Seymour Duncan Vs EMG Pickups: Which Are Best? | Pro Sound HQ (2023)

Seymour Duncan and EMG are incredibly popular guitar pickup brands, but which one makes the best designs? In this article, I'll compare Seymour Duncan and EMG signature tones, along with the different models offered in the lineup and the price point, to help you decide which is the best option for your guitar.

at a glance

Seymour Duncan pickups have a more vintage tone compared to EMG pickups which sound more modern. Seymour Duncan makes a wide range of passive pickups and makes a limited range of active pickups, while EMG specializes more in active pickups and makes fewer passive options.

Content

This article is quite long because I wanted to go as deep as possible to help you make your decision about which pickups are best for you, so I've divided it into the following sections:

• brand overview
• tone comparison
• ranges and options
• Which one should you choose?

brand overview

Before we compare the two brands, I thought it would be a good idea to briefly outline and summarize the EMG and Seymour Duncan lines so that you can understand what types of pickups are offered. If you're already an expert and just want to see the comparisons, feel free to skip to the next section.

Seymour Duncan

Seymour Duncan primarily manufactures passive pickups in humbucker, single coil and P90 varieties. They also make a limited range of active humbucker pickups. Their range is absolutely massive, and I'll go into more detail about that later in the article when comparing it to the EMG range, so for now, here's a quick rundown.

Humbuckers

The range is divided as follows:

• Crop (bottom exit): ‘59 Model, Slash, Pearly Gates, Jazz Model, Antiquity Humbucker, Seth Lover, Whole Lotta Humbucker, Alnico II Pro HB, Vintage Blues, Saturday Night Special, Phat Cat, Antiquity Jazz HB.
• Average output: '59 Custom Hybrid, Custom 5, Screamin’ Demon, Full Shred, P-Rails, Custom Custom, Benedetto, Jason Becker Perpetual Burn, Parallel Axis Blue Saraceno.
• high output:JB Model, Hot Rodded, Mark Holcomb, Invader, Duncan Distortion, Black Winter, Nazgul, Mayhem, Duncan Custom, Dimebucker, Sentient, Pegasus, Dimebag, Alternative 8, Jupiter Rails, Dave Mustaine Thrash Factor, Parallel Axis Distortion.
• Active:Mick Thomson Blackouts, Jeff Loomis Blackouts, Dave Mustaine, Retribution, Blackouts HB.

Stratocaster Single Coils

The range is divided into true single coil and silent models:

• True single coil:Custom Flat/ Staggered, Vintage Flat/ Staggered, Antiquity Texas Hot, Quarter Pound Flat/ Staggered, Antiquity II, Hot, Jimi Hendrix, Vintage Flat, Alnico Pro II Flat/ Staggered, Lipstick Tube, Five-Two.
• Silent: Hot Rails, Classic Stack, Everything Axe, YJM Fury, Little ’59, JB Jr, Duckbuckers, Vintage Rails, Cool Rails, Vintage Hot, Red Devil, Hot Sack, Custom Stack Plus.

Telecaster Single Coils

The range is divided into true single coil and silent models:

• True single coil:Vintage Broadcaster, Quarter Pound, Hot, Alnico II Pro, Vintage, Vintage '54, Five-Two, Jerry Donahue Lead, Brad Paisley La Bra, Antiquity, Antiquity II, Antiquity '55.
• Silent:Hot Rails, Little '59, Hot Stack, Vintage Stack.

P90s

Here is a breakdown of the Seymour Duncan P90 selection:

• Vintage (saída inferior): Antiquity P90, Antiquity P90 Dog Ear, Vintage P90.
• Average Output: P90 Stack, P-Rails.
• High Output: Hot P90, Custom P90.

offset guitars

Seymour Duncan also manufactures pickups for Jaguar, including the following: Antiquity, Antiquity II, Vintage and Duo-Sonic.

Here are some images (all link to Amazon) to showcase some of the more popular designs.

EMG

EMG produces active and passive pickups in single coil, humbucker and P90 designs. They specialize primarily in active humbuckers, and these models make up the bulk of the lineup, which is why they are often associated with modern metal.

active humbuckers

EMG's range of active humbuckers is divided into the modern series (57, 58, 60, 66, 81, 85 and 89) and the retroactive series (Fat 55, Hot 70, Super 77).

They use both alnico and ceramic pickups, and most modern series pickups are designed to go in the bridge or neck position. However, there are some pickups that are considered more balanced and work well in any position, and even pickups that are designed to go in the bridge can also work very well in the neck and vice versa.

Most numbers also have different variants, for example X or TW. Here's what they mean:

• A = alnico magnets (not all pickups with alnico magnets have the A)
• TW = dual-mode (humbucker and single coil tones using coil splitting)
• X = X-series preamp offering better clarity
• R = single coil inverted placement

The active retro series comes in black and zebra color options and has an open coil design, while the modern series offers some open coil options but most are fully coated and available in multiple colors.

passive humbuckers

EMG has a range of passive humbuckers made up of the following models:H1, H2, H3, H4.With each model you can also get a variant that has alnico magnets instead of ceramic, and these are distinguished by the letter “A”, for example H1A.

Single Coils

EMG makes a wide variety of single coil pickups, and many of them are voiced specifically for Stratocaster or Telecaster. They are usually designed for specific positions and use both alnico and ceramic magnets.The active range comprises the following models: Crossroads, FT/ RT, Maverick, S. The passive range comprises the S1, S2, S3 and S4 models.

P90s

EMG has divided its P90 line into models designed for the neck position and models designed for the bridge position. However, as with the humbucker range, you can experiment with different placements.

