Description
The EMG-85 shares the same active platform as the 81 but takes tone in a rounder, more organic direction. Two wide-aperture coils wound around Alnico magnets give it a full, saturated low end and a top end with a bit more bite than you’d expect from a neck-voiced pickup. It’s not trying to be aggressive—it’s trying to sound like a guitar, just louder and tighter.
That’s what makes the 85 such a natural fit for rhythm work, blues leads, and anything that leans on touch dynamics. The midrange stays articulate even when you’re pushing gain, so chords don’t collapse into mush and single notes keep their shape. Pair it with an 81 in the bridge and you’ve got a classic EMG combo: cutting lead tone up top, thick and musical rhythm tone down at the neck.
Where the 85 really shines is with amps that are already breaking up a bit on their own—it responds to that natural front-end overdrive with a lot of nuance, tracking pick attack and dynamics faithfully rather than flattening everything into one volume.
Specifications:
- Resonant Frequency: 2.45
- Magnet Type: Alnico
- Output Voltage (String): 2.1
- Output Voltage (Strum): 4.5
- Output Noise @ 60Hz: -89 dBV
- Output Impedance: 10 kOhms
- Current @ 9V: 80 microamps
- Battery Life: 3,000 hours
- Maximum Supply: 27V DC
Included in the box:
- EMG Quik-Connect cable
- Prewired split-shaft volume/tone control set
- Output jack
- Battery clip set
- Screws and springs
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