You are correct, sir. I'm guessing there isn't a lot of wire on those coils, so they start off thin and bright, and the alnico magnet just emphasizes that.
@@brunocejas No. A microphones has a diaphragm that moves in response to sound waves. A magnetic guitar pickup works when a metal string moves within a magnetic field--it doesn't pick up actual sound waves.
I am a welder and have been setting up + modifying guitars for over 25 years now. Never thought to use torch tip cleaners as a nut file. Thats a freaking great idea! Thanks!
i havent tried modding a pickup yet but the knowledge ive gained from this video and your others has nonetheless allowed me to make smarter purchases and get beautiful sound. thanks heavymetalATC!
If you have one of the pickups that you can't change the pole pieces, you can still put alnico bar magnets on to get the sound. You do such a good job emphasizing the obvious, I'm surprised you skipped it. Great vid, thanks.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Troy. Yeah, I guess I dropped the ball on that one. I guess I just didnt think to include it because Ive never actually tried it myself. I should put that in my notes though and plan to include it in a future video.
@@heavymetalATC thanks, the neodymium work you have posted has had me paying a lot more attention to all the different ways that pickups are built, and has given me some ideas. I plan on repeating most of it. I love the sound of a cheap pup with a neodymium bar. I think it's the same principle as G& L's MFD's. Please keep posting. I have learned a lot.
That will not work, because the iron slugs in the coil need to be removed to change the sound. The magnetic flux change from the string entering an alnico magnet is different from the magnetic flux channelled through iron. It should not matter much what magnet type is magnetising the iron, only the flux change entering the coil matters!
@@atraneberlin1977 have you tried it? How do you know it will not work? A very basic understanding of physics will let you know it will change something. Whether or not you'll like the change is entirely on you. But it is really simple to find out.
The middle pickup being opposite polarity isn't what gives you "the quacky sound" in the inbetween positions (unless the pickup is wired out of phase, which then does indeed further emphasize the quack). It's what makes the inbetween positions hum cancelling, because the two pickups with their opposite polarities essentially turn into the coils of a humbucker.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Baron. It really did get that vintage bell-clear slinky sound. Yeah Im always gonna try to tinker with something before I go spending $... Because I have no $ hahaha
but how else will some dude charge $500 a pop for some PAFs he made in his garage (which is to imply you could make them in your garage too. or even a bedroom!)
"Improvement" is in the ear of the listener. With those pickups, in this test, I much prefer the ceramic. Perhaps with a beefier coil the alnico would be an improvement. But here they just sound thin and brittle.
Hey now! I heard you saying in one of your videos that for the subject matter of swapping magnets in pups you get better bass response in this order: alnico, then ceramic and then neodymium. That said, would be great to have a reference for doing that, I mean taking one or even better, several coils resistance measurements as examples, that way anyone could look specifically for the type of magnets for their needs/preferences to swap them having a more certain scenario regarding on what to expect. I'm asking because I saw several cases where they change magnets and get the opposite result they were looking for. Cheers!
Well I'm torn. I actually liked the ceramic tone better in a few cases, especially the Klon boost neck and middle. The harsher, more twangy and metallic sound of the Alnicos didn't come into their own for me until the overdrive pedal entered the mix. That's both the delight and downside of tone: it's very subjective. Regardless, this was an excellent video on how these pickups actually work and what can be done to change the tone - well done!
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Absolutely Ceramic pickups can be awesome! Fat bottoms and more grit. I love the ceramics in my burl Tele. I do like that vintage bell tone chime though, if I now add a bit of bass to the preamp and crank the volume I think it will still chug like the ceramics but also sparkle.
You could split the bar and only replace the upper three slugs. I have seen mixed alnico 5/2 pickups, why not do it with ceramics. Maybe score the bar with a glass-cutter first
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Stevie. Yeah nothing wrong with them at all. I just needed that thinner vintage sound for tickling a fatboy loud tubby tube amp the right way. They the bees knees on it but yeah for low volume playing or super aggressive music ceramic is the better deal.
I NEED to stop finding these sick videos on mods... I opened my MiM strat to switch 1 pot, and now it’s been 3 months and I can’t stop: coil split, concentric treble and bass cut, 10-way selector switch, shielding, artec QDD2 (check it out), and now I want to do this. It never ends, it’s so fun.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Arthur. Yeah I was well pleased personally much more clarity and way more laid back, they kill with chuggy srv sparkle on a big tubby tube amp now.
