EMG HZ

[dug dog]

Anyone have any experience with these PUPs?

[stflbn]

Yup, they're all over the place. Some love them, some hate them, some say they have great tone, some say they Hz series are sterile sounding.

Like all pickups, preference is entirely up to the owner.

[gregoire1]

I have them on my Dean Edge Q4. I admit one of the reasons I bought the guitar was because I just thought EMG's were cool. It does have a Dean pre-amp and the guitar sounds great. Not sure how much is the pick-up, pre-amp, tone woods or what, but I like it!

[paganjack]

i put one in my SX fretless- cleaned and tightened up the tone a bit- they do reproduce the sounds nice and cleanly- the low B was inarticulate before, but nice and audible after. which is what i wanted. i would say they do sound a bit sterile though.

[LightGroove]

I think they are pretty decent pickups. Have them in a Schecter Custom 4 and Elite 5.. the 5 gets really deep . The 4 sounds great in my in ears but live kind of bleh. I think they are good pickups.

Blessings
Michael

[JMDT]

I replaced a set of EMG-HZ's with 40J's and couldn't be happier. The HZ's sound dead compared to the 40J's.

[Philbiker]

I had them in my old passive Dean Edge 5 fretless and I loved the tone of that bass.

[CliffBurton1]

They're in my Damien 4. Amazing, IMO

[Darkstrike]

I love mine, in a Cort EVL Z4B.

[lynnchpin]

I had a set that came standard in a Fernandes Gravity 5. Sounded alright till I swapped for the EMG 40DC's. Never turned back...greater clarity, bite and growl. But as the saying goes...Beauty is in the eye(ear) of the beholder

[Dogbertday]

I like them for Rock but that's about it.

I have them on a Schecter C4xxx and They sound pretty good. The pre-amp in that thing sucks but it's boost only so I just keep the bass and treble all the way down and let my amp take care of it all.

As for them sounding sterile... My rock sound is pretty sterile and metalic to start with. I have an old peavey head and Two hartke cabs. I think it ballances well in a hard rock setting and I've never had a problem getting good tone through my set-up. (something I can't say when I match up a different bass to those speakers. (but that's why I have other smaller rigs )

[Richbass101]

They came stock in my Schecter C-4 Diamond Seriers and I love them. Very nice sounding for the money.

[Dogbertday]

I think the main reason people don't like them is that they are so different from all the other EGMs out there

[ihateusernames]

no, i just don't like em. midrange on them is horrid to my ears.

[CamiloDíaz]

I like how clean and transparent they are. Oh, and they are, really, dead silent. Not a slight amount of hiss.

[Bassplayer_479]

The bass player in a band I tech for has a Schecter 4 with HZ's in it. They sound decent, but a lot of it depends on the rest of your rig. He's got Blue Steels on his with low action, and plays through a GK rig with the "requisite" smiley face EQ. The result is not sterile at all to my ears, and when you add the mids back in, they sound full and punchy. For the money, a pretty decent pickup.

[JMDT]

If I remember my reading, EMG-HZ's were created as a standard pickup for cheaper basses that had decent quality. At this they succeed.

Tone wise, I have never had a high opinion of the HZ's once I compared them with other pickups. The sound balance IMHO is not great. My first bass was a Dean with HZ's in a V/V/T configuration. I never compared it with anything and I had no problem with the sound.

Five years later, I got another Dean with EMG HZ's and an EMG preamp. This bass sounded better than the first, but there was little difference.

Four more years later, I got a G&L L2500 and a Fender Jazz bass and really started to A/B the sound of basses and look at the pickup part of the equation.

My Orange Crush 35B is a brutally honest amp. Good bass in, good sound; bad bass in, bad sound. I use it to judge the true quality of pickups. When played by themselves the HZ's don't sound bad, but when compared to other basses with quality pickups, the two basses with the HZ's sounded dull and completely lifeless, although the one with the preamp sounded much better with a good bit of pre added.

I changed out the HZ's in the passive Dean for EMG 40J's as it never came out of the case anymore do to the the dull tone. When I plugged it into J's I was blown away huge lows, crisp highs. When I compared the J's to the HZ's the first thing me and my dad noticed was the HZ's sounded muddy compared to the 40J's. The 40J's were clear while having a bigger bottom end than the HZ's. Absolutely no comparison in either of our minds. My mom knows nothing about music and could tell the difference.

If you think the EMG HZ's sound good and you've never tried any of the active pickups, you have know idea what you are missing. I have one and soon to be two sets sitting in a drawer collecting dust.

As an objective disclaimer, the active EMG's all have a preamp built in that highly colors the sound. From my experience, people either love or hate the "EMG sound" from active EMG's. Although the active's are similar enough to the passives that they are a different animal from say a standard P or J.

All IME and IMHO.

[SERPENT865]

They are OK but active is much better IMO.

[Metalman X]

I just popped a pair of EMG-MMHZ Musicman pick-ups in my new bass. I've used active EMG's on many other basses, and while different, I still hear some of the key EMG qualities...very low noise ration, and nice hi-fi sound. Very crisp and clear. I dig them actually. But I still may upgrade to the active versions when I get a lil more cash. Either that, or a good active pre-amp.

[dmc again]

I don't dig the HZ's. I've never gotten a good sound out of them. Even with the preamp that came with mine on my ESP bass. Real EMG's are decent, I guess. I've got a few [a set of Jazzes and a 35DC]. No complaints. But they're not my favorites.

I'm more of a passive guy, I guess. I've always gotten better sounds out of those [minus the HZ's, of course].