EMG or Seymour blackouts

[Paramedic006]

I'm toying with the idea of active pickups in my SG. I have been looking at EMG's and Seymour blackouts. I need your opinions brothers. I've heard EMG's are sterile and the blackouts sound good. I have a JB and Jazz and they aren't my thing. The JB in m SG is a little to sharp for me. I might be selling these pickups to if any interest. This is my very first try at active pickups.

 

[JayCM800]

My opinion is... no EMG is gonna sound sterile if your playing is good!!

It's the pickup of choice of many pro's!!!

I don't have experience with SD Blackouts... if you try them let us know whatcha think...

 

[mike mike]

None. get some good Passives. Trust me on this. Bare Knuckle Pickups are as good as it gets my friend

 

[eljeffebrown]

Emg's, why, I'll tell you. a friend of mine has a Uberschall and was having real problems with it feeding back.

I said
"dude you are using way too much gain"
he said
"look, I can plug my Gibson in to the amp and stand right in front of it and it doesn't feed back AT ALL"."
I said to him
"what Guitar are you using"
he said
"my Scheter ATX 7 W blackouts"
I said
"that shouldn't be feeding back at all"
he said
"I know right!"

we'll he had it rewired by my tech and we went out to his house in the country and had a jam session with a few buddies and this thing was still feeding back like a madman,

I said
"did you put a new battery in it"
he said
"I put the same one back in that was in it before"
I said
"here, I have a brand new one stick this in that thing, that will fix the problem".
he plugged it in and it fed back worse!
I said
"WTF?"
I said "gimmie your cord dude somethings up",

he handed me his cord and I plugged my LTD EC-1000 W an EMG 81 in it and stood right in front of that Uberschall and it was quiet as a church mouse!

You make the choice!

 

[Jesstaa]

Blackouts.
But get the metal version (AHB2)
It's not noisy, and it really just sounds like a passive Duncan, with a crapload of boost. You can play a Fender amp, and get Slayer tones.
And if you don't want so much output, you can wire up a switch to go between high and normal output (Normal being the same as the AHB1)

 

[mike mike]

blackouts are sludgy. EMG's are clear

 

[jcmjmp]

Judas Priest's guitarist Glenn Tipton uses the Blackouts, as does Dave Mustaine. Must have been a bad set.

 

[Wyldefan916]

To me they sound similar, yet different (if that makes any sense). I have yet to personally try Blackouts, but I have the EMG-ZW (81/85) pickups in my Epi custom and boy is she a crazy bitch now. Either way you go, I think you'll be happy.

 

[chuckmehh]

What kind of music do you typically play? I am an EMG guy through and through, but I play heavy metal which they are designed for. I've only played a guitar with Blackouts once at a guitar center and they were pretty good too; very similar to be quite honest. I wasn't cranking the amp or anything though, so I don't know if they are noisier or not.

Essentially, if you're playing heavy music, you will be pleased I think . If you want a more organic tone out of EMG's, there is an 18v mod where you run 2 9 volt batteries instead of one as well. I have this on my Les Paul and it seems to offer more headroom for cleans. For OD, I can't really tell a difference to be honest haha

 

[eljeffebrown]

What kind of music do you typically play? I am an EMG guy through and through, but I play heavy metal which they are designed for. I've only played a guitar with Blackouts once at a guitar center and they were pretty good too; very similar to be quite honest. I wasn't cranking the amp or anything though, so I don't know if they are noisier or not.

Essentially, if you're playing heavy music, you will be pleased I think . If you want a more organic tone out of EMG's, there is an 18v mod where you run 2 9 volt batteries instead of one as well. I have this on my Les Paul and it seems to offer more headroom for cleans. For OD, I can't really tell a difference to be honest haha

And if you want a more "organic tone" from an active set EMG makes the X series they are active's that are voiced more like a passive but are still quiet like a active, I've played 'em they sound pretty awesome.

