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which one has a more clearer/ cleaner tone the 85 or the 81 for the bridge postion. what abot the emg 60 also. thinkin of goin either emg 81/85 emg 85/60 or 81/60 in my rhoads. yes i know i post alot of questions about pickups for my v lol

85 to me is clearer and cleaner.

I can't say I've tried an 85 but of all the pickups I have tried the 81 has been the clearest tied with the Evolution.

For the neck you can not go wrong with a 60 IMO because of it's amazing versatility....it has both hum and single coil-like qualities to it. Probably my favorite neck pickup ever.

I haven't tried an 85 in the bridge, but I can say the 81 is very clear and smooth in my guitar (heavy mahogany, maple top).

Which of the two do you guys think is better for soloing? I am thinking about putting two 89s in my guitar, and so i bet it will sound pretty similar to having a pair of 85s and a pair of sa's in my guitar at once.

dgk2488, IMO, the 81 is the one with a cleaner/clearer tone due to the fact that the 81 has less bass and more mids and highs than the 85 but that being said, keep in mind that ALL EMG's are naturally clean amp; clear sounding so it doen't mean the 85 won't be to your liking.

Ranalli put it BEAUTIFULLY when describing the EMG-60. It's really clear in all positions but I didn't like it in the bridge as much as in the neck. It doen't have as much mids as the 81 but did have more highs, a little too bright for me in the bridge.
My vote is for the 81/60 combo, or for a guitar that sounds too bright then use the
85/60.

search button! don't be afraid to use it.

Shredhead7, Dude, you still haven't decided what to get YET???
What's the deal?

no unfortunately i still dont have a clue.

My electronics on my guitar gives me about four switches for electronics, and i feel like i'd be wasting my money if i didn't use em all. If i go active i will put in two 89s and an afterburner as well as a preamp booster and have individual pickup splitters. but i don't know if i wanna do that or not cause it would cost me about 400 or so, and what if i dont like them. ( I got tons of money to throw into this pickup swap.)

Also for a while i was looking into hand wound pickups, and i dont quite know what i want. I guess part of the problem is that i dont have any reference tones that i like. I have an ideal in my head, but i dont know how to acheive it with my current gear. I want a lot of drive and chunk on the lower strings but a fat top end. And the output needs to be big cause my amp isn't giving me enough of it.

Then my other idea was to put a sustainer in my guitar and put some passives with it and a hum cancelling single next to the driver pickup. It sucks that i care so much about the sound, but i feel like i got to get it right the first time around.

I wish i could hear the 85 or 89 a bit more than what i have so far.

I think the 89s would suit my purpose, but when i spend money i like to spend it well so i gotta make sure.


Originally Posted by Shredhead7

I want a lot of drive and chunk on the lower strings but a fat top end. And the output needs to be big cause my amp isn't giving me enough of it.

I haven't personally tried it, but I've read that the 85 suits what you are describing.

Shredhead7, When you mentioned that you wanted new pups, I assumed you already had an amp rig you really liked. If you're not happy with the tone you're getting, don't blame the guitar blame your amp. Guitars, no matter how cheap might sound pretty good through a great amp, but if you don't even have an amp you like, how can you say you don't like your pups? Like I've said, I work for Carvin and guitars like yours through a great amp like the Carvin MTS3200 stack sound heavy as all hell. It has what I think you're looking for like the thickness and gain you want with a crystaline sounding clean channel.
After trying a great amp, you might find that you like your pups after all. Especially if you got the active module on the guitar you can get all kinds of tones on that thing.
If you can't then I really don't know what to tell you.

well i actually do like my amp, i guess it is hard to describe. The amp has a nice smooth sound to it, but with the relatively low powered pickups on the guitar i have to crank the amps gain up to the max before it starts to growl. you see my amp is alright, but it would really benefit from a good kick of power, if you know what i mean. I play through an AVT 50 that i got a year or two ago, and see i just want to get more gain so that i can get it to growl, it already sings though. The pickups in my carvin are stock c22s and they are really more of a slightly overwound paf sound, than a high output metal humbuckers. I hope that this explains what i am looking for a bit better, tone is so intangible that it is kind of hard for me to state what i am looking for. although after thinking about it i have some references. I really like slipknot's rythm guitar sounds, but i like the lead sounds of guys like steve vai, satriani, rusty cooley, arch enemy, trivium and the likes. My taste is fairly broad, but i like the rythm sounds to growl and chunk but have well defined leads with lots of character.

For a while i was looking into evolutions because steve's lead tone is amazing, but he doesn't play much rythm so i dont know if it could handle lamb of god riffs. Now you can see why i'm confused.

I think the 81 is clearer/ cleaner .....not because the 85 is not clear but because of the higher treble frequencies the 81 has compared to the 85............on the other hand you may find the 81 a little bit unnatural sounding and definately less warm than the 85.............

the 85 has more low end and low mids. Sort of a PAF tone.The 81 is brighter.