EMG DG20

EMG Davey Gilmore set.

I put these in my beloved custom strat, that has been my Number 1 for years. I've had probable ten different sets of pickups in this guitar: HSS, SSS - EMG's SV set, HH, HSH. A lot of different brands and a lot of different models - seeking the holy grail of tone. These are good, but not quite the holy grail... but they're stayin in 'Ole Blue'(Which is now trans Orange with tortoise p/g).

Excellent!!! Trust these reviews, these are great and very versatile.

You can dial in about any Strat sound you want. The great thing about the EXG and the SPC is that you can subtley beef things up or add/take away bright without mucking the rest of the tone, like a reg. tone control does. If you are a hardcore humbucker purist (bridge) you can't quite get there. But for me, most humbuckers are too muddy and garbled and can only do one thing; play with distortion - they generally sound like crap, played clean. (I do have an Ash Strat with Dim. Virtual PAFs in it [HSH], which are pretty versatile) But when you want to rock, you can't beat em. I usually hate the "single in the bridge sound" of most strats, but this one is awesome. You can dial in many great bridge sounds and they work with a lot of different amp settings. I've used some other EMG sets that are a little sterile sounding, but these are very alive and natural sounding.

For me, my guitar has to be versatile and able to get many good clean or in between sounds, yet still be able to rock hard when I want it to. EMG DG20's do it for me. They're staying!!!

Pre-wired Single Coil SA active pickup set, as used by David Gilmour in his red Strat.

Looks-wise, it's a classic Strat configuration of volume and two tone controls. However, Tone 1 is an EXG Expander which boosts lows and highs, Tone 2 is an SPC Mid-Boost. Also, the Volume control is fitted with a treble bleed circuit which retains tone as the volume knob is turned back.

I have been using this pickup set in one of my Strats for about 6 years now. It's a late 90's American US Standard with maple neck, fitted with Kahler 2310 tremolo system and Sperzel locking heads.

After some experimenting with the combination of EXG and SPC, I was able to get a really diverse range of great tones. The SPC is billed as a humbucking sound but it's not - it simply adds body back to the sound but that's ok - it's a very pleasing sound and works great in combination with the EXG.

Let me just say, at this point, that you WILL struggle to hear the full sonic range of these pickups at "bedroom" volumes. That can be said for any pickups but I particularly find it to be the case with the SAs. Give them some volume and headroom and they really will sing.

For my stock rhythm tone, I keep the EXG around 5, and the SPC at 2. This is a very full sound for chord work and produces a nice ringing tone with added body. Works well for both clean and crunch tones. For leads, I boost the SPC which doesn't add much volume but subtly thickens up the tone and really cuts through. Like I said above, you don't really hear the difference at low volumes but in a band situation, at full volume, the difference is clear. For quieter, slightly gritty, passages, I turn the volume back to around 3-4 and boost the EXG (perfect for the "Shine On" intro, for example).

These pickups are, on the whole, highly responsive to picking technique and will reproduce exactly what you play.

With both tone controls at 1, you're in more regular Strat territory. I hear a lot of people complain that the SA's passive sound is dull and lifeless but I don't hear that at all...it's just different from the active sound. OK, it's by no means a classic vintage Strat tone but its still perfectly usable.

I'm playing through a Marshall JMP1 preamp, Marshall EL34 50/50 power amp. I use Keeley modified TS9DX & SD-1 overdrive pedals, and a Keeley Compressor and Keeley Katana Boost. I use a Boss GT-8 for chorus, delays and additional EQ, and it all then goes through a BBE 482 Sonic Maximiser and Palmer speaker simulators and into the PA in stereo (PA EQ is always flat). For backline, I have a Marshall 1960A 4x12 cab.

I can't see past this pickup configuration. It gives me everything I ask of it, from single coil country twang to screaming rock. Been playing guitar for 25 years and this is the closest I've ever come to having "that" sound. Admittedly, the pickups are only a part of the overall tone but they are one of the most important since everything else depends on the sound they produce.

I recently bought a Custom Shop Clapton Signature Strat with the new noiseless pickups installed. They are very good and, as the name suggests, extremely quiet, but I haven't been able to get any sound that I can't produce from the my EMG-enabled Strat (save for the 25Db mid-boost which sounds great when Clapton uses it but it's not for me).

The major gripe that everyone has with this pickup set is that the battery lives under the pickguard, as standard, and replacement involves removing most of the pickguard screws. This is indeed a pain but I had a friendly luthier install a battery compartment on the back of the guitar (similar to the one on the new VG Strat) so I don't have the problem anymore and can change batteries in seconds. He had to gouge a hole for it but it hasn't adversely affected the sound of the guitar. Can't really blame EMG for this as the product is designed to be installed without any mods to the physical guitar so it's just one of those things really.

Single coil David Gilmour setup. Active with the two tone controls, EXG and SPC.

