Old gibson magnets

[Possum]

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Yeah stay away from the engineers, they're the guys who made the Silverface amps "better," more efficient, none of that nasty distortion, then they topped that with transistor amps. I seriously doubt Gibson ever did or ever would do such a thing. Especially back then I doubt any such tinkering went on except with military alnico 5. You've seen that Gibson just used off the shelf steel, off the shelf magnet wire, magnets as cheap as they could get them. Even now you've seen how inconsistent Burstbuckers are, how they butchered Shaw's attempt to make real PAFs again, no...

[JGundry]

You are probably right. But it may have gone something like this. Lets say Gibson designs a new pickup. An engineer pus some thought into it. Including consulting with a magnetics house. And they calculate the correct magnet for the job and designate it on specs. for the pickup. Then management buys the cheapest workable alternative.

[David Schwab]

Yeah stay away from the engineers, they're the guys who made the Silverface amps "better," more efficient, none of that nasty distortion, then they topped that with transistor amps.

I had an old solid state Dual Showman head once. Someone gave it to me. Man was that thing awful! It got a hideous, yet interesting tone when you turned it all the way up. Kind of like "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" but without the octave dividing fuzz.

Otherwise it was pure crap.

[Possum]

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Jon maybe you are talking about "bloom?" I've never heard a good explanation of that term but maybe thats what you're hearing.

I've read 3 books by the people at the top at Fender, learned a few pickup tricks from those. But the transistor days were awful. The engineers insisted on making them and guys like Forrest White and Leo were dead against it. The worst part was they were assembled badly with bad solder jobs and they said that something like 80% of them died. The engineers didn't listen to Forrest or one of those guys who said they not only suck tonally but you're making them badly and they will fail. One or two of those guys left Fender at that time because CBS guys wouldn't listen to the voice of experience, it went downhill from there.

[LtKojak]

The engineers didn't listen to Forrest or one of those guys who said they not only suck tonally but you're making them badly and they will fail. One or two of those guys left Fender at that time because CBS guys wouldn't listen to the voice of experience, it went downhill from there.

Well... he can always say "I told you so"!

[Possum]

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Yeah but by then Leo and Forrest and Fullerton left the company, later they started G&L, the book one of those guys wrote is a priceless read, I think thats where the rubber band winder trick is described, as well as early history of Fender. Leo never would have made it on his own, he was an inventory and a tinkerer but a horrible businessman, (sounds kinda like me, damnit...) the success of his company he completely owed to his top guys...

[eehanj]

Hi, this is my first post, so please bear with me.

There is a technology called x-ray fluoresence (XRF) that analyses elements in metallic alloys without any damage. The link below is an example of one instrument and its capabilities.

http://www.niton.com/Libraries/Docum...stry.sflb.ashx

These instruments are used by non-destructive testing/inspection companies to verify the materials used in construction and repair of industrial equipment. They are also used in the scrap industry to segregate higher alloys.

This technology cannot measure carbon, but does a good job of identifying other elements.