EMG's Through Axe FX2?

Kdogg14

Kdogg14

Member
For the past 6 months I have been playing mostly passive pickups through my Axe FX2. Yesterday I bought the EMG Het set to replace my 81 bridge and 60 neck of my Jackson. I haven't played this particular guitar in months and I was going to do a demo of the before and after sounds of the pickups. Here's my question..... When I played the Jackson with the EMG's through my normal patches the guitar sound was a lot weaker than the sound I am getting out of my passive pickups. Is this normal? I did put a new battery in and still the sound is weak.
 
Kdogg14 said:
For the past 6 months I have been playing mostly passive pickups through my Axe FX2. Yesterday I bought the EMG Het set to replace my 81 bridge and 60 neck of my Jackson. I haven't played this particular guitar in months and I was going to do a demo of the before and after sounds of the pickups. Here's my question..... When I played the Jackson with the EMG's through my normal patches the guitar sound was a lot weaker than the sound I am getting out of my passive pickups. Is this normal? I did put a new battery in and still the sound is weak.
Click to expand...

Should be the other way around. How close do you have the pickups to the strings? I have my active pickups set on all my guitars as close to the strings as possible without actually touching them. Unlike passive pickups it's possible to do this with actives due to the much lower magnetic string pull.

Other than that I'd check your wiring. I had a problem with one of my guitars where the 9V jack socket tab wasn't closing properly when the jack plug was inserted and so the battery wasn't being properly connected, hence no output.

It sounds to me like a wiring problem. (You HAVE changed the Potentiometers to the values required for these pickups too haven't you?).

Once you resolve the problem I'd highly recommend "The 18V mod" to open up the EMGs and give them a bit more breathing space. Once you hear the difference you'll want to modify all your guitars with the old style EMGs on them (* the X series EMGs do not require this modification as their internal opamp circuitry is designed with a bit more headroom).

I hope some of this helps.....

YMMVIMHOETCETCETC.....
 
damienmcgauley said:
Should be the other way around. How close do you have the pickups to the strings? I have my active pickups set on all my guitars as close to the strings as possible without actually touching them. Unlike passive pickups it's possible to do this with actives due to the much lower magnetic string pull.

YMMVIMHOETCETCETC.....
Click to expand...

I agree, try the two with a “regular amp”, take the AXE FX out of the equation until you verify this …
 
Like the others said, make sure your EMGs are as close to the strings as possible - it makes a big difference. With that said, it is possible that you could have passives that sound hotter than your new EMGs. For example, my PRS CU24's bridge pickup (HFS), and my Ibanez RGA121 bridge (Seymour Duncan Distortion), are both hotter than the EMG 81 in the bridge of my Gibson SG. On paper, the EMG may be "hotter" (actually, I don't know if it is or not), but the PRS-HFS and the SD Distortion definitely hit the Axe II harder.
 
EMGs are actually only slightly hotter than most passive pickups, so your passives could actually be hotter. The real strength of EMGs is that they're very low impedance pickups, which means you can run them through extremely long and complex signal paths and they will lose minimal high end response, relative to passive pickups. Also, they're very quiet, and they're extremely clear and they have an extended high end response, and they're also a little naturally compressed, which can be good or bad depending on the type of sound you're going for.

Personally, I have guitar with an EMG 81 in the bridge, and coil-tappable 89 in the neck, and I couldn't be happier with them, especially paired with the Axe-Fx II.

vvv setting EMGs extremely close to the strings doesn't really affect sustain like it would with normal passives due to the magnets in EMGs being very weak. EMG magnets don't really need to be all that strong because most of their sound is generated through each pickup's internal preamp, not just the magnet itself.
 
Last edited:
Pup`s close to the strings.. Kills the sustain.. EMG`s aren`t that hot. Have had a lot of passive that is hotter. DiMarzio AT-1 is a medium output pup, but sounds fat`n hot.
 
I have a Steinberger w/EMG 89's and normally have to bump up the drive a bit compared to my guitar with Duncan JBs ... very slight adjustment though.
 
Agree with the above; I boost instrument input by about 20-30% with my EMG 81 compared to my Gibson 500T.
 
