Early 70ies P Bass magnet charge

[Telemachos]

I have this P Bass PU on my table and just wonder how weak its Magnets are. It reads at appx. 700 Gauss. Was this part of the concept or did they usually use fully charged A 5 magnets at 100 - 1200 Gauss?

[David King]

P bass mags are pretty short usually at .530" and so can't hold as much of a charge as a taller magnet. I wouldn't expect much more than 700- 850 Gauss. That doesn't seem to make much difference to the output but obviously the 10000 turns of wire helps.

[Telemachos]

So if they orig. came at 7-800 Gauss, how would they change in sound if I would succeed in recharging them up to 1000 i. e.? Would they possibly sound too trebly? I have already rewound them w. 0.42 HFW because I don#t have the PE stuff in this gauge. That alone might give them a boost in treble. I'm a little concerned that they would turn out too sharp as one of the bobbins couldn't take too many turns because of eccentric issues. Staying at the same number of turns the overall output is at 10 KOhms which might add to the suspected sharpness. I dunno if those factors, low number of turns, HFW wire and a possibly higher gauss would bring out too much sharpness or if I'm just a little paranoid. I don't have the P Bass at my home, neither a test mule, so I feel like shooting blind. If the guy i<#m doing it for don't like it I'll redo the job w. poly. I hope they turn out fine.
But again, is it a good idea too pump up the gauss (if possible)?

[Telemachos]

I just recharged the magnets up to 1000 Gauss. I noticed they can even go up to 1100 or more but preferred to keep them at 1 K. Seems like it is not related to the height of the poles, or did you mean that smaller magnet poles decharge faster than taller ones w. age?

[David King]

I think self de-Gaussing is likely. The rule of thumb is a minimum ratio of 3:1- 5:1 length:diameter for Alnico rods to maintain a charge. The Gauss strength is going to have a "half-life" where it will drop quickly at first and then exponentially more slowly over time.
Music man magnets break that rule and seem to get away with it so it's not hard and fast.

[David Schwab]

So if they orig. came at 7-800 Gauss, how would they change in sound if I would succeed in recharging them up to 1000 i. e.? Would they possibly sound too trebly?

They would sound like a P bass, which is a fairly bright pickup/bass, but not as bright as a Jazz bass.

There always seem to be some kind of myth that a P bass is very deep with no high end. That's just the tone people used to use, but not how the bass naturally sounds.

[Telemachos]

Thanks for your replies guys. The P Bass set went out today. Seems like it should sound great. With 4 wires at the control and w. a push pull pot it can be wired in a few different ways. I attached the wires wrong the first time but corrected it after I shot the photos.

[David King]

Telemachos,
Could you hear a difference between series and parallel?

[Telemachos]

I wish I could answer your question. I don't have a test mule so I'm dependent on what the bass player will report after installation. He sent the PU from a city 400 miles away from here. My assumption is that it will possibly sound weaker and w. more chime in the upper mids and highs. The guy told me that he is satisfied w. the std. series wiring and don't sees any need to s.th. different, but that it would represent a nice to have option once he decides to go with some switching pot. BTW I wound it RW, RP wise.

[Telemachos]

Received a FB message a moment ago. He will probably try to do some rec. w. a stereo mic. Let's see. I'm curious.

[David Schwab]

Telemachos,
Could you hear a difference between series and parallel?

With a P bass? Sure. Sounds like series to parallel with any other pickup.

I have series parallel switches on my P/J bass with DiMarzio pickups.