I have EMGHZ's in my jackson MG dinky, looking for an upgrade.
I am looking at the EMG81/85's or Seymour Duncan black outs. At the moment i am leaning towards the Blacks but it isnt firm yet. I love playing metal and using heavy distortion, but i dont want to sacrafice my clean sound because i am in a funky experimental band, so i need nice warm cleans. Opinions?

Get the duncan blackouts

If you HAVE to go emgs, got 81/60 ( awesome cleans )

Never tried blackouts but heard they were not bad.

Currently using 81/85 combo with 18v mod, and it's awesome

I'm pretty ignorant as far as gear goes. an 18v mod would make the pickups do what? and can such a mod be put in any pickups?

It increases the pickup preamp's headroom, so you don't get the clipping that you do at 9 volts when you dig in to the strings. It is much more noticeable when you play clean, but even high gain stuff sounds better to me. Easy mod to try and if you don't like it, it's an easy switch back.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=941907&

you dont need actives to play metal.