I'm having a really hard time choosing pickups to put in a stratocaster that I'm building.
One of the things that comes up are whether or not Alnico magnets are parts of the vintage sound.
Some manufacturers say something like "magnetism is magnetism regardless of whether it come from a ceramic or alnico magnet"
Others say Alnico is absoultely necessary because that is what Leo used and is part of the tone equation.
In everyone's experiences have you found Alnico to be best?
Yes.
'My art and profession is to live.' Michel de Montaigne
Just trust your own ears. There is a lot more to good pickups than just the magnets. If you are reaching for some vintage vibe, there are many great alnico 5 Strat pickups out there such that you shouldn't need to look elsewhere. But if something different catches you ear, I wouldn't automatically rule it out JUST because of the magnets. :cowb
This is a subject immersed in ongoing controversy. Personally I have found magnets to be important in the whole equation, especially if you're talking about a specific performance like VINTAGE Strat sound.
I mean if Leo used Alnico and those pickups became known as Vintage then there is no question that Alnico must be used to recreate Vintage sound, whatever it is. How can it be any other way?
Ceramic magnets, with good design, make a very nice tone but I'd stop short of calling it vintage tone, even if it does sound somewhat similar. In the case of Ceramic (Ferrite) it's not the magnets that are influencing the tone it's actually the core of the coil which is steel poles.
In Alnico cored coils it imparts a certain something into the midrange that I call complexity and it's this that sets it apart.
In the final analysis you might have to try both to see what the nature of the difference is for yourself, and it might very well be that you like both (but for different reasons and uses).
Last edited by Chris Kinman; 08-07-2002 at 05:34 PM.
Yeah.......what chris said.......:0)
magnetism is not just magnetism.
Field strength, polar patterns, are all different even for a ceramic vs alnico type of the same gauss rating.
Take any alinco and a ceramic of the same gauss rating, using filings on top of paper you'll quickly find they cause different patterns at different distances.
Alright.......What if you took one pickup and switched the magnets between alnico and ceramic of the same strength. What would the tonal differences be?
Massive. You wouldn't recognise it as the same pickup. :flush
That's very true. An ongoing method of tone tweakers is to take one certain pickup, take for example a Stock Fender Am Std Tele bridge pickup. Replace the AlNiCo V magnets with AlNiCo II magnets and the difference will floor you.
This has happened so often that Seymour Duncan makes 3 different, but like humbuckers.
1. Duncan Custom - Basically a souped-up PAF with ceramic magnets.
2. Custom Custom - Same pickup but with AlNiCo II magnets
3. Custom 5 - Again, same pickup, but this time with AlNiCo V magnets. This pickup was the product of the Duncan Forum members taking either a Custom or Custom Custom and replacing the existing magnets with AlNiCo V magnets. The results were astounding.
-Butch:nelson
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