Alnico Gauss Levels

[Pep]

Hey guys,

I am trying to decide whether or not I need to buy a magnet charger. Currently I am using two massive Neo mags for charging, but I am wondering if I am not getting the full charge.

Has anyone with a charger tested the surface gauss levels of their rod magnets and bar magnets. I am most curious about A2,3,5. Thanks for your help.

Josh

[Possum]

you won't get anymore charge really. An A5, will hold about a max of around 1200+ gauss depending on how long it is, you can get that using the neo easily. I was using a big neo magnet and only charging from one side and getting full charge. I was worried that the charge on that end of the rod was higher than the other end but I guess it all evened out, S end always reads a little higher anyway no matter how you charge I think. I would just charge the business end of rods.

I think the benefit of having a charger is more for humbucker bar magnets and getting a more even charge on both sides. With a charger you can also charge a full humbucker assembly instead of just the magnet, this gives a whopping charge, almost double just doing the magnet alone. In fact it was too much really when I tried it out. So do you need to buy a charger, I'd say no, but they are nice to have if you can afford it. The stewmac magnets are much too small to do a full charge, big neos are the way to go but scary to deal with sometimes, I got my fingers whanged more than once when it grabbed something and my hand was in the way. With a charger you can also run it on a variac to do a partial charge, you certainly don't want EVERY pickup to have a full blast charge for sure....

[soundmasterg]

you certainly don't want EVERY pickup to have a full blast charge for sure....

Except for those 666 Alnico 6 magnets!

[Pep]

Thanks for the feedback Dave. Well, with my setup I am getting around 1350 gauss on the A5 rods in most cases so I guess that answers my question. I agree with you on the bar magnets. It is difficult to get an even charge all the way accross with the neo. Those stew-mac mags look like a joke. I have a pair of cylinders that are about 1" tall X 1" dia. each setup in a vice so I can adjust the gap between them for the magnet I am charging. Those babies have almost ended my guitar playing days on more than one occassion. Scary strong.

The variac idea is cool. That alone would be a big time saver instead of having to degauss to an appropriate level. I don't particularly enjoy the sound that a really hot magnet yields.

[Possum]

Well truth is a bucker magnet doesn't hold an even charge all along its edge, magnets just don't work that way. What kind of gaussmeter are you using? ALL magnets will read hotter on the edges of the pole, there is no eveness about the field. This is why on most single coil pickups like tele, strats the end poles will usually read higher because all the magnets are working together as a single unit in a way, you'll see this if all the poles are the same height. The charger will charge the bucker mag more evenly on both poles than charging one pole side with a neo, is what I meant. Glad I got the charger but its not a necessity. Other nice thing about it versus using two neos in a vise is that the field is only on when you hit the button. I have some dearmond style alnico magnets I had made that are wide and squat, real hard to charge in the vise idea because some of them are A2 so charge in any direction you want. I got some magnetic viewing paper for kicks and it was real helpful in seeing exactly how much of the face on those magnets got charged up, takes a couple charges and moving it around. I don't think even the magnet charger probably has an even charge along the face since all it is , too, is a big magnet when its on.

[Pep]

That magnet paper is a good idea! Do you remember where you got it from? A couple years ago I was using a homemade beast with a calibrated hall effect sensor and a couple of jigs, but now I have a Carlsen Melton Gauss max gm-200a (http://www.carlsenmelton.com/gm200a/gm200a.htm). Simple but effective. I've measured the bucker bars and know exactly what you mean regarding the uneveness of the charge. At first I thought that it was something I was doing wrong but after measuring some pre-charged ones I realized that it is a natural phenomena. I've probably spent too much time playing with magnets but I feel that they make such a difference in tone that it is/was time well spent. I really appreciate the info Dave. I'll probably hold off on the charger until it is a justified expense. There is so much equipment (measurement, shop tools, etc) involved in making quality pickups that it seems easy to get carried away.

[Possum]

just do a search on google for magnetic viewing paper, alot of places sell it prices are all over the place, get a big piece of it if you can, its also good for seeing where magnets are in flat covered pickups with no visible pole pieces, handy stuff to have around.....