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Hi guys,
In the interest of disseminating knowledge, and possibly helping define more tone vocabulary, I thought I'd start a thread regarding my recent working with Alnico 4. This is not definitive, but I'd like to see if it is valuable. Please chime in, all terse and rude comments welcome too (you know who you are!).
The Experiment:
I've been winding one set of coils, and then experimenting with the magnet. This is soderon 42AWG (pvc I think?), bobbins from GJ, 50mm, regular slugs and screws also GJ. Bridge position. The p'up was wound to 9.1k resistance. Ibanez ARC160, all Mahogany.
Take one and two: The original had A5 magnets. Pretty nice, but not enough highs in a mahogany body, a bit lackluster. Switched to A8. Yummy! Nice highs, lots of output, maybe a bit compressed, but OK if you can control your volume knob. Still bassy enough for the "chug".
A4: The A4 is from Mojo, magnetized with Neo discs from StewMac. This magnet is often placed in pickups that need to sound "Brown." The overall effect is that the lows and highs are almost identical to A5, but something very interesting happens. At first I didn't catch it, but as I began to throw all the usual power chords and mode scales at it, I noticed that the harmonics were jumping out much more easily. The sound is warm (aka, good upper content, harmonically rich). I read somewhere that A4 adds upper mids, so that might be the reason for the increased harmonic content. Next I'll put the magnet in a 14.2k bridge in a strat and see what happens.
Terms that need definition:
Brown. As far as I can tell, this magnet jives completely with the definition I have heard: warm, full, defined highs, enough output to cause an amp to break up smoothly. Very 70's. I'd add an interesting ability toward harmonic content.
Warm. I'd like to hear more from you about this
TIA for you input.
In the interest of disseminating knowledge, and possibly helping define more tone vocabulary, I thought I'd start a thread regarding my recent working with Alnico 4. This is not definitive, but I'd like to see if it is valuable. Please chime in, all terse and rude comments welcome too (you know who you are!).
The Experiment:
I've been winding one set of coils, and then experimenting with the magnet. This is soderon 42AWG (pvc I think?), bobbins from GJ, 50mm, regular slugs and screws also GJ. Bridge position. The p'up was wound to 9.1k resistance. Ibanez ARC160, all Mahogany.
Take one and two: The original had A5 magnets. Pretty nice, but not enough highs in a mahogany body, a bit lackluster. Switched to A8. Yummy! Nice highs, lots of output, maybe a bit compressed, but OK if you can control your volume knob. Still bassy enough for the "chug".
A4: The A4 is from Mojo, magnetized with Neo discs from StewMac. This magnet is often placed in pickups that need to sound "Brown." The overall effect is that the lows and highs are almost identical to A5, but something very interesting happens. At first I didn't catch it, but as I began to throw all the usual power chords and mode scales at it, I noticed that the harmonics were jumping out much more easily. The sound is warm (aka, good upper content, harmonically rich). I read somewhere that A4 adds upper mids, so that might be the reason for the increased harmonic content. Next I'll put the magnet in a 14.2k bridge in a strat and see what happens.
Terms that need definition:
Brown. As far as I can tell, this magnet jives completely with the definition I have heard: warm, full, defined highs, enough output to cause an amp to break up smoothly. Very 70's. I'd add an interesting ability toward harmonic content.
Warm. I'd like to hear more from you about this
TIA for you input.
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