Dragonfire Active Pickup

hums active....
25k pots simple as can be but effective

i put a set of these into a neck-through mahogany ebony SLAIN!! custom aka the nicest guitar i have EVER owned!!!!!!!! made by 18 year old prodigy(17 when it was made) matt the brootalizer(his mma nick name lol)
i LOVE his handmade pickups but was keen to try an active pickup other than a emg/duncan so here we are...

well as far as actives go this thing preforms as well as any of them...better than any emg i have owned and a little short of the blackouts but for the price they are killer(if you like actives)
i must say for a "real" metal sound you can go past a SLAIN blade pickup, but for "that" active sound it was great!
i demoted it from my custom and put it into a xiphos i had lying round(may as well use the P.O.S from, time to time lol) so not a pickup i use every day but in comparison to other actives its good

not a fan of the active sound but these are as good as any other active out there....almost.... but for the price these things are for the win!

61K Output, Active like the Emgs 81/85

This is just a response to the previous review, by the OWNER of Dragonfire. This customer DID NOT buy the set, he got the pickups separately. IF the set was purchased, then you would of received the screws and springs, the stereo jack, the tone cap,and the 25k pots that are required for this set.
All of these things are required to get the tone that the pickups are known for. If you try to use your 500K stock pots and tone cap, they will sound like MUSH!
Install an EMG with a 500k Pot and it will sound like MUSH too!

If you are gonna write a review on our products, at least make SURE that you have all the proper parts. Without 25K pots, active pickups will be way to bassy and muddy. That is why the site says "requires 25K pots and a stereo jack".

Make your own choice, for the money, our pickups are the best deal around. We sold EMGs for about 5 years, and I will NEVER use another EMG again. If you do use our pickups, please make sure to have the CORRECT parts needed to make it work. If you don't, it will be like putting wagon wheels on a BMW! It will not work right!

Active EMG 81/85 copies (81C/85A, respectively). Bought the set, which comes with two 25K pots, a stereo jack, battery clip, 1 microfarad capacitor, mounting screws, springs, and a short length of heat shrink tubing. Bought from guitarpartsonline.com

The site says that the wiring instructions are included. I couldn't find them until after I had installed them, so to any potential buyers, it's on the side of the box, and they're not incredibly helpful.

I popped these bad boys in my Schecter C1-FR as a stock pickup replacement (Duncan Designed H105N and H105B). I put the 85A in the neck and the 81C in the bridge. The body's mahogany, if it matters for you, but I think tonewood, as a concept, is a load of BS when it comes to electrics.

The guitar has two humbuckers (duh), a three-way switch, and three knobs (vol-vol-tone). I replaced my volume pots with the pots that shipped with the pickups, but those are the only electronics I touched. Everything was basically a direct swap, as the Duncan Designeds are active. I left out the capacitor, because it would have been a pain in the *** to take the current capacitor off the tone pot and solder on the new one. Besides, it works. Have no idea what the rating on the little guy is.

I use a Dean Markley DMC-80 100w twin combo (solid state, but it's loud and I love it), and run my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (distortion) and CH-1 Super Chorus through it. Also played distorted through my Dunlop Crybaby wah, but I don't normally touch the thing. I play metal, prog rock, and jazz. These things are perfect for metal, pretty good for the prog (depending on what you're looking for; this isn't going to make you sound like Steve Howe, but maybe a bit more like Alex Lifeson - a rockier sort of sound) and will get you by in jazz, if you roll the volume off.

Output is high, maybe a bit louder than stock pickups. The advantage that they have over the stock pups is that they're much, much cleaner. Distorted, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the 81 and 85 on the lower frets, but on the middle and upper frets, the 85 is much rounder. Clean, the 81 has more treble. This is probably due to the position of the pickup more than anything, but I'm sure the different magnets (85 - alnico, 81 - ceramic) has something to do with this. Both are nicely percussive.

Some guy on Youtube reviewed these, but he did something wrong, and they were noisy as hell. Not the case, I assure you. Dead quiet.

I got a good blues tone by rolling the tone down and using my amp distortion (which is weird on the DMC-80; I haven't seen another amp with the same sort of "drive voicing" module).

I haven't owned an EMG 81/85 set, so I can't offer a comparison, but these things sound much more alive than my 707's. They have a bit more "snap" to them. Clean, they're not so great, but throw a chorus pedal in front and turn down the guitar volume, and they'll be more than decent. With some ??ber-metal distortion, they fit right in. Everything is very tight.

All in all, a good active pickup. I'm not holding this to any standard other than my own satisfaction, and I am thoroughly satisfied. They're not at all muddy, and for the price, you can't beat it; the EMG equivalent is more than twice the price of these dudes. I wanted a pickup for death metal, and these are they.

If I lost these dudes, or if somebody stole them, I'd probably just buy another set. They're more than worth the price tag.

I've been playing for about five years, and I've owned three guitars: the C1-FR that these puppies are in, a Schecter Jeff Loomis signature C7-FR, and an Ibanez RG321. I'm not the most experienced player, but I'm aware of my tone.

