verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message emg inc. type private predecessor overlend founded 1976 1976 founder rob turner headquarters santa rosa california united states area served worldwide products guitar pickups website www.emgpickups.com emg inc. is the current legal name of a company based in santa rosa california that manufactures guitar pickups and eq accessories . among guitar and bass accessories the company sells active pickups such as the emg 81 1 the emg 85 the emg 60 and the emg 89 humbuckers and also passive pickups such as the emg hz series which include sro oc1 s and sc sets . there is also a series geared towards a more traditional and passive sound known as the x series . their active pickups are most popular among hard rock and metal artists 1 such as paradise lost slayer metallica zakk wylde rammstein judas priest and primus but also used by others such as prince vince gill kyle sokol steve winwood steve lukather and david gilmour . 2 contents 1 history 2 products 2.1 overview 2.2 pickup product range 3 endorsements 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit the company was founded in 1976 by rob turner in long beach california . it was originally called dirtywork studios and their first pickup was the same as their current 2011 model of emg h and emg ha models . the active humbucking pickup emg 58 followed soon after . the name was changed to overlend 3 spelled overland in some sources 4 in 1978 . however its products have always been called emg pickups . in 1981 emg active pickups became standard equipment on steinberger basses and guitars . according to hap kuffner emg pickups originally had widespread success in europe after first exhibiting at the 1983 musikmesse tradeshow in germany . the name was changed to emg inc. in 1983 3 emg stands for electro magnetic generator 5 . as steinberger guitars became more popular among american metal and rock musicians so did emg pickups and vice versa . 3 early emg pickup designs were made with a bar magnet inside for two reasons . the first reason is that the pole pieces had too much magnetism on the strings and could cause some lower notes to go out of pitch in a doppler effect . the second reason is that the pole pieces can make tuning and placement of the strings much more difficult . using the bar magnet however gave the strings a more balanced output . the design of the bar magnet gives it a smoother distortion better sustain through the amplifier and have less fade onto the strings than the design of pole pieces . 6 products edit overview edit emg pickups are standard equipment on some models from guitar manufacturers such as bc rich esp schecter cort gibson dean ibanez and jackson guitars . 3 in addition to pickups emg inc also has a line of guitar and bass accessories mainly for altering equalization settings such as bass treble and gain boosting and designed to work with most pickups . these can be found in instruments made by companies such as schecter who ship almost all of their basses with emg equalization circuitry . pickup product range edit emg inc. has three distinct product ranges ; the emg standard series hz sro series and the emg x series . these pickups are all featured on the official emg inc. website and include solderless wiring harnesses . standard series the standard series consists of all their standard active guitar bass and acoustic pickups including humbucking single coil and bass models for 4 5 and 6 string basses . emg active pickups such as the emg 60 emg 81 emg 85 and emg 89 tend to have much higher output than passive pickups of similar design such as the emg hz because of the on board preamplifier . the high output noise reduction and responsiveness of emg active pickups has made them popular with hard rock and heavy metal guitarists because they overdrive the input stage of guitar amplifiers more dramatically than a lower output pickup could . hz sro series the hz sro series is a variety of passive designs of humbucking and single coil pickups as well as bass models for 4 5 and 6 string basses . hz pickups are commonly used in guitar and bass manufacturers as stock pickups . emg p x pickups on a bass guitar . x series the x series is an active product designed to bridge the gulf between passive and active tonalities . they are active but are voiced to sound more organic with a more rounded signal response like the passives while retaining the active qualities such as noise reduction and high output . signature pickups and sets emg has released several signature pickups and sets for various artists the two longest signature artists being kerry king kfk set and zakk wylde zw set both are which are based around the emg 81 and emg 85 set . there are also signature sets for judas priest s glenn tipton gtv vengenace set custom made for glenn based on the 81 81 set with steel magnets james hetfield jh het set set custom made for james based on the 81 60 set with pole pieces exodus gary holt gh set based around the 81 89r in red covers children of bodom s alexi laiho passive custom emg pickup with a custom voiced boost preamp and black sabbath s geezer butler passive p and p j voiced for geezer . endorsements edit musicians and bands who use or endorse emg pickups include anthrax 3 david gilmour 7 el hefe 2 jim root 2 killswitch engage 3 les claypool 2 kyle sokol 2 rammstein 2 see also edit emg 60 emg 81 emg 85 emg 89 emg hz references edit a b rardin kenny june 2008 . emg 81tw active humbucker . premier guitar . retrieved 2011 04 13 . a b c d e f emg artists roster . emg pickups . retrieved 2015 11 27 . a b c d e f carukpakorn joe september 2010 . emg the active pickup makers celebrate 35 years of pioneering tone . premier guitar . retrieved 2011 04 13 . brosnac donald 1983 . guitar electronics for musicians . omnibus press . p. 40 . isbn 978 0 7119 0232 9 . company history . emg pickups . archived from the original on november 22 2010 . retrieved 2011 04 13 . http www.emgpickups.com pdfs emg catalog.pdf tolinski brad september 1994 . welcome to the machines . guitar world . retrieved 2011 07 29 . external links edit official website premier guitar video emg inc. factory tour retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title emg inc. & oldid 740078879 categories companies based in sonoma county californiacompanies established in 1976guitar pickup manufacturerscompanies based in santa rosa californiaprivately held companies based in californiahidden categories all pages needing factual verificationwikipedia articles needing factual verification from november 2015articles needing additional references from july 2014all articles needing additional referencesofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages danskdeutschespa olfran aisitaliano portugu s suomit rk e edit links this page was last modified on 18 september 2016 at 23 13 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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