• Arm P90s: P60, P60A, P92HZ
• Bridge P90s: P81, P85, P91HZ

All pickups are active except the P91HZ and P92HZ models.

The EMG range is huge and it can be very difficult to select the right pickup for your guitar. I made onecomplete guide to EMG pickup rangewhich includes all models and how they differ, socheck hereif you want to learn more.

Here are some images (all linked to Amazon) of some of the most popular EMG pickup designs. Most models are available in a few different colors.

tone comparison

Comparing the tones of two entire brands of pickups is quite difficult and really runs the risk of oversimplifying. However, that's what you can do here, so I'll do my best to decipher the brands' signature tones.

FromSeymour Duncan specializes primarily in passive pickups and EMG in active pickups., this allows us to identify the first major differences.

• Active pickups have a higher output and better clarity when using high gain amp settings. They also produce less hum and background noise.
• Passive pickups have a more vintage tone in comparison and a wider dynamic range.

This means thatSeymour Duncan pickups tend to sound a little more natural and modern, while EMG pickups sound more modern and compressed.

While you can play a variety of musical styles with any brand's pickups, EMG pickups are more commonly associated with heavy metal, while Seymour Duncan pickups are a little more versatile.

Look thiscomparison between active and passive pickups

It is also important to consider the material of the magnet, as it has a big impactpact in the sound of the pickups. Both brands use ceramic and alnico magnets.Ceramics have a higher output and tighter bass, while alnico magnets produce a more rounded tone. Thus, with each brand, it is possible to choose the type of magnet that most appeals to you, making it once again difficult to identify concrete differences between the tone of the brands.

If I had to distill it down to a few points, this is what I would say:

• Seymour Duncan pickups sound more rounded and fuller, with a wider dynamic range and more mid-range frequencies than EMG pickups.
• EMG pickups sound a little hollowed out in the midrange by comparison, making them sound a little thinner than Seymour Duncan pickups. This is most evident when using clean tones.
• The EMG pickups have accurate bass and very crisp highs that cut very well when using distortion.
• Seymour Duncan pickups have a warmer, more natural tone than EMG pickups, which sound more artificial.

Personally, I prefer the clean tones of Seymour Duncan pickups due to their open, rich tone, while EMG pickups sound better when using distortion due to the sharpness and high output of the active technology.

Of course, this is a generalization, and brands make such wide ranges of pickups that you can easily find an EMG that sounds fuller than a Duncan and vice versa.

If you're into metal, check out this video below to hear the EMG 81 and Seymour Duncan Distortion SH-6 in action. These two pickups represent the metal tones that both brands offer very well.

ranges and options

In this next section, I'd like to compare the full ranges of EMG and Seymour Duncan pickups so you can see what they specialize in. Prices are all from Seymour Duncan and EMG websites at time of writing and are subject to change.

Considering the size of each brand's ranges, the tables are huge. I just created them to help provide you with a summary so you can see what options are available to you at your price point. All tables are ordered from lowest to highest price and are divided into the following collection types:

• passive humbuckers
• active humbuckers
• P90 Pickups
• Stratocaster Single Coils
• Telecaster Single Coils

If you're not interested in this section, keep scrolling because there are some additional sections after all the tables.

Guitar Center has a wide variety of pickups at great prices, so be sure to check them out if you're looking for some. here is onelink to take you directly to the Guitar Center pickup trackso you can check current offers.

passive humbuckers

• Seymour Duncan has a much wider range of passive humbuckers than EMG.
• Seymour Duncan caters to the 7 and 8 string market more than EMG for passive humbuckers.
• Most Seymour Duncan pickups are voiced specifically for the neck or the bridge but have the same name, while the EMG are usually voiced specific models for different positions, although they can still be used in both.

active humbuckers

• EMG makes a much wider range of active humbuckers than Seymour Duncan.
• Most Seymour Duncan pickups are voiced specifically for the neck or the bridge but have the same name, while the EMG are usually voiced specific models for different positions, although they can still be used in both.

P90 Pickups

• EMG makes active and passive P90 pickups.
• Seymour Duncan only makes passive P90 pickups.
• Most Seymour Duncan pickups are voiced specifically for the neck or the bridge but have the same name, while the EMG are usually voiced specific models for different positions, although they can still be used in both.

Stratocaster Single Coils

• EMG manufactures both active and passive single coils, while Seymour Duncan only manufactures passive versions.
• Most Seymour Duncan pickups are voiced specifically for the neck, middle and bridge positions but have the same name, while EMG pickups are usually voiced specific models for different positions, although they can still be used in either position. .

Telecaster Single Coils

• EMG makes active single coils, while Seymour Duncan only makes passive versions.
• The EMG Tele range is divided into those suitable for the neck and others suitable for the bridge position. Most Seymour Duncan pickups are also split this way, but some models include both neck and bridge varieties.

Which ones are the best?

This is always a difficult question to answer because tone is very subjective and what sounds good to me might not sound good to you. However, I would like to draw some conclusions to help you make your decisions:

• If you want very high output active pickups for modern metal, go for EMGs.
• If you want versatile pickups that have a balanced tone, choose Seymour Duncan pickups.
• If you want passive pickups, Seymour Duncan offers a wider selection.

The Seymour Duncan pickups do a great job of producing a vintage, classic tone that works for just about every genre, and when using both clean and distorted amp settings. The EMG pickups are perfect for players looking to achieve a more modern high-gain tone, and while their clean tones sound bright and crisp, they're a little more love-or-hate than Duncan pickups.

If I were building an all-metal machine I wouldn't think twice about using EMGs, but for pretty much everything else I prefer the Seymour Duncan tone.

Here are some more articles you might find helpful:

• Captadores EMG vs Fishman Fluence
• Guide to EMG Pickups