This was originally to be a review of an Emerald set in my PRS SE Custom 24 but the bridge turned out to be too bright so I had to return it and get a Holydiver instead. As a result, most of this review will be about the neck version of the Emerald but I will touch on the bridge version in case my limited experience of it can be of use to others so let's get that out of the way first.
Bridge Emerald
This is a bright pickup, there is absolutely no doubt at all about that but that doesn't mean it's bad. It just needs to be in the right guitar. I thought that as my PRS had a mahogany body, that would be enough to tame it but I was wrong and the maple neck and maple top meant the guitar wasn't naturally dark enough for this pickup. I want to stress that the tone was never bad (far from it), it was simply too bright.
For a vintage hot pickup, this thing is hot and I can see why it's used by a number of Metal players. It's very highly articulate and does have some aggression to it, in a way that is very reminiscent of Thin Lizzy. I can see this doing anything from early Thin Lizzy to John Sykes era and it has enough articulation and tightness that you could certainly do Metallica's version of 'Whisky in the Jar' with it. What marks it apart from other hot pickups is that it retains quite an open sound that does make you think of a PAF tone. It will easily dip into Blues with a healthy Rock edge to it and go on to cover 80's Metal with relative ease. The Emerald is not a pickup that is well represented here sadly and it's a great shame because it has a lot to offer in a very versatile package but you do need a dark guitar to make it work. I nice Les Paul would be ideal but I suppose any dark, all mahogany guitar would work. Just don't get fooled into thinking that the mahogany of a PRS SE will do the trick because it won't.
Neck Emerald
The neck version of the Emerald is a real keeper; no doubt about it. Let me start by saying that this is not my first decent neck pickup. In the past I've used a few different Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio products in the neck as well as a Cold Sweat and Trilogy Suite from BKP. Needless to say, the offerings from Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio don't even come close to what the Emerald will do so I won't bother with those as a comparison. As the Trilogy Suite is single coil I'll also ignore that and base my comparison on the Cold Sweat as that's a very popular neck option so it will serve my purposes well.
The Cold Sweat is good and I mean, REALLY good so I very nearly just ordered another one of those but I'm glad I didn't. To my mind, the Emerald is a better neck pickup even than the almighty Cold Sweat and I assure you, I don't make that claim lightly. It's one of the main reasons why I haven't written this review before now as I've been asking myself if I really feel the Emerald is that good. It is, and here's why:
It does share a number of characteristics with the Cold Sweat in that it is very articulate, not too compressed, very fluid and quite creamy. The thing is, the Emerald is all of that and more. In terms of articulation, there's nothing in it and the Emerald is a bit more open than the Cold Sweat but it is also noticeably more fluid in its lead tones and significantly creamier too. You could play early Dave Murray leads with this thing all day long, when he was using PAF pickups instead of those awful Hotrails. Leads are thick, creamy and fluid all over the neck and NEVER turn to mush, even with quite a bit of gain. The alnico IV magnet really helps I think as the pickup has about the sweetest tone I've ever heard on a neck pickup and I'd have to say that it is a lot sweeter than the Cold Sweat. Like the bridge pickup, it's bright but it's nothing like as overpowering as it is in the bridge model. I now have a Holydiver in the bridge and the Emerald neck pickup is a perfect match, giving you a huge range of tones. As long as you don't have a very bright guitar, you'll probably find the neck pickup more balanced than you'd expect. It's bright but the smooth, thick, fluid creaminess means it's also completely captivating in the tone it produces. I'm using this pickup for anything from high gain solos to Blues and clean strumming. It never disappoints.
The biggest difference between the Emerald neck and the Cold Sweat is in the clean tones. I always loved the Cold Sweat cleans but compared to the Emerald, I'd have to say it's a bit sterile. There is a richness about the Emerald and a sweetness to its tone that the Cold Sweat just can't match. Strum a clean chord on the Emerald and you'll get a chord that is rich and warm with loads of harmonics in it. It's the nearest thing I've ever tried on an electric guitar to playing an acoustic and it's the rich harmonics that are in there that do that.
For once I have no quibbles with the description on the website. It's perfectly accurate and actually, doesn't really do justice to what this pickup can do. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love the Holydiver and it really does work well in my PRS but I'm finding I'm constantly switching to the neck pickup for solos so I can get a load of that beautiful Emerald goodness. I even look forward to playing the boring lighter songs with more strumming and less solos because the Emerald is so good. There's a few people on this forum who have said how good the Emerald neck is and they're honestly not lying. Until getting this Emerald, the Cold Sweat was the best neck pickup I'd ever tried by quite a long way but I honestly think the Emerald is better, and not just marginally so. If I could only have one neck pickup to do everything, it would be an Emerald without hesitation. Couple it with a Holydiver in the bridge and there's very little you wouldn't be able to play convincingly. I sincerely hope that more people will give the Emerald a chance because you've no idea what you're missing.
