Humbucker Magnets And Sources

[DougGuy]

HI, I have used Dennis at AddictionFX for magnets, I was quite tempted to use some of Jon's magnets but the $15 per piece put me off. Now they are $28 each? Yikes..

It is late 2017 now, and I would like to ask as to who you fellas like to get magnets from, if in the last several years have there been anything new added to the usual sources? Anything to particularly avoid or anything worth going out of one's way to get?

I have used Mojotone for bobbins and baseplates, how are their magnets?

[rjb]

Check the "Stickies" in the Pickup Makers forum and sub-forums.

[David King]

Try Steven Kersting's Pickup making components and pricing though he might have been one of the very first suppliers.

[big_teee]

Addiction-FX http://music-electronics-forum.com/a...price-2014.pdf
Magnetic hold http://music-electronics-forum.com/a...price-list.pdf
Tone-Kraft Guitar Pickup Bar Magnets
MojoTone Pickup Parts & Kits
Philadelphia Luthier http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/bar-magnets/

T

[Jim Shine]

Magnets are frustrating to me. I think many of these small suppliers are buying from the same places. I get funky magnets from time to time that have weird orientation. They sound like crap, so I toss them in a box..It sucks I have to have a box of unusable magnets.

I would pay more if a vendor had strict quality control.

[mozz]

Have you tried to remagnetize them?

[David King]

Alnico pole orientation has to happen in the cool down phase at the foundry during the manufacturing process. Aside from "unoriented" alnico all alnico magnets have a predetermined orientation that you can't change after the fact.

[J M Fahey]

True.

I guess those poor quality ones are still oriented along the axis; if anything because itīs easier to do at the Factory, no matter how cheesy it might be.

I would rather think they are partially demagnetized to various degrees, maybe because thay were randomly tossed in an old shoebox or something.

Absolute best would be to measure them (if you have the proper tools) and *look* at the magnetic field to confirm the "random orientation" or not.

Second best would be to assemble a pickup with them and give it a good magnetizing jolt ... if it markedly improves now you know.

EDIT: http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magvisual.htm

or
this guy is a GENIUS:

[rjb]

this guy is a GENIUS:

I've seen an Instructable for this before; the only innovation here is using a flat bottle.
Just chopped strands of fine steel wool (which are said to align better than iron filings) in mineral oil.

-rb

PS - I guess there is some genius in knowing that rectangular bottles exist. The closest I was aware of would be hip flasks or maple syrup bottles.
A quick search found this:
https://www.amazon.com/H2GO-Flat-Bot...C8DW5QNX6A5R0Y

[mozz]

I don't understand this. Predetermined orientation? Are all alnico rods magnets unoriented? I can't put a humbucker bar magnet in my magnetizer and change it polarity?

Alnico pole orientation has to happen in the cool down phase at the foundry during the manufacturing process. Aside from "unoriented" alnico all alnico magnets have a predetermined orientation that you can't change after the fact.

[J M Fahey]

You can magnetize Alnico (or ceramic or I guess most any other material) in any direction you wish, supposing your magnetizer is strong enough.

The deal is that (Iīm talking ferrite ceramics because thats what I deal with everyday, I make speakers and have a powerful magnetizer) if you use the isotropic "same in all ways" material, meaning itīs just baked in the oven (or Alnico is molten in the kiln) and just let cool "as is" it can take magnetism in any direction, but you will get relatively poor results (say 2000/2500 Gauss) while if it cools under a strong magnetic field, its molecules get oriented and "stay there" .
Then it will take (and keep) a stronger field in the preferred direction (anisotropic, meaning not the same in different directions) , some 4000 Gauss on ceramics, with correspondlingly poorer results everywhere else.
Alnico numbers are way higher by the way.

So in a nutshell: you can strongly magnetize along the axis, in either polarity; you still can magnetize, say, sideways, but results are poorer.

I guess some rectangular magnets are made to be magnetized along the longer side, but blade pickups and such require it to be magnetized sideways, thatīs why you canīt use "just any bar magnet" you found somewhere and expect good results, it should be specifically made for this use.

[mozz]

Not to drag further off topic but now i will have to experiment with the rod magnets for strat pickups. Zap N-S, then measure, flip in magnetizer S-N, then measure again. I usually get slightly different readings on a set of 6 , but i based that on different lengths when making staggered pickups.

[David King]

There should be little or no difference in flipping polarities 180š end for end on a rod magnet as that's how the internal crystalline structure is aligned. That said let us know if you do see a measurable difference upon re-magnetizing to saturation.