The name of EMG pickups, should be familiar to most guitarists. However they haven't been readily available in the UK until the last year or so. They're now being distributed by Rhino Music spares, which should mean that for those who want them EMG's are now available.

EMG pickups feature a preamp as part of the pickup design, which has a host of advantages over other pickup units. The units are humbucking, but not in the usual manner. The humbucking effect is created electronically by the pre-amp which eliminates hum and other outside interferences. The pre-amps are built into the pickup themselves, which obviously makes installation easier — the whole EMG unit is completely self-contained.

Another advantage of the pickups' design is the high quality of the shielding which, combined with the humbucking pre-amp, eliminates the need for any string ground to reduce noise. This has a major effect apart from the obvious one, and that is that if you were to touch a live microphone on stage, the guitar wouldn't be a source of danger avoiding the possibility of an electric shock.

The power that is needed to run the pre-amp is achieved via a single nine volt alkaline battery, but because the pickups only requires maximum of 65 microamps which is a very, very small current drain on the battery — even if you play 24 hours a day, your battery should last you for approximately a year.

Each pickup is vacuum sealed which helps to avoid any microphonic noises such as 'screech' or 'squeal' — anyone who plays a Strat will know that this can be a big problem.

The EMG pickups are completely moulded in epoxy, so that from the outside the pickups look very neat, also offering protection against any abuse from a dabbling DIY guitar repairer or a stray screwdriver.

An important feature of the EMG design is what they refer to as 'impedance modelling'. Now this is quite a complicated business and possibly not relevant to this actual review. Simply, the way that this works is that each of the coils can be modelled to respond to a certain frequency and the ability to blend the two coils inside the pickup together results in a very full sound, which EMG claim is different from the typically 'dry' sound of high impedance pickups. Again the modelling is actually achieved by the internal pre-amp which allows, initially, each coil to be modelled. Then at a later stage the coils are 'joined' combining the response curves of each coil resulting in a mixture of the two coil responses rather than the single resonance produced by high impedance pickups.

If all this isn't enough, of course, we still have a couple of features we haven't covered! One is the solid pole design which balances the magnetic field evenly as opposed to the six pole design. The theory here is that we don't get 'drop out' when strings are bent across the pickup and we get a far more even string response and, as EMG put it, "sustain that is unequalled by any other pickup". The low impedance output of the EMG pickup has a two fold advantage over high impedance. Firstly it allows very long jack leads to be used from guitar to amp. EMG claim that you can use a cable up to a 100 ft long without affecting the high frequency response of the pickup. Secondly, the response of the pickup is kept when the volume is turned down. Once again the low impedance feature of the pickups allows them to be recorded directly into a desk without the necessity to convert the impedance to a lower one with a DI box, for example, and once again we don't get any high frequency loss.

The 81 and 58

The 81 and 58 came fitted on the Yamaha Superflighter SF 500. The guitar is laid out in the same manner as a Les Paul, with a volume and tone for each pickup, and a three position selector switch.

Firstly, let's have a look at the 81 which is the newest addition to the range, and has been designed primarily for the lead guitarist. The one on review differed from the usual EMG in that it was enclosed in a cream plastic cover with a silver logo, as opposed to the more usual black plastic with gold logo. Visually, there's absolutely nothing to be seen on an EMG pickup at all — the only thing, of course, is to plug in and check what sound it produces.

With a clean setting on an amp, the 81 is a very clear sounding pickup, with a good bass end and a sharp, bright top end. Clarity is the word with EMG, there's not a hiss coming out of the guitar, only my amp I'm afraid (!) and everything really is crystal clear.

Of course the pickup has really been designed for quite a Heavy Rock or certainly a Hard Rock player in mind. When you crank up the amp to overdriven levels certainly with the master volume, the pickup really takes off into a totally different dimension.

I tested the 81 from what I call just overdriven distortion to really high level distortion, and in both situations the pickup did sound good providing a crisp cutting distortion with a strong mid to top end. Trying to use just this back pickup as a single pickup on the guitar also works very well. Turned down you lose a little bit of the top on the pickup, I presume this could be altered with a small capacitor, and then the incredible clarity and top end bite really comes in when the volume's turned full up.

It would make a very good pickup for a single pickup guitar, which is quite interesting when you consider the price of this EMG is around about £80. One pickup costing £80 on a guitar might well serve you better than two of a cheaper price — something to think about.

The 58 fitted here in the neck position is an entirely different kettle of fish, certainly it's based on a vintage 'fusion' of warmth and power. That's what EMG would like to believe and certainly I can't disagree with that — instant PAF sound really.

Typically, as one would expect, the sustain qualities are quite extraordinary. With the amp on a nice, smooth overdriven sound, you get some lovely tones out of this pickup, too.

The sound is much more mellow than the 81 yet it's still not muddy, which is a problem with a lot of pickups of this type. When we turn the guitar down, we find that it loses a little bit of the top end, but actually makes it very nice for an instant kind of Jazz sound. Just the same really, as you would expect with a PAF. I think the difference comes in the higher output of the pickup, so that when you turn it up to full volume you really can get some very fat and juicy distortion sounds — with the right amp setting of course. In fact both the 58 and 81, not only work very well with a low volume clean setting, they also work very well at high amp settings.

