Question about guitar pick-ups.?

Hello there,

I cannot say if the EMGs will improve your sound. That is subjective. What I like you may not. They will change your sound. Active pickups, like the EMGs, are high output, they will magnify your technique flaws. Also, being high output, they would likely increase a feedback issue. I am guessing, you probably mean something other than feedback. If your pickups have become microphonic, any pickup swap will fix that. However, if your rig truly has a feedback problem, boosting the signal from the pickups (what active pickups do) would increase the feedback. As for installation. The pickups themselves are easy enough to swap. You do need to swap the pots (active pickups used different value pots than passive pickups do). The big problem is the battery. You have to route out a compartment somewhere for the battery. With a Strat, you route another cavity and it is hidden under the pickguard. With an SG, this may be a problem. Also, you do have to swap out the output jack. Passive pickups use a mono jack. Active pickups require a stereo jack. The second channel is used as an on/off switch for the battery .

Generally feedback is caused by a shielding issue and or a grounding issue. EMG pickups are like adding a boost pedal to the signal. Pickups are just magnets and EMGs are electromagnets charged with a 9V battery (which you will have to add to the guitar). This creates a stronger signal to the amp which increases the chance to purposely cause clipping (imagine the top round part of the sound wave being chopped off) which is one way to cause distortion.

Not likely. The best pickups you can buy put on a cheap guitar and played through a cheap amp are not going to make much of a difference. You need to find out what's causing the feedback. Changing out the pickups might not be the fix for that.

>>I have an Epiphany SG.<<

Okay, that's (unintentionally) hilarious. Do you mean by any chance that you have an Epiphone SG?