50 Years of EMG | Rob Turner on Metallica, Active Pickups & the Black Box

Today's episode was filmed on location in Northern California at the headquarters of EMG. Our guest is Rob Turner, founder of EMG pickups, a company that helped change the sound, function, and possibility to the electric guitar, becoming synonymous with some of the most famous musicians in the world.

Rob grew up in Long Beach, California, in a family where engineering, music, electronics, and making things were part of everyday life. He describes his mother as an artist in nearly every sense of the word. His father, a pilot and engineer, worked in aerospace for McDonnell Douglas, then built his own company, building radios for monitoring airport traffic. This introduced Rob to the world of coils, signals, and sound from an unusually young age.

What I found of EMG was not a corporate machine, but Rob in his lab, still testing, still building, still asking better questions. We talk about the birth of the act of pickup, this iconic black box, Metallica, Les Paul, Tonewood, Clarity, and why a pickup is properly understood as a transducer that facilitates the player and their instruments.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Rob Turner, and I hope that you do as much as I did.

Watch the video version on YouTube:
🔗 YouTube Channel – Life With Strings Attached

Learn more about Life With Strings Attached, Boutique Guitar Showcase, and Jamie Gale's work in the guitar industry:
🔗 Boutique Guitar Showcase
🔗 Jamie Gale

Thank you for listening and supporting the ongoing conversation between music, makers, history and the future.