Confused by pick up magnets

[Billyboygretsch]

Ceramic Alnico various and now NM.
Can someone offer a guide as to what the differences are and what are the benefits and pitfalls. Some poo poo Ceramic and what's NM all about ?
Thanks

[scmitche]

Hi,
I think NM refers to Neodymium magnet material. It's one of the most powerful magnets on Earth and is used in some high power loudspeakers as it is also lower density and hence quite light.

It's worth reading a lot of the old articles by Bill Lawrence on pickup magnets, cores and construction. Then you start to realise that pickups with ceramic magnets can be made to sound good, e.g. Godin pickups. The main reason they all sound different is often down to the inductive properties of the pole pieces particularly in Strat pickups, i.e. large inductance = lower resonant frequency and vice-versa. Bill always said that a magnet is a magnet but that its different properties must be taken into account when designing and winding the pickup.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Steve

[Uncle Fiesta]

Well many people criticise ceramic magnets but not all pickups fitted with them are rubbish. Many humbuckers use them, also the DiMarzio SDS-1 which is among my favourite Strat pickups.

I think the 'ceramics are rubbish' sentiment stems from the fact that they tend to be fitted to cheap and nasty pickups, but these can be rubbish for other reasons and not just the magnets.

On the other hand I have found that if you take a basic Squier type pickup, pull the ceramic magnet off the bottom, tap out the steel polepieces and replace them with a set of Alnico 5 slug magnets ... it sounds brilliant.

[scmitche]

Your comment about basic Squier pickups' modification reinforces exactly what Bill Lawrence used to say.
Assuming that the coils weren't damaged by removing the steel pole-pieces and pressing in the AlNiCo ones you will have changed the inductance of the pickup due to the change in material type, which shows that the Squier pickups haven't had the number of windings and/or wire diameter optimised for a ceramic magnet setup.
I have a Godin SD with ceramic pickups that sounds superb but my son in law's Squier sounded very thin until the ceramics were changed to AlNiCo ones. My Burns Marquee went up several notches in my estimation when I fitted Texas Special specification AlNiCo pickups.

Has anyone out there tried the neodymium magnet pickups?
Regards,
Steve

[Billyboygretsch]

I have just bought some Enrwistle ND magnet pick ups but am waiting to fit them. Will keep you informed