Differences between Alnico 2 and Demagnetized Alnico 5

[Zhangliqun]

I agree -- A3 is a surprisingly good magnet for higher output pu's.

[NightWinder]

Ah dude, Now you ROCK. You know what I'm talking about!!! Its the harmonics, and snarly nasty grind man!! Hell YEah!!! LOL

[Zhangliqun]

The only downside with A3 is that, at least according to Fralin, it doesn't always hold a charge all that well and I've noticed a touch of drop-off with some A3 pu's I've made, though it wasn't too bad.

But yeah, A3 has some sparkle and grind on top that makes it an overlooked magnet for your pre-amp pushing pu's.

[NightWinder]

Hum, your on target. Im almost finished with some oldschool designede humbucker, and this has been the focus of the design. Under 8k....Seems that offset kills me, to much, to sharp, to little not tight enough on the lowend

[David Schwab]

I agree... is not easy...

I spent a few minutes with a couple of Neo magnets and sucesfully demagnetized a Ceramic magnet. But it wasn't wasy to hold the magnet...

...the problem was I couldn't remagnetize it again... hehehehe...

(I have plenty of cheap ceramic magnets, anyway)

Yeah, the magnetizing force needed for Alnico is 640 oersted, and for ceramic it's 3,200!

Depending on your design, ceramics can sound great... So far I don't use any alnico mags in my bass pickups.

[Possum]

degaussing...

degaussing ceramics is very easy, go to ebay and search on degaussing or degausser, there are jeweler's tables that are small rectangular units that will degauss anything, they are about $30 if I remember. Recharging ceramics is harder than degaussing if you just use a neo. I have a magnet charger and it usually will put back the charge in a ceramic mag.

[altazepsta]

Hi guys,

Last year i've bought some Alnico 5 magnets from Stewmac. Since I live in Chile, this was one of the few options I had to buy Alnico magnets.

They were shipped together in a plastic bag, so they obviously got partially demagnetized during the trip.

I told one of my customers about my demagnetized Alnicos, so we agreed to modify a Demarzio pickup with one of those magnets (unfortunatelly, the most popular aftermarket pickup brand in Chile).

The results were very good, we obtained a great vintage tone, with clarity, plenty of dynamics, similar to Alnico 2 pickups. My customer (and very good friend too) was very happy with the results.

I have the following question:

How close is a Demag-Alnico 5 to an Alnico 2?

If we read the same Gauss in both magnets, will they sound the same?

What about demag ceramics? One of the worst pickups i've tried and destroyed in my "Pickup-man" carreer were the "Ibanez PSND", which had a tiny ceramic mag which sounded terrible.

Greetings!
Ben

Old thread but a useful question. So I will give my best answer.
the difference in alnico 2 and 5 is as stated below, metallic composition is different, so density etc changes the tonal qualities of the pickup, your loss of magnetism is similar to running an amp on very low volume. you lose all the brightness so you may as well shut it off.. your tones are flattening out but you are actually doing the pickup a dis service leaving it that way and shortening its life. All magnets lose some magnetism initially. so in the first year or so your new guitar tends to go through alot of changes, the wood dries more, the lacquers cure more, the magnets mellow. I would use the 5 on the bridge for more aggressive leads, and 2's on the neck for the mellower rhythm can use the 5 on the neck also. the 57's were both the same grade, and very popular now. and hotter 500s and dirtyfingers are also used on both. it really comes down to taste of the player and what else you do to the pickup design., handwinding vs machine. potting technique, the type and guage of wire, how tight and consistent your winds are. clockwise, counter clockwise. the list goes on. take 2 magnets and set the pick up between them and re magnetize it and let it fall off naturally. then it will be good for maybe 100 years. at some point if its left weak, it will stop outputting and thats gonna suck.

[streamz1]

Alnico V magnets are brighter tone then Alnico 2 unless they are wound to vintage standards with 42 awg enamel coated ..Scatter Wound ..Then we get back to vintage tone without the brittleness.
Check out .. Custom Scatter Wound Single Coil Alnico 5 Poles Strat Pickup Set Free Caps | eBay

[copperheadroads]

Alnico V magnets are brighter tone then Alnico 2 unless they are wound to vintage standards with 42 awg enamel coated ..Scatter Wound ..Then we get back to vintage tone without the brittleness.
Check out .. Custom Scatter Wound Single Coil Alnico 5 Poles Strat Pickup Set Free Caps | eBay

Looks like cheap Alnico import pickups to me ,& there a product of yours ?
Or maybe you ditched the ceramic magnet & slugs & added a alnico rods .......................

[SonnyW]

I can tell the difference in a humbucker between Alnico 5 fully charged, and Unoriented Alcico 5 degaussed to vintage specs. My customers seem to be able to hear it too. The difference is slight but not un-detectable. The difference between Alnico 2 HB mags and any form of Alnico 5 is easily heard IMO. I have tried this using the same already wound bobbins and just swapping out magnets. Me and my customers both hear differences. Fully charged A5 is brighter, and degaussed A5U is more rounded, even, and more "musical". I prefer the A2 for necks and the A5U for bridges. I like the "vintage" styles.