EMG - David Gilmour DG-20 Set vs. SC2 SC3

[briansinger]

I have been tinkering with changing the pickups in one of my TA's an orange sparkle classic which came with VA - single coils. Quite frankly they are not powerful enough and are too noisy in most settings - i heard the DG set and they soudn nice. but being a lowal TA fan ithought i would ask the group. If the EMG's dont pan out then i was thinking of moving to the new hum free single coils Tom offers using the hotter SC2 in the neck and middle position and SC3 in the bridge. Can anyone offer some feedback before i go down the wrong pth.

[tom]

haven't heard the emg's so i can't comment.

[Jimmy-Sekshun8]

My personal experience with EMG's is very good. While I do like them, the problem I do have is that they are active pickups and in my ear, that detracts some of the sonic quailties of the wood that was used to make the guitar. They do sound good, and they are generally very hot and great sounding pickups. However, I wouldn't want them in an Anderson. The sonic nature of the wood's resonance would be interrupted by the active pickups.

[Stevenems]

To my ears the EMG SAs in the Gilmour set sound fat, hot and more mid-focussed than normal single-coils. Like Jimmy said, EMGs active pickup aren't very sensitive to body or neck woods - the tone will be extremely "Pink Floyd" in any guitar. If that's the sound you're going for, you'll love it.

I think the SCs are a lot brighter and chimier, like traditional strat pickups. I would think Anderson SAs or M's would be closer to the EMG timbre. EMGs have a fair amount of built-in compression from the active electronics, so they sustain really well even when you aren't using a compression pedal, but they are a little less sensitive to picking dynamics than the passive Anderson pickups.

I have a strat with EMG SAs and I have an Atom with M1s. I like the M1s better for worship playing because they seem to cover a wider tone palette. (And they come with an Atom wrapped around them!) I do like the EMGs for their rock tone though and they are stone silent when not playing.

[thefunkyone]

If you're looking for a gilmourish sound the EMG's would probably do the trick. But if memory serves, David Gilmour primarily uses Kinmans in his strats these days, so you may also want to look at those.