Put them in a 2006 Fender American Deluxe Strat. Olympic white pearl, rosewood neck, abalone inlays, fender locking bridge (now unavailable), and a LSR roller nut with locking tuners. I built this guitar because I had the deluxe body laying around and loved the color of it so I thought I would try something different and go with active pickups. It helps to have a friend who works in a music store so he can get me the Fender parts at cost plus 10%.

First of let me say I've been playing professionally for 25 years, have over 25 various PRS, Gibson, Fender, Guild, Hamer, G&L, Parker, Godin, Rickenbacker, well you get the picture. Along with that Marshall JMP's, Marshall JCM 800's, Mesa Dual Rectifier, Twins, Dual Showman, Line 6 (yeah I know), various class A stuff, anyway... I have never in all my years owned an active pickup system guitar. So I decided to put this strat together with EMG's. I "switch channels" with my volume knob and I found the pot very smooth and user friendly. The output is very hot with the tone controls in play. I like the SPC quite a bit. EMG says this will give you a humbucker sound. Let me just say it won't. It's still a single coil bridge pickup and it sound like one with a midrange boost. Now that's not to say that's bad. It's a unique sound and very usable, in fact I use the midrange boost on my clean sounds quite a bit. The EXG treble bass expander seems a tad bright by it self and needs the addition of the mids. It's strange, the sound gets brighter and fuller but the bass seems to get tubby and wants to overdrive everything and distort. This only happens with the EXG cranked and the SPC off though. I haven't heard the "sterile" issue other people say they get with active systems, in fact this sounds more like a "Strat" than my other strats. With this system you get all the strat sounds plus a few it extra ones. With a good quality class A amp, like my Univalve these pickups really sound good.

I would recommend these to any one. The list price off $300 seems a bit steep but you can find them for less. The one drawback will be changing the battery. If this thing goes dead at a gig forget it. You'll have to take the strings as well as the pickguard off to change it, so bring a backup axe. I suggest changing the battery every fourth or fifth time you change the strings just to be safe. 9 volts are like what, $1.50 compared to showing up to a show and no sound? They say the battery will last 500 hours but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I have a few issues with this system but overall i really like it. Overall the sound is very professional, very clean and very versatile. Oh yeah one more thing, you won't sound like David Gilmour with these unless you have 4 Hiwatts and $80,000 in outboard gear and switching systems, sorry.

Black SA in a black pickguard.

I wanted a meaner tonality from my meek sounding 96 MIM strat. I've have it professional setup and plays smoother than any US or MIM strat i've ever played so it deserved such a great setup. I used a black 3 ply pickguard to add to the gilmour vibe since my strat is black with a maple neck. I also got it specially with the black SA's instead of white just to be different.

I like a SRV growl in my leads so I use the spc all the time. I use this guitar for both Jazz and metal. With the EMG's in it I can fingerpick for a nice mellow tone or kick in my Digitech distortion factory for brutal metal. With a higher gain setup metal would be simple for I all ready get a perfect lamb of god tone out of this setup.

I've had it for about 2 months and love it. Now several local guitarists are begging me to install this setup in there guitars for them ( not that hard to install but some people are just helpless I guess).

Single coil EMG DG-20.. Designed around dave gilmour I think

I bought these for my ten year old USA strat standard. I had a bit of hum out of the pickups. the pots were getting a little dirty and one seemed to be broke. So rather than but a hole heap of stuff to repair em I decided to buy these. I'am a pink floyd fan. I do like the early rusty strat sound gilmour has. more rythm than lead. I don't want to sound like him though. :-)..

The pickups sound great.. let me phrase that for you. The two chips built in give a great sound. but it doesn't sound like my old strat did. I play through a peavy valveking 212. the pickups are totally savage but I recall being able to manage the sound a little better. I don't think I'm use to controlling these pickups and its tough to go between clean and rough sounds with out fiddling the controls a bit. There is a lot of bass range comming through its intense sound.
HOWEVER there is no noise what so ever. And thats saying a lot when you have a valve amp. I'll give it a ten because it hasn't really lost any sound and it has eliminated the hum!!!

Well overall I'm gonna have to say savage setup because the wiring is done so well in the pickups. BUT would someone in EMG measure a strat body and ensure every set of pickups is cut and measured properly. I had a bit of trouble squeezing this into my strat. which made me wonder.

the only problem with these is you have to take the scratch plate of when you change strings and swap your rechargable battery. I forsee screw holes and threads in the wood being worn away and having to be filled with wood putty. For that one snag it gets 9

If you've read almost any of the other reviews, you already know. If not, then read a few other reviews or check EMG's site...

