EMG-80's

philvanv · #1 07-02-2012, 06:43 PM

im new here, second post. Im currently, building a bass and stuck in the 80's. My old Guild was nice, I liked it as well as, if not better then the Rick. Are or have the EMG pick ups had dramatic changes since the 80's. If possible Id like to rebuild the Guild but this time I have a pretty heavy body. I was told it would help define the lower tones, plus i had no idea where to buy an inexpensive light body...thanks

JimmyM · #2 07-02-2012, 10:32 PM

I have several PJ pickups by EMG...one set is from the mid 80's, two are from the 90's, one set is new. The new ones are significantly hotter than the old ones but they sound the same to me. Might be slight differences, but they have the same tonal characteristics to me.

philvanv · #3 01-01-2013, 12:37 PM

great, so that shouldn't be a problem.Thanks..

JimmyM · #4 01-01-2013, 10:10 PM

I have to take that back about the new pickups being significantly hotter than the old. I just installed a BQC in one of the basses with the 90's PJ's and it got louder

SGD Lutherie · #5 01-02-2013, 10:32 AM

The real early pickups were sometimes wound a little hotter. These are the ones that had brown epoxy in the back.

The only other change I have seen is the original J soapbars had a longer J pickup in the case set on an angle. The newer ones use a shorter coil like half a humbucker.

I still own an original 40J without the quick connector.

I think anything since the mid 80s (with the quick connects) is probably made about the same, except for the new X series. I don't think the P or J models have changed any... at least not since I used them.

Jimmy, the P/J set has fairly high output impedance, so the preamp after the pickup buffered the output, and then you got a little more juice!

JimmyM · #6 01-02-2013, 11:08 AM

Excellent! Thanks for the explanation, Dave. Always interesting to learn about the stuff I ignored for so long.