I just got a guitar with EMG pickups. So far, I like the sound but it is not at all what I expected. I like a really clear, clean warm sound to start with; I'm one of those that thinks you should start with a very clean sound and then muddy it up later in the signal chain if you must. (You can add dirt to a clean sound, but you can't make a dirty sound clean kind of thinking.) I have an Alembic Tribute, and that is the king of clean and warm, so that is my standard for judging other stuff. The guitar I just got is an Epiphone 1958 Korina Explorer (used), with EMG 81 and 85 pickups. The two things I noticed right off the bat are: 1 - the bridge pickup (81) was WAY weaker sounding than the neck (85). EMG says the 81 is typically used in the bridge position, and has higher output than the 85; so I guess they are in the recommended positions. I adjusted them to their respective extremes, height-wise, with the neck pickup way down into the guitar and the bridge pickup right up to the strings, and that just about made their respective outputs equal. And 2, I was expecting a clear tone out of them, sort of one that could be used for jazz sounds, but I am not getting that. They sound kinda gritty (in a good way), but definitely more appropriate for rock and roll and not jazzy-sounding at all. Not at all like my Alembic.
I thought the issue might be that whomever installed them used the guitar's original pots/caps instead of replacing them with the lower K value pots that EMG says are preferred. However, if the pots are wide open (turned up to 10) doesn't that actually take them out of the equation?
Any thoughts, as I suss out this new (to me) guitar?