60th Anniversary MIM Strat
All electronics, replacing stock
Me and a few others
Had 'em before in a different Strat, and loved them then

The output is a bit hotter than stock, but easily overcome.
Playing through Boss ME50 and GE7 EQ into a Frontman 25A.
I can't leave the bloody knobs alone anymore, each tweak brings out a litte more something my ears love more and more.
I play anything from classical to blues to rock to crazy experimental stuff.
I haven't found anything I don't like the sound of with these pups yet.

Wish I could do the Spinal Tap thing and go to 11 on my rating. These pickups and the electronics they come with are everything a true Stratocaster really needs to bring it to life and beyond. It's improved my tone so much that it's broken me out of the set it at 10 and live with it approach I've been using for so many years to actually tweaking the onboard settings to fill out my sound even more. The only gripes I can think of are if everything's on 10, they will have a tendency to overdrive themselves very easily, so pulling the volume down a little on the guitar is fine since there's no tone loss. As for the tone pots, I've done like the instructions say and start at 0 and go from there. There is so much of a variety of tones available. Also, when I put this in my rig, the pickguard was a VERY tight fit. So much so that I had to trim a bit from around the neck pocket and bridge plate cutouts, but otherwise everything went together like a dream...I can't believe Fender doesn't sell a Strat with this setup as stock.

Active Pickup set for strat style guitars

1989 USA Fender Strat. Replaced Fender Vintage Noiseless set with a Noiseless Plus in the bridge. I had the original stock pickups in the guitar up until about year ago but HUM HUM they went. Obviously David Gilmore is using these pickups. I was not going for his sound specifically as I am not a huge Pink Floyd fan (I know some of you will shout foul on that) but I do enjoy his tone and lead work very much. I chose to try this set because I installed the EMG ZW set in my Les Paul about a month ago and have totally enjoyed the results and the benefits of active pickups. I also liked the idea of having more control on my guitar with the active EQ pots.

Output level rips...it totally obvious when you first get them going. Much stronger low end response and had to back off on my settings to comp the difference. I am using a Mesa Boogie TriAxis through a Mesa 2:90 power head. I am running a TC Gmajor parallel directly out the back in stereo and use a GCX switcher for my Keeley Comp, Keeley Java Boost, Electric Mistres, Voodoo Proctavia and MicroVibe. The rest of my pedals are simply for show..hahaha. I have been playing in stereo for a couple of years now through 2 Boogie 1x12 cabs (easire to hall around that 4x12) The pickups truly enhance the response of all the effects. I would go as far as to say they are better pronounced in the mix but not over bearing. I did have to back off on the Comp and the Java Boost to balance things out..this is a good thing though...less noise etc. I am in a band that plays cover tunes in more of a hard rock fasion with an emphasis on 70's 80's and some newer stuff thrown in so we don't get pegged as a retro band. At first I thought I made a mistake by trying these pickups. But once I spent some time with them I began to figure them out. Tone control 1 gives you a high end and a low end boost at the same time. Very good for soloing and for playing chords and picking on the clean settings. You get the true Strat Quack in the number 4 pickup setting (bridge/middle combo)from this setting. Very versital. The tone control 2 is more of a mid boost. More subtle in positoin 2 and 4 however in position 1 and 5, you reap good benefit in making them ballsy up a bit. Using the 2 tone controls together is the true benefit here. I find that if I put both of the tone controls at 50% adjust my preamp to suite a satisfying sound, lock it in and then from there start experimenting that I can arrive at so many combinations that I wound up taking notes. It's exactly what I was hoping for. something that I could control right at the guitar on the fly. Ultimately it's all a matter of taste but I find that I am happy with getting more of a standard Strat sound but am able to get rid of the ice picks and the mud. I can get tones similar to Brian May in position 4 (one of my all time goals) and in clean setting get a very nice SRV and as you can imagine David Gilmore sound. Neck position pickup is a dream. I use this position for so much soling that my other pickups get lonely. I arrive at a much more focused tone with outstanding detail unlike any Fender Pickup I have ever used. It punchy, great detail, sustain like crazy so much so that I have found myself backing of on the volume in some cases...by the way...this is another great benefit of active pickups on both the DG and the ZW sets. No tone loss. You can actually use it as a DRIVE control rather than just muddying up and fading into the mix. Probably the single best benefit over all on both sets.

It destroyed or stolen, I would replace right away. This is true of both my guitars. I have been a nay sayer for years and year (28 years as a player) on active pickups. I sure wish I would have pulled my head out of my ass sooner. All the things that I whined about on my guitar have pretty much dissappeared. No hums, great output, turn volume pot down with no tonal change, on board EQ settings for better control, a full pallet of potential sounds, beautiful perloid set up with unlimited capabilities. I am unable to compare this to any other pickup I have used...and I have used all the biggies Fender, Gibson, Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, Joe Barden, Lace Sensor and even have a set Fralins (which are nice in my Tele). These are the best but be ready to spend a few hours just dialing things in. If you are using good gear, have a good touch and a good set of ears, I see no reason why anyone would be unhappy with this purchase. Don't be affraid....try them out. The only thing I wish was that they looked more like original stock with the poles in them. People think I am using Lace Sensor pickups at gigs with the way the look from a distance. Then they look at me like I am crazy for using active pickups...I know where they are coming from but they juuuuuuuuuuust DOOOOOOOONT know. hahaha

Single coil

Fender American Strat.
All 3 pickups.
Stock pickups.
The DG baby!!
wanted something new with a little more ummphh!

