Show your latest guitar

Quote from nightlight

That's a good policy. I'm thinking of selling one of my guitars too, but it's not like I have a large collection. One thing I do know after owning that guitar is that I just can't bond with active EMGs, especially the fabled 81-85 combo. Maybe I'll just swap the pickups for a passive pair instead, will have to wait and see.

Which guitar did you own that had active EMG's? I've never played 81-85.

The Tele had SC of Alnico V's (they're III's now I believe) for the RI. The Gretsch has "High Sensitive Filter'Trons" (not TV Jones) which I've not played before.

Quote from nightlight

really like the bridge on that. Looks so good on that guitar.

Yes - it's a System 1. Based on Kahler I think. Absolutely rock solid tuning. It is far better (easier to set up) than a standard two point strat trem. You can still get parts too. I have new rollers around somewhere still to fit. Trem is set up floating, tone and a half up at 12th fret. Nice for Jeff Beck stuff.

Quote from MementoMori

tuning stability was really poor

Not my experience. Always been excellent. Maybe I'm lucky (or just have it set up properly).

Quote from db9091

Which guitar did you own that had active EMG's? I've never played 81-85.
The Tele had SC of Alnico V's (they're III's now I believe) for the RI. The Gretsch has "High Sensitive Filter'Trons" (not TV Jones) which I've not played before.

This one:
[Blocked Image: http://i1363.photobucket.com/albums/r704/jimmyrage/IMG_20140519_195602_zpsae49fb9c.jpg]

It's a LTD JH-600EC. 24-fret Les Paul style guitar with a Kahler Hybrid bridge and two EMG humbuckers. A Jeff Hanneman signature model, though this is only a Ltd. Guitar has a reassuring weight and is a neck through.

I probably should just change the pups and give it another go.

.....

Quote from Dean_R

I've had a similar guitar and I did change the pickups to Passive immediately t felt and sounded better. Actives are not as responsive to finger touch in general but can work well for drop tuning as they retain more clarity.

Having three guitars with passive humbuckers, maybe I'll just retain it as all stock. I'm sure it'll offer some different tonal options. Maybe it needs a lower gauge of strings though. Or a lower tuning, thanks for the suggestion.

..

Quote from Dean_R

I'm currently considering going back and putting the actives back in to use it for drop tuning, the clarity in the active would seem to make sense in this application.

Definitely not trying to come across as some pickup know-it-all but I can tell you that from my experience EMG 81's do not sound good in an Alder bodied guitar.

I own several ESP MII's, awesome guitars! Alder body, maple neck & fretboard, so not too dissimilar to your LTD.
In my somewhat obsessive tone quest I have tried out a lot of pickups, experimenting, different pickups in different guitars etc etc...
I didn't have any preconceptions as to what was "supposed" to sound good and I was pretty much on the fence in regards to the "tonewood" debates.

Some of the things I found to be consistently true were:

In "bright" guitars (Ash, Alder, Maple) the ceramic active pickups (EMG 81, 81X, Fishman Fluence Modern Ceramic) were just a little too much high end (treble). Not an issue for rhythm playing and, in fact, if you do nothing on the high strings (soloing etc) one of these may still be your best choice.

I am assuming that you, like me, play a style of music that is heavier and involves distorted guitars. If I am incorrect and you're playing country music then please read no further as nothing I'm saying still applies

Good Alnico active pickups are (EMG 85, Fishman Fluence Modern Alnico, EMG 57, Duncan Jeff Loomis signature set). There's a few others I haven't personally tried but you get the idea. I'm only gonna give my opinions on my experiences, not just regurgitate something I read on sevenstring.org

Of all of the above the ones I liked the most (in a guitar similar to yours) was the Fishman Fluence Modern (Alnico Version).
Very articulate and not at all muddy on low strings while retaining great warmth on the highs.

In my Mahogany guitars it didn't sound as good by the way though my EMG 81's sounds killer in Mahogany.

^^^Just some thoughts for you to consider.

