EMG 57/66 Bridge and Neck Humbucker Guitar Pickups Set, Black

I have always been an EMG fan. So, I may be a little bit biased. I believe these pickups are wonderful alternative to the 81-85 set. I have had the 81/85 set into guitars and I've always been a little disappointed and them because for my taste the 85 is a little bit to low end with not enough cut. And at the time I could not find an 81-60 set or the EMG 60 by itself. So I tried this set out of necessity. And I'm very very pleased they have great distortion but also very good clarity on the clean. I'm playing them through a Orange Crush CR-60c and I have zero complaints. In my opinion they sound similar to the James Hetfield set but a little a tiny bit less hot and so they give in my opinion a a little bit smoother clean tone where to my ear the James Hetfield set have a tiny bit of breakup on the clean. What impresses me most is this set seems to have almost as good of a warmth as a passive pickup but still maintains all the advantages of an active pickup. I am a metal guitarist but I still love a warm clear crisp clean tone and in my opinion paired with the right amp this pick up set love the best job of giving the player the best of both worlds that I have heard yet.

Installed these on a guitar I have had since around 1998. It is an Epiphone Special II that was still all original excwpt for the pickups I swapped out from another Epiphone some years back. Well, I am very impressed with this and may be installing some later on down the road in one of my other guitars. These sound amazing in this guitar and I can only imagine how they would sound in say a Gibson or another higher end guitar. I have the Hetfield EMG's in my Gibson and they sound great but I think I like these pickups and little bit more. All harware was packaged nicely and everything was included. If you are not familiar with EMG's they are super easy to install. Just unsolder your old pickups and wiring but leave your toggle switch wiring. It is all plug and play.

These pickups are fantastic; theres a going trend last few years where active pickups are disliked by many, claiming the sacrifice of your guitars tone just to get active power. Not so with the 57/66, these things have a nice voice across the tonal range, with the benefit of active power on the low end. The other beautiful thing is that power is nicely honed in, a very tight bottom end, each pick is heard clearly; theres no mud. These pickups would actually take some players some getting used to, but the rewards are huge. Ive played a long time, passive and active pu's, have seymour duncan blackouts, a variety of emgs including the ole 81s, in a bunch of guitars over the years. the 57 bridge is hands down my favorite pickup, giving the power of active and close to the voice of a passive. they look nice too, the chrome or brushed chrome, the shiny black chrome, very nice.

First, these aren't what I would consider to be "heavy metal" pickups like the 81/86 set. They are very warm, subtle, and somewhat understated, although very powerful. They remind me very much of the EMGs in the early '80s that were marketed toward jazz musicians. They are completely quiet, self-grounding, and smooth. And in the upper registers they just sing. I have them in a Gibson LPC and run through a Mesa mini-rectifier, and the tone is always perfect. At least to my ear. I believe they are very much worth the money. However they are the antithesis to the twangy Fender single coil sound. But I love them!

Seriously some of the best pickups I've ever put in a guitar. Normally when you have an intermediate to high end guitar they come with decent to great pickups. I was a little hesitant to swap the Duncan's out of my Jackson Randy Rhodes but man was I blown away when I hooked it up to my amp and started playing. These have very great sounding mid and bass tones while giving you that headroom you expect from an active pickup. Active pickups have a bad rap for having lousy cleans which I can say on these pickups gave good warm bodied clean sounds when I messed with cleans. But playing with crunch and high gain is where I feel like this shines best when practicing with my band. I could hear great note articulation while playing loud with my band and I feel like it's the dynamic mid and bass tone voicing these pickups have that really did the job. Seriously going to be picking up another set of these in the future. To be clear.... THESE ARE SOLDERLESS INSTALLATION PICKUPS. Love these pickups but that is just one persons opinion.

Got a guitar with Zakk Wylde set... surprised how much I liked the EMG set. The original set was the old school wiring so not hot swappable.Thought I could try these and easily swap back to an 81/85 combination necessary.Holy smokes am I digging these... blew me away!Get em'Love em'Done

I own three sets of EMG actives, 81/85 in a Schecter V, 81TW/89 in a Schecter HR and these in a Schecter HR FR (replaced the original 81/85 set). Of the three, these are my favorite EMG active pickups. To me these just seem more articulate and natural sounding like a passive pickup.These are plug and play if you are upgrading a guitar with the newer electronics installed. If you have an older version, like I did, the pickups will be soldered in and you will need to make sure you get the plug and play wiring kit, so make sure you take a look inside your control cavity to get everything you need.