The output level wwas great, I noticed better response in the lows. Im using a Fender DeVille tube amp with a bunch of stomp boxes, all Boss stuff. I like to play some funk but mostly rock.

Pros-
-I would definetely recommend these pickups to someone wanting to change their sound. These pickups have the form and the function.
-I love the off white pickups and the pickguars is just gorgeous.
-I like the tone controls that came with the setup.
-EMG quality
Cons
-The installation manual could have been updated to let you know that there is a green wire instead of a white one that is pictured in the installation manual.
-EMG can have more than one Tech working so that if that tech goes on vacation they can still help customers.
-The battery is gonna suck to replace.

All in all Im happy with my purchase,I wanted to thank all of you who wrote reviews on this product because it helped me very much in making my decision.

Everyone pretty much knows this info already

I had this set put into an left handed SX Strat from Rondo Guitars.(Great Guitar for the price, by the way) It has a natural finish with a maple neck fitted with real JUMBO frets and creme binding. The face dots are moved off-center and really make the guitar look unique. But enough about the guitar, you want to read about the pickups.

All the electronics were replaced; pickups, switch, controls, and jack. The tone controls are what really makes this set sound great. You're able to dial in nearly every type of sound imanginable. It can go from really subtle sounding to a nice mid-range boost to a really, really shiny sound. With the tone controls turned down all the way, you get the "un-modded" sound, which to me was really weak sounding (but some people go for that, take John Mayer for example) I, personally, enjoy turning up the mid-control all the way and the Bass/Treble control half-way. This gives me a really screaming tone, perfect for my dual overdrive set-up. I pretty much play anything with a huge overdriven guitar sound. I could not get a bad sound out of these pickups. They were definently worth the money I shelled out.

HOWEVER, I did encounter a problem which to me was a serious one. You cannot use your wah pedal while playing this guitar, not matter what settings you use. I guess that's why Gilmour doesn't use one, instead he uses multiple distortions, overdrives, and fuzzes to change his tone. I have since given up using my wah with this guitar and have taken a page from David and began using different types of overdrives and fuzz pedals to go from rhythm to lead.

I'm not disappointed with the purchase. I would buy it again if I had to.

That's well covered territory by now.

'99 Am Std Strat. Ash body, maple board. I replaced stock everything with the EMG system. A friend bought them new about five years ago, and wanted out of them. I read alot about them, and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Plus, I had played his guitar with these installed and thought it sounded good.

O.K., let's get this out now. I know a couple tunes by Pink Floyd, but I'm not a huge fan. I'm also not trying to cop anyone's particular tone, so they may sound just like Gilmour and I wouldn't know it. On to the review. These are HOT! I had to turn my amp volume down a couple notches as compared to my stock strat settings, and I had the PUPS fairly low in the pickguard! EMG says to crank 'em up near the strings for a better signal to noise ratio, but then I feel like I would be turning my amp down too much and getting out of it's sweet spot. At the moment, I play through a peavey classic 30 with JJ tubes, and I'm not really an effects guy. Tone on this set is super clean, the pups are very quiet, SPC and EXG controls work well as a basic preset EQ, and there are a lot of tones available. Experiment with pickup height as these are VERY sensitive to adjustment. However, I personally like classic, warm, glassy, strat tone best, and these didn't really deliver what I wanted. I like them O.K., and the various tonal options were interesting, but I went back to stock. These PUP's are kind of like a modeling amp, it does a lot of things tonally, but doesn't do any of them very well. These aren't quite humbucker, not quite old school single coil. While I don't think these are bad, they aren't for me. EMG deserves a lot of credit for putting out such a complete, well designed system. I give them an 8 for versatility.

Been playing 14 years, most of that time acoustic. Other stuff I own, (or once owned): Am. ser. tele, jap 60's reissue strat, two '83 Ibanez roadstars, Taylor 310, Martin D1, Yairi WY1, Takamine FP360SC, Fender vibrolux reissue, Fender hot rod deluxe, Behringer ACX 1000, various PA's, processors, stompboxes, etc. I sold my set, but I wouldn't have a problem recommending these to someone else. They didn't work for me because I wanted more classic strat, and the tonal variation, while nice, didn't sell me on them. I realize that the '99 Am. Std PUP's aren't the best, but I like them well enough. There's something to be said for being happy with what you have. Good Luck!