i got an Epiphone SG copy with pretty shitty pickups. the guitar is basswood
like most guitars under $250. anyway im thinking of putting in Emg's
81 & 85. Does quality of wood play a big part of how the guitar sounds ??
( for electric guitars ) cuz i dont wanna invest in expensive pickups if it aint gonna do my guitar alot of help. its like putting $5 grand of work into a 85 Honda , its still a piece of shit.i just cant stand the way my guitar sounds right now the treble and clarity sucks major ass and it has ugly distortion just sounds like a mess of distortion....or i was thinking of buying S.duncan JB and a Jazz its alot cheaper then EMGS does anyone know if the jazz is good ? i know the JB is, for price and sound.

Well, pickups play probably the most influence on your sound, second to the wood, so basicly changing to good pickups would definitly change your tone for the better.
But if you have a bad distortion pedal/amp, it wouldn't realy be advised to spend so much $$$ on active emg, since on cheap amps you would barely notice the difference between good (and cheaper) passives

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what style are u into?

influences on the sound:ure playing style, contruction of the guitars(neckthrough or bold etc...), bridge ( strings through body very bassy... floyed=more treble), strings , pickups obviously and of cuz the amp.

there u got the things u can work on. besides i wouldn't recommend pushing a low quality guitar to the max. it cost shitloads of money but the result isn't as good as a new guitar. ure lack of clarity comes from the amp i guess. maybe u buy some middleclass pickups if u don't have the money to replace ure guitar with a new one. if u don't wanna buy a new guitar and if ure into heavy music i'll recommend buying the sh-8 (in bridge) for gibsons and gibson copies. their price is ok with about 80$ and those are the best sounding pickups in gibson pauls and sgs. i tested em all and my gibson is one of the best sounding les pauls loaded with invaders.

apart from that i have to say that epis suck... so don't expect too much.

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thx man, im going to GC today to check out the invaders cuz playing with this horrible sound aint making playing that fun, i now just usually just play on my acoustic most the time till i fix this shit.

My mates got an epi sg and it aint that bad, better than many same priced guitars. Perhaps u should just piss around with ure amp or effects/pedals etc. There aint no point wastin money on a epi sg, if u hate it that much, get a better quality guitar

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i put an emg 81,85 set into my epiphonge g310 and it was a fantastic change (on a 15 watt marshall) i say go for it

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if i had a cheap epi sg, i'd only change the bridge pickup,relpace the tuning pegs(because cheap guitars don't like staying in tune), and maybe do a little rewiring... and all of that can be done for like $100-$200. anything more and you might as well sell it and buy a new guitar imo.

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