EMG T Set Black

I arrived at this active T-Set by EMG because I needed a particular hollow-body T-style guitar to be effectively shielded, which is easier said than done (as opposed to any normal, routed solid body).

Mine had the vintage bridge plate with 3 saddles only, the boxed-steel design from the '50s and '60s style, not the flat-out of contemporary MIM and MIU Telecasters.

Installation was totally straightforward, no adaptation needed, no routing... the 9V battery had its most perfect fit underneath the potentiometers, so I did not even install a box or a lid for it, just placed a piece of foam to keep it press-firm.

Then came the tone.

Tele, indeed, but like another user here said, with a broader harmonic range (no need to invent another way of describing it when this is so effective, if I can borrow). And such an increased dynamic range, too.

Definitely the most piano-like Tele sound I've heard (and the pickups I replaced where really special, really exclusive ones). Why did this tone remind me of a past experience, I wondered.

Answer came from EMG website: this is the pickup set that inspired the OEM kit installed on the Chapman Stick touch-guitar-bass as the then-named "The Block" special option!

I've owned a Stick in my past, tried to become proficient on it (and failed at it), but the sound, the tone was the real driving force behind my love for it. It's this, it's all here!

I, for my own mental and aural limit, still can't understand why active pickups became synonimous with "metal" or "extreme distortion". I only play clean, never a hint of distortion, almost exclusively in jazz-tone, or acoustic-tone territory. And find active EMG pickups the most hi-fi sounding ones, the most extended in frequency response, the most balanced for any height-setting I decide to choose.

I installed this set onto a high quality instrument, which has retained all of its specialty, and is now totally RF-shielded (thanks to EMG active design) to the point of leaving the guitar plugged in, idling on top of a pedalboard with 12 DSP-based stompboxes, without a hum.

Were it not for the blacked-out look of this, I would have installed one such kit in any of my other Teles; if only it existed with the traditional nickel-plated (neck pickup) cover, and exposed-poles (bridge pickup) bobbins, I would have not one, but two or three dream guitars.

I bought these to replace the stock pickups in my Fender Telecaster as I was having trouble with noise during recording. After watching several youtube videos on different pickups I decided to try these and I am very glad I did. They have a genuine telecaster sound but without any hum. They are bright and clear like original telecaster pickups - very twangy!

I realise that many people view active pickups as being sterile in sound but I don't think that is true at all, I think that people are just expecting the same EQ settings to work for radically different pickups. So they might need new amp settings, but they can sound as warm or as bright as any other pickup - we must all get used to EQ-ing with our ears and not our eyes.

The only time I prefer traditional pickups is for using old design Fuzz pedals like a Fuzz Face. Low impedance active pickups are not great with those types of fuzz, however there are now several products that can be used in between these pickups and an old fuzz to make the pedal work just right - still without all the single coil hum.

The installation took about 30 minutes and there was enough room in the cavity of my Fender Player telecaster for the battery without needing any permanent modification to the guitar.

Playing for recording and in live venues where the equipment produces interference is now no problem. This telecaster is my favourite guitar and now I can play it in every environment. I play this guitar for every genre - jazz, rock, even metal. Single Coils are really underrated for metal - the clarity they have is wonderful and it makes mixing so much easier.

I'm very happy with them, and I'm now thinking about some EMG pickups for one of my strats as well.

Fast delivery from Thomann as well, and well packed.

The installation of these pickups was so effortless. For a complete beginner in changing pickups, it may be quite confusing, because the installation manual was quite different than the wires it came with. But if you have a little experience with pickups, its no problem.
Sound of these pickups is amazing, the neck for me was something similar to a stratocaster neck pups. And for the bridge pickup you can expect that tele bright sound. For me 5/5