Love the content... but curious if you just bought an alnico bar would it have had close to the same result? Or at least a distinct improvement? Cause that would be cool to see also
I like the sound of the alnicos more. Thank you for this awesome instructional video! I have serval sets of ceramic single coils and I think I'll order some alnico slugs and try this.
Thanks again Lou. I really dont know as I haven't tried it myself but I will put that in my notes and plan to do an experiment in a future video. Someone else mentioned the same thing.
i can't really give an answer to this but my experience has been pretty much all ceramics have a midrange compression that kills the high end. i'm an alnico guy
Thank you so much spaceandstuff. I'm always trying to collect and improve my gear but some of them like that Tele I know I cant touch it'll kill the vibe. Its perfect just like it is.
Thank you so much for watching I'm glad you dig the videos as well as the funky background music. I used to be a pretty serious underground rapper and music producer. I was managed by a DJ that ran a radio station in New York, I was signed to BMI (I think I'm still currently under contract for publishing), ICP featured me on Juggalo news... I just kinda slowly fell out of it, if you dont keep the music coming you lose all the steam you built up fast So nowadays I just make music on the side for fun and I'll slip it in as background music in the videos. After all I started collecting modding and building gear to make music. I'm glad you noticed it, That's awesome. I did this one trying to play classical guitar with only two fingers like Django Reinhardt or my buddy Petey TwoFinger. Then I did percussion using tin cans and bongos and stuff. It came out pretty funky so I looped 2 sections and threw a hip-hop beat on top and used it as a background track.
@@heavymetalATC As bass player i ve notice that)).This great.Ive built my first guitar in the summer of 98 (it was explorer from birch plywood x D) and since then i one or another way build pickups guitars etc ).In these old days yo cant geat a gerar because of overpricing .But instead i was ham-radio amator studied this things in Radio classes(local)(and freins too xD) so i start to built monsterous distortion pedals out of soviet chips.then was modding hi fi amplifiers .then learn a guitar gear ( mainly Marshalls (he is great man and genius).
I had one of these cheap bullet Squires. The pickups were decent, plugging into a good amp helps. I liked that the humbucker had 3 screws to keep it from moving, more stable. The polarity has nothing to do with the "quacky" sound. It cuts the hum when using 2 pickups at once. I think that quacky sound you're thinking is if the phase is reversed, not the polarity
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Lou. Yes, those humbuckers will also let you angle the pickup more toward the bridge or the middle kinda like an EQ, may not be "proper" but it works. You've gotta consider that there is coil polarity as well as magnetic polarity. Flipping the polarity of a magnet will put a pickup in and out of phase with another. As well as winding a coil clockwise or counterclockwise will put a pickup in or out of phase you can also switch the wires + to - to flip the phase. The middle pickup in the video is both reverse wound and reverse polarity so it is out of phase twice putting it back in phase and this does cancel the hum, but my own experiments have shown me that the RWRP hum-cancelling has a bit of a different sound it rolls highs a little and has mid quack a lot better than two pickups with identical coil and magnetic polarity. Of corse there are other factors that help, pickup height, pickups strength matched or unmatched. Yeah, actual out of phase combo whether done with the coil or the magnet is definitely noticeable it kills all the bass and sounds super nasal and thin. The other strat I played briefly in the video has a ton of switches in it as its wired to swap coil polarity for in out of phase combinations as well as series/parallel but I kept all the pickups in magnetic phase so it really doesnt seem to "strat quack" quite as well. I can however do awesome jazz box humbucker and out of phase tele kinda tones.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment MET3. I Like both Ceramic pickups and Alnico pickups but for different reasons. In a mix/band setting especially when using an 60s fuzz circuit with the volume dialed back to edge of breakup lower wind count Alnicos do some kinda chuggy jangle thing? But its a great tone to have for cutting into a mix. Another thing is... the volume and tone on the amp was set for ceramic as well as having the low wind count with a bigger tube amp cranked up its the beez kneez. You can hear a good example on the fuzzface/rangemaster hybrid pedal video a few episodes back. No doubt though Ceramics are Awesome for low volume bassy chunky SRV sounds or even heavy rock to punk rock grungy tones. Ceramic Telecaster pickups can be pretty darn sweet too, jazz + Twang. I think I kinda like most all pickups I just love trying all the different configurations of parts and materials.
