EMG 81/85 sound

[andrew11]

I hope to be having a guitar build in the next couple months and need some help on some pickups. The guitar will feature a maple neck thru with ebony fretboard with either basswood, alder or mahogany wings depending on witch pickups i go with.

At first I was just gonna go with a EMG 81/85 set (guitar is for metal only Metallica and Pantera are my main styles) but with the recent purchase of a C-pig, warpig set and the sweat sound I'm getting I though I should look at some more BKPs.

I still want to stay close to the EMG sound love the tightness, crunch, searing leads and overall crushing output that 81 gives but a little bit more organic and sweet sounding that only a passive can give. From scanning the forum I've come up with 2 pickups MM or AM. I listened to both sound samples very closely and felt the AM was much closer to the EMG, was a lot more clear and tight. With the AM being so new theres not a hole lot of info on it. I know the MM was build to replicate zakks tone which is EMG 81/85 but also read that the AM was build to do an even better job at giving you the pros of an active with all the pros of a passive? Anyway point me in the right direction guys. Also if you think I should go AM which wood does it like the best?

Thanks

[ericsabbath]

the Aftermath sounds nothing like an EMG, in my experience
it is very tight and crunchy, though
you'll be disappointed if you expect any BKP to sound like an EMG

the Miracle Man gets close to the lead tone of the 81, but sounds smooth and organic
on rhythms, it sounds bassier and less middy, not as tight the aftermath, but very tight

[Telerocker]

I'm not expert on this, but I think Eric has a point.

[andrew11]

Its not that I want it to sound just like an EMG 81 just retain some of its good qualities.

[MDV]

The AM is the closest BK to the 81, quite easily.

They dont sound *terribly* alike, but the AM is the closest relation to the character of an 81 in the BK range: the AM has a more open, 'chimey', high mid and top end that lets dynamics through, is a little more blurred in the low mids and low end, is similarly middy, but the mids have a somewhat grindier character, its noticably but not cripplingly lower output, but louder and generally less compressed as well.

Basically the aftermath is a little looser, little cooler, but more dynamic and open, chimier and fatter/bigger sounding. And, I've had both pickups in the same guitars, and in different ones in A/Bs.

The MM has a similar inyourface high mid to the 81, but its low mids are quite a lot bigger and chunkier, and its also not as hot, and lacks the foward mids of the 81 in *most* guitars. Very gutiar sensitive pickup, as with all BKs, where the 81 is quite a bit less so, so I can see how in certain guitars people would hear similarities, but after having both in quite a lot of guitars the AM is the closer relation (followed by the painkiller).

[Telerocker]

Still, a MM would get my vote.

[Shotgun]

Aftermath or Painkiller, they're all very tight and agressive, with quick attack, but much better than the EMG's.
AM has more low mid and high, PK has more high mid and low. I had a lot of EMG's 81, 85, 89 and Painkiller too and now Aftermath. EMG's are so weak near the BKP's.