EMG Pickups?

Alright. I dont know if this is the right area to post this but here it is. I've only been playing for little over a year, and am still a beginer. I just recently got a Jackson RR3 with seymour duncan pickups, I was wondering if EMG's would work on it, and if it would give it more of a thrash metal/death metal tone? Or am I better off just to stick with the duncans'?

-Tyson

A lot of people on here don't care for EMG's, and especially the active ones. I have an EMG HZ-4 in my strat copy that sounds awsome. Great metal tone with easy harmonics. If you go the active pickup route, you need to rewire your guitar, but with a passive, you most likely do not. I would go to a Guitar Center or Sam Ashe and try out a few guitars with EMG's then see what you think. What kinda Duncan's do you have in there now?

If you mainly play with high-gain distortion, then EMG actives will do the trick; if you regularly use anything else, they're not so great IMHO. Perhaps it's just me, but I found that they don't bring out your dynamic attack half as well as passives - but, again, with high-gain distortion, it doesn't matter quite so much. As Elklander said, try out a few guitars with EMGs to see if you like them, and if you do, go for it.

save your cash and the labor involved. are your pickups "designed" by duncan or real duncans?? if they they are real ones and I think they are....EMGs would be a downgrade.

cha jiujitsu jesus speaks the truth, I pulled the duncans out of my Jackson and dropped in a ZW set (EMG 81 and 85) and have never looked back, but as stated by the martial art messiah, I use a lot of distortion and gain all the time, its the only way I can cover up my sloppy technique while impressing the chicks...well my mum is impressed anyway :( , for me the pinch harmonics are easier and stronger, sustain sounds less artificial, there is a more woody growl, the over all tone is precisely what I was looking for and they certainly do look better and I had far too many 9 volts lying around anyway.

If yor looking for high gain/power thrash/metal tones the DiMarzio Deactivator line is best suited for both the neck and bridge positions. Emgs have a nasty habit with gain being exponentially compounded when the notes are played quicker or sustained especailly when matched up with Marshall amps. I had Emgs in my Jackson WRMG Warrior when I first purchased it. Then I later switched the Active 81 and 85 Emgs for the Deactivators, what a difference when Played through my Mesa Boogie amp.

I have a steinberger with EMG active pickups and I love it. It works great for all styles: jazz, metal, rock, etc. I haven't played EMG's on any guitars besides my steinberger, but I would recommend them.

I'm in the 'anti-EMG' camp. I just think they take all the personality out of the guitar, and to an extent the player. The tone they produce seems artiicial from the off to me.

DiMarzio pickups are the best for me. The Evolution is great I think for high gain, and the PAF pro is amazing as well. If you're playing thrash you're using a heavy distortion anyway? I'd go passive so that you have the option to play other styles as well. Do yourself a favour and go find your amp and effects pedal(s) in a store, Get the kid to hook 'em up and plug a Jem or JS in... :)

I'm another dissapointed user of EMG's. I have a set ZW EMG's on my Ibanez Prestige - sure they were a slight improvement over the stock Ibz/DMZ set but they took the personality away from it and they added a lot of buzz and hum. They seem to be overly sensitive to electrical interference. The same can be said for my Washburn BB5 bass, it has a set of EMG actives and low level frequency noise is a major problem. Either stick with the Duncans or check out Dimarzio. Why do you want to change the Duncans anyway? Unless they are muddy as hell and/or overly buzzy then you should take a look at the rest of your signal chain (amp, effects, pedals etc). All of my other guitars have Dimarzio's and I am happy with them all. Check out Evolutions for high gain that doesnt get muddy - they will force you to play better too because every mistake will become a lot clearer.

Well, I;m sure you know, but the EMG's aremade for high output, so they're gonna buzz like crazy. Zakk uses them for his harmonics, and has to use a noise gate to keep them quiet.

Well hehe.. I have a Epiphone SG with 2 sets of DiMarzio humbuckers; and then I havea strat-copy with a complete set of active EMG pickups coupled with guitar expander and active equaliser built into the scratch plate.. so I don't really know what I would do if I had to choose between them. As I prefer playing styles of Pink Floyd and Carlos Santana, I would most likely end up with the Strat and EMG pickups.

I find the only problem with the EMGs is that they can be a little too active at times, giving a little too much resonance to the sound of the guitar... but may be that is just me. A guitar is like a woman.. "beauty is in the eye of the beholder..".. just replace eye with ear :)