EMG's Retro Active guitar pickups "react unlike anything heard before"

By Michael Astley-Brown
published

Super 77 and Fat 55 humbucker sets pair vintage tones with active technology

The Retro Active's look is a far cry from the traditional none-more-black EMG finishes.
The Retro Active's look is a far cry from the traditional none-more-black EMG finishes.

EMG may be best known for its high-output humbuckers, but the company looks set to change that with its new vintage-inspired Super 77 and Fat 55 pickup sets.

Promising to update the designs of the past with contemporary technology, both sets use the PAF-style humbucker for their base tone but incorporate a new preamp to deliver a tonal response "that reacts unlike anything heard before".

The Super 77 is voiced to bring the grit and edge of '70s rock tones, while the Fat 55 looks to the late-'50s for its sounds.

Both sets pair low-impedance outputs with traditional bobbins, windings and pole pieces for what EMG promises is the best of both worlds.

The Retro Active Super 77 and Fat 55 are available now for $199 per set from EMG Pickups, and come in black or zebra finishes.

Michael Astley-Brown
Michael Astley-Brown

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.