EMG 81 Active Guitar Humbucker Bridge/Neck Pickup, Black

Great . Awesome sounding pickup

I decided to upgrade the pickups on my Jackson JS32 King V and after a lot of research, I went for the gusto and got the EMG 81/85 combo. Since this was my first pickup installation, I chose EMG not only because they're the standard in metal, but because they seemed easiest to install and came with the solderless install system - which includes tone and volume pots, an output jack, all cables and a cool pickup buss that everything plugs into. It also came with easy to follow instructions for just about any guitar setup. No soldering was involved for installation but some was required to remove the existing components first. Once all the work was done, I played it and noticed BIG differences! With distortion, the EMG's have high gain and sustain - even at medium volume - with almost no noise. On clean, they have a rich warm jazzy tone. I have to say I'm satisfied! I upgraded my first guitar successfully with the best pickups on the market - EMG's!

Great product! It was an easy install and sounds great as expected. What an east upgrade!

Best pickup by far, would buy again

In the photos, the product appears to have a paint finish similar to automotive paint, but it doesn't. It's a matte red plastic. If I had known, I would have gotten black, but it didn't bother me enough to return it. It's all good. It comes with enough instructions for any layman to assemble. It requires a mounting frame; I managed to adapt it with different screws, but it will be easier if your guitar has a pickup mounting frame or a pickguard. This is not fake, it's real.

I bought this for my little one pick up ltd. You can’t beat the sound of an EMG 81 for metal.

simply awesome !!! this is the best pickup i have ever owned ! it was the easiest install ever , clean sound is perfect . i got this for low C tuning , and it is epic ! the low end on this is monster !! i installed both volume and tone pots , the installation instructions give you the choice ( for single pickup as well as two pick up config. ) also my first EMG , i will never use any other pickup , have ordered two bass pick ups as well . the price was excellent !!! , music store 7 mi. from my house said would under cut anything online , needless to say , they would not . if you want the heaviest sound or a jazz or country vibe , this is a great choice !!! NOTE : any of that like a tight palm mute type of heavy sound , buy this !!! the 81 !!!

So I've been using EMG for about twenty years. It's supposed to be a solderless system, but I prefer a v shaped guitar for whatever reason. The kit that EMG sends you seems to be geared toward guitars that have the jack closer to the electronics cavity. On a v shaped guitar, the jack is on the complete opposite side, so I have to chain link bits of wire together. If I'm missing something here please let me know. The wire that they include in the kit isn't even close to what I would need. I've googled the hell out of it for the past ten years, and nobody has said anything about it. Is this not bothering you guys or what? I have to solder bits of wire together on a, "solderless" system. I can only assume I'm doing something incorrect here, but I don't feel that this is right if EMG claims that their pickups are, "solderless", because that has never been the case for me. Five stars for sounding very good and because I don't like to leave negative reviews. These people work hard and have provided an exceptional product for decades, and I respect that very much.