EMG AB Afterburner!

[TylerRay]

Alrighty, so, I suppose I wasn't in a position where I really needed to get one of these, but I wanted to add as many features into my 7 string LP as possible. I had only heard a few soundclips of the afterburner prior to buying. The AB offers a variable 20db gainboost activated by a push/pull knob you can install in a vacant tone pot. The gain boost is flat, in the sense that it boos all frequencies across the spectrum, which makes it a bit less dynamic than an overdrive pedal. Activating the circuit on a clean channel will really put into perspective how much this thing boosts your signal. Over all, it does sound pretty dang good. It really saturates your sound and drives your amp. I think its an awesome alternative for someone who isn't into pedals. It's also way nice to have when you find yourself jamming through someone elses rig and don't have any pedals. I'll probably put one in all of my guitars eventually. Works with passive pickups too! Anybody else had a go around with this thing?

 

[rikomaru]

ya, a Jackson i got came with it stock, on the emg passives. It's actually pretty slick and works rather well. I mainly used it clean or gritty, not much with heavy distortion.

 

[tyler_faith_08]

I never really used them in my guitars. I did play through a friend's guitar and it did come in handy when soloing. It had a nice tone when the volume was down a little and on the clean channel of a Peavey valveking (which has an incredible clean tone). I don't currently use one, but if I had one lying around, it'd be in a guitar.

Much like the OP said, it is nice when playing on other people's rigs.

However, I am kind of turned away from it because of the same guy. The same guy that has (in addition to the valveking) a Mesa TR with the gain all of the way up, an eq with the boost all of the way up, a distortion pedal, and the afterburner. It was too much. Like, way too much in a very bad way. He was always like, "yeah I got more gain dude."

It is a nice feature to have though.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

ya, a Jackson i got came with it stock, on the emg passives. It's actually pretty slick and works rather well. I mainly used it clean or gritty, not much with heavy distortion.

I had one in an older DKMG, but I ended up taking it out because I never used it.

It did add a little bit of "life" to cleans though.

 

[HanShock]

The only advantage is that you can control the amount of gain.
But it's not necessary for most people.

 

[DslDwg]

I've got 'em in about five guitars and obviously really like them.

One of my first quality guitars had another brand of on board pre-amp. So I got really used to using it to overdrive the front of the amp instead of a distortion or overdrive pedal.

I had used a couple of versions of on board pre-amps one which was just a micro-switch with a little trim pot on the cavity side. The other has a pot for level and a switch for on and off. So the EMG AB is the best of both on one unit.

I honestly have come to like it best for a clean boost works really nice. If your already running a lot of gain it really doesn't do much for you and doesn't seem to be as effective on a modeler like the Axe FX. But I still like them and will continue to get them with my new guitars.

 

[Pav]

I had something similar in my old Jackson DKMG, Jackson's own in-house version that they wired with passive EMGs. I've since replaced it with an actual EMG AB. They're fun to have and play with, but I rarely actually "use" it. Maybe if I wasn't a metal player with a perpetually fiery tone to begin with the extra gain would be very handy.

And btw, running this at 18v yields much more clean headroom.