What, exactly, don't you like about EMG preamp?

[gully_jones]

"Non musical", what the heck does that mean? The bass goes out of tune, plays minor when it should play major, has random time delays throwing you out of the pocket?

I read sterile and non-musical to mean high quality sound reproduction that exposes flaws in technique.

 

[Ric5]

EMG does nothing for me ... not a fan of their pickups or preamps ...

 

[rwkeating]

Be aware that EMG has 2 different preamp designs, their original and the (newer) "X" version. According to their web site: " The added head room and dynamic response of the X Series preamp gives players an active pickup with the feel closer to a passive."

I like EMGs. I have not had an opportunity to do a fair comparison of the original and X preamps.

 

[Hopkins]

I have a bass with a BTC control along with a VMC. Once I got the dip switches set like I like them, it is one of the best preamps I have ever used. I imagine what I have is basically the same thing as a BQC system, but I don't really know

 

[buckangus]

owned lots of basses with preamps and so far, EMG is one of the best for tone, durability, quality, et al ... love em

 

[Hopkins]

I have been tempted to add the adjustable mid - one of the basses has an unused knob and a stacked mid/Q would be nice to have.

I would highly recommend that.

 

[ctmullins]

I read sterile and non-musical to mean high quality sound reproduction that exposes flaws in technique.

Wish I could multi-mega-like this. Spot on brother! Everybody, read this again and ponder until the hazy veils of subjective perception fall away and you become truly enlightened.

OP, are you talking about the preamp circuit built into active EMG pickups (of which there are now two varieties, the original and the X series), or are you asking about their onboard tone circuits (BTC, BQS, etc.)?

I love the X series pickups, and I like their tone circuits a lot, though they are very neutral, almost subtle.

 

[I am Soma]

I had not idea people weren't digging EMG setups. I really love them my Gould basses.

 

[Slevage]

Didn't work well with my UHF wireless.

I think the z was incompatible.

 

[Robert Sperling]

I've had a few basses over the years with EMG's, starting way back in the 80's with an Ibanez Axstar, to my
current Fender P/J with Geezers'. I've never had any particular complaint about their products and have
found that I liked the tone of the basses I had equipped with them (otherwise I probably wouldn't have
bought them), yet strangely I want to NOT like them... I often ponder why Fodera etc. use them, then
I play a bass with EMG's and they sound great. I guess in my mind a high end builder should be using
something "better" or more exotic than something I can just pull off the shelf and install in any bass.
But I guess if it's good enough for Mr. Wooten and many others, it should be good enough for me!

 

[Fat Freddy]

Emgolini

Sounds legit!

Sounds like a pasta dish...

 

[esoxhntr]

I had one in an Alleva Coppolo LM4. It simply wasn't the best choice to bring out the tone of that instrument. I don't like to use the word sterile because of the negative connotation, but that is how it sounded to me.

 

[WaynerBass]

"Non musical", what the heck does that mean? The bass goes out of tune, plays minor when it should play major, has random time delays throwing you out of the pocket?

I just find no warmth or musicality to EMG circuits on a bass,, my opinion and if you don't like it IDGAF honestly

 

[Sindhu Partomo]

I agree, beginners will most likely hate EMG for its honest sound. The rest might or might not like it.

 

[GlassToMouth]

I agree about the exposing flaws in technique. I was very humbled when I had EMG active pups and pre installed to replace my passive pups on my USA Hamer Cruise. I thought I was an okay player, but the flaws in my technique were VERY exposed after the install. It did a great job of forcing me to clean up my technique. Now all the basses I own get the EMG treatment. I also don't see much hate for their pups and preamps. But I'm also an unapologetic fanboy so I might be blind to any hate.

 

[jwilson67]

I had a Carvin bass that I installed EMG's on and I loved them - especially for recording. Yes - without any additional circuitry they are neutral but that's the beauty of them IMO.

 

[BlueAliceOasis]

I just find no warmth or musicality to EMG circuits on a bass,, my opinion and if you don't like it IDGAF honestly

Isn't warmth a tone thing? Don't you get that we still don't understand what you mean by "musicality"? Don't you know that you used two commas in a row? Aren't you a tad bit too old to say things like "my opinion and if you don't like it IDGAF honestly"? We don't dislike your opinion, it's just that the reasoning for your opinion is unclear.

 

[jro]

I really didn't learn to appreciate EMG until trying quiet the buzz in a jazz bass. After shielding and grounding the passive wiring it still buzzed. Put a set of EMGs in it and it was fixed. Next bass I build will use their solder-less plug system.

 

[Max Blasto]

As with many other brands that make a range of products, it might be a good thing to define what we're talking about specifically.

My experience with EMG is that the preamp is fine, the pickups vary. The HZ series are dogs and the upper end pretty nice. I work with a sound engineer that uses (nicer) EMGs in his P an J basses and swears by them. I use them when I work in his studio (after first bitching about having to use Fenders ).

One of my basses came with EMG HZs, which again, were dogs. I swapped them out with Nordy big blades after a few years with Barts. The EMG preamp was fine as the Nordy pickups were such an upgrade that everything about the preamp was improved too. However, I did move recently to a Nordy preamp too, as I liked the variable mid switch and where the lows were tuned. Upgrade? Yeah, for my purposes, but I could've gone on forever with the EMG preamp if needed.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

Sorry if the title suggests a flame type thread - that isn't what I want here. I just don't have experience with other preamps - and I have two basses that already had EMG preamps at the time I bought the basses. I like them both just fine - but I notice whenever searching TB forum about preamps, I see a lot of hate for the EMG preamps and a lot of love for nearly everything else.

My gut sense is that the EMG preamp is just neutral (doesn't add color) and just gives bass/treble boost/cut with some minimal ability to adjust the behavior via dip switches. In fact, I cannot hear a difference (compared to passive) when I switch the preamp in with tone controls centered - so that's why I say it seems neutral to me.

And when I read discussions of other preamps, the Audere is described as not colored (so what is so much better about it than the EMG? It gets a lot of love and the EMG gets a lot of hate). Sadowsky preamp is described as having a unique color that you either love or hate - that it does just exactly what is needed to sit perfectly in the mix. And so on

One of my basses is a P-J with EMG active pickups and the BTC with volume, stacked bass/treble and blend ... no ability to bypass since the pickups are active. I'm running it 24volts just because I can. I'm using two A23 batteries so the battery pack is smaller than a single 9v and the specs say it can handle 24v fine. Can I hear a difference? No but I run it that way anyway.

The second bass is a P-P with passive pickups and the BTC with separate Bass/Treble knobs. It has 3 position switch instead of blend and active/passive true bypass (so you can still play even with a dead battery) and a passive tone control that works in both active and passive mode. I'm just running this one 9v at the moment.

Anyway --- I'm happy with both of them (and of course, if it ain't broke ...) but I am still very curious what it is that people don't like about EMG and what I might get by trying an Aguilar or Audere or some other preamp.

thanks in advance!

Like EMG preamps but they don't like being called "colored".