The EMG 85 is a popular active

humbucker A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...

guitar pickup A pickup is an electronic device that converts energy from one form to another that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these t ...

manufactured by

EMG, Inc. EMG, Inc. is the current legal name of an American company based in Santa Rosa, California that manufactures guitar pickups and EQ accessories. Among guitar and bass accessories, the company sells active humbucker pickups, such as the EMG 81, t ...

It is paired with the 81 in the

Zakk Wylde Zachary Phillip Wylde (born Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt; January 14, 1967) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and as the founder, lead guitarist, lead singer, songwriter and producer of the heav ...

signature EMG set. It was originally designed to be used in the bridge position but is typically installed in the neck position by modern guitar producers. The EMG 85 can be recognized by a humbucker form-factor and gold embossed EMG logo. The EMG 85-7 is the seven string version of the 85.

History and design

The EMG 85 changed the previous EMG 58 pickup in the EMG product lineup as a popular rhythm pickup. Technologically, EMG 85 is an active humbucker with bar-shaped

Alnico 5 Alnico is a family of iron alloys which, in addition to iron are composed primarily of aluminium (Al), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co), hence the acronym ''al-ni-co''. They also include copper, and sometimes titanium. Alnico alloys are ferromagneti ...

magnet. The bar-shaped magnet affects strings uniformly, without irregularities known in more traditional design with separate pole pieces. Alnico 5 magnets also contribute to a warmer tone than that normally associated with ceramic magnets, which is why some players often use the 85 in the bridge, as opposed to the 81. As the EMG 85 is an active humbucker, its two coils are not just connected in series or parallel with single output. Instead, they have two separate outputs and are summed electronically in the

preamp A preamplifier, also known as a preamp, is an electronic amplifier that converts a weak electrical signal into an output signal strong enough to be noise-tolerant and strong enough for further processing, or for sending to a power amplifier a ...

. However, such sealed solution makes it impossible to do

coil tap A coil tap is a wiring feature found on some electrical transformers, inductors and coil pickups, all of which are sets of wire coils. The coil tap(s) are points in a wire coil where a conductive patch has been exposed (usually on a loop of wire t ...

s or

coil split A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in dynamic microphones to cancel electromagnetic hum. Humbuckers ...

s. The

EMG 89 EMG, Inc. is the current legal name of an American company based in Santa Rosa, California that manufactures guitar pickups and EQ accessories. Among guitar and bass accessories, the company sells active humbucker pickups, such as the EMG 81, ...

is a recommended pickup with a coil tap/split option. As is the case with most other modern EMG pickups, the EMG 85 has a 3-wire ''quik-connect'' output, which consists of a 3-pin male connector on the pickup body and a 3-wire cable to connect it. The easy wire color code scheme that is the same for all EMG products simplifies soldering and installation.

References

EMG data sheet
an Adobe PDF file) {{reflist Guitar pickups