stainless vs. 1018 vs. 1022 steel polepieces & slugs

[kevinT]

What impact would each specific type of steel have on pickup response and on tone (i.e., stainless steel polepieces and slugs)?

[Zhangliqun]

Good question, although I think I can answer one-third: I'm pretty sure stainless is non-magnetic (or so I've heard) so it won't be of much use.

[kevinT]

Stainless is a ferrous metal

Many folks, including me until recently, think that stainless steel is a nonferrous metal. In actuality, it is a ferrous metal and it is highly magnetic (at least some grades of it).

Believe it or not, I think that the early PAFs had stainless steel polepieces and slugs. Can anyone back me up on this?

check out the definition in wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel

[Possum]

steel...

he said steel not stainless steel. Seth Lover said the pole pieces and slugs were soft iron but I think thats an old generic term that doesn't mean much. One guys' website said the COVERS were stainless steel but only on the prototype probably, I think this might be one of those myths though, nickel silver is more likely.

I'm going to test my 1022 and 1018 steel pole pieces in a coil even though they plated them wrong with zinc, still waiting for the job to be done over again.....

[NightWinder]

All have therre sonic differentsis. Higher point carbon is actually good for higher ohm pickups, which seem to have a certain hollowness to them, resulting in letting more clarity throughout the pickups, without having a larger offset, which can change the focus and make it too tight on the lowend. There are different poins of carbon too. I currently use 5 different screws, and thats going to change to 7 different typs of screws soon. ALL FILLISTER #5. Sonic differences. By the way.........1018 is not Soft Iron.

[David Schwab]

Many folks, including me until recently, think that stainless steel is a nonferrous metal. In actuality, it is a ferrous metal and it is highly magnetic (at least some grades of it).

The more carbon in the steel, the poorer the magnetic properties. Most stainless is not very magnetic. I have some stainless that wont even stick to a magnet.

[Joe Gwinn]

Many folks, including me until recently, think that stainless steel is a nonferrous metal. In actuality, it is a ferrous metal and it is highly magnetic (at least some grades of it).

Believe it or not, I think that the early PAFs had stainless steel polepieces and slugs. Can anyone back me up on this?

There are stainless steel alloys that are magnetic, and are intended for use as magnet cores (soft) and as permanent magnets (hard). These alloys are uncommon, and so to use them one must do things like ordering at least 100 pounds of rods made of each alloy from the steel mill; this will make a whole lot of screws or poles, so it wasn't often done for pickups. It was simpler and cheaper to plate mild steel.