Addendum: Anyone who believes in that "Tonewood doesn't matter especially with active pickups" arguement, that's fine.
From my personal experiments of testing out many different pickups in the same guitar I know for an absolute fact that it is a huge factor in tone.
Have no interest in getting into a debate about it at this point. Believe as you wish

I switched emg 85 to bridge and 81 to neck and got great results in a lp type guitar with alder body and maple top.
Maybe worth a try...

Also did the 18 V battery mod, but using 2 rechargeable batteries it's more like 14-15 V

...

Quote from Dean_R

I appreciate that you took the time to write. I agree with all of what you wrote and I believe in tone wood effect on the tone. The only dislike from my end to the Active was they're not as responsive to how hard or soft you're picking the strings. I have tried so many pickups that it became a hobby in itself. My nut shell summary of all the time I spent swapping pickups is that to certain degree after so much trial and error, Pickups are in the end of the day are not a do or die and that I'm able to get satisfying results with almost all of them.
Another thing that was interesting is that expensive pickups as well as cheap pickups can sound just as good even if the sound is slightly different
That really was very evident when I got into P-90 pickups, I couldn't find any P90 that sounded bad, the $10 pickup from ebay sounded as good or better than the $150 boutique (maybe the quality of screws hardware etc wasn't as good, but sound wise, it was the same ballpark)

Yeah! Didn't intend to write as much haha! First paragraph went down so quickly that by the time I thought to ask myself, "Why are you wasting your time with this?" I had already almost finished it. No worries.

I do hear ya on the pickup trials. For me it is more just being curious about how a particular pickup sounds more than a, "I hate my tone." kinda thing.
I have passives I love as well as actives and I think it's more about matching the right pickups with the right guitars etc etc...

Thanks for the suggestions, @SqWark. Just realised the guitar is out of production, so if I sell it, it's unlikely I'll get another one. A big fan of Jeff Hanneman, so I'll probably experiment with pups.

Quote from MementoMori

Unless one can prove something within objective scientific parameters, not just with their ears and preconceptions, I'd be wary with such hyperbole.

Good! Then you go right ahead and be as wary as you like.

Obviously I was stating 'My opinion based upon my personal experience'. Would have thought that was clear.

Only thing I am wary of is people such as yourself with their pointless, time wasting comments attempting to 'educate me' on something that I wrote
quickly and didn't spend hours pondering the implications and nuances of each and every word as I, like 99.9% of the people reading this understood exactly what i meant.

As I said,

"Have no interest in getting into a debate about it at this point. Believe as you wish "

Quote from MementoMori

I'm not debating dude, but there is a fundamental difference between your personal experience and belief in something and knowing "for an absolute fact". That's all I pointed out. It's that kind of mindset which leads people to get overly prideful and aggressive over things they believe, no matter how inconsequential or banal (such as the tonewood debate). Chill.

Thank-you for pointing out the obvious. Admittedly I was being grammatically lazy when I wrote, "for an absolute fact" but it's clear that I was using it more as a figure of speech to mean, "I want to emphasize that I strongly believe this to be true" rather than as a scientific declaration of fact.

Quote from nightlight

Thanks for the suggestions, @SqWark. Just realised the guitar is out of production, so if I sell it, it's unlikely I'll get another one. A big fan of Jeff Hanneman, so I'll probably experiment with pups

And with actives it's so easy to switch them out it would be a shame to have it rewired for passives if there's any actives out there that you haven't tried and are curious about.

Quote from MementoMori

I safely assume when you write, you want people to take you at your word. Admittedly, I think there's plenty of room for skepticism in the tonewood (for electric guitar) debate, so the "absolute fact" remark caught my attention. At this point I'll refrain for risk of hijacking the thread for an unrelated conversation. I'd be game for discussing it in a different thread and with people capable of having a measured conversation about it (not saying you're not, so don't take that as a slight).

I don't take that as a slight. Why would I? I don't know you.

I'm gonna pass on the debate offer. Even though you do appear to have a modicum of knowledge it is greatly overshadowed by
your pompous and overt sense of your own importance.
I do know that in your own mind you are some bastion of knowledge. Unfortunately, to me (and many others here) you just come across
as such a douchebag that I really don't care what you do or don't know.

All about time management for me at this point and I don't wanna waste any more of mine interacting with you (don't take that as a slight).