Kirk Hammett: “Maybe the age of active pickups is over”

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I swear by my EMG 81-X's in the Bridge position.
It's how I get my sound.
I've tried going back to passive, but every time,
EMG 81-x's sound better to me in the end.
Going on 11 years.
 
Rex Rocker said:
On the making of DVD, they mention Phil did most of the rhythm tracking, and they show him tracking guitars with a stock LP Standard. Or at least, that's what it looks like. Nickel covers and all. You can see pics of him playing live with that guitar as well with the nickel-covered passives too which he later swapped out for the EMG 85's that he was using in An Ocean Between Us.

I like the tone on An Ocean Between Us as well, and overall, I like Colin's drum tones better, but the tone on Shadows Are Security certainly doesn't sound like actives to me. It sounds raw, edgy, and unpolished (at least compared to the contemporary The End of Heartache tone), but that could very well be the Krank they got reamped through doing its thing. The thing I love about that tone (and that record in particular) is you can really hear the Gothenburg-y influence to the aesthetics of both the music and the production. IMO, of course. The tone reminds me a bit of Colony and the riffs remind me of a less edgy Slaughter of the Soul at times.

I used to be a big fan of that band before Tim went nuts, LOL. And up to this day, I obsess about the tone on that record. I feel kinda nerdy discussing those kind of details like people do about Van Halen or other like way more iconic tones, LOL, but that's just what I like.
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Yeah that is a great example of why some of us still love active tones. Killer tone on that whole album IMO.

 
FLUXX said:
I swear by my EMG 81-X's in the Bridge position.
It's how I get my sound.
I've tried going back to passive, but every time,
EMG 81-x's sound better to me in the end.
Going on 11 years.
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As someone using the 81-X what differences do you hear between that and the original 81?
 
FLUXX said:
The EMG 81-X's have more headroom than the original 81's.
That's the biggest difference to me
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I believe their preamp is a couple of resistors apart, acutally. This reduces the gain before the preamp by 6dB, thus giving them more headroom. Then the output impedance is lower, making them less lossy by being loaded by the volume/tone pots, so that makes up for the lower volume.

IME, if you 18V (or better yet, 24 or 27V) a regular 81, you get really close to an 81X, just slightly louder.

I guess the advantage of the X series is you only have to worry about a single battery.
 
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Rex Rocker said:
I believe their preamp is a couple of resistors apart, acutally. This reduces the gain before the preamp by 6dB, thus giving them more headroom. Then the output impedance is lower, making them less lossy by being loaded by the volume/tone pots, so that makes up for the lower volume.

IME, if you 18V (or better yet, 24 or 27V) a regular 81, you get really close to an 81X, just slightly louder.

I guess the advantage of the X series is you only have to worry about a single battery.
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That is essentially what i read when the X Series was released. I read somewhere that they were created to address the people using the 81 at 18 or 24 Volts.
 
Detroit1973 said:
That is essentially what i read when the X Series was released. I read somewhere that they were created to address the people using the 81 at 18 or 24 Volts.
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They are. I had a set of 81X/60X in a guitar once. I was disappointed with them, personally. They just sounded like you up'd the voltage of a standard 81/60 set, and then rolled back the volume just a tad. Tonally, they weren't any different other than just very slightly quieter.

I'd personally have the ever-so-slightly louder 81/60 set running at 18+ V. Especially since they're very slightly louder, but not more compressed once you go over the clipping threshold on the voltage.

Don't get me wrong. I loved EMG's back then. EMG X's sound like EMG's. I did like them. I guess I just tried them expecting something different.
 
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Rex Rocker said:
They are. I had a set of 81X/60X in a guitar once. I was disappointed with them, personally. They just sounded like you up'd the voltage of a standard 81/60 set, and then rolled back the volume just a tad. Tonally, they weren't any different other than just very slightly quieter.

I'd personally have the ever-so-slightly louder 81/60 set running at 18+ V. Especially since they're very slightly louder, but not more compressed once you go over the clipping threshold on the voltage.

Don't get me wrong. I loved EMG's back then. EMG X's sound like EMG's. I did like them. I guess I just tried them expecting something different.
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Makes Sense to me. I Still use them with a Few of my Les Pauls but i'd like something with the 81 Push, slightly less high end fizz & warmer.
 
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