The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: hieronymous on February 06, 2014, 04:38:12 PM
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Nice video introducing Geezer Butler's signature EMG pickups:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcKRho-h2_c&feature=c4-overview&list=UUuokdzT3JWGwFT9LdRLYwhw
I like it because it has some footage from recent live Sabbath - I saw them last summer live for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Good grief... it was the 70's when I last saw Ozzy...
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Good grief... it was the 70's when I last saw Ozzy...
Narrowly missed seeing Ozzy in Tokyo on the Bark at the Moon tour - dad wouldn't let me go! :-[ (it wasn't as bad as all that, we were flying back from the US the same day, there's probably no way I would have been able to stay awake!) - also missed seeing Black Sabbath (probably with Tony Martin) because of a snowstorm (I should have gone!) - so it was to see them, with Ozzy no less!
I like the footage of Geezer in the video - wish there was more!
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I saw them on the Volume IV tour. They even brought a piano for "Changes"
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i love Geezer, but wouldn't touch EMG's with a 10 foot pole
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i love Geezer, but wouldn't touch EMG's with a 10 foot pole
That would be my normal response as well - something different about these?
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Don't know if it's the pickups or not...but he sounds pretty damn good to me. I love the EMG Select in my P bass...it's so old, it's got grooves in the pickup, and all lettering and texture is worn off. I don't like their active stuff, but I would certainly try anything of theirs that is passive.
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Don't know if it's the pickups or not...but he sounds pretty damn good to me. I love the EMG Select in my P bass...it's so old, it's got grooves in the pickup, and all lettering and texture is worn off. I don't like their active stuff, but I would certainly try anything of theirs that is passive.
Likewise. My main bass has an EMG Select P and a "blackie" Thunderbird. Wasn't crazy about the J pickup that came with the PJ set, so in went the Gibson.
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i love Geezer, but wouldn't touch EMG's with a 10 foot pole
Ditto. I have a mid 80´s active EMG PJ set, which came with my first Fender P bass.
I´d love to get rid of them, but if I sell them I will go undercover. The ad will be like:
´Free EMG PJ set, if the new owner never tells anybody where he got them´
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EMG's sound great in my '89 Concert Bass. I also loved the tone the EMG-SS pickups had in the original L2 Steinberger basses. Plus you don't have to worry about being grounded and touching a hot mic.
(http://i61.tinypic.com/11vslyh.jpg)
(http://i61.tinypic.com/34zbyfo.jpg)
The original EMG pickups, with the large "EMG" embossed over the top of the pickups, are some of the best sounding pickups. Of course all of the older brown an tan epoxied examples sound better (to me) than the current offerings.
(http://i62.tinypic.com/10moav8.jpg)
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i love Geezer, but wouldn't touch EMG's with a 10 foot pole
That would be my normal response as well - something different about these?
Same here, but these are sounding pretty good to me in th the demo vid. Nice and growly. ...I just have no use for a P pup... or a J.
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hey Hornisse, can you post some better pics of that Jackson? is that set neck?
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hey Hornisse, can you post some better pics of that Jackson? is that set neck?
It is neck though. Ebony board with bound neck and body. The body is a slab body but has the belly contour. I just got it recently on Ebay dirt cheap with the original Jackson case.
(http://i62.tinypic.com/293yqvm.jpg)
(http://i61.tinypic.com/b8mkxl.jpg)
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Roberto, you lucky bugga... 8)
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very nice, i have never really looked into Jacksons but this is real nice. great color too.
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Nice looker! Love that ebony board.
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The original EMG pickups, with the large "EMG" embossed over the top of the pickups, are some of the best sounding pickups. Of course all of the older brown an tan epoxied examples sound better (to me) than the current offerings.
Never thought I´d speak of them again :) Looked them up now, i found two J EMG´s in a box deep in a closet.
One black LJ5 and one ´brown epoxy´SJ5. So the brown is ´Vintage´then?? :mrgreen: Ebay, here I come!
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If the video is honest, and there's really no reason to think it's not, those really DO sound like old Fender P-Bass passive pickups, something Fender itself hasn't been able to replicate in over 40 years (on a bass anyway). EMG's preamps are more often than not where the "blah" factor sets in and even those can be tweaked to sound good: case in point- my G&L L-5500.
EMG got pigeonholed making cheap crap passive stuff for imports about ten years ago and never seem to have been able to shake that image with bass players. Most guitar players not autofellating themselves to Texas blues know that Metallica's tightest crunch came from EMG-active ESP guitars, and Zak Wylde's tone is nothing to sneeze at either (one trick pony playing, that's something else). I may put some of the Geezers in my homemade special to replace the crap Mexi Fenders in there now. Anyone know pricing on these?