Brilliant. Am thinking about how to apply the idea to one of the guitars I have. I do not need to buy another guitar. I do not need to buy another guitar. I do not need to buy another guitar. I do not need to buy another guitar.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave kind words Erick. I should be doing a review on a chambered f-hole thinline tele thats only $120 soon... Seems like it might be a heck of a modification platform for the guy that "doesnt need another guitar" Hahaha
I have done this in the past, but now you can buy full A5 strat sets for under $10. I compared them to my Texas specials which cost 10 times that much and I swapped them out and gave the Texas specials away.
Thanks for the vids subbed and liked. I dont get why you had to charge the magnets as they came charged. In that way you could have charged the slugs that were already in there?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Daniel. I dont have any specific or scientific answer but I guess 4-5 times for a decent charge and 10+ to be damn sure? Hahaha I really dont have enough experience doing it to have a great answer. :)
I have been doing this for quite some time. I noticed that most ceramic single coils are around 5k, some even lower. So I add some more coils to the existing one, winding in the same direction of it, till getting 6k or more. It's much better.
@@elwrongo you simply get more 42 gauge wire, solder it to the end of the coil and wind around the existing coil. Those cheap ceramic pickups normally have enough space to stack up a lot more windings.
When you are charging up the alnicos with the old ceramic bar magnets, just tape a small strip of corrugated cardboard to each bar. You can then just run them back and forth and the cardboard will make it easy to maintain an even distance.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment PT. Nothing wrong with that at all. Yes it was thin sounding too with this rig. I usually play with a bigger size tubby-flubby tube amp on the edge and then often with a fat germanium preamp so that thinner oldschool pickup sound will co-operate better with that stuff for me. (its whiney hahaha) If im playing more aggressive music or using a modeller or multiFX with solid state amps I definitely want a hot loud ceramic.
wow thats really interesting how you charge them... you do such good handy work , its a joy watching along . i wish i had the patience to film my work i just work and then run my mouth after the fact . this is a lot more fun to watch pal . your hard work is not lost on me . the sound comparisons are excellent and its funny how the ceramic does not soun as terrible as i have read in the past but i also have a set in my cort 45 and i love the sound since i installed them . it had duncin (doughnuts?) design in there that i got for 5 dollars as one tab was broke off but i used some jb weld . you live and learn hopefully . thats one thing that sets this channel apart lack of hype mispeak group-think general marketing influenced bullshit that feeds the comment sections and forums . this is why i try to keep an opened mind , think for myself , hear with my hears and never take anything i read in a comment section or forum seriously until i have tried it for myself . a lot of people mean well but a lot of people are wrong. ultimately yes of course we do need gear, (not too long ago almost all players pretended you didnt need pedals remember that i do and i was chastized badly for using them- even kicked out of an open mic for using a board with a single power supply , big muff and eq and a delay pedal on it! - you dont need all that sh@t here and if you do you are not welcome to come back. Now that everyone is ok with using pedals does your rig have to be rediculously expensive for you to be taken seriously ? (yes - 3x strymon guy i am lookin your way) do we need to constantly be buying the latest greatest thing when what we allready have is absolutely excellent ? that all comes down to your point of view / personal preference but its kind of moot point to anyone but some other guitar player who is judging you on your gear. its the sort of stuff that only guitar players themselves care about , no one listening would ever think of or cross their mind but have become very important to a lot of us , this stuff snowballs into myths and then social laws . if you go against the grain you are labelled some kid in a bedroom with a line 6 by people who may talk big in the comments but when you look a little deeper these types never have a single iotta of work to show for their talkin . our gear does not define us , this is the job of our MUSIC , now if you do not have ANY music well then YOU sir have a problem . keep on rockin in the free world clem .
