I'm about to get one of those but I have a problem.
So, is the original Seymour Duncan JBTM TB4 Humbucker
good for the bridge, or should I save about 100€ more and go for the EMG 81?

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EMGs are always good. Active pickups will kick some serious ass. I'd say it's worth it, although duncans are quite good for passives. When I get the money, I'm replacin my passives (alnico 490/498) with EMGs.

Yeah, I Know that EMGs kick ass and Seymours are quite good, but I was just thinking that if I'll replace the bridge pickup with EMG81 and keep the SD in neck.
I dont know a lot of bout pickups so could someone explain the differences between Active and passive pickups or guide me to thread that does it?

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Active pickups run of a battery. This battery is used to make the sound "better" (in the case of EMGs, it's used for preamping the signal of the pickup *inside* the pickup housing, as to avoid interference as much as possible). Passive pickups don't rely on an "external" power source, but on the other hand cannot give the noiselessness that an active usually does.

I wouldn't suggest trying to mix active and passive pickups.
1. You'll need to use some "hacks" to make the passive pickup sound anywhere near the active one.
2. The passive one will be noisier.
3. Going over to actives seem to make ppl swear by them, so you might end up only using the active one anyways.

The above is what I've heard from other, seemingly reliable sources.

My personal opinion in your particular question would be to go for a pair of EMGs, but I have NO experience whatsoever of quality passive pickups (I've only used cheap strat ripoff singlecoils, and the HBs that came in my KE3), so don't trust that one too much.

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I think puting an EMG in to a Jackson KE2 Kelly is a fucking big waste.
The SD picup is better(In my opinion), and more expensive(thats a fact!).
If you want EMG's.. you can buy the KE3 and put two EMG's in it.
At least give the SD a chance first.
The KE2 got first class wood, neckthrue. SD should be percect for the guitar.

I thought the SD was active... I got the impresion about you guys thinking they are passive.

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Kellys are badass.

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Yes i am one who's also addicted to actives. GET THE EMG's... well.. i dunno about the 81.. i heard they were extremely rich in the highs. it almost seems too much. 85's give a nice ballsey even tone. and it even sounds nice clean. and of course, it's QUIET. well thats all i got to say

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Yeah... They kick ass!
My friend has a KE3, but I dont like it too much cos it is a bolt on neck. I'm going to get KE2 For the neckthru...
Too bad there is not any of those in stores so I cant try them out... Maybe I'll give a try for the SD's and buy the EMG's later if I'm not satisfied.
Thanks.

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You are right

Whats wrong with the Seymour Duncan? With an EMG you kinda stuck with one tone. I rather have a quality passive than an EMG anyday

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TB4's are passive pickups, same with the SH4, SH2N, SH10, and SH8. Not sure about the rest since I don't have experience with them.

I agree with Daggerfall here... I would definitely keep the SD's in there. SD's have a tendency to keep more of the feel of the wood and you'll get a much more rich and natural sounding tone. I have two guitars with a TB4 in the bridge and they both sound really good and I've used them in a bunch of different styles of metal (power metal, black metal, death metal, and melodic) as well as some jazzy / bluesy stuff. For a while I had an EMG 81/85 set in one of the guitars that had the TB4 and the tone sounded terrible and very mechanical (but not in a good way....). I switched it back to my original pickup set and the sound improved a lot more.

The problem with EMGs is that they basically make your guitar sound like a guitar with EMG pickups (in my opinion). While that isn't a bad thing, there is a tendency for your guitar to lose its natural tone. To give you a general idea... I have a friend who has a WR1 (Warrior USA Select) that he threw an EMG 81/60 set into it. He paid around $1600 for the guitar alone and I have my Kramer Les Paul copy that I paid $200 for and I have an EMG 81/85 set in it. The tone is almost exactly the same when switching between the guitars while running through the same amp.

If you are upgrading from crappy stock pickups (real SDs are not crappy stock either... They were selected especially for the guitar!) or you need to have active pickups then the EMGs would be a decent choice but I would at the very least try out the SDs and if you don't like them you can always have them removed and put EMGs in.

I've heard that the kellys dont have enough space for the batterys. I dont know about your guitar though. If you're going active then you gotta have all the pickups active. You cant mix and match passives with actives. Personaly, I dont like EMGs. A good passive will be just as good as some EMGs. I like SD Invader pickups-thats the highest output you're gonna get with a passive. It's all a matter of opinion though.

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If your kelly only has a volume knob then you WONT have enough room for a battery. Trust me, those cavitys are fuckin small.

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EMGs give you that nice, sterile, tone that sounds like its coming from some piece of medical equipment. So if you want to suck all the personality out of your playing (unless you have an ungodly amount of equipment to change the tone) get emg's. Otherwise leave the sd in or change it with some other passive. I know about this, i have an 81/60 setup in my guitar. The sterility only sounds kinda cool in a creepy weird song like hanger 18 or somethin.

ok i put two emg 81's in my jackson ke2 but i have a problem the sound isnt heavy and i have alot of feed back plus two theres no place to put the battery now can anyone help me with directions on how to wire the pickups to a jackson ke2 or what we did wrong thanks.

can anyone help me with this problem thanks

double check everything 8 times+1 and resolder if needed, and use common sence on what you can do to fit the battery in there.

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i have an jacksion usa1 and i have an sd invader at the bridge position and it sound good in my opinion, i think sd are better than emgz

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Be thankfyl, now throw those shitty EMG's out and install some nice passives.

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I have a Jackson Kelly KE3 with only one knob, with the 81/85 EMG setup, and is awesome, plus theres room for a battery, i installed them in a professional guitar shop, so they did an excellent guitar work. But the EMG's sounds great, and you can mixed an active EMG in the bridge with a passive SD on the neck, in the same shop they installed one guitar with an active and passive setup. and the KE3 does has room for the battery, trust me i have one.

this man speaks the truth.

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DING DING DING


Seymours are way less cluttered sounding and both seymours and emgs compared on a 5150, you can get the same sound out of the seymours if you want. Dont molest the ke2, which is a beautiful guitar, bu putting emgs into it.

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for as far as i know is that emg sound kinda caracter less, they just give sound, but a sd gives some carakter to your sound, okee the amp makes that 2 but im sure that a sd will sounds nicer anyway.

im playing with a sd invader@bridge and a sd fullshred@neck position and it give some rili nice metal/rock karakteristic sound

hails again

edit:

btw i heard from a guy that emg sound better for recording in a studi, but i forgot why but anyway seymour duncans RULE

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