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I thought I would share an interesting vintage detail about gauss level of vintage Gibson Alnico.
I know Gibson charged their own magnets. I talked to a lady that charged them at Gibson in the early 60's. I'm pretty sure they were charged in a block. You can charge Alnico this way but it won't be fully saturated. You will end up with a charge about 80% of full saturation. The problem with doing this is if Alnico is not fully saturated it is more prone to losing a charge over time. Even if you degauss alnico to calibrate the charge you are supposed to first bring the charge up to full saturation and then degauss or "condition" the magnet to the desired charge level.
If you want to experiment with this set the N/S blocks on your charger to the width of a P.A.F. cover. Put a magnet in a dummy humbucker and charge it. That will be your full saturation reference. Then take 3 bar magnets and set them on a block of wood that centers the magnet on the charger. Charge those magnets and read the gauss level and tell me what you get. I get 80% of a full saturation give or take. On my charger I can stack bar magnets up in a block of 6 tall and 3 wide when the charge heads are set this distance.
This method of charging explains why P-90 magnet especially lose charge over time. They were never fully saturated and they have both south poles of the magnets facing each other. The good part is the low charge is one reason for the great tone of vintage P-90's.
I know Gibson charged their own magnets. I talked to a lady that charged them at Gibson in the early 60's. I'm pretty sure they were charged in a block. You can charge Alnico this way but it won't be fully saturated. You will end up with a charge about 80% of full saturation. The problem with doing this is if Alnico is not fully saturated it is more prone to losing a charge over time. Even if you degauss alnico to calibrate the charge you are supposed to first bring the charge up to full saturation and then degauss or "condition" the magnet to the desired charge level.
If you want to experiment with this set the N/S blocks on your charger to the width of a P.A.F. cover. Put a magnet in a dummy humbucker and charge it. That will be your full saturation reference. Then take 3 bar magnets and set them on a block of wood that centers the magnet on the charger. Charge those magnets and read the gauss level and tell me what you get. I get 80% of a full saturation give or take. On my charger I can stack bar magnets up in a block of 6 tall and 3 wide when the charge heads are set this distance.
This method of charging explains why P-90 magnet especially lose charge over time. They were never fully saturated and they have both south poles of the magnets facing each other. The good part is the low charge is one reason for the great tone of vintage P-90's.
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