emg 81-7 tips

    Looking for any tips or advice on setting up the kemper for active 81-7 pickups, I only picked up the guitar a couple of days ago while I wait for my custom and I'm looking into picking up some passives to replace them soon because I've never particularly liked emg's, but in the mean time I'm having trouble getting what I want out of it. I'm tuning to G# at the moment playing pretty heavy stuff using a VH4 sim with a Diezel 4x12 with k100 speakers and I'm still getting used to the kemper so still playing with some eq's and boost's but I just can't seem to get much definition out of anything unless I really crank up the gain more than I would like because the emg's just get that high end fizzly sound, not sure how to describe it really but I had the same problem with normal 81's on my m1000 a while ago before I switched to passives. I'm still tweaking stuff and enjoying the kemper and the guitar despite the pickups at the moment, but just curious if many guys out there who are fans of emg's have any tips or advice because its the first guitar with actives I've had in ages.

    Used, an sc-607b, no actually I haven't tried just changing the battery, I'll give that a go and see. You had any experience with the 18v mod on them? I haven't really looked into it but noticed a bunch of guys doing it on the 8 string emg's. Right, ya the only emg's I've had apart from these were the 6 string 81's which I didn't particularly like much either, I'm sure I'll be able to get something I like out of them, still getting used to the kemper though so might take a bit of playing around.
    Thanks

    that was the same guitar I picked up recently and the battery was shot! changed it out and back to normal.
    Never done the 18v mod...I've heard good things though.


    some people just don't like EMG's....I thought the 81-7 was way better than the 707...its a good pickup in the neck but horrible in the bridge

    Quote from Kharem

    the emg's just get that high end fizzly sound


    I play a Music Man Luke with an EMG 85 in the bridge position and I often use the Studio EQ in X or Mod slot set to -18 dB @ 21.000 Hz. Maybe this helps.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    Thanks for the replies, that wah low pass I think actually helped a fair bit, I did change the amp profile at the same time but I was considerably happier with it than anything I had got before. In relation to lowering the gain, I completely agree, but the problem is as I roll it back it just starts to completely lose all definition and just goes to shit basically, it just seems like its either flabby and undefined or fizzly with too much gain with these pickups, might just be a sweet spot I need to hit, and lowering them did help a little as well.
    On a slightly different note, when I was using a normal amp (6505) I had a boost out the front almost all the time, and watching a couple of things like alex wade's sct video (even more applicable because its just a tele version of my guitar) some guys seem to be using proper boosts out the front of the kemper instead of the ones on the kemper, and whilst I still don't really like his sound that much on the sct video, its better than what I've been able to get with the 81-7's, and with the pro tone dead horse/bulb delux pedals still being available the next couple of weeks I'm thinking of picking one up to run out the front of the kemper in a similar way to bulb uses out the front of his axe fx, just to boost the amp and give it more definition and attack since the ones on the kemper don't seem to really be doing what I want. Has anyone tried one of the pro tone dead horse or bulb pedals with their kemper, or the green rhino (another cheaper option) for that matter?
    Just trying to get as much info as I can before I unload >$300 on one (I'm in australia), when I really haven't put as much time as I probably should into just tweaking stuff, plus when I'm planning a pickup swap anyway.
    Thanks

    Edited once, last by Kharem ().

    Quote from strongy_s5470

    This may sound stupid but have you check the input levels, maybe you should play around with the clean/distorted sense


    Ya actually I was flicking through the manual after setting it up when I was looking for something else and found the clean/distorted sense things and changed them initially but didn't go back and compare/tweak it because I had a bunch of other thing to try but when I get the time I'll actually put some time in to tweak those as well and see if that helps.
    Thanks