need help making neodymium bass pickups

[J-chot]

I'm making some neodymium bass pickups, and the magnets are cylindrical: 1/4" diameter, 1/5" long.

they're basically glued between 2 pieces of 1/8" plywood(it's actually thinner than that) . if I were to make a p-bass style pickup with 2 magnets per coil, how many wraps per coil do you think I should use? (42awg), how many wraps should I use for a "soap bar" bass pickup with the same specs?

I assume that since neodymium pickups are stronger, that they could use a smaller coil, and still retain good lows with the improved mids and highs.. how many wraps do you guys recommend?

[madialex]

I think David is doing some neo stuff, he would be the go to for this one.

[J-chot]

whos' david?

does anyone have any findings/documentation of home made neo pickups? (by people who know what they're doing to some extent)

I've seen the instructible. with the guy who used 32 gague wire (eek)...
I'm really just looking for anything that can minimalize my experimentation.

[Stan H]

I personally have never used neo's but in my mind since they are stronger you would need to overwind to compensate. I may be wrong. I would suggest doing what we all did...experiment and find the tone you want. Find a good multimeter and wind to resistance. There are many places on the web that give specs for traditional pickups like p's and such.

[Mike Sulzer]

42 is OK. Neodymium has a permeability only slightly higher than air. Therefore alnico cores give somewhat higher inductance, since it has a higher permeability. Neodymium has a stronger field, so it tends to give a higher output. I would suggest starting with about the same number of turns you would use with alnico, and then experiment. Remember that there is a resonance from the coil inductance and cable capacitance, and that different numbers of turns will shift the frequency. Only you can find what you like best.

[J-chot]

I personally have never used neo's but in my mind since they are stronger you would need to overwind to compensate. I may be wrong. I would suggest doing what we all did...experiment and find the tone you want. Find a good multimeter and wind to resistance. There are many places on the web that give specs for traditional pickups like p's and such.

but doesn't a stronger magnet mean that you would need LESS coil? unless you were trying to eliminate the "enhanced clarity" that neo magnets supposedly have.

[David Schwab]

but doesn't a stronger magnet mean that you would need LESS coil? unless you were trying to eliminate the "enhanced clarity" that neo magnets supposedly have.

It doesn't mean less or more. Depends on the tone you want. But Stan has a point. Generally when people wind overwound pickups they use a stronger magnet like a ceramic to retain the high end. Winding the same pickup as with an alnico, but with a ceramic, gives a brighter, harder tone. So overwinding might warm up the tone.

So if you do what you normally do for a bass pickup, and then use neo magnets, you will get a brighter tone. You may find that the neo is too bright for what you want, and you may need to compensate.

Like everyone else says, experiment. I've made certain discoveries with my pickups, but I'm not sharing them. Sorry. But I also don't use neo rod magnets, so I couldn't give you any advice either.

I will say that when I switched my pickups from ceramic to neodymium, I had to make drastic changes in the design.

Oh, and I'm David.