EMG SAV

Pickup features: active single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: custom made zaletelj guitar
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: I installed them on a new custom built guitar
Other pickups on guitar: emg 81 in the bridge
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: medium output.
Tone: the tone of this pickup is far away from any electric guitar single coil. my guitar sounds like an accustic guitar. i hate this pickup
Sonic evaluation: this pickup is one of my major dissapointments. It sounds sooooo sterile, lacks balls. It may be good for some special fingerstyle playing or something. the tone of my beautiful guitar is very flat.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play all kinds of styles and I must say this pickup fails to provide me the tones I'm after. I'm dissapointed.

Comments: I hope I'll find someone who'll like them and sell them for half the price.

Pickup features: Active vintage single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Strat Special (Mexican)
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: tex mex
Other pickups on guitar: EMG SA bridge
Artists using this pickup: Steve Lukather
You musical style(s): Jam bands / Classic rock
Reason for pickup change: Something different. Made my strat into a 2 pickup single coil mid boosted tone machine. The EMG SPC mid boost is also on the guitar.

Perceived output level: Lower than most of the EMG pickup line. I actually bought this pickup to run with an EMG -85 and it couldn't keep up so I replaced it with an SA and that worked well. This pickup works fine in the neck with other single coils. My experience is that it doesn't balance wellwith EMG humbuckers
Tone: Glassy single coil - vintage like tone with no hum
Sonic evaluation: This works / sounds great with the SPC mid boost. You go from glassy to a really fat strat neck sound. When run in parallel with bridge pickup the guitar gives a tele vibe with boosted mids and less twang; exactly what I was going for.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This pickup is good for mid/neck positions. I'd stay away from metal but it cries the blues and spanks the funk.

Comments: Didnt like it with a humbucker in the bridge but it comes into its own when paired with an SA and the SPC. This pickup uses more of your battery than other active EMG pickups. Basically this means you need to change it twice a year instead of once (lol) After playing for 15 years (14 with EMG) I am an EMG fan. I also like Dimarzio and even a few Seymour Duncan's but I have liked all EMG's I've tried. One thing about EMG single coils - you still can't get that quack of a notch position strat but by giving that up, you get so much more.

Pickup features: Active stacked humbuckers w/single-coil appearence and sound
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Am.Std. Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Fender Am.Std.
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Ralf Lofstad (Violet Scene, Still Doing Sky)
You musical style(s): Alt.Rock
Reason for pickup change: Get less noise than regular singles

Perceived output level: Slightly louder than the Am.Std.s
Tone: Balanced
Sonic evaluation: Goes through Fender Twin Reverb RI + numerous (10-15) stompboxes. Actually not too dissimilar sounding compared to the pu's they replaced. A little of that hi-fi EMG high end, but not annoyingly much. A little less pick attack than regular singles, but enough to do. No ice pick in the ear, but not too polite either (like EMG SAs). Usable sounds in all positions. Lifted the tone pot from the middle pu, gives brighter pos.s 2 & 4, which btw sound great. Lovely solo neck pu sound. Have the SPC installed, gives GREAT versatility. The SPC is usable for both clean and dirty sounds. Very quiet, a blessing compared to the singles.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great versatile and quiet replacement for the Am.Std.s, which I actually liked a lot but were too noisy in electrically polluted environment. A great match for long effects chains, actually sound better w/a little treble roll-off (from the fx).

Comments: These pu's are definitely for me. Somehow a compromise, but a very good one. They don't adversely impose their own (EMG) character on an already great-sounding guitar, just making it more versatile. Comes highly recommended.

Pickup features: active pickup with pole pieces, humbucker with pull/pot single-coil mode.
Impedence or other specs: two active single coils neck/middle, active humbucker with pull-pot single mode, also spc 12db mid boost, master tone, master volume in white strat pickguard.

Model of guitar or bass: 2002 Fat Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: stock tex-mex strat two passive tex mex singles and tex-mex humbucker.
Other pickups on guitar: EMG 89
Artists using this pickup: EMG- gilmore, wylde, metallica, ect...
You musical style(s): Cure, Radiohead, Smiths
Reason for pickup change: I have EMG P-bass in my 77' p-bass and they rule (quiet, loud, great for gigs with bad power and neon lights). so I thought I would invest in a little project. I got a good deal on a 2002 Fender Mexi Fat Strat fully knowing the Fender stock pickups noisy/crap. I had my eye on strat pickguard for sale which contained one EMG 89, and 2xEMG SAVs. I wanted to get a more David Gilmore-ish tone that my Les Pauls cannot get. Installed by a tech with some soldering to the input jack and some soldering to connect the tone knob (should be done at the factory).

