how can i find the north and sounth of the magnets?

[David Schwab]

Right. But isn't it the worst case of 'taking someones word for it'.

"Let's see... The north end of this needle points that way. We shall call it north."

So now the whole friggin Earth is marked cattywhompus because some needle told us to?

Just having fun. Not ranting.

Yeah, I would say the magnet in the compass was wrong, not the earth.

[Mark Norwine]

It's only been called "the north pole" in recent times.

If you go back hundreds of years (to old sailing times), it was never called "the north pole". It was called "The north-seeking pole".

i.e. that thing under the ground up where Santa lives is "seeking north".....it's looking for {and attracted to} the red, pointy-end, north pole of a compass.

So, yes....what we call "north pole" is north-seeking......(aka "south")

[David Schwab]

It's only been called "the north pole" in recent times.

If you go back hundreds of years (to old sailing times), it was never called "the north pole". It was called "The north-seeking pole".

i.e. that thing under the ground up where Santa lives is "seeking north".....it's looking for {and attracted to} the red, pointy-end, north pole of a compass.

So, yes....what we call "north pole" is north-seeking......(aka "south")

Ummm, no. Before the compass was invented it was called North. And so was East, West and South. The North star was used before compasses, and it was not called the "North seeking star".

The ancient Chinese had discovered that one side of a lodestone always faced what they already knew as the Northerly direction when it was suspended from a string. They began using it for navigation between the 9th and 11th century. So that's way past "hundreds of years" ago.

There's really nothing on a compass that says that the magnet is North, just that the red side faces North. How that got mixed up with magnets is the mystery.

Before the compass was invented, people used landmarks, stars and the Vikings used cordierite crystals on cloudy days to see where the sun was.

The word north is related to the Old High German nord, both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit ner-, meaning "down" (or "under"). (Presumably a natural primitive description of its concept is "to the left of the rising sun".)

Latin borealis is from Greek boreas "north wind, north", in mythology (according to Ovid) personified as the son of the river-god Strymon, and father of Calais and Zetes; septentrionalis is from septentriones, "the seven plow oxen", a name of Ursa Maior. Greek arktikos "northern" is named for the same constellation (c.f. Arctic).

Other languages have sometimes more interesting derivations. For example, in Lezgian kefer can mean both 'disbelief' and 'north', since north of Muslim Lezgians there are areas inhabited by non-Muslim (until recently) Caucasian peoples, such as Avars and Chechens; as well as pagan Turkic peoples. In many languages of Mesoamerica, 'north' also means 'up'.

And of course the compass does not face true North anyway.

[JCrab]

Help me out guy's,, Just looking for a simple answer,, I have a compass,, if I hold a alnico 5 bar mag up to it and the needle points away from the mag. What side of the mag is that.. cause in the pickups I am building (alnico5 paf) the south of the mag should go towards the adj poles..

[big_teee]

Help me out guy's,, Just looking for a simple answer,, I have a compass,, if I hold a alnico 5 bar mag up to it and the needle points away from the mag. What side of the mag is that.. cause in the pickups I am building (alnico5 paf) the south of the mag should go towards the adj poles..

Hold the compass in one hand.
move the magnet around until the red part of the needle points toward the edge of the magnet.
That edge of the A5 is South.
Now flip the magnet over and the compass should turn around.
That would be North.
Keep Rockin,
T

[JCrab]

Thanks T,,,, Sometimes I will be reading some stuff and saying to my self WTF.. LOL

[trevorus]

Calling it the North Pole, when it is actually South.
Falls into that "What to Hell Was You Thinking" Category!
B_T

To paraphrase a Jim Gaffigan joke, it's like the male seahorse. Male seahorse has the babies. That's not right...

[Dogface]

Hello all,
If I may jump in here, only a very occasional poster and newb to pickup building. Over on the Talk Bass forum I asked about changing slugs to alnico poles on lower end P-bass pickups.
( David may remember, he replied). I need to know, which pole should be at the top, and when I test them with a compass, what should I be looking for ?

One poster even suggested leaving the original ceramic bars in place, any observations on this ? Many thanks

[big_teee]

Hello all,
If I may jump in here, only a very occasional poster and newb to pickup building. Over on the Talk Bass forum I asked about changing slugs to alnico poles on lower end P-bass pickups.
( David may remember, he replied). I need to know, which pole should be at the top, and when I test them with a compass, what should I be looking for ?

One poster even suggested leaving the original ceramic bars in place, any observations on this ? Many thanks

Here's a video that shows upgrading strat Pickups.
Same would apply to P-Bass Pickups.
Yes you do want to remove the ceramic magnets.
On Polarity make sure one Bobbin has it's magnets north up and the other bobbin is south up and it should work fine.
iMojo Upgrading Your Pickups Video Tutorial
Good Luck,
Terry

[Dogface]

Many thanks ! Looking forward to looking at it once the dust settles for the day.