Noooo, i know youd tried them, but what made them the best?

I've been using EMG's for the last 4 years... I LOVE them... but I want to try something new. There's this metal tone that I've heard somewhere for some reason I really like it, but I can't pinpoint exactly where I heard it from... It's the sound of newer metal bands... I want to say it might have been from DiMarzio... hmm hmm hmmmmm...

I've been told EMG's mostly sound the same. You can put it in a nice guitar, and it'll sound nice. But, when you put it in a crappy guitar, it'll still sound nice..
Everyone goes crazy how they have so much output and sound a lot, you know, "chuggier", but hey.. I'm pretty sure Matt and Corey use passive signature pickups in their new guitars, look how deep those bastards sound.

I like EMG's on a beefier tone. They maintain clarity with high distortion, and can make note really articulate due to their high output. On a clean tone however they sound very stale, and almost quiet to a certain degree.

QUOTE(PULL HARDER ! @ Sep 10 2008, 03:56 PM) [snapback]449328[/snapback]I've been told EMG's mostly sound the same. You can put it in a nice guitar, and it'll sound nice. But, when you put it in a crappy guitar, it'll still sound nice..
Everyone goes crazy how they have so much output and sound a lot, you know, "chuggier", but hey.. I'm pretty sure Matt and Corey use passive signature pickups in their new guitars, look how deep those bastards sound.

I've been told EMG's are good for cheap guitars, but do NOTHING for well made guitars. From what I've heard, passive pickups help let the more "well made" guitars sing with their own soul through the high quality wood and strong craftsmanship, rather than having an active pickup dial in it's own sound for the guitar, which you would get the exact same sound from a cheaper guitar. Not sure if that's true, but it sounds logical...

I just recently bought a guitar that had active EMG 81-85's in it and I must say that the sound is decent. It's not SUPERB like a lot of the EMG fan boys would make them out to be but they sure do put out for my style of music. Only problem is that when playing I sometimes feel limited to what sounds I could make.

Overall, EMG's are fairly good but I'd probably go with passive in the long run. Right now I'm just experimenting.

Another pickup you might want to check out is Bill Lawrence.

I have a L500XL and it rips.

The thing with EMGs is they're a one trick pony, much like 5150's, they're only really good for some heavy rock/metal sounds, but the fact is they DOMINATE at that sound. They also tend to make reamping easier because actives provide a stronger signal than passive pickups. On the topic of active pickups though, Duncan Blackouts are very similar to emgs but they're less compressed so they feel more open and natural sounding, but then later on I realized that I personally preferred the compression and tightness of the emgs over the openess of the blackouts and was actually subconciously eqing my amp to sound more like my 81/85. But for versatility you'd be better off with a nice pair of passive pickups jb/59' is never really a bad all around choice.

Well, i think it really depends on the guitar you use. If you put active emgs on a gibson/epiphone les paul it will sound great. These pickups work really good with the les paul body construction, in my point of view it's the best combination.
But they also sound good with a lot other guitars of course, it's just a matter of trying ;)

I have Emgs in my Shecter 7string hell raiser I personally dont like them b.c they give u a muddy style sound and it dosent scream like a heavy metal guitar. They are over rated but thats my opinion if u like em enjoy em i personally dont like them