EMG Founder Credits METALLICA's KIRK HAMMETT For Making The Pickup Company "Metal"

EMG pickups and heavy metal have been synonymous for decades now, but that wasn't always the case. In a recent interview with Kris Barocsi and Guillaume Chenin from Thomann, EMG founder Rob Turner said he didn't found the company to aid the rise of heavy metal. Which makes sense, considering EMG was founded in 1976 – a time where heavy metal was still in its infancy.

"The heavy metal thing was actually not my first intention," Turner admits. "When we started making product, we were more into the studio sort of aspect of it – for cleanness of the signal. You could record it direct, you could play it through an amp… and that was the primary intent."

Turner later added that he feels metal guitarists found EMG thanks to the cleanliness of their sound – an aspect that a very young Kirk Hammett noticed: "Kirk [Hammett] was the first one to actually… he called up and said that he wanted to do an instrument, but I had no idea who he was. I don’t think he knew who he was, actually."

Turner continued: "He was in a band and they were trying to get a record deal and all of that. But he had this purple Stratocaster that he brought up… it had two single coils and a humbucker in it, and we just simply, you know, did an installation for him while he waited. He took it back with him, and it kind of went from there."

This whole thing feels so funny considering that a very good chunk of metal guitarists are rocking the classic EMG 81/85 pickup setup, and it just feels like such a standard these days. I mean seriously, can you imagine Zakk Wylde without EMGs back in the day?