Thank you so much for watching Petey. I do like to tinker with stuff but it is a heck of an added workload to get everything out and set up and put lighting and camera on there and make sure its all in focus and proper aperture settings and all that stuff. I have looked of at my old lady before when I was up for like 2 days editing and said man Petey is one person I know that does truly understand what actually goes into all this. This one wasn't too terribly bad but adding a close mic to the amp did end up with an extra step in editing at least I didn't have to try to mix or tune and blend it or anything as it was just a dry mic for comparison. The hardest part for me was trying to play what I already played days before. I don't operate like that I just play by cutting my brain off and letting my hands take off so trying to copy my own parts was a bastard. I had to listen to them and watch my hands and take a few cracks at each one. Yeah, nothing wrong with ceramic pickups at all. I think they just get a bad wrap because a lot of really cheapo pickups use super strong ceramic to get away with a super low wind count to save money so they end up ear-piercing grimy pickups with no balls. Decent ones are warm and strong. It has surprised me how much the popular consensus is exactly opposite of the truth ask any guitar forum besides a pickup winding forum put in order from warmest to brightest... Alnico, Ceramic and Neodymium. They will say Neo is brightest and Alnico is warmest... NOPE! opposite. I dont think its even the actual magnet composition I just think as more magnetism is added they make more bass. So I have a pretty damn cool high tech experiment coming up soon. I'll prove it once and for all. I know this dude named Timmy Wayne and he is a great guitar player but he is so against pedals... I showed him the fuzz I built for my dad its got a capacitor switch that changes from overdrive sound to like maestro velcro tone. He's like naw, I don't USE THOSE! My tone is in my fingers. He plays... Guess it. Yep an old timey Les Paul Burst thats worth more than my whole life and a Marshall blues breaker combo is his practice and travel amp his home amp is a Plexy full stack. I played the combo and it was awesome but he saw me turning the volume knob on the amp for gain and I saw him looking at me funny... I said yeah I bet you just use the guitar volume huh? He said yep. Then I hear him whisper to his girlfriend yeah thats what I used to do too before I had TONE. I have come to kinda hate this word tone... for a long time I didnt get it, I was like well tone means either it has treble or bass or it doesnt and to an extent I still think thats kinda at the heart of it. People just dont realize what a 6 band EQ could do to "tone" but I didnt know people meant the gain, the speaker, the way you pick, the reverb, the pickups, the color of your jacket... apparently whole damn thing is "tone"??? I didnt say it but I was thinking yeah, I understand what an RC circuit is and if you don't have a treble bleed then when you turn that volume knob down your TONE is bleeding to ground, but I guess when you have a muffled I mean "warm" guitar you cant really tell. LOL I will fully admit though that I have become a gear fiend myself. Its only because this is like basically the ultimate time in history to become that way. I can get guitars and pedals on reverb or amazon for almost nothing and the used market is so saturated at thrift stores and pawn shops and their are companies like Mooer, Monoprice and Glarry. There are 60 yr old speakers, amp parts, tubes, chips and transistors on ebay and I'll keep using this Channel as an excuse to stroke my hoarding and as long as any company wants to send me something I'll take it and tell the viewers if I think it sucks or not and let them hear it and decide. I was a much better guitar player back when I had only 2 Strats 1 twin reverb amp and 1 multi-FX pedal for 8-10 years. I was practiced and intimate with them and damn good at using them. I really should be making more music than I do but I still remember what all the gear is for from time to time but it just doesn't seem so important for me to get it out anymore. There are a lot of songs on that hard drive in the studio room. I use one for background music or something from time to time but I guess they are just in waiting... for what I don't know but they are waiting. Take it easy brother and thank you so much for all the kind words, interest and interaction.
Great video... Not sure if it really made that much of a difference..like mentioned in the video... ceramics are not necessarily bad..and if you like fat tones... They actually deliver quite well..but the video was awesome and educational..good work thanks for sharing
I used Alnico 5 for the 3 lower strings and Alnico 2 for the three higher strings for deep low and smooth highs. Nice demo. Like the Alnico the most cause they sound better in overdrive and distortion to my ears. And yes i tried neodymium magnets but I did not like the tone.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment snakebite. Yes that is a great idea I have had similar suggested to me but never tried it. Yes.. The thing many people didnt seem to consider is the way the guitar would sound with a fat tubby tube amp or a lot of gain. In a mix you dont want that fat ceramic sound its great in a cheap amp and in a bedroom though cause its fat and loud. Ceramic just also dont caress tubes on the edge of fizz the same? Yeah, I found that with neodymium its the opposite of alnico its so strong its all bass no highs so you have to build a pickup around that and make a weak coil or place the magnets in a less direct path to "turn it down" so to speak. I did that whole rabbithole on the channel good tools to have in the box for later builds I reckon.
I just did this to an early 2000s Pacifica 012, Alnico 5 poles, worked a treat. Cheers. I always loved how this guitar played, but those ceramics were a brittle approximation of a strat tone. Now I have a proper strat tone. Cheers.
