Slugs and Polepieces

[paulyy]

Has any one used stainless steel, brass or chrome plated slugs and polepieces. Whould like to know the pro"s and con"s. Thanks.

[kevinT]

Has any one used stainless steel, brass or chrome plated slugs and polepieces. Whould like to know the pro"s and con"s. Thanks.

Do a search for stainless steel because there have been a few discussions about this. As for brass slugs and polepieces, they wouldn't work, brass is not magnetic. As for chrome plated covers, even though they may look nice and are more durable, I think they sound horrible and hardly ever use them.

I have some chrome plated polepieces and I think they make the tone of the pickup sound bright and harsh compared to a comparable screw that is not chrome plated.

[paulyy]

I should of known you couldnt use brass for polepieces or slugs. I feel alittle dumb for that one. I remember hearing somewhere that chrome doesnt give a good sound but Im more interested in stainless steel. Thanks for the help.

[Zhangliqun]

I thought you had said brass or chrome or whatever plated...rather than solid brass/chrome/etc slugs.

Anyway, we all use nickel plated slugs and screws, but the screws and slugs themselves are steel. The metal needs to be magnetic in order for the slugs and screws to work.

[Diablo]

There are two categories of stainless steels, ferritic and austenitic. Ferritic is ferro magnetic, and will work. Austenitic stainless will not work. The 300 series stainless are austenitic.....avoid those.

[paulyy]

I thought you had said brass or chrome or whatever plated...rather than solid brass/chrome/etc slugs.

Anyway, we all use nickel plated slugs and screws, but the screws and slugs themselves are steel. The metal needs to be magnetic in order for the slugs and screws to work.

When I said plated, I ment just the chrome. I just wondering how other materials react or sound in a pickup. I pefer nickle over anything else but wanted try something new for a pickup Im doing.
I forgot brass isnt magnetic but never thought about it being plated. Thanks for the input.

[David Schwab]

There are two categories of stainless steels, ferritic and austenitic. Ferritic is ferro magnetic, and will work. Austenitic stainless will not work. The 300 series stainless are austenitic.....avoid those.

That's a good point. I use type 430 ferritic stainless in some of my pickups for blades. I find it's brighter sounding than something like 1010 steel. Good for certain applications.

EMG is using austenitic stainless for their new "chome" and "gold" pickup cases. The "chrome" is just polished stainless, and the gold has a TiN (titanium nitride) coating, like they use on drill bits.