trinityamps.com

Hey folks,

I'm in the process of gutting/upgrading an old '86 Ibanez RG I have kicking around. It was my first decent axe and I hate the thought of replacing it (sentimental value & all) so now I'm in upgrade mode.

Last night I yanked out the factory POS Powersound pickups & loaded it with a pair of EMG's (81/85...what else?). After plugging into my Laney GH100TI for a bit (and drooling over the result) I plugged into the sIII.

Mother of God!!!

I thought the sIII channel had a fair chunk of gain to begin with - much more than I expected, and the boost mod just throws it overboard - but this is the first axe with active pickups I've tried.

I wasn't expecting much really. Actives sometimes turn to mud driving into vintage style amps. Not so here. With the bridge pickup (81) it's saturated all to heck but remains very articulate and the character of the guitar isn't lost. That really shocked me. We are amused!

It does need a bit more bass dialled in with this guitar. I usually run it around 9 o'clock, but it's about noon or so with this. I didn't get around to trying it through the normal channel. I ended up grinding away on the sIII channel for about an hour.

As I've said before, it's practically impossible to make this amp sound bad.

Kirb

Where's the clips

Going to have to look into that. Call me out of touch but do tell us more about these Active Pick-Ups.

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I have the same kind of experience with my 18watt TMB and my MIJ Fender strat, it has a Luke set (EMG 85 at bridge + 2 SLV)
It seems that the 18watt topology (think we can easily associate the sIII here) reacts really well to EMG.

Winner combo.

Unfortunately, I don't have a recording setup that's worth a darn, so I can't post clips that aren't just embarassing (my pathetic playing doesn't help either! ). When/if I do get something together I'll be more than happy to post some.

Coco, I'm assuming you're kidding, right???

I think the voicing of the EMG's kind of fits well with the amp (mine at least). And it's dead quiet with them too unless you really wind out the sIII channel. My normal channel is practically silent regardless of what's thrown at it - even dimed.

The 81/85 will make any 80's metalhead smile with the sIII.