Features: 1

Dragonfire 81c/85a active pickup set

active electronics/preamp

around 58k ohms.

Did not come with screws, unlike any other name brand pickup. Read more below, and understand why this is such a big factor in giving it a 1 rating.

Installed in Ibanez SZ320 mahogany body set neck 22 fret guitar. Replacing stock passive duncan/ibanez sh6 clones. I wanted something a little more gainy and crunchy, but since it was a beater guitar, I didn't want to spend full price on a legitimate EMG 81/85 set.

Sound: 3

Played through several different rigs, solid state and tube, usually straight into the amp with no effects.I play mostly hard rock and metal.

Supposed to designed to be reminiscent of an EMG 81/85, but sounds more like a blackout with a sinus infection. Too much gain and no definition. Power chords are mush. Lotsa crunch on the low end but instead of screaming and growling, it just wheezes and sneezes. It honestly sounds as if you were running a wah pedal, and left the rocker all the way back in the bass position. To me these are unusable because of that reason alone, and are being replaced with EMGs I picked up used for about the same price. Lesson learned.

I have played and installed many a pickup both name brand and lesser known. I can't recommend these pickups for anything other than cashing in on the EMG name and sound. So bassy and lo-mid concentrated that it may sound better in a jazz setting... then again what jazz player you know uses active pickups?

I would not buy these pickups again, and I would feel badly giving them away. I own a ton of gear I have accumulated and invested in over the 20 so years I've been playing seriously. I thought I would be saving a few bicks, but in the long run, it was just a gimmick. NOTHING sounds like an EMG 81.

It must be noted that these pickups did not come with screws. Fine, I thought, I have plenty of screws leftover from different installs, of varied sizes. BEWARE I have not found any screws that fit these pickups besides the ones TNT sells on their website. Set of screws, $3.99 + $7.99 standard shipping= $12 for 4 mount8ing screws that took a week to get here. Didn't even include springs, this is how much of a cheap money making gimmick these pickups are. Don't waste time or money, buy the real thing whether it be blackouts or EMGs. Altogether I spent around $90 on these and they will be sitting in a box.

Active pickups, high output.

I purchased the set, and installed the set - the black 81A/85C, with the 81A in the neck and 85C in the bridge.

These pickups were put into an LTD EC-50, and replace a stock neck and a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge.

I was looking for a set of pickups that would be conducive to a more "metal" sound - I have an LTD EC-100QM with Seymour Duncans (Alnico II Pro and Alternative 8... you can see my review of that pickup on that pickups' page), so I already have a nice versatile warm sound. Wanted something a little dirtier, and the JB just wasn't cutting it - especially when I compared it to the Alternative 8.

I don't know of any artists specifically using this pickup.

Output is high, like I said before, but not so much that I can't get a halfway decent clean sound. I have owned EMGs before, and while the overall tone of these active pickups aren't quite as good, I can say that these pickups don't have that flat, compressed feel that I got from the EMGs - a very pleasant surprise!

My current rig is a Dunlop 535Q, a Boss Metalcore, sometimes a Boss GT-3, amp is a Crate Powerblock, going into either a Tubeworks 2x12 or the 1x12 extension cab for the Epiphone Valve Jr. I don't play the Valve Jr head often - the Powerblock is very portable, has plenty of power, an emulated line out, etc, so if I'm not at home, it's the amp I'm taking with me.

I play a variety of music, but tend to focus on music that falls somewhere between Tool, Deftones, and Smashing Pumpkins. I like playing some bluesy/jazzy stuff too.

The bridge pickup has a very pronounced brittle "ceramic" tone, which is a little different for me, I normally prefer Alnico pups (warmth, chime, etc). It has that aggressive rock/metal tone, though, especially when distorted, and I like that. The cleans are neutral enough to use across a few different styles.

The neck pickup has a usable lead tone and acceptable cleans. Better than stock pickups, but not in the same category as some of the better (and much more expensive!) pickups I've used.

These pickups have helped make this guitar work really well for rock and metal, and I'm happy about that. They are moderately versatile, and I can cop a few different sounds out of it, and that makes me happy. Not my go-to guitar if I want a "sweet" tone, but if I want to play something hard, it's definitely there for me.

The tone cap that was shipped with the pickups made the guitar far too dark for my taste... I wonder if that is the issue that the other reviewer encountered as well. Changing the cap value really opened up the sound and increased the output a bit as well.

Probably the primary motivation for this purchase was the low cost. For a "metal" guitar all I want is high output, I can do all the tone-shaping with fx, eq, amp, and speaker if I have to. I was pleasantly surprised to find the tone to be fairly usable, and more versatile than I expected, once I changed the tone cap value.

I am giving it an 8 because it gives a really great bang for the buck. It doesn't have the subtlety or detail of a good passive pickup, and it doesn't compare to EMGs or Blackouts, but for what it is it's a great set of pickups. If it was priced higher I would give it a lower rating, though.

