History and Design
The EMG-81 was developed in 1979 along with the EMG 85, and was released to the market in 1981. Construction is similar to traditional U-shaped pickups, but there are no separate pole pieces; steel bars (rails) are used instead. Alnico magnets have been replaced with more powerful ceramic ones. While nominal output is the same as EMG 85, lower noise ratio gives more gain opportunity.
As most other modern EMG pickups, the EMG 81 has a Quik-connect output, which is a five-pin header on the pickup which comes with a compatible wiring harness. This allows for a less complicated pickup swap in the future, only requiring the removal the pickup guard and disconnecting the pickup, as opposed to melting the solder and installing the new pickup.
A few variants of the EMG 81 have also been released, such as the TW and X. The 81TW version features two separate pickups and preamps in a single pickup housing, allowing for single-coil and humbucking tones. The 81-X provides increased headroom giving the voicing an organic and open tone while still maintaining clarity and response.
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