Upgrading KH-2 2009 signature (no LTD) pickups

M

maorgr

Inspired
Hi guys,

My KH-2 is really dear to my heart, but I want to make it better.
I was thinking about replacing the pickups with James Hetfield's active EMG set..
will such action decrease the value of the guitar ? does anyone have the James Hetfield's pickup set and if so - what is your opinion on them.

Thank you in advance,

Maor
 
maorgr said:
I feel as if they are too flat...
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Flat as in what exactly? If you want more bass mids or treble, use the eq on your rig. If you want more dynamics, try less gain.

Your guitar should have EMG 81/85 if im not mistaken, I dont see the het set being a huge change.
 
Budda said:
Flat as in what exactly? If you want more bass mids or treble, use the eq on your rig. If you want more dynamics, try less gain.

Your guitar should have EMG 81/85 if im not mistaken, I dont see the het set being a huge change.
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2009 I would say probably 81/60 if not 2 81's. but yea not that much of a difference between them and the het set. they should be quick connect though so if he wanted to change them its easy enough. If he went for the KH Bone Breakers I believe those are based off the 81 and 60A
 
maorgr said:
Hi guys,

My KH-2 is really dear to my heart, but I want to make it better.
I was thinking about replacing the pickups with James Hetfield's active EMG set..
will such action decrease the value of the guitar ? does anyone have the James Hetfield's pickup set and if so - what is your opinion on them.

Thank you in advance,

Maor
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I have them in my Ltd Iron Cross. WAY hotter than the emg 81, a bit more clear and punchy with more attack, and a chunkier, beefier low end. Just back the bridge pup off a tad, they WILL clip the input too🤣🤣 I also own an 84 epi explorer with the 81/ 85. They are a tad more compressed and less hot. It's been said before, but the emg 81 gets called a mega hot bridge pup. It isn't. It's on the low end of high output, and the high end of medium. That said, it's very "solid" and consistent/ flat. They work well with high gain because it's all mids with the extreme highs/lows rolled off.
 
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mr_fender said:
You might try the 18V mod for increased punch and dynamics as well.
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Yeah I've read up on it, not my cup of tea. I can accomplish almost the same thing by tweaking a pre/post eq, and usually I lower the master volume when I'm using the emg 81, it opens them up quite well. I don't want to start a war, but I'm sure you guys have heard the "emg 81 needs to be as close to the strings as possible because of the weaker magnetic pull" but man...I swear it's the opposite. When I had it nearly touching the strings it was louder yes, with a bit more treble response, but still shrill, brittle and a bit muddy. Once I backed off to about 1/4 inch away (maybe a tad higher) all off the "balls" and dynamics came back, as well as much better harmonics. Another thing...the emg 81 does NOT get along well with input noise gates, especially on modelers. I chased my tail thinking my emg 81 sounded like a neck pickup, and weak. Checked wiring, battery, took it to a tech, nada. Then I backed up the input noise gate. WHOOOUGH chugga chugga. I couldn't believe it. Try it. Chug an E chord (022) and let it ring, and increase/ decrease the input gate. It's astounding the amount of dynamics a high gate "chokes off". Moral of my story, LOWER is better, on both the pickup and the input gate i.m.o. And yes, I've heard emg themselves recommend the 81 to dry hump the strings. I don't care😁
 
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OP the nice thing about most EMGs is they're usually easy to swap with their quick-connect plugs. If your guitar has the quick-connects, you can try a HetSet, swap back if you don't like them, or just keep the original pickups around and swap them back when you go to sell it.

I don't think it would necessarily decrease the value (though some people might be annoyed if they want to go back to the stock 81s) but they definitely won't increase the value. If you sell it with the HetSet in it you'll be out the cost of the HetSet. That's why if you plan to sell later I'd just quick connect the originals back in and sell the HetSet separately.
 
Can you guys help me out, please ?
Regarding the EMG 60 & 81, what are their Peak to Peak voltage ? is it like the strum voltage ?
 
https://www.emgpickups.com/pub/media/Mageants/p/o/powertips_tricks_0230-0190c.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMG_81
H Instructions on here: https://www.emgpickups.com/81.html

From these, it says "EMG Pickups never put out more voltage than is being supplied. Using a 9 Voltbattery will limit the output signal of the pickup to slightly less than 9 Volts.Older EMG Pickups may have a maximum output of 4.5 Volts, one half of thesupply. If you supply the pickups with 18 Volts the headroom will double,creating even more headroom for the signal."

And EMG-81 specifically is listed as 4.5V on Wikipedia and the EMG 81 spec sheet, so it's an older design outputting half the voltage.

So at 9V you'd peak at 4.5V, and at 18V it could go up to 9V.

Interestingly this must be what they changed for the X series, plus the 57/66, Hets, and others: Changed it so they can output the full 9V instead of half, thus being "the same as the 18V mod at 9V".
 
oh, so maybe I accidently put a 18v battery in it...I'll check tomorrow.

Thank you so much for your help !
 
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