I've decided that I would re-purchase this set if something happened to the originals. The tone is usable, works well for a "backup" guitar in any case, and has a slightly hotter output than my Alternative 8, so its definitely good for the high-gain stuff.

The new 81C/85A set, active......very hot, moreso than EMG's

Installed in 2.5 step downtuned les paul, replacing GFS power rails.

10's across the board

Just got these last friday. put them in a les paul, downtuned 2.5 steps for Slipknot......lemme tell you, I would purchase these over EMG's if the price was double of what is being charged. Takes some electronics and soldering know-how, but once installed, these kick ***!!! Do not hesitate!

Single Coil, Active Pickups

ToneMonsters Custom Shop RockCaster.
3 single coil active pickups.

The sound, versatility of sound, and reproduction is incredible. One of the cleanest active pickups I've used. Running through a 48 channel studio board, and an Ibanez amp. The tones are accurate, articulate, the dynamic range is terrific. These pickups are suited for virtually any style of playing. We use them for blues, classic rock and rock (especially if paired with an ODD unit), Texas style, etc.

Would, and definitely will, purchase these again for our Custom Shop guitars. The flexibility of these pickups offers our customers a wide range of tonal shaping characteristics. Make sure you are using 25k pots with them. If you're not getting the sound out of them you like, that's why!

Active Pickup

I used this pickup on a fender strat with 500k pots. I was suppose to use 25k but I didn't have any laying around.
It was in the bridge position, I was replacing a stock fender pickup. The fender stock pickups aren't worth crap if you ask me.

It sounded really great if you asked me, great sustain and tone. I really liked it. I bought this when they first started making them. So I don't know if they have improved. The tone was alot like the EMG 81, personally they both sound better in a Les Paul. When I played my Les Paul with the EMG 81 and then the fender with the Dragonfire Active pickup, they sounded really similar. Not the same but very close. But the harmonics were better on the Dragonfire than the EMG. And for metal its great, if you play it clean turn the tone all the way down and the volume halfway or use both neck and bridge pickups. The dragonfire pickup is very twangy clean and a little distorted. Over all I would buy this rather than the EMG, mainly because its the same pickup but without the big price tag.
P.S Strats are going to have less sustain than a Les Paul because of the wood and body weight. That will also affect the sound to, but not to much with active pickups, if not at all.

I really like this pickup, I sold my strat not to long ago but I just ordered the new set from them they are suppose to be like the EMG 81 85 kit, its called the HZC 81C/85A. I have played a lot of different guitar brands and pickups to, I change pickups a lot. I have even made my own. I have been playing for about 7 years, and I set build and set my own guitars up. I would buy these over EMGs because of price and I really like the sound, but EMGs are a little easier to set up(aka no soldering)
Great pickups, great price, great tone if you don't mind to solder and install pickups by yourself I would buy these.

Humbucking active pick up. Company compares it with EMG's.

I have a bunch of gear, Gibson Les Paul classic plus with EMG's, Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul custom with EMG's, Dean Cadillac with EMG's, Dean MLXT American with EMG's, Washburn Nuno with EMG's, MusicMan Axis with EMG and dimarzio, and a home made wolfgang with dimarzio's. I was putting these pickups in two strats I built, one was a San Dimas style and the other standard, but with humbuckers.

Obviously I know what EMG's sound like, and I usally use the 81 bridge, 85 neck configuration. First of all the dragonfire active pick up does not sound like an EMG 81 pickup. Trust me! It does have a lot of gain, but the tone sucks. There isn't any real high frequencies there. My wah really had a hard time responding to this pick up. I ran this through two rigs, a mesa boogie rectifier rig, and a bugera 6262 rig. The pick up would be good for rythym, but as for lead it doesn't sustain well and the whole sound is in the low and low mid region.

Last note on this pick up. When you run it through a clean amp you get distorted notes, but not in a good way. The pickup seems more like a passive with a preamp pushing it. So if you already have a humbucker. Get an eq and throw it on your pedal board first in your chain. That would be the same effect as this pick up, but with an eq you could control the tone and still have a **** load of gain.

Active Pickup, Looks just like a EMG 81 without logo.

I put this into my Gibson Les Paul Special, I have one both in the bridge and neck. They are replacing both stock gibson pickups which i belive is the 495 and 500. Not sure if any artist use this position.

The output is very VERY HOT. Much hotter than a EMG 81. I am comparing these to my Ken Lawrance esp with Emg 81 in bridge and 60 in neck. I like the sound of this pickup better. Gets very good clean tones, BUT The distorted sound will crush you skull. Has great artificial harmonics. Im running this through a Mesa Triple Rect with Mesa stack. no outboard effects, besides my dunlop jimi wah. On the clean channel I put a little reverb in but other than that its all stock. Its dirty tone is godly. I play mainly Metal/Thash. Im in a Metallica Cover band and these pickups are a perfect match.

If it was destroyed or stolen I would buy on in seconds. Ive been playing for about 7 years. I love everything about this pickup. It is just as good if not better than any EMG on the market. For 35$ Why dont u have one already.