Alnico vs Ceramic Magnets... The Truth?
- Thread starter syscokid
- Start date
I have boxes of magnets. I can only say that i prefer Alnico over Ceramic in terms of tone.
Thank you SOOOOO much for posting this!
I had to laugh at this. His "bust" seems to hinge on the terminology used and not the actual difference in the tonal spectrum, and the effect each magnet had upon it.
While the terms "harsh" or "thin" would not accurately describe the differences in tone - specifically in the clips he posted - the changes in tonality are glaringly apparent. In addition, these effects are compounded at higher gain settings.
Take the ceramics out of a Gibson 500T and replace it with any Alnico magnet and see (hear) what happens.
What was "busted" was the use of extreme terminological references...
While the terms "harsh" or "thin" would not accurately describe the differences in tone - specifically in the clips he posted - the changes in tonality are glaringly apparent. In addition, these effects are compounded at higher gain settings.
Take the ceramics out of a Gibson 500T and replace it with any Alnico magnet and see (hear) what happens.
What was "busted" was the use of extreme terminological references...
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
I agree with him personally. The magnet thing is overblown I believe, it’s just such a tiny variable, one that is easily compensated for with the knobs on your amp. Some of the crappiest pickups I’ve played were alnico, and some of the best ceramic, so is one magnet type “better” than the other or is it the overall design of the pickup?
OP
syscokid
Ambassador of War & Peace
I agree with this part. But the demo was intended to show that both style of magnets are capable of producing very nice, yet slightly different tones.
I would have like to seen more info like:
Did the DC Resistance value change on the pickup when the mags were switched and by how much?
What grade of alnico was used?
Effects of volume and tone control manipulation of the pickup?
In my world, all of my guitars with humbuckers have alnico mags. Mainly because I prefer medium to low output pickups. I'm not completely sure about the mags in all of my single coils, whether Strat-style or P90s...
. I must investigate...
Well, here’s the thing. There is no such thing as a “warm” magnetic field or a “bright” magnetic field.
However, the shape, strength, and orientation of the magnetic field relative to both the pickup coil and strings can affect the nature of the overall signal induced into the coil, which may affect what we perceive as “tone”. In other words, the construction and design matter quite a bit, as well.
The REAL test is not simply to swap magnets in a pickup. For a tonal test to be valid, you’ll need to ensure the ceramics and the alnicos have the same magnetic field strength. If you take the ceramics out of a pickup and swap in alnico magnets, but the magnets have different field strengths, you aren’t really doing an accurate comparison.
What he didn’t mention is that ceramics are also used in high gain pickups simply because they can be charged to a higher field strength than alnico magnets. Consequently, they can induce a stronger signal into the coil. They aren’t used only because they are inexpensive.
Very good points!
Goldmember
Ambassador of Golden Yoo-Hoos
I love the shmell of samarium cobalt magnets.
OP
syscokid
Ambassador of War & Peace
Thank you...
BTW, I just checked the specs on all my single coil pups:
My Gibson P90s and Kinman (Zero-hum) P90s all use A5 alnicos. Kinman's go as far as to provide their A5's with a much lower than normal charge on their magnets.
My Seymour Duncan P90's use A5 for a med/low output neck pup and ceramics for the high output bridge pup.
My Seymour Duncan Strat-style single coils have a stacked magnet construction for noiseless operation and are all A5s.
My G&L with its Magnetic Field Design (MFD) bridge single coil uses a ceramic bar.