The 'S' System

EMG offer two Strat replacement systems. Firstly the system which is the one on review here and they also have the SA system.

The system is EMG's original "Strat sound" while the SA differs, with a higher output and extra drive, or as EMG put it... "increased sensitivity and sustain".

However, back to the one that we're dealing with here — S system. The pickups were fitted onto a Fernandes Strat copy. Just for the record, these EMG pickups are all black with a silver logo on them. Firstly, of course, we have all the Strat type functions via a five position selector on this guitar. A Presence Control is fitted — the SPC — where the bottom tone control usually is, so the control function differs from usual in that we have a master volume, a master tone and then the presence tone control.

There's not a great deal that you can say about Strat sounds, as these have gone down in the history of Rock guitar as simply 'classic' sounds. What the EMG sound system provides, however, is possibly the best Strat sound you'll hear from any guitar — quite frankly, it's stunningly good! With a clean amp setting the back pickup rings out very clear — it's got a lot of top again but not overly so. I would say that it's possibly brighter than your average back position Strat pickup. The middle has that increased harmonic depth, once again sounding very, very good on this system. The neck pickup has the increased warmth as expected; positions two and four on the five position selector switch give those 'out of phase' tones which are again very, very good on this guitar.

When you crank up the amp, you don't get any squeals but a very clear distorted sound and the overall balance of the pickups, each of them, is very good. It's a very even balance right from the bass up to the top. Strats always have a tendency to be noisy because of the nature of the pickups and the wiring; here, however, that certainly isn't the case. It's almost like listening to a very well produced album of a player like Mark Knopfler, for example, except that you're just getting this straight sound from your amp!

I could go on for days, saying how good these pickups are, but I think the best thing about them is that simply this guitar with these pickups fitted sounds like the ultimate Strat should. Any Strat player will, I think, know what I mean.

Other replacement pickups which I've personally tried (I won't mention any names here) always seemed to be a kind of close approximation. These EMG pickups sound like the real thing — only better!

Now the Presence Control — the SPC — is an interesting addition, basically it works as a mid-range boost. With the control full off we have the flat sound and as we turn the control up, the mid-range is boosted. This has the effect almost of changing the pickup from a 'single-coil' to a 'humbucking' sound. Obviously this isn't actually how this control works, but that is the kind of effect it has on the sound. I wasn't too sure about this really, as I just love the sound without the presence control added. However, it does give a bit more punch to the sound, if that's what you need. This is especially useful, I found, on the bridge pickup and especially for more Rock n' Roll or hard Rock uses. I can't really see the Country players or Funk players who want that kind of "chicken-lickin'" sound, would particularly appreciate the presence control, but it's an option if one needs it.

Each of the pickups comes with the necessary adjustment screws and springs, pre-wired volume and tone controls plus output jack and battery clip and full installation instructions and diagrams.

The EMG range is quite full; we have four humbucking size designs — the 58 and 81 which have been covered plus the EMG 60 which is modelled on the mini hum bucker that was fitted on the Gibson Firebird guitar. (Although it was modelled on the mini-humbucker sized pickup, it's actually full humbucker size so there's no problems in fitting that to a standard guitar.) Then we have the EMG 'H' which is the original full range pickup design, which I presume is the one fitted to the Steinberger six-string. One the bass side we have the two EMG 'P' position type pickups and the EMG Jazz pickups. You can also purchase them as the EMG 'PJ' units, which is a Precision and a Jazz pickup. Lastly, the EMG 'HB' — two humbucking size pickups, which are the type fitted to the Steinberger bass guitars.

We've already mentioned the presence control, and other add-on parts include a phase reversing unit, a dual mode switch kit, which basically splits the pickups, (presumably the humbucking pickups) so that you have the dual or single-coil type sounds. Lastly EMG also provide a pre-amp booster, which provides up to plus 20dB of gain.

Now, let's have a look at the prices. The humbucking type such as fitted on the Yamaha will cost you the pricely sum of £87.95 while the Strat units go for £199.95, which of course includes three pickups. The presence control which we have on review is an additional £62.55. EMG also offer a Telecaster replacement pickup system which features two pickups and these retail for a £175.55, once again the sound quality of these Telecaster pickups is very good — the neck pickup especially, which people often refer to on a Telecaster as fairly useless. I can assure you the neck pickup with the EMG system is very useful!

Conclusions

I think it's been accepted that the basic overall design of the guitar can not be changed greatly, but each aspect can be improved upon and the EMG pickup system is a prime example of that.

However, improvements do cost money and EMG pickups cannot be considered anything else but expensive. A standard pickup system say, for example, a Les Paul with twin humbuckers, possibly phase reversal and dual sound switch will cost you in the region of £223, which some people may feel is plenty enough to pay for a complete guitar alone! However, we are dealing here with very, very pro systems and there's no doubt that the addition of these EMG pickups to any guitar will make a drastic improvement to the sound. Whether or not you see that spending £200 to change the pickups on your guitar would be a worthwhile investment is really up to you... I think I'll ask for a pay rise.

EMG PICKUPS - RRP: SEE COPY