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.

Strongly recommended if you want an easy DIY pickup & electronics upgrade for a Tele style guitar. Sound great, very warm and responsive to volume & tone changes. I put them in my 1996 Yamaha Pacifica 102s - it has great playability and acoustic sounds - but very thin sounding stock pickups. What a difference the EMGs make! I also own a Fender Strat and hadn't bothered with the old Yamaha in a long time, but with the EMGs it's very close to a proper Fender sound. Very easy to install, although I needed to make the bridge pickup slot slightly larger. The Pacifica is known as a great modding platform and has a lot of space inside the body to work in. It's an easy job, no need for soldering. Took me about 1 hour including proper fretboard cleaning and restring. Everything is clearly labelled, cables are sufficiently long. Manual included was for the System version though (with the Tele control plate), so that might be confusing if you have a non-Fender Tele model like, but it's easy to figure out. Battery I taped to inside of pickup cavity cover plate.

Really good pickups which have improved my MIM Tele massively. Sounds great clean and heavy, and the neck pickup in particular sounds really nice.

The high end is not quite as bright as the stock pickups, but I think that’s a good thing especially if you use distortion, fuzz or overdrive regularly like I do.

I reversed my control plate which meant the battery just about fitted into the cavity without having to file it out or modify it in any way.

The only negative is that the instructions are confusing and badly written, I ended up watching a YouTube video to work out what I needed to do. But the impressive sound of the pickups were worth the hassle so I’ll give five stars still!

I was replacing a set of stock tele pickups with these - sound is great - still noticeable tele bridge and neck variation but a bit higher output, broader harmonics and no squeal or hiss. I've not used many active pickups before. Only in 7 string metal guitars. The idea that actives are only for metal was easily dismissed. Though I can play hard rock with this tele now it still sounds like a very expensive tele and could be set up for many genres. The solder less design is great as I'm not good at tech stuff so its a dream not to solder stuff! So much faster too. Only downside is this set is not built for any tele I know. The pickups require the bridge and scratch plate to be modified, the battery needs some routing to fit and the electronics do sit a bit higher than the stock stuff so you will need to mod most teles which slows the whole thing down. Oddly it also comes with instructions for a different pickup setup so you have to ignore half the manual to make sense of it.

Like many, I think a Telecaster should "do it all". With these pickups, it can even do metal!

Sound:
These do not hum. They've got punch yet there's enough treble so they don't sound choked. I'd describe them as "hifi". They're not as sparkly as some classic single coils, but you don't have to worry about them sounding like ice picks. They are very, very good.

Installation:
They come with everything you need. Super easy and solderless. The only complaint I have is that the springs for the neck pickup were a bit tall and made it difficult to set the height. Active EMG:s sound best when much closer to the strings than passive pickups.

PS. A 9V battery fits perfectly (width) under a T-style control plate!