 

[chuckmehh]

And if you want a more "organic tone" from an active set EMG makes the X series they are active's that are voiced more like a passive but are still quiet like a active, I've played 'em they sound pretty awesome.

The man speaks the truth!!!

 

[Paramedic006]

I'm not much into heavy heavy metal. Maybe metallica is about as heavy as I'll go. I'm more of an iron maiden, acdc, type of guy. Maybe I should just stick to passives. Maybe like a 57 classic or a Dimarzio DP100. From what you guys are posting maybe the actives aren't my thing either. I have the JB/Jazz and the JB is a little harsh at least through my 2204.

 

[chuckmehh]

I'm not much into heavy heavy metal. Maybe metallica is about as heavy as I'll go. I'm more of an iron maiden, acdc, type of guy. Maybe I should just stick to passives. Maybe like a 57 classic or a Dimarzio DP100. From what you guys are posting maybe the actives aren't my thing either. I have the JB/Jazz and the JB is a little harsh at least through my 2204.

Yeah you probably don't want actives man; just check out Seymour's and Dimarzio's website for good matches; if you want super high end, Bare Knuckle pickups are where it's at!

 

[Wyldefan916]

Try out maybe a set of the Alnico II Slash p'ups, or maybe even the pearly gates p'ups. Just throwin' out ideas.

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

Ive tried the EMGs. They are too clear for when I want to play harder rock stuff. I want a lot of chunk and chug. I like the Seymour Duncan AHB-3s best. EMGs are too clear. When you hit a chord it sounds all seperated. When I'm playing rhythm and riffs, I want it to be thick, and sound like one big conglomerate of sound, not like an acoustic with all 6 strings ringing loudly. I want it to be a "chunk" of sound. I like that thick sound for when I'm playing hard rock. I'm not into modern music at all, and am not a metal fan but like that chunky sound for the 70s/80s hard rock that I sometimes play. I have a guitar with the AHB3s and they rock. I would not normally go for the EMTY's, but they have the sound I want. Which is funny because as I said, I can't stand modern music LOL. I'm a classic rock guy tried and true. EMGs are too clear and too bright for me. JMHO though.

 

[Blisster]

I've got blackouts in the Schecter ATX V.....LOVE em, they sound wicked with my bossted DSL. I have EMGs in one of my other guitars, don't like em quite as much, but that could have everything to do wiht the guitar and not the PuPs

 

[tonefreak]

I'm not much into heavy heavy metal. Maybe metallica is about as heavy as I'll go. I'm more of an iron maiden, acdc, type of guy. Maybe I should just stick to passives. Maybe like a 57 classic or a Dimarzio DP100. From what you guys are posting maybe the actives aren't my thing either. I have the JB/Jazz and the JB is a little harsh at least through my 2204.

+10 bajillion for the DP-100. AWESOME pickup.

 

[Jesstaa]

I'm not much into heavy heavy metal. Maybe metallica is about as heavy as I'll go. I'm more of an iron maiden, acdc, type of guy. Maybe I should just stick to passives. Maybe like a 57 classic or a Dimarzio DP100. From what you guys are posting maybe the actives aren't my thing either. I have the JB/Jazz and the JB is a little harsh at least through my 2204.

I'm yet to try the blackout through a 2204 (My mates got one, and he lives just up the road, should really go up there soon) but through my 900 I have a perfect live Maiden tone with the blackout.

 

[diesect20022000]

And if you want a more "organic tone" from an active set EMG makes the X series they are active's that are voiced more like a passive but are still quiet like a active, I've played 'em they sound pretty awesome.

i want some of those in 85/89/60x's!

 

[Paramedic006]

My problem is I've always used duncans. I have cruised Dimarzio and the bare knuckles sites. The DP100 looks like it's what I'm looking for but the bare knuckle pickups look $&@? Sweet. Are they that expensive cuz they are hand wound.