Description
Some bass tones don’t need explaining—you just play the opening riff to “Iron Man” and everyone in the room knows exactly what pickup you’re running. That’s the tone Geezer Butler chased for years before teaming up with EMG founder Rob Turner in 2011 to actually nail it. This PJ set is the payoff: a full decade of dialing in, plus real-world road testing once Sabbath got back out on tour in 2013.
EMG went vintage-passive for this one on purpose. The P pickup uses Alnico 5 pole pieces with custom wound coils to get that punchy, slightly gritty growl instead of a modern hi-fi bark. The J side keeps the Alnico 5 poles but runs dual custom split-coils, which quietly solves the hum problem that plagued early 70s single-coil J pickups—no noise gate needed, no compromise on output. You get more power and volume than a standard single-coil J, and the P and J sides actually balance against each other instead of one drowning out the other.
Everything’s solderless, so swapping these into your bass is straightforward rather than a soldering-iron ordeal. What comes out the other end is that deep, tight low-end thump—doom-y, heavy, unmistakably Sabbath.
- Signature EMG GZR-PJ passive set designed with Geezer Butler
- Alnico 5 pole pieces, custom wound coils (P) and dual split-coils (J)
- Solderless installation
- Hum-cancelling J design with extra output over standard single-coil J pickups
- Includes free strings
Geezer’s own words: “I never felt comfortable giving my name to any other pickups, but this time these have blown me away.” If Black Sabbath’s low end is your reference point, this is the direct route there.
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