EMG 60 and 89

[epig]

Well I gave into temptation today and bought an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Classic. It comes with an Emg 60 in the neck and 89 in the bridge. I was just wondering if anybody was familiar with these pickups. I'm wondering what to expect and the guitar won't be here for a couple of days.
He also is sending the originals so I have them to play around with too.

Jeremy

[warmstrat]

I believe EMGs have quite high output by default

Friend of mine has an 89 in the bridge position of his cort g290 (which is actually a very good guitar)

And it sure does sound good, particularly at high gain.

[spud1950]

Here's links to EMG page for each pickup.There's specs and sound samples of the 60.

EMG 60 - www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=173#

EMG 89 - www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=6

[Ripper]

I may be wrong, but arent EMG's low output?

I used 81/85 on my Jackson RR. Great shredding guitar.

[spud1950]

I may be wrong, but aren't EMG's low output?

Well,depends on what your using to judge the output signal.If your thinking of output in terms of just the impedence rating,as most people do,they're not really that high at 10k ohms. Since we're talking about active pickups, which have a pre amp built into the pickup,the output signal is much higher then a passive pickup of the same impedance rating. As it says on the EMG sight:

"An active pickup is one that uses electronics to improve the sound and enhance its operation. There are a variety of ways to "Activate" a pickup. A simple "buffer" pre-amp will do the trick, but it will also amplify the hum and buzz the pickup produces. Just because a pickup is "active" doesn't guarantee you'll get great results. EMG pickups utilize an internal pre-amp (inside the pickup), which not only makes the pickup louder, it also reduces the noise!"

Even with passive pickups, as far as output signal goes,you can't always go by the impedance rating to judge output because the type and strength of the magnets will also effect the the strength of output signal.

[epig]

Well I recieved the guitar a couple of days ago.

The have a quite a bit of power behind them. The 60 in the neck had a pretty warm and nice sound clean but for me the 89 was not quite what I was looking for. I play in a cover band that plays a fairly wide range of music. For the Nickel Back and Godsmack songs this pickup combo sounded pretty good but I couldn't mellow it out enough for old Cream and Beatles tunes. It is a quiet pickup considering the power it puts out.

I decided to pull the EMG's out and put the stock pups back in. I am quite impressed with these considering they're stock epi's. Kind of a L.P. studio sound. The stock pups in the Elitist are sure a lot nicer sounding than in my Epi LP Custom.

Thanks for the input guys.
Jeremy

[nomad100]

does anyone know how the output compares to there H4A/H4 pickups?