Description
The EMG-85 has been in the lineup since nearly the beginning, and it’s the half of the famous 81/85 pair that trades raw aggression for depth and nuance. Close-aperture coils wound around Alnico V magnets give it a rounder, more organic voice than its brasher sibling, with a compressed midrange growl that stays articulate even when you’re pushing hard. Drop it in the neck or middle position and you get smooth, singing leads with real touch sensitivity; run it in the bridge and it turns surprisingly soulful, holding onto warmth that most active pickups don’t bother with. It’s flexible enough to cover blues, rock, and extreme metal without sounding out of place in any of them, and it plays well with nearly every other humbucker EMG makes if you’re building a mixed set.
This particular version wears a genuine mirror-polished stainless steel cover rather than a plated one. EMG went this route after discovering that outsourced chrome and nickel plating couldn’t be produced consistently, and no domestic supplier could guarantee the process wouldn’t alter tone from batch to batch. Instead of relying on plating, which is really just a thin cosmetic layer over base metal, EMG engineers developed a way to machine a one-piece stainless steel cap and mirror-polish it directly u2014 the real thing, not a simulation. The result is a cover with tonal character virtually identical to the standard molded caps, built with the batch-to-batch consistency that only comes from controlling the entire process in-house.
- Alnico V magnets with close-aperture coil design
- Active EMG circuitry for high output with low noise
- Genuine mirror-polished stainless steel cover (not plated)
- Well-suited to rhythm or bridge positions
- Designed and produced in the USA
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