EMG81: love/hate relationship

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dave74 said:
But did you have that same 81 in other guitars too? It might just be that specific combo hits perfect.

I know the general word is that an 81 is an 81 no matter it's host, but I've certainly found that to be false after many years of playing musical-chairs with all my pickups and guitars. I really got into that between 2006-15.
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Yeah i did. That set just has more low end for some reason. I have a Beautiful Limited Edition Les Paul Standard that is a tad anemic in the low end & that set fixed that. I Put that set back into the original LP they came out of. Bought a Set of Anniversary EMGs and installed those....anemic in the low end again....Thought it was dead strings, changed those....Nothing gave me the same low end punch. Tried a JB in that guitar and it sounded better which is why i wanted to switch most of my guitars to passive.
 
Detroit1973 said:
and i keep hearing that the Het set sound like the older 81's from the 90's......which is when i bought my favorite set of Emg's. That set in my les paul standard will never come out but the rest of my les pauls will probably get switched over to passive pickups
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You know I have a emg 81 old don't know the year but I have that one for around 24 years and it was old when I got it used, has the cables Straight into the epoxy and it sounds great, not like the newer models where you can connect the 3 pin female connector.
 
EMG 81,…love them when I install one, dislike it by the time I remove them. Repeat…and again…

Great, now I’m thinking about it again,…Even now, I long to put one back in
 
You have to do the corpse mod to the 81 to get the most out of it. Scrape off the EMG logo with a razor and draw it back on with a fine tip black sharpie. This tightens it up and gives it more output. Works on all EMG pickups. Trust me.
 
Actually, if you want more output out of a 81, remove the tone control, 3 db's extra of output is available if you do this so I've been told. I have one guitar like this and it does seem to be a bit hotter.
 
anomaly said:
Actually, if you want more output out of a 81, remove the tone control, 3 db's extra of output is available if you do this so I've been told. I have one guitar like this and it does seem to be a bit hotter.
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Yup...This actually works.
 
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