that sound good to me through the III. But it's all in my hands!

 

[jin1995x]

i have the 81/85 and a preamp boost on the guitar.


As long as your batteries aren’t dead the axe will help you get the best tones out of them.

why would any pickup not sound good with the axe?

 

[jamongrande]

I have a pair of 89x humbuckers in a Steinberger GL2T. I would say that the Axe reproduces the difference between those pickups' very particular tonality and any of my other guitars which have passives (Anderson, PRS, Suhr). So I do tend to use some presets with particular guitars, but that's not a problem for the Axe. Often I will run volume or tone around 7 or 8 as I generally prefer lower outputs hitting the front of my presets and having a little volume from the guitar to boost from.

 

[Piing]

I have a Strat with EMG David Gilmour set, and with the Axe-FX it sounds and reacts like a Strat with EMG David Gilmour set.