EMG 85 BK

I bought this, along with an EMG 81, for the classic EMG 81/85 setup favored by players like Zakk Wylde, Kerry King from Slayer and Elias Viljanen from Sonata Arctica. I was upgrading the stock BDSM pickups on an old BC Rich NJ Warlock guitar from 2004.

I was initially skeptical that I would hear any difference, so I recorded some "before and after" tracks. Well, let me tell you that I definitely did hear a difference from the very first minute after I plugged the guitar into my amp 😄.

To my ears, my guitar sounds much better now. First of all, there's a lot less static noise. But there's also a lot less noise when sliding between chords. Single notes also sound much clearer. And because the guitar sounds better, I suddenly feel like I've become a better guitar player overnight, even though I know that all that changed was the pickups.

I installed the pickups myself. This was my first pickup upgrade. Installing EMG's is a lot easier than most pickups, because you don't need to solder. All you need to do is plug wires into the right holes. I didn't even need to desolder the old wires from the old potentiometers — I just cut the old wires at the solder join instead. So you don't need a soldering iron at all.

From a non-guitar-tech perspective, EMG really do a great job of making sure that the pickup installation is as easy as possible. The fact that all the replacement components (potentiometers, input jack, wires etc. Even the hex nuts and washers, which are not pictured.) are included in the box and don't need to be sold separately is a huge plus to beginners like myself. Since I bought two pickups, it also means that I have some spare parts now, in case I break something 😄 Each pickup box also includes diagrams for how to wire your guitar for various pickup configurations.

Because my guitar wasn't built for active pickups, it doesn't have a battery compartment. I was worried that the pickup cavity wouldn't fit the battery bus and the battery that the EMGs need to work. In the end, I was able to fit everything, but just barely. Pro tip: don't take off the sticker from the battery bus and glue it to the wall of the pickup cavity until after you've wired everything and are absolutely sure that everything will fit!


Overall, I am a very satisfied customer. I would purchase EMG pickups again.

Ordered this pickup a while ago for a project, used it in bridge position (with SA in the neck).
There are lot of stereotypes of EMG pickups on the internet, but screw them. Does it sound like a 59 Les Paul pup? Hell no.
But it is not supposed to. It is bright, aggressive, but can be tamed with volume pot. It balances well with active single coil in the neck too, giving the middle position a bit of extra depth and complexity.

Obviously, if you want best active pickups on the market, completely ignoring the cost, go for the Fishman Fluences. However, EMG 85 makes a compelling option both for bridge and neck positions.

I bought this pickup together with the 81 for my ESP Horizon from 2000, which had stock pickups. For the style we play in the band (thrash), the sound is a huge leap from previous pickups. For rock to brutal metal, it's highly recommended. Cleans on this one (neck) are also actually quite well defined and warm.

The second great thing is the solderless approach. It comes with the needed pots, and without having much guitar tech knowledge, I managed to install everything correctly, until I came to the point to solder them to the selection switch... this I got a tech to do, as I don't know how to solder. Nevertheless, very good idea from EMG.