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Rating And Reviews: EMG 81X Active Humbucker

Powerful ceramic magnets and close aperture coils and powered by a reengineered preamp, the 81-X shines with intensity and sustain.

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"puts the heavy in heavy metal" submitted March 19, 2013

By Ryan Jones in blairsville , PA
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Musical Background: 10+ w/road experience
Music Style: Heavy Metal Nu metal death metal
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Overall: Great pup. Sounds really sick in my esp Ltd m100. This pick up makes me buckle at my knees when I hit a pinch harmonic it screams metal and the solder less kit makes for easy installation. Long live emg! Great pickups for the heavy metalhead
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"Worst pickup on the marked." submitted June 27, 2011

By a customer from yahoo.com
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Musical Background: Active Musician
Music Style: Metal
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Sound: they are completely different from 81 we all know. Ease of Use: i don't like the quick connection system as they made it kind of difficult ,for me anyways. i much prefer soldering. Quality: worst pickup i have ever owned. it feedbacks like crazy in the band situation. it is the most humming and microphonic pickup on the market. it amplifies hum depending on which angle your guitar is. you can find the "sweet spot" in which you get least hum,but as soon as you move ,guitar will start to hum like crazy. i had two of these pickups in and tried them in 3 different guitars. same results every time. i have guitars with an older emg pickups and guitars with duncan blackout pickups. all of them like 10x time quiter in the hum/feedback department than this new X series pickups. the blackout being is the most quite one. i never write any reviews but this thing realy pissed me off. and yes i have tried 4 different amps,home and studio,cables etc... it's definitely the pickup and not my setup. btw passive high gain dimarzios are much quiter than any active emgs that are on the market. STAY AWAY FROM THIS CRAP. Value: read above Manufacturer Support: did't try to contact the support. my local store have returned my money back. Overall: very bad product.
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