EMG 9v or 18v

Hi Guys

I use EMG pick-ups on all my guitars all in its "original" 9v mode. I've heard a lot about the 18v mode and never gave it too much attenction but today I found there's a guide on the EMG site about the different kind of modes (from 9v to 27v) and I've started to think about doing this at one of the guitars but, before doing this, I would like to understand what's the diffences (bigger and smaller), specially with MESA amps. I've found some "vs." kind of thing on the internet but what I find it's always "volume-to-max-hard-metal-riffing", what I'm looking for it's something like: how it affect the use of the volume knob (I use it a lot while playing)? It just about headroom/saturation or it affects eq and compression?

Thanks

I liked the 18V mod. Sounded less compressed. More open sounding. But I eventually tired of EMG's & went back to the 498T in my les paul.

You should try the 18V EMG mod, makes them crunchier, warmer, more dynamic/responsive and sensitive, and less compressed like ltd2recto stated.

It uses 3 battery clips and 2 batteries. You would wire them in series (red wire to black wire) like shown in the picture. I soldered and taped the wires for a solid connection.

This way you can pull out both batteries and just snap 1 in place if you want to go back to a single battery.

You may want to roll electric tape over the batteries so they don't make contact with the pots and such in the guitar's cavity.

This "mod" was originally created by bass players who wanted more dynamic range out of EMG bass pickups. Many of the high end basses have always used 18 volt (or higher) rails for their electronics.

On guitar, I'll add my vote for 18 volts. It gives you more overhead, sharper transients and doesn't feel/sound quite so compressed. It's most noticeable on clean and low gain tones.

Wayne

I actually prefer 9 volt power. I like both passives and actives for different reasons. But when i play an active pickup guitar I want that sound that Im accustomed to. But I also dont prefer EMG 9 volt or not. Believe it or not my favorite active pickups are mighty mite C4 chrome covered actives.

tried both:

difference at high gain was negligible

cleans sounded better at 18v but still sounded like **** (EMG cleans always sound clanky to me)

i never play EMGs with low gain because i thought it sounded awful so i can't comment here

verdict: it's easy to reverse and cheap to do so give it a shot, but don't expect night and day differences

just be careful with the 18v mod. Ive been reading about blow pickups from accidentally inserting the battery wrong.