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I need an education to teach! EMG content

gavindale

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
446
Hey, I run "The Gundry Guitar Institute" in Orrville Ohio and my lessons contain full discussions on tone, gear and getting it all together. I have a new student who is into metal. I personally have not dipped into that genre of music very deep so my knowledge of EMG pick ups are nonexistent.
He has presented a problem to me that I would answer out of hand but with active pickups I am a bit lost.
SO I come to my favorite group of experts for anything musical the LPF! :yah :dude:

It is a simple description. His pickups are squealing so bad that they are unusable. My first reaction was to immediately think in the passive world that they were not potted and needed to be to correct the issue. BUT what about active pickups? Are they all already potted? Is it impossible to do due because of the electronics involved? Is there a common set up solution to address this issue?

As usual, any and all help is deeply appreciated and I thank you in advance! :salude
 

Hamerfan

Active member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
791
EMG are quieter in term of idle noise and hum, but are more prone to squeal. EMGs work best with solid state and low gain tube, but have often a problem with high gain tube amps. Sometimes a pedal without buffer cure this overload or plugging into the low input. Its basically a low impedance pickup in a high impedance input, that causes some trouble.
A slight chance: a low battery status - this creates sometimes weird things in preamps or a microphonic input tube.

Hope that helps.
 

gavindale

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
446
Thank you Hamerfan. You answer goes completely opposite to anything I had assumed or considered. For example, you mention that these do not work well with high gain amplifiers. It is my experience that the majority of players who install EMG's are looking for high gain tone since they seem to be the most popular with heavy metal musicians. I believe my student is plugging into a Marshal. I will ask him about his regular choice of input jack and battery status. Thanks again.
 

Hamerfan

Active member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
791
I know that metal is about hi-gain, but e.g. Mesa boogies were made to give hi-gain structure to passive high impedance guitars. If you go to the limits with internal preamps, buffered pedals, selected input tubes,... you get to limits and feedback.
Squealing is a plague, but controllable with good passive pickups and fine input tubes. Change out some factors like tubes, batteries, cables... and you may find a way to control it.
 

gavindale

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
446
Ya' know, that's where I think I am heading with him. The more I teach the more I learn.
 

Grandturk

Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2001
Messages
775
I've never experienced an uncontrolled squeel condition in any active EMG pickups I've ever used, high gain amp or not, nor have I heard this to be typical of active EMGs that are in good condition and wired correctly.

First - what EMG pickups is he using? EMG makes more than active pickups.

Second - are they installed correctly or was the wiring done by a 12 year old?
 

Ryan Givhan

New member
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
3,220
only people i know that use EMG's use very high gain tube amps and they dont squeal . . . unless they want them to with a sick drop tuned pinched harmonic! \m/
 

Pat Boyack

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Messages
4,510
Not to be a smart ass but back in the day we used the volume knob on the guitar. When we were not playing the volume was off and vice versa. Many rock guitar players do this.
 

Dave P

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Messages
976
Are they the open coil EMG's? The enclosed EMG's are sealed in epoxy so nothing can be done internally to those as far as potting.
 
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