Dead DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1000

[jason lollar]

even if you do recharge them rod magnets made of alnico that are that short dont take much of a charge- the longer the alnico magnet the stronger they pull, cut a rod down to 1/8 long and it will have hardly enough magnetism fully charged to lift its own weight if you try to pull it op off your bench with a piece of steel.

[David Schwab]

lose their charge....of course.

But "completely fail to take a new charge"? These things won't get any stronger from their virtually-dead state.

Granted, they're puny little slugs, but still.

The ones I had here charged up. As Jason said, not a very strong charge, but noticeably stronger than they were. I probably took a measurement before and after. I'll have to check my notes.

How are you charging them?

[Mark Norwine]

Thanks for all of the replies!

David, I'm charging them not-unlike the way your pictures show....neos in a machinist's vice.

My neos are larger though; I use 6 of them, 3 per "side". Each "side" is composed of three neos together. Each magnet is 3"L x .5"w x .5"h; three together makes a block 3" x 1.5" x .5".

This arrangement can put a strong field on a PAF-style bar in short order....

...but these little DeArmond poles just don't "get any stronger".

That said, I'm re-thinking the notion of "strong". As stated above, these things are dinky, so even fully charged there won't be much pull. And as Ken stated in his post, above: "All I knew was that I couldn't magnetize mine either, and after a rewind it still worked."

I spoke to the guy who gave me this pickup. His original request was "see if it works, and if it does, please rewire it....if it's dead, just toss it. I told him it was dead, but that I *thought* I might be able to fix it. Maybe. He was ambivalent about the whole thing, so I've got nowhere to go but "up".

I've epoxied the bobbin back together, and may re-wind this just for grins.....just need to get a small spool of #44.