Pickup Magnets - 7-String

[The Dark Wolf]

Greetings. My name is Bob, and I'm a regular at sevenstring.org.

I have a Dimarzio D Sonic 7 pickup that I'm curious to try a magnet swap on. I did so on my ceramic magnet Air Norton 7 (to an Alnico 5) with very satisfying results.

I'd like to probably go with an A5 for the DS7 pickup, or perhaps an A2/A3 for the neck. The problem is - finding people who make a 7-string sized magnet. The ones in my 7-string humbuckers are almost 2 3/4" long. The closest I've found has been 2 1/2" (from an e bay Allstar Magnetics dealer). Buying a brand new 7-string pickup from Seymour Duncan is an option, but a pricey one (it's where I got the A5 for my Air Norton. I swapped the A5 magnet from my JB 7-string.)

Any help?

[David King]

Hi Bob
Welcome to our 12 step program. I'm not really a pickup maker but I lurk here. I'm sure somebody can help but it wouldn't be me probably.

[The Dark Wolf]

Thank you. I hope someone can, even though if I don't find anything, I may just try a 2 1/2" long magnet anyway, and hope for the best. they're only about $6 anyway.

[David Schwab]

I made a pickup for a 9-string guitar that was housed in a 5-string bass pickup shell. I used a magnet for a 6-string pickup. My pickup has blades though... but it worked great. With poles you will miss the outer strings.

[The Dark Wolf]

Thanks, David.

I THINK a 2.5" 6er magnet will work... I compared the dimensions to a old 7-string pickup I have, with polepieces, and 2.5" just barely reaches polepiece-to-polepiece.

I talked with FrankFalbo on the SD forums, and he said he made it work before, him being a 7-string player (and ss.org member), too.

I'll give it a go and see if it works, I guess. If it doesn't, hey, I'm only out a few bucks.

[Zhangliqun]

Magnetic Hold will make you a magnet for a 7-string. The downside is you will have to pay a tooling charge, in the neighborhood of $150-200. But if you ordered a bunch of them, you could probably sell some to fellow 7-string lovers.

[The Dark Wolf]

Magnetic Hold will make you a magnet for a 7-string. The downside is you will have to pay a tooling charge, in the neighborhood of $150-200. But if you ordered a bunch of them, you could probably sell some to fellow 7-string lovers.

Ha ha. Well, thanks anyway. QUITE a bit steeper than I was looking for... I could buy 2 brand new SD's and use the magnets for that price. But, still, any info is appreciated.

[Zhangliqun]

Maybe, but they'd charge you less than $2 each for the mags...

[The Dark Wolf]

Maybe, but they'd charge you less than $2 each for the mags...

Well, that is a good deal. Problem is, I don't need anywhere near that many. In fact, all I need is...


One.


Still, thank you for the heads up. I got a quote back from anotehr company via e-mail, and it was along similar lines. $140 tooling costs. If I was building pickups, sure, but I just wan tone magnet for personal use.

[David King]

Dark Wolf,
Bass pickup makers use 2.75 and 3" ceramics all the time. You just need to contact one of them...

Many times I've seen guys just tag on an extra hunk of magnet to make up the difference in length. It must not need to be all one piece to work right. The ceramic stuff is easy enough to cut on a small tile saw or they just stick it in a vice and snap it off.

[Joe Gwinn]

Dark Wolf,
Bass pickup makers use 2.75 and 3" ceramics all the time. You just need to contact one of them...

Many times I've seen guys just tag on an extra hunk of magnet to make up the difference in length. It must not need to be all one piece to work right. The ceramic stuff is easy enough to cut on a small tile saw or they just stick it in a vice and snap it off.

It's true - magnets need not be in one piece. You can use multiple magnets in parallel to make up a bigger magnet. The trick is to align all the magnets the same way, with all the north poles on one side, south on the other. The magnets should all repel each other.

[Spence]

Take two regular 2.5" humbucker magnets and cut one to make the size you need with them butting up against each other. It's easy enoiugh to cut an alnico magnet with the cut-off discs supplied with a Dremel. i use these cut off discs for alnico every day.

BTW, I hope this advice doesn't spawn another endless thread about how and with what to cut alnico because I've just said how. You don't need anything more complicated or diamond slurries etc...

[David Schwab]

Dark Wolf,
Bass pickup makers use 2.75 and 3" ceramics all the time. You just need to contact one of them...

Many times I've seen guys just tag on an extra hunk of magnet to make up the difference in length. It must not need to be all one piece to work right. The ceramic stuff is easy enough to cut on a small tile saw or they just stick it in a vice and snap it off.

That's what I have been doing, so I can use the magnets I have on hand. I just snap them in half with an old chisel.

[Zhangliqun]

Dark Wolf,
Bass pickup makers use 2.75 and 3" ceramics all the time. You just need to contact one of them...

Many times I've seen guys just tag on an extra hunk of magnet to make up the difference in length. It must not need to be all one piece to work right. The ceramic stuff is easy enough to cut on a small tile saw or they just stick it in a vice and snap it off.

I've thought about half-length mags in a humbucker, like two 1.25" bar mags if different Alnico grades, the humbucker equivalent of Duncan's Five Two Strat singles.

But I'm wondering that since if you lay them end to end with the poles on the same side (S lined up with S and N with N) they repel each other a bit, would they degauss a bit on those ends?

[David King]

Zhangliqun
Take an alnico V bar and break it in half, now try to put is back together.
Ceramic has a very high coercivity so not a worry there.
Alnico is not going to demagnitize if the pieces aren't moving around or clanking into each other. Breaking it in two might have a degaussing effect for sure but so would cutting it with a hot dremel disk.