Where is all this CuNiFe coming from?

[jop120]

So I've noticed over the last couple of years that a bunch of medium size pickup makers are advertising they now have access to real CuNiFe magnets for WR humbuckers. I've sent out emails to every magnet manufacturer I know of and they all tell me they can't do CuNiFe and the closest I can get are the FeCrCo ones (which actually make a really great sounding pickup, but the customers are always asking "are they real CuNiFe")

Does anyone know where these are coming from? Or I wonder if they're really just using FeCrCo and telling people they're CuNiFe.

cheers

[tedmich]

The answer is invariably...China!
possibly kedemagnetics.com or AEMagants.com?

Nice ductile material, machinability at 20% brass, but sonically probably snake oil

[J M Fahey]

Guess the stumbling block is minimum order, which I estimate in 5 Tons (a single 1 cubic meter crucible).

Even if technically capable, knowing the best "recipe", etc., no Metals company can do less than that.

So IF some other Industry uses CuNiFe, maybe somebody will mix a batch; the Guitar Pickup market is way too small to justify that by itself.

[jop120]

Yeh, I just figured since there are a few smaller pickup makers who are advertising that "their supplier" is now making them, that it was just a case of finding out who.

I'm not expecting someone to make the alloy from scratch. I'm only looking to order around a thousand magnets.

Already tried AE, Kede and YangYi, plus a few I don't know, but no luck.

Yeh, I do expect that there's a snake oil aspect to them, the actual WR humbuckers I've heard didn't even sound that good, but then they were wound with polysol which makes me want to put down a guitar and go to sleep. The ones I make with FeCrCo and HFV sound better, but that may be down to the magnet wire.

I'm off to NAMM next week (if the fires allow), I'll do some digging there and if I come up with anything I'll let people know.

[jop120]

So at this point I'm pretty sure I've asked every magnet manufacturer out there and they all say they can't do CuNiFe. So I guess if people are advertising they have them, they've either had a foundry mix the alloy, or they're really just using FeCrCo and selling it as CuNiFe.
For anyone looking for FeCrCo, YY in China do them for 2bucks each with an MOQ of 100pcs, which was the best I found.

cheers