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EMG 81 Black

656 Customer ratings

5 580 Customers 4 63 Customers 3 10 Customers 2 1 Customer 1 2 Customers
4.9 / 5
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34 Reviews

EMG 81 Black
£77
All prices incl. VAT
In stock within about one week
1
A
Spice up your guitar
Anonymous 01.04.2016
I installed this pickup in the bridge of an old guitar with useless pickups I had lying around. Since the pickup comes with all wiring and pots, battery clip and output jack, this is the only new "component" I had to buy. It brought that guitar back to life, it went from almost no output to a nice high output when the volume is maxed out.

It's great to play some harder rock and metal and if you tweak your amp and volume you can even get some useable clean tones out of it, alltough that's probably not why you would buy this pickup.

There are loads of well known guitarists using EMG 81's in their bridge position, the 81 is often paired with the 85 or the 60 in the neck to give more versatility to your guitar.

I'd definitely recommend this pickup, It's easy to install, great for heavier music and not that expensive if you think about it (wiring, pots, etc included).
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m
Good metal sound
miklemel 23.08.2021
Put this in an epi les paul guitar. Fit perfectly into the Harley Benton pickup frames :D. Easy installation because of the solderless setup. Sound is nearly perfect for my first emg pickups( 8.9/10). Already ordered emg 60(for neck position) with emg Toggle Switch to completely rebuild my guitar.
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M
Some kind of gain monster
MK_Flight 29.07.2025
Bought this active pickup in combination with a EMG 60 to obtain a Punchy Metallica sound with my explorer. The pickup was delivered perfectly by Thoman and the instal procedure was almost plug and play! For maximum output and clarity, make sure to adjust the pickup height closer to the strings. The sustain is ok for a classic pickup like this one (maybe the Het pickups are better) but in the end you can’t beat a classic 🤘🏻
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e
great pickup
estrombe 05.04.2018
very good sound quality for the price that has cost. if you dont have a good guitar and you put this pickup it realy makes the diference.
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J
Classic Metal Tone if not a bit stale
Jonathan4402 06.09.2015
The list of names on the EMG roster is a who's who of metal guitar and this pickup certainly backs it up. Sustain for days, endlessly versatile (even cleans up) and easy to install with the quick connect wires, no more burnt fingers on the soldering iron!

This pickup will bring any guitar up to recording standard. However. Tone chasers will find that after a while the sound is a bit stale compart to a high quality passive pickup. Some may not notice it, but the pre-amp can suck a bit of life out of exotic tonewoods and hallowed gig mules.

Also the battery box can be a bit of a tight squeeze in alot of cavities so be aware!

All in all its a great pickup and has earned its reputation as a go-to piece of kit.
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EMG 81 Black