A-8 rods? Anyone?

[David King]

Hi All,
I'm on a search for some A-8 rods for try out and so far haven't found any off the shelf. 3/16 x .750 preferred but 5 mm would also be fine. PM me if it's top secret or something.
Thanks,
David

[SK66]

I've never seen any, although they could be obtained (custom ordered).
I think this is because C-8 is the common choice for most applications.

[David Schwab]

I just got some information from a company called AZ Industries that offer custom made magnets.

They say they can supply all grades of Alnico, both in cast and sintered, as well as ceramic and rare earth magnets, in all shapes and sizes. They even offer pole pieces in "standard and specialty steels"

They look real interesting. I'm going to give them a call and see what their prices are like.

Anyone deal with them before?

[David King]

Thanks guys,
I can get them from Allstar in a few weeks but they aren't cheap ($1.33 ea/100). I was just hoping someone already had some or knew what they might sound like in a J pickup.

I know Zhangliqun was using them and Wolfetone too, I guess in bar form but not a lot of detail about how they would sound in a bass pickup.

I have some A-8 bars I could chop up into sluglets i guess.

I'll call magnetic hold. C-8 rods would be cool too but I don't think they'd be practical to make.

AZIndustry's website is terrible, none of the links you want will work.

[salvarsan]

AZIndustry's website is terrible, none of the links you want will work.

Yup, suX0rz real bad.

It does not represent them.

A few years ago I bought some A8 pole pieces from them.
After phone contact, I was handled well and the price was good.

-drh

[David Schwab]

AZIndustry's website is terrible, none of the links you want will work.

Yeah, it is pretty bad. I think it's worse than Bartolini's web site!

It looks like it's under construction. But they sent me a nice brochure and letter. The brochure is much better than the web site.

A few years ago I bought some A8 pole pieces from them.
After phone contact, I was handled well and the price was good.

Cool. I'm going to give them a call. They seem to want pickup makers' business, which is always a good thing.

I'm always looking for odd size magnets, so this might be perfect.

[David King]

If you look at the Alnico 2 page, they do stock 3/16 rounds in strat lengths but only in sintered A2, the casts ones are all really short. That may have changed. I guess I can speak Arkansawsn if I put my mind to it.

[David King]

Bartolini's website wouldn't be so bad if they actually answered their phones.

[David Schwab]

It looks like they can machine a magnet to spec. They also list a full line of metal working capabilities and even plastic injection molding.

Bartolini's website is much improved now. The old one was just awful. Some links are still broken though.

They need to get on the ball and get email up and running again. Eliminating email because you once got a virus is not an excuse when you get pick up some antivirus software for not too much money. There's even free software. Or they could get a used Mac for connecting to the internet.

I have to say though, my very first experience with Bartolini was in 1976 when I ordered a Hi-A pickup for my Ric after seeing a small add in Guitar Player. I didn't include my phone number (this was snail mail of course), so you can imagine my surprise when Bill called me to ask me some questions about the order. He got a mounting plate for the bridge pickup, and had me send him my original one. I was quite impressed.

I was a big Bart fan until EMG lured me to the dark side! But I'm over that now.

[Joe Gwinn]

AZIndustry's website is terrible, none of the links you want will work.

Didn't work for me either, on Safari or Firefox on MacOS 10. I bet it only works for Internet Explorer on Windows. The usual problem is that the website uses ActiveX controls, which are Microsoft-only.

The advice I give to friends with web-based storefronts is that they should require that their web developers test using MSIE and Firefox, with versions from current to three versions ago, to ensure that they aren't deflecting too many potential customers. In some lines of business Macs rule, and so one also tests with Safari.

[Zhangliqun]

I know Zhangliqun was using them and Wolfetone too, I guess in bar form but not a lot of detail about how they would sound in a bass pickup.

I've used A8 bars, but never rods. I have some A6 rods that I still haven't gotten around to trying out though. Orders are drying up with this economy though, so the silver lining is I get to do some more R&D so I may get to try an A6 Strat bridge out soon.

I would think A8 would be a little boomy for a bass pu, but I'm all for experimentation so let us know your results.

[David King]

It seems like everyone I talk to keeps telling me that there are big sonic differences between venders for magnetic materials, especially A-5. We need to have an Alnico exchange or a library or sumpin.
I have a drawer full of .187" x .750" a-5 rods from Allstar if anyone is wanting to try those out. I'll take anything in exchange.

Browser-wise I've migrated to Camino. It's so much faster than Firefox or safari on my old G4. Very well behaved for the most part but some pages do show up blank from time to time.

[David Schwab]

Didn't work for me either, on Safari or Firefox on MacOS 10. I bet it only works for Internet Explorer on Windows. The usual problem is that the website uses ActiveX controls, which are Microsoft-only.

The advice I give to friends with web-based storefronts is that they should require that their web developers test using MSIE and Firefox, with versions from current to three versions ago, to ensure that they aren't deflecting too many potential customers. In some lines of business Macs rule, and so one also tests with Safari.

I think the links just aren't there yet. I wondered the same thing about browsers (I'm also using Safari in Mac OS X) so I tried Firefox, and then I just looked at the HTML code, and there were no links there, so I guess the page is not finished yet.

It always annoys me when people design around MSIE's non standard features, which defeats what the web is supposed to be all about. I do web design and I figure if it works in Safari, it will work anywhere. Most of the people I know have Macs, probably because they are artists and musicians.

I used PayPal's built in storefront, which was really easy and seems to work well enough.

[David Schwab]

It seems like everyone I talk to keeps telling me that there are big sonic differences between venders for magnetic materials, especially A-5. We need to have an Alnico exchange or a library or sumpin.
I have a drawer full of .187" x .750" a-5 rods from Allstar if anyone is wanting to try those out. I'll take anything in exchange.

I wonder if it's the magnet alloy or how charged the magnets are when they arrive?

Browser-wise I've migrated to Camino. It's so much faster than Firefox or safari on my old G4. Very well behaved for the most part but some pages do show up blank from time to time.

I was using that for a while. I just missed some features, like the auto fill stuff. Safari is getting slow on older machines. I have a G4/466 Digital Audio from 2001, but I have a 1GHz Sonnets G4 CPU card in it, and 1.5GB of RAM. I'm getting a new 250GB hard drive today. My wife's iBook is actually faster than my Mac! We are saving up for a new Mac, but that might take a while!

[Joe Gwinn]

Browser-wise I've migrated to Camino. It's so much faster than Firefox or safari on my old G4. Very well behaved for the most part but some pages do show up blank from time to time.

Does Camino handle Flash properly? You-Tube is a good test. My experience has been that Firefox doesn't handle Flash properly on Macs, but Safari works right.