Perceived output level: The sound is little hotter than reg strat pu's. with the EMG SPC engaged they had a 12db boost which added a nice little sting to the sound, 25dbs would og been better.
Tone: the tone has a bit more bass and lo-mid, but still transparent, but not glassy on the SAV. The 89 sucked and sounded really quiet ice-pick weak in single coil mode and grainy and hollow in the humbucking mode the SPC helped a little. definately not the SA or the 81 as the EMG web-site suggests.
Sonic evaluation: I am using a Fender Hot Rod Deville and tons of foot pedals, but i tried out the pickups using the amps clean/dirty. Right away the SAV's sounded great and nailed that texas blues tone, but did not compress and sounded (expected) tranparent even with distortion, with the SPC on had good tone. I recommend the SAV's. I wanted no-hum and they still hummed a little, but nowhere near stock pu's. I really think the SPC was useless and needed to have a greater gain boost, but helped a little with that 'shine on you crazy diamond' tone. The EMG-89 was awefull and I do not recommend it. I also think the fat strat is no-good. I have the bridge set flat with 11-52 strings with 5 tremelo strings and set-up by a pro tech and still out of tune 1/2 through a song. remedy---new tuners, new nut, might as well bought the american strat. live and learn.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I love the sound of single-coils, but hate the hum. my main-guitar was a Jazzmaster and I loved the mellow-perfect sound, but the guitar was too noisy outside of the middle position. I need something to capture that sound ( a stacked jazzmaster?) it does not exist.

Comments: might get 3 SAV's someday. I wanted versitility, but got two great pick-ups (SAV) and one dud(89) . I am taking the pick-ups back. 3 SAV's would be better, but you have to install a out-of-phase switch to get the 'quack' even more money??? I just wanted three quiet versitle, hum-free, shock-free pick-ups, out-of phase sounding too. My search continue, sorry to be fussy.

Pickup features: Single coil; Active.
Impedence or other specs: N/A

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Strat.
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: How, Me? ah, I dont know.
You musical style(s): Pop, Rock, Jazz, Latin.
Reason for pickup change: One and a half year ago I bought my 2nd Strat. Cause the first was Passive, I want to try Active ones.

Perceived output level: With volume set at 7 the output ( to me ) is as good as standard Strat pickups. At 10 the volume gets louders than standard Strat's P-U.
Tone: At low volume they sound bassy ( like standard Strats ), but at full volume they turn a bit harsh (so comparedto a standatd Strat ).
Sonic evaluation: I'm using a Strat, with a Crate GFX-212 and a Zoom 505.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Most times I play Top 40, rock and jazz style, but also use to play at church sundays. As I get the YNH20 pickguard per-assembled I have it in all positions.

Comments: I've been playing guitar since 9 years old. I have been able to play many guitars and many styles of music in my life. Right now I have 2 Strat's, One Aria Pro II (Les Paul Type[humbuckers]), Two Dean, Two Nylon-string and a few other small folkloric string instruments. This SAV have a very harsh, hi-output and bassy sound as other players have tell me when they hear them. I even start to get disappointed with them for the critics I recive. But still, I find a diference in sound not heard in other pickups. So I put in practice some basics learned and used by "the teacher: J. Hendrix". Few players tell me that it dosent work with Active Pickups, but I try any how. I invert the position of all pickups. WOW!! They start to sound Brigther than ever. But so,I put the middle pickup in its normal position. AND, BOOM!! thats what I was Looking for; it change the whole sound spectrum in a single moment. I have to reset all the tones and volumes of my effects, for now I know I will never-ever-ever change this pickups.
Im satisfy with them. If I was looking for a standard Strat sound in them, then I should not use them. But I was looking for a different sound, and I found it. I like it. I stay with it. Sure Im satisfied with them. Not only I notice the difference, but other players do. Some of them think it was a new (different) guitar.

Pickup features: Active single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Strat 60s reissue
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: American Standard
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Top 40
Reason for pickup change: I wanted my pickups to sound the same at any volume.

Perceived output level: Normal
Tone: harsh and unforgiving
Sonic evaluation: Fender Strat with Boss Gt-5 through PA

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Top 40

Comments: These pickups sound very sterile and harsh. They give you the feel like having a wah pedal on all the time. The tone controls do not work as effective as in a passive configuration, probably due to missing electric interaction with the pickup coil.
If you want your guitar to sing a song, look somewhere else. I have already re-installed my American Standard pickups.

Pickup features: Single Coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: G&L Legacy Strat copy
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: stock G&L pickups
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: David Gilmour?
You musical style(s): Country, southern rock, classic rock, blues
Reason for pickup change: Heard a lot of good news about these pickups, and heard a rock band's guitarist use them in his strat.

Perceived output level: loud output level. It is almost uncontrolable.
Tone: Bassy
Sonic evaluation: A G&L Legacy strat through a Fender Hot Rod Deville (2X12) with Boss effects such as a sd-2 distortion, tremolo, chorus, compressor.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I mostly play country and old rock. This pickup, for this kind of music, doesn't sound that great to me. It sounds almost muffled and too high of an output. However, it is a good sound for a distorted lead.

Comments: I have been playing for years and own several guitars. I think I will still keep these pickups in my guitar, even though I probably wouldn't buy them again. I will still have a different sound with these pickups. I have other strats that sound more like a strat, if that makes since. I have added the Expander from EMG and the Presence Control. With all three knobs up, it almost sounds like a Les Paul when distorted. A lot of tone seems lost when clean.... Just loud high output. If I played strictly rock on the hard rock side, I might like these pickups more.