Description
The 85X takes the EMG formula and loosens its collar a bit. Close-aperture coils wrapped around Alnico V magnets give you that velvety, growling warmth players associate with passive pickups, but you still get the punch, clarity, and dead-quiet output that made EMG a metal and hard rock staple. A newly designed preamp adds headroom so the voicing breathes more naturally, letting nuance and dynamics come through instead of just brick-wall compression.
Drop it in the bridge and you’ll notice the smoothness first — leads sing with soul rather than shred-only aggression, though it’ll happily do that too. From low-down blues bends to full-throttle metal riffing, the 85X covers a wide emotional range without losing its identity. It’s also one of the more mix-and-match friendly pickups in EMG’s lineup, pairing cleanly with nearly any other humbucker in the catalog if you’re building a two-pickup setup with distinct neck and bridge voicings.
This is the white cover version, wired and ready to go with EMG’s solderless install system, so swapping it in doesn’t mean a soldering iron and an afternoon lost to wiring diagrams.
- Solderless Install System
- Split-shaft volume/active tone control set
- Output jack
- Battery clip set
- Screws and springs
Also available in a black cover if white isn’t your color.
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