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are you talking about wilde's abuse of sqealing harmonic pinches. at least that's what i call them.
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I've never particularly been a fan, but they do work well for some players.
I had an early 80s P that had an EMG (older active type) when I bought it. Thought I was going to improve it by putting in a Rio Grande Muy Grande Precision. Big mistake. The EMG wasn't a vintage sound but it was way better to my ears than the overwound bottom-shy Rio Grande.
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I have a set of EMG PX & JX in my Warmoth bird. Some kind of EMG preamp in it that I haven't bothered to open up and look at yet. The X series sound "warmer" to me than what I think of as the typical EMG sound and overall I like these pickups. But I am always debating replacing them with a set of Dimarzio's and going passive. The Dimarzio Model P just sounds better imo.
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I want to build a Darryl Jenifer tribute parts bass with a graphite neck and I'll be putting as old as set of EMG J pickups in it as I can find.
And the Geezer sig P pickup does sound great and I'd like to try it too.
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Anyone know pricing on these?
The preorder direct price on the EMG site is $109 for a P, and $149 for a P/J set.
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I recently put a newer (to me, anyway) EMG alnico P pickup in a mongrel P I've used for years and I really love it. Just sounds like an old P bass to me.
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Wow :o , Geezer hasn't lost anything and I love where the bass is in the mix ;D I'm not a fan of EMGs but I'd sure try one of his signature pickups just to see what they are about.
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I love the "Select" EMGs in my fake Pbass. I've heard "Passive EMGs=BAD" over and over for years, but strangely only from guitar players. THis is a mid-late 80's thing, so are the newer ones different? I also heard that P/J sets have volume issues (the P being louder than the J) but mine seem to have the same volume. I want to clean this thing up, but it sounds so nice I'm afraid I'll screw it up so I leave it alone!
(http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/dannew2008/h2/DSC_7546.jpg) (http://s427.photobucket.com/user/dannew2008/media/h2/DSC_7546.jpg.html)
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I love the "Select" EMGs in my fake Pbass. I've heard "Passive EMGs=BAD" over and over for years, but strangely only from guitar players. THis is a mid-late 80's thing, so are the newer ones different? I also heard that P/J sets have volume issues (the P being louder than the J) but mine seem to have the same volume. I want to clean this thing up, but it sounds so nice I'm afraid I'll screw it up so I leave it alone!
If it ain't broke...
I've heard good things about the Select line in general, not just the P.
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Mid-position P pickups being louder than bridge-position J pickups would hardly be unique to EMG ... both the position and the design are working in favor of the P in that situation.
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LOL, when Geezer speaks English, he sounds just like Robert Halford, they both "sing" the language a bit, is that a Brummie trademark?
I saw the Sabs in concert only recently, his bass sounds just like in that vid. The difference to his sound of yore is that there is more ultra high presence which forms kind of a halo over the overall dark sound.
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I kept an EMG Select as the primary pup in the PC during my metal days and it only came out during the refurb...
My primary bass during the 90's was a headless Hohner Jack with a pair of the same pups... the thing is a rail... I left the beast unplayed and in the loft for about 8 years and found her still in tune when she came down... still has a great sound, helped by a through-neck...
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The Spector-branded passive EMG's in my Korean Kramer-era NS2C sound downright awesome, very much like the trademark active Spector sound but with more warmth and less clank. I loaned it to some buddies for recording and they nicknamed it "Meatball" because its tone is so beefy. I love the way it sounds but the 2 octave neck (IIRC) is set weird in the body compared to most Fender style basses and makes the bass more challenging to play because my muscle memory wants to move my left hand past the first fret. The way it hangs on a strap, first position is where third is on most of my other basses.
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The difference to his sound of yore is that there is more ultra high presence which forms kind of a halo over the overall dark sound.
I wonder how much of this can be attributed to hearing loss?
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I always wondered that about Entwistle as well. Maybe he couldn't even hear that fizzy top end of his late-era sound?
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Might very well be. No one who is not deaf or at least hard of hearing could have stood JAE's latter day sound, it was horrible.
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Might very well be. No one who is not deaf or at least hard of hearing could have stood JAE's latter day sound, it was horrible.
That'd be me then. Love his sound in later years (as well as his 70's Alembic era), and I'm definitely hearing damaged from years of playing music. :mrgreen:
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Might very well be. No one who is not deaf or at least hard of hearing could have stood JAE's latter day sound, it was horrible.
I was not a fan. All fuzzy, and the worst part was that weird, rubbery chorus he always had on. The Alembic/Sunn sound set the tone for my future bass explorations.
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His tone suffered for the lack of anything that could be sensibly described as action. The sound was all amplification. And noisy as hell. I thought the Alembic stuff still fine, but once he changed to Status Buzzards ...