Gary Brawer and Crew Come Through Again

These guys continually RULE. A couple years back I had them deck out my black Gibson SG Special with Seymour Duncan pickups (Jazz neck, JB bridge) with push-pull pots to control coil tapping. They did a great job on that and it sounds just like you would hope.

So I brought in my homebrew Frankenstrat. It had a JB in the bridge position, but it was a neck JB, or something — the poles didn't line up with the strings and it sounded like poop. I knew I wanted an active pickup to improve my Vernon Reid/James Hetfield wannabe sound — that “all frequency ranges louder than all the others” EQ — but I didn’t know how to get that. I told them what I wanted, and they came up with the EMG 60. (Gary said, “It came to me in a dream.”)

Despite my constant whining to them “is it ready”, they were cool with me. Allen, who wrangles customers (and who also plays with the Mermen), is a sweet guy and a pro.

The guitar sounds perfect (I’ll post some sound files when I get back from The Black Tundra). It’s bright, but not at all thin, with a “quick” response. Perfect clarity for complex chords even with ultra distortion. Yes, Virginia, E major 9 belongs in thrash metal.