Sens Alnico V

[PAF-Boy]

Got a lot of Sensmag Alnico V rods unmagged.
I can not help but I do not like the tone I get wehn using them in my strat style pickups.
To my ears they make the tone hard and boring.
What are your experiences with their magnets.

[belwar]

I love their bar magnets. They're A4 is really nice, and thier A5 makes a mean P-90.

If you buy your mags from Allstar, then you're using sens.

[Claus H]

Got a lot of Sensmag Alnico V rods unmagged.
I can not help but I do not like the tone I get wehn using them in my strat style pickups.
To my ears they make the tone hard and boring.
What are your experiences with their magnets.

Yes I have had the same experience the problem I think, there permeability it is somehow lower then what you find in normal "fender" style pickup rods, I think the "Fe" or Soft iron content lower in these magnets, haven't found any specs on the Sensmag Alnico I got, But you can find a diffrence in the mixture of chemical elements in alnico magnets, Sintered magnets vs. Cast magnets.. I would go for the magnets with the highest field strength (Br) if you are looking for Alnico rods. that sound cool Well this is my assumption!!

I am currently working with a local guitar builder, trying to better his pickups, and we are making great strides.. I am working on getting some real science into the pickup making, we have got a lot of these sensmag magnets and getting them to sound good, is somewhat of a challenge, we will very soon be getting some diffrent rod magnets and I will be able to tell you what is fact and what is fiction in my assumption!

Claus

[David Schwab]

Have you tried magnetizing them at less than full strength?

[Claus H]

Have you tried magnetizing them at less than full strength?

Yes and that seems to work fine, but I am left with a very weak pup

[SkinnyWire]

Have you tried magnetizing them at less than full strength?

Yep. IMO, if you use them fully charged they can sound as you describe (I don't think that's necessarily specific to Sens). They shouldn't be "weak" either if you set the strength reasonably.

I've used their long and short A5 and rough cast A2 bars and they sound fine. Anyone have a line on reasonably priced AlNiCo magnets that don't somehow originate in China these days?

[Claus H]

Yep. IMO, if you use them fully charged they can sound as you describe (I don't think that's necessarily specific to Sens). They shouldn't be "weak" either if you set the strength reasonably.

I've used their long and short A5 and rough cast A2 bars and they sound fine. Anyone have a line on reasonably priced AlNiCo magnets that don't somehow originate in China these days?

But Fender or suhr pickups have poles what are nearly fully charged, 1000Gauss and above, and they don't sound "hard" the only way I can get them to sound "OK" is by charging the magnets to about 450Gauss and that leaves me with very nice sound but very weak output! but let's get some fact on the table.
I need to try the cast AlNiCo against sintered AlNiCo. get some real foothold on the whole thing, We need to some science into it people

The bars sound fine, from my experience the chemical makeup in bar magnets have less inpact on the sound becourse you don't use them as core material in the coil, it's the rods that are the killers.

[Bill M]

Anyone have a line on reasonably priced AlNiCo magnets that don't somehow originate in China these days?

Arnold magnetics. I won't say that their prices are that competitive. I like their A5 rods.

[PAF-Boy]

Got A4 and A2

I told them about the problem.
Monica did send me some A4 and A2 rods.
Still testing.
But I never got the same warmth with the A5 alike the rods I had before.
Funny thing is they have ROHS stickes on the boxes.
Maybe that is the reason why they do not sound dirty :-) !
cheers
db

[PAF-Boy]

Yes,
there must be somthing strange with the materials.
I use some other A5 that works great and makes a nice tone.
I will try their A4 and A2 magnets now or stay with my old source.
The Sens A5 is not what I want to work with.

[SJE]

Alnico 5 . . .

what LNG37, LNG40, LNG44 or LNG52?

All Alnico 5 - all material and different properties . . . why not just order a sample of all grades of Alnico 5 and find out what resellers are actually selling?

[LtKojak]

what LNG37, LNG40, LNG44 or LNG52?

All Alnico 5 - all material and different properties . . . why not just order a sample of all grades of Alnico 5 and find out what resellers are actually selling?

+1.

I was thinking the same thing...

[David King]

There are lots of China magnets to choose from these days so don't think they are all bad but it's likely you will pay more to get your hands on the best. I also think I like the Sensmag a5 rods for bass and I know at least one fellow who likes them for strat.

i've been pulling a lot of mags out of old pickups but haven't started to play around with them yet.
If Lindy is still using Arnolds in his bass pickups -I don't care for those at all.

[kevinT]

Arnold magnetics. I won't say that their prices are that competitive. I like their A5 rods.

I didn't have much luck dealing with Arnold. I called them a couple times and they never got back to me.

[kevinT]

... wanted to say that you shouldn't just try out the rod magnets to gauge whether you like a company and their products. Also try the bar mags for buckers.

As for the harshness, you may just need to degauss a little to get them sounding smoother.

Sens has great customer service from my initial dealings so far. They sent me a nice box of bar mag samples that I'm going to try out soon.