Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
EMG E4W Coming Soon
- Thread starter primussucks9126
- Start date
Sound great! I hope that they are louder than their current single coil pickups, and that they become available in the 35/40 shells as well. I find the current 35/40J's to quiet to combine them with P, CS and DC's.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,027
- 1
- 31,767
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
I hope the guys at Fat Bass Tone get hold of them and do a demo. The guy that does their demos does a great job. I think he is on here somewhere.
Alison Turner at EMG confirmed that
this design is exclusive to the new sizing. They will have slightly more output than a J single coil but less output than a humbucker.
this design is exclusive to the new sizing. They will have slightly more output than a J single coil but less output than a humbucker.
That's not disappointing at all. My emg j bass plays nice with way more pedals than my emg soapbar basses.
I was going to build a 5 string but now that I see they have an E6W model, I am going to build a big six string bass to drop a set in.
I did a review in a rock style. All sounds are DI, No EQ, etc
This is a game changer for me. I have an Ibanez SR600 that would be my forever bass except that I'm not totally satisfied with the pickups. If I could drop in a set of EMGs this bass would be perfect, but the stock pickups are these odd sized Barts abd I'd need to mangle the pickup routs to make EMGs fit.
From the limited information abailable, It seems to me these new EMG E4Ws are a direct drop in for the Ibby SR600. If so, then I'm definitely getting a set.
Edit: I'm getting conflicting information. It seems these are not a drop in replacement for the stock pickups in the SR600. Darn.
From the limited information abailable, It seems to me these new EMG E4Ws are a direct drop in for the Ibby SR600. If so, then I'm definitely getting a set.
Edit: I'm getting conflicting information. It seems these are not a drop in replacement for the stock pickups in the SR600. Darn.
Last edited:
I tested them in a sr905 and305. They are direct replacements
I've been a customer of Fat Bass Tone for awhile now. Shout out to these guys, they're awesome! I really like their pickup demos on the 'tube, multiple playing styles, very consistent for comparisons between types of pickups. I sent them a message the other day asking if they had plans on demo'ing these new EMG's. Here is our conversation:
Message:
EMG E4,5,6W Pickup Demo:
Hi fella's. I really enjoy your pickup demos. They are MUCH more informative than most any other videos that I have seen elsewhere. I was wondering if you had any plans to demo the new EMG slim soapbars (E4W, E5W, or E6W)? There are a couple of videos out but I don't find them very helpful.
Thanks, Gerry
Response:
Hi Gerry,
Thanks for your inquiry and the kind words about our pickup demos.
They are pretty time consuming and a long term project that has required a lot of coordination and diligence to make happen, and reading your words makes me quite happy
Yes, we will likely be doing the new EMG pickups in a coming video shoot….but, I suspect that is a few months out.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Brian
[email protected]
www.fatbasstone.com
Message:
EMG E4,5,6W Pickup Demo:
Hi fella's. I really enjoy your pickup demos. They are MUCH more informative than most any other videos that I have seen elsewhere. I was wondering if you had any plans to demo the new EMG slim soapbars (E4W, E5W, or E6W)? There are a couple of videos out but I don't find them very helpful.
Thanks, Gerry
Response:
Hi Gerry,
Thanks for your inquiry and the kind words about our pickup demos.
They are pretty time consuming and a long term project that has required a lot of coordination and diligence to make happen, and reading your words makes me quite happy
Yes, we will likely be doing the new EMG pickups in a coming video shoot….but, I suspect that is a few months out.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Brian
[email protected]
www.fatbasstone.com
The referenced Ibanez SR600 has Bartolini MK1 pickups with dimensions:
1.33" W x 4.25" L
(34mm W X 108mm L)
The EMG E5W pickup has these dimensions:
1.25" W x 4.275" L
(32mm W x 109mm L)
That's 2mm too loose on the width and 1mm too tight on the length.
I'm guessing that's close enough to drop in (with perhaps a bit of width slop), but the only way to find out for sure is to physically swap them out.
However, the electronics are incompatible, but this just means you'd toss the Bart preamp and use the electronics included with the EMGs.
This will leave an extra knob and a switch on the bass non functional, but that seems like a trivial concern for most players who just want the EMG sound out of their Ibanez.
Personally, I'd wire up the extra knob as a master volume control and leave the dummy switch as a "producer satisfier" device.
Last edited:
I just had my tech replace the stock Bartolini BH2 passive humbuckers in my Ibanez SRC6MS with these EMG E4W passive (apparently—they work with the battery removed) single coils. The 4-string size dropped in without any issues, and they do make two other sizes to cover wider string spreads.
The BH2s have much higher output than these E4Ws, but they are also much noisier. I held off on replacing the stock preamp, so I can report that these play well with that; and since they operate nearly noiselessly, I just turned up all three bands on the onboard EQ until this instrument's output matched the outputs of my other instruments. Tone is of course subjective but I find the EMGs far better suited to the sounds I want to get; I love their sound in passive mode, but since I pretty much have to use the preamp to boost the output anyway, I do tweak the sound a bit: ~25% boost to lows, ~50% boost to mids at 700hz, and ~50% boost to highs seems about right for me. EMG isn't kidding when they say these bring the lows! I might see about going with an EMG preamp with sweepable mids somewhere down the line as I suspect I'd prefer to boost at 1k rather than 700hz, but I will give this setup a shot as it makes a good first impression.
Nope. Virtually noiseless.
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,027
- 1
- 31,767
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
@Riff Ranger - why do you think these are passive pickups? EMG's own documentation clearly states these are active, and are meant to be powered. No wonder you're experiencing low output.
Invalid Link Removed
Invalid Link Removed
I thought active pickups didn't work at all without a battery. I completely removed the battery and these still worked when I had the preamp switched off. I know how to make electronics sound good, but I don't really know how they work, if that makes any sense. Do you think my tech missed something? He did say something like "there's no red wire connected to [the pickups]."
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,027
- 1
- 31,767
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Because there is still a (small) coil and a (small) magnet present, it will generate a signal without a battery connected. But it's kind of like running your Corvette on two cylinders....
