EMG 81-X

Active humbucker with Ceramic/Steel magnet.

BC Rich USA Widow.
Bridge position.
Replacing EMG 81.

The EMG 81 has a little too much output for my taste. And the tone is too cold and hollow, and the high frequencies sound brittle.

The tone difference between this and the old EMG 81 is not as much as I expected. But the subtle changes are exactly what I need. The EMG 81X has about 1/4 less output of EMG 81. The hi/hi-mid is smoother, which provides an illusion that the overall sounding seems slightly fuller. These features make it sound clearer when playing with distortion.

The clean sound is still not very impressing. When the volume is fully cranky, it sounds similar to an EMG 81 on 70% volume. When backing off the volume it cleans up a little smoother and better than EMG 81.

It has even less noise than the old EMGs when the volume is fully opened while not playing.

I played guitar since 1992 and plays technical death metal. Own many custom shop guitars with different pickups. When I want more "tone" I'll turn to passive pickups. But for metal, EMG is always an easy solution, especially for playing live. I'm basically satisfied with EMG 81, but always hoping that it has less output and more "passive" feel. 81X satisfies the first requirement and perserves most advantages of 81 but still sounds absolutely active. But comparing with the fake passive feel of Duncan Blackouts, I'd rather stay with 81X or even 81. Still waiting for the best metal pickup but currently 81X is pretty closed. Overall IMHO 81X is a good upgrade version of 81. But the difference is not that much. My advice is that if you already have EMG 81 and are 90% happy with it then you don't have to shift to 80X. But if you're going to buy a new set of EMG then I'd definitely recommend this over the old models, especially if you also agree that good metal tone doesn't necessarily mean more output and distortion.