Alnico Magnet grades . . .

[SJE]

Hi,
Hopefully someone will beable to help with this question - I am currently looking to get some custom made magnets over this side of the world (SE Asia). The companies I am speaking to are purely magnet producers and don't related to what is known in the guitar world. So when I say I want Alnico5 magnets they say . . what grade? LNG37, LNG40, LNG44? Same for Alnico8s . . LNGT18 (Isotropic), LNGT32, LNGT36J, LNGT40.

I have searched and searched and cannot find any links to what are the standard grades of Alnico2, 3, 5, 8 magnets used in humbuckers.

Can anybody clarify this for me?

Cheers in Advance.

[SJE]

Got some answers. . .

Over in the PG forum for the Alinco 2,3 & 5 magnets

Can anyone shed some light on the standard Alnico 8 grade?

[Dave Kerr]

What's the PG forum? Would you share what you found out here on the other grades?

[SJE]

What's the PG forum? Would you share what you found out here on the other grades?

Sorry Project Guitar Forum.

The info provided was a link to this page:

Magnet Manufacturer

Which basically lines up:

Alnico2 as LNG13
Alnico3 as LN10
Alnico5 as LNG37

So I am just missing Alnico8 grade details.

[JGundry]

This probably does not help but I do know that magnetic houses very often have tweaks within a certain grade of Alnico. Often these different mixes are tweaks made as per customer request. I found one US magnetics place that used to supply Gibson and they used two different A5 mixes that Gibson used once upon a time.

[Possum]

...

What does LNG mean? I don't see any reference to this on the Sensmag page link.

[salvarsan]

Sorry Project Guitar Forum.

The info provided was a link to this page:

Magnet Manufacturer
...
So I am just missing Alnico8 grade details.

There is a link to their Alnico grades chart with standard MMPA and IEC nomenclature thrown in.


Alnico - Alnico magnets -Sens Magnet Manufacturer


There they show four grades of A8 in increasing resistance to demagnetization and energy product.


-drh

[SJE]

There is a link to their Alnico grades chart with standard MMPA and IEC nomenclature thrown in.


Alnico - Alnico magnets -Sens Magnet Manufacturer


There they show four grades of A8 in increasing resistance to demagnetization and energy product.


-drh

Yep - thats the one - I believe it's the International standard of grading Alnicos. . .

Anyway I just emailed Sens Magenets asking them which ones of the Alnico 8 grades are possible candidates for producing in standard pickup size. The main reason for my queries are I've been told by another manufacturer than making the high grades of magnets (8/9) in pickup size are prone to breakage.

If/when I get a response from Sens I'll let you know what the answer is.

[Possum]

...

interesting. I wonder what grades we're usually getting with most alnico for pickups. I have some alnico 5 that really is hard to demagnetize and some you look at crosseyed and they lose strength, wonder what tonal effect the differences are, what ingredients chemically are added to make them more resistant. Cobalt?

[SJE]

interesting. I wonder what grades we're usually getting with most alnico for pickups. I have some alnico 5 that really is hard to demagnetize and some you look at crosseyed and they lose strength, wonder what tonal effect the differences are, what ingredients chemically are added to make them more resistant. Cobalt?

and there in lies my question . . .

As essentially all Alnico5 used in pickups are at 12.5k gauss then it'll be either the LNG40 or 44.

The 44 having slightly high BHmax and Coercivity so possibly these are the ones that are harder to demagnetize? As for which compound is increased - do not know - I did read a link which detailed the actual make ups of each grade but I cannot remember what/where it was. I guess a bit of googling could find it.

But it's interesting to know there seems to be mix of the grades around - I guess it's whatever they can get the cheapest!

[SJE]

The answer from Sens is that the Alnico 8 grade normally used is the LNGT40 - of which they have stock in 3 sizes.

Great stuff!

Now I just need to order them - can't wait get them to play around with some loony tune tones! More on that as things progress!

[Possum]

....

I've been thinking about these grades....it seems to me the more resistant to demagnetization a magnet is the harder edge its going to have tonally, its like sag in tube amps, no sag and you get an amp that is unpleasant to play. I put a Weber Copper Cap solid state rectifier in my deluxe reverb and hated it. Would be interesting to get the highest and the lowest grade of one alnico and I'd bet thats what you would hear....

[SJE]

I've been thinking about these grades....it seems to me the more resistant to demagnetization a magnet is the harder edge its going to have tonally, its like sag in tube amps, no sag and you get an amp that is unpleasant to play. I put a Weber Copper Cap solid state rectifier in my deluxe reverb and hated it. Would be interesting to get the highest and the lowest grade of one alnico and I'd bet thats what you would hear....

I'll let you know when I've tested them!

My intention for pickups is a 'different' modern tones opposed to classic tones - including 8 string pickups. I am looking forward getting my samples from Sens so I can start playing (erm testing!)

The Alnico5-7 should if you thoughts are correct be essentially a hard edged Alnico 5 tone. I don't think I've read anywhere of an Alnico9 pickup . . . so it'll be interesting to see what the results are.

[Possum]

..

What I meant was getting a low energy alnico 5 and a high energy alnico 5 and seeing what the diff is....

[SJE]

What I meant was getting a low energy alnico 5 and a high energy alnico 5 and seeing what the diff is....

Yep - that what I mean also - the Alnico5-7 is a high energy Alnico5 the standard 5 is the LNG40 where as the 5-7 is LNG60.

The BHMax comparison is:

LNG40
KJ/m3 MGOe
40.0 5.0

v

LNG60
KJ/m3 MGOe
60.0 7.5

The LNG60 (5-7) is higher across the full range of properties compared to a standard 5.