No noticable difference here level-wise. Other than the EMG's sounding fuller, and better (to my ears) that is. At the gig I was playing last night, I had sustain for days, and a beautiful tone both through the PA in FR and also through my Matrix / Cab.
 
When I get home I will try and create a new patch and see what happens. I like my current patches and don't want to mess with them. I'll recreate patch 25 and play around with drive and input. As a note, I haven't changed the pickups yet. I think my current patches aren't "hot" enough for the pickups because they sounded terrible and weak. Also, the pickups are close to the strings. I'll report back tonight with my findings.
 
Kriig said:
Pup`s close to the strings.. Kills the sustain.. EMG`s aren`t that hot. Have had a lot of passive that is hotter. DiMarzio AT-1 is a medium output pup, but sounds fat`n hot.
Click to expand...

True for Passives, not for actives. EMGs need to be as close as possible.
 
It's a pretty common misconception that EMG's are hot as hell. They aren't, they just have a much more compressed signal output that many passives. Kind of gives the perception of more output because of the way they drive the amp.

Really depends what passives your comparing them against though. Against a set of vintage PAFs the EMG's will seem quite a bit stronger but against a Gibson ceramic pickup with really high output they might seem a bit weak. All depends what you're comparing them to
 
I find it easier to tweak very nice lead tones with EMG SA (Active Single) than with my other guitar that has DiMarzio FRED (bridge) and PAF Joe (neck).
But I may be biased because I am also using a EMG SPC Active Mid Booster with the SA, and that gives you instant gratification with minimum tweak :razz
 
Pretty much everything has been said, EMGs are nit the hottest pickups in the universe and they should be set close to the strings. Definitely check your wiring and make sure you are using the pots that came with the EMGs! This is very important, they are not made to work with normal pots made for passive pickups.
 
yea i noticed the same thing when i got an epi LP with emg 81-85s and it was a bit quieter then my ibanez with dimarzios? the tone was nice and it wasnt a huge deal quieter but after reading around a lot of people state this is normal. I prefer the passive pups better as they sound more alive and less neutral but some like the active emgs and say itsbetter for metal to be neutral.
 
dwg115 said:
I prefer the passive pups better as they sound more alive and less neutral but some like the active emgs and say itsbetter for metal to be neutral.
Click to expand...
To be honest, I never understood why a lot of people stated "active sounded cold/neutral" and passive didn't. To me, EMG 81 sounds like EMG 81, and Y sounds like Y. Active pickups are far less affected by noise and other interferences due to their nature of having less winding. But "sterile" or not, I never got it.

As a lot of answers above already state, EMG pickups are to be placed very near to the strings. The installation-manual of EMG suggests the same.
Kdogg14 said:
When I played the Jackson with the EMG's through my normal patches the guitar sound was a lot weaker than the sound I am getting out of my passive pickups
Click to expand...
It also depends on your guitar. On my ESP Horizon NT-II (ebony fretboard & maple neck-thru mahagony body = very bright sound), the bridge-pickup (Seymour Duncan SH-4) sounds like it had less output than on my Jackson DKMG (rosewood fretboard, maple neck bolt on alder body), which sounds fuller and warmer, thus creating the impression, it had "more" output.
 
Although I hate using batteries, I have had really good experiences with EMG's with the Axe. Never really found a passive pickup I liked more with the Axe, which is weird because in general I like them a lot more with regular amps.
 
Stillbruch said:
To be honest, I never understood why a lot of people stated "active sounded cold/neutral" and passive didn't. To me, EMG 81 sounds like EMG 81, and Y sounds like Y. Active pickups are far less affected by noise and other interferences due to their nature of having less winding. But "sterile" or not, I never got it.

As a lot of answers above already state, EMG pickups are to be placed very near to the strings. The installation-manual of EMG suggests the same.

It also depends on your guitar. On my ESP Horizon NT-II (ebony fretboard & maple neck-thru mahagony body = very bright sound), the bridge-pickup (Seymour Duncan SH-4) sounds like it had less output than on my Jackson DKMG (rosewood fretboard, maple neck bolt on alder body), which sounds fuller and warmer, thus creating the impression, it had "more" output.
Click to expand...



Is about the compression, it seems guitarists use the term sterile to describe things without dynamic range.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom