EMG

EMG, Inc. is the current legal name of the company with seat in Santa Rosa, California, started in 1976 manufacturing guitar pickups, which have always been called EMG pickups. "EMG" stands for "Electro-Magnetic Generator". The company was originally called "Dirtywork Studios"; this name was changed to "Overlend" in 1978, and then to the current name in 1983. EMG has over the years garnered a reputation as the most popular manufacturer of active pickups for electric guitars. Their pickups are standard equipment on some high-end models from guitar manufacturers such as ESP Guitars and Jackson Guitars. EMG active pickups tend to have much higher output than passive pickups of similar design because of the on-board preamp. The high output has made them popular with hard rock and heavy metal guitarists because they overdrive the input stage of guitar amplifiers more dramatically than a lower output pickup could.

In addition to pickups, EMG inc also have a line of guitar/ bass accessories, mainly for altering the guitars EQ settings, and designed to work with EMG pickups. This can be seen in companies such as Schecter, who ship almost all of their basses with EMG EQ shaping circuitry,

Players and bands who use or endorse EMG pickups include Southern Hostility, Cannibal Corpse, Nickelback, Tom Morello, John Campbell, David Gilmour, Steve Lukather, Reb Beach, Prince, Metallica, Slayer, Machine Head, Metallist, Les Claypool,Kurt Ballou,Zakk Wylde, KMFDM, Dave Kushner, eX CaVe, Judas Priest, Deftones, Dir en grey, Rammstein, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Still Remains, Claudio Sanchez, Vince Gill, Evergrey, Slipknot, Dethklok and Gamma Ray, amongst many others.

It should be noted that EMG active pickups (Such as the 81) are filled with black epoxy, which disperes if the cover is pryed off/removed, thus destroying the pickup coil. It is unknown whether this is a gimmick or to prevent companies such as Seymour Duncan (With their rival Blackout range) from copying EMG's winding etc.

www.emgpickups.com