[Oogadee Boogadee]

is every body going to use them or something? sheesh.

i guess if you like the emg arena, then you'll consider these to be better, judging from all the reviews.

i'm curious... folks who're putting them into more than 1 of their own guitars.

if you have two guitars, and you had the same passive pick-ups in both of them (jb/jazz, for example), and you had two drastically different sounding guitars, both acoustically, clean, and dirty....

now you put blackouts in both.... are the guitars both sounding "better", but closer to each other in their electric tone? are these pickups both 'raising' the bar in active pickup tone, yet still equilizing the sounds in different sounding guitars?

I think i'd be less enthusiastic about these pickups if they made everybody's guitars sound the same (good tone or not).... but if they make your individual guitar sound like its better self.................

[eleven59]

That's a good question.

I think people are mainly jumping on board because they like the sound better than EMGs (in a guitar that already has EMGs), or because they wanted that active sound, but didn't want to buy a new guitar, or route their current guitar just for those stupidly sized EMGs.

[DarkKnight369]

I am thinking about them in my 6 string not because I want actives, but it would be nice to have something other than EMG's. I have a JB and Duncan design '59 in my one 6 string now. I like having the different tone of the duncans, but live it doesn't work too well for me because I have to set my wireless differently for actives and passives.

[frank falbo]

That's a good question. It's really too early to tell, but the increase in transients and dynamic range generally translates into "more" of the guitar and the player coming out the other side.

Whether that's what people hear or not is up to the market to decide. I've listened to Blackouts in the Alexi Laiho w/Floyd and Schecter neck through hardtail, then Blackout 7's in a J-Custom and a Schecter neck through hardtail. They each had a different character, but I didn't spend that much time analyzing it. Some of the differences were based on the tremolo vs. hardtail (where the strings are bouncier with the trem)

[zimbloth]

I've now had 3 guitars with Blackouts, and my bandmate has one too. They all sound very different depending on the specs of the guitar. I've had them in an all mahogany guitar, an all mahogany guitar with a thick maple top, and a maple neck-thru guitar with poplar wings. The pickups sounded and reacted differently in each. These definitely are more transparent than EMGs.

Basically I agree with what Frank is saying, definitely more of the guitar and player come through. All that said, I still wouldn't want all my guitars to have Blackouts. I'm very happy with the passives in my other guitars.

[DarkKnight369]

Frank I sent you a PM asking you a question about blackouts.

[B Lopez]

They sound pretty different. In my maple/alder neckthru, it's tighter with more growl and bite; and my maple/basswood bolt on is a little looser and more liquid-y.

[sakeido]

We should just sticky a thread in this forum titled "Ultimate Blackout Info Thread," with "Blackouts rule harder than EMGs in all ways" in it, and then just a bunch of posts about how much more they rule compared to EMGs, and then just lock it.

[thedonutman]

I seem kinda skeptical about Blackouts. Purely because of the fact that they seem too good to be true. I don't see how SD can knock EMG off the active pickup throne overnight when EMG were on it for years and years. No doubt Blackouts are great, I just find it hard to believe that almost everybody thinks they are better than EMGs.

With most other things there are still guys left behind on the idea that the previous product was better. You know, like Edge vs Lo-Pro, RG7620 vs RG1527 etc. But with the Blackouts it just seems like everybody has been brainwashed by SD or something.


/Puts on flame retardant suit.

I'm not ripping EMGs or SDs, I'm just skeptical.

[lailer75]

Originally Posted by thedonutman

I seem kinda skeptical about Blackouts. Purely because of the fact that they seem too good to be true. I don't see how SD can knock EMG off the active pickup throne overnight when EMG were on it for years and years. No doubt Blackouts are great, I just find it hard to believe that almost everybody thinks they are better than EMGs.

With most other things there are still guys left behind on the idea that the previous product was better. You know, like Edge vs Lo-Pro, RG7620 vs RG1527 etc. But with the Blackouts it just seems like everybody has been brainwashed by SD or something.


/Puts on flame retardant suit.

I'm not ripping EMGs or SDs, I'm just skeptical.

+1