I bought a cheap SX Strat and the sound of its cheap Ceramic pickups like me much more than a set of Fender Custom Shop 69 loaded in my Fender American Standard from 2011... More expensive is not always better. In your case the Ceramics have more mids and the AlNiCos are mid scooped, in my case it's the opposite, the Ceramics are more scooped than the 69s, it's incredible, they sound amazing.
Great video about how a minor change such as magnet type can really change characteristics of your sound. One pickup can sound good in a guitar but sound great in a different guitar sometimes. Pairing a pickup with a guitar is a thing as well. I have some China pickups that squeal and it hurts your ears at anywhere close to over 80db. My wife was like "what are you doing?!? STOP! I of course took them out and put in better USA pickups but I am curious if it is the magnets, the type of wire, the amount of turns or what that makes them so squealy. At low volume they actually sounded lively and pretty usable but man do NOT turn them up!! If you want I could send you one or two. I had 3 guitars come with them. I began to try and yank them apart but the cover solder was really not melting and the wax was dripping out so I quit. Probably have to cut covers off with a dremel or something. Anyway let me know if you want to do a video on them I can send a few your way. I was thinking about doing one myself but like I said it did not cooperate and my patience that day had gone. Plus I am not as seasoned a pickup maker so likely the cause could escape me.
Just curious, can't I just replace the ceramic magnet with a Alnico bar magnet(like humbucker) and glue it underneath the pickup instead of replacing all the rod?
Yes, you can but make sure the bar magnet has it's magnetic poles in the right sides (I mean the side toward the pole pieces), since the magnets used in humbuckers has it's magnetic poles in the thinner sides.
Thanks for the info, I just bought a set of used Fender American standard A5 pickup for $30 from a friend. I guess the bar magnet thing isn't really a good idea lol.
Have you (or someone) ever tried to hybrid the magnets? For instance, a humbucker is usually a ceramic horizontal bar with steel vertical poles. Instead of steel poles, adding alnico cylinders (like those on a strat) to the ceramic bar. Or using a ceramic cylinder (with half height) on top of an alnico one, or vice-versa. Or in something like a strat pickup, which has alnico cylinders but adding ceramic cylinders between them, stuff like that. There is the magnetic pull factor, but i guess alnicos are not brutal. This is a great channel.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Takhian. I think you are right I need to do some kinda bass content on the channel. I'll put that in my notes and see if I can makes some moves towards that happening.
Do you think it’d work to use a heat gun to melt the wax such that it’d solidify and stick to the new poles? Essentially re-potting without re-potting to prevent microphonics
Obi-Wan. What is a cheap and easy way to make weak pickups have more giddyup? I don't want to buy expensive TV Jones pickups. They are filtertron bass pickups.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Michael. I had many people say they actually liked the Ceramic but when The Alnico is put into a big tube amp at stage volume it does a jangly thing that is great to cut into a mix and generally it just sounds like old records at least to me, but then there is always placebo effect. Hahaha Yeah I really dig the Alnico myself it works great with fuzz circuits when the volume is low for a punchy clean sound too.
Thank you so much Deja. It was a tough for me to try to play the same thing 2 times for the A/B comparison as I usually just play by feel but I got it done ok. I am glad you enjoyed the video.
Can you please, share the kohms from the "alnico" pickups ... and the values of the stock pickup magnets. You use a preamp and that hides the weakness of the ceramic pickups. I think the diffrence lies in the preamp (volume) and Neodynium magnets (brightness/piercing highs) in your demo. I'll do this mod in my next squier, they are better that their big brother Strat. Neck is way better and body are thinner.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. The coil used in both sets is identical. its THE same ones. SO resistance of both sets would be the same about 5.7k it never changed. Having less magnet strength is what made it quieter. Those are legit alnico magnets in the weaker sounding pickup not neodymium, ceramic pickups are stronger and bassier than alnico and neodymium is even stronger and bassier than ceramic. Everyone has it backwards for some reason (i suspect marketing) and Ive been making videos for years to prove it. The pre amp aint hiding the weakness of ceramic cause ceramic is stronger. the weakest sounding pickup you can get is alnico because alnico is the weakest magnet.... but With a fat sounding tube amp cranked up that weak pickup sounds amazing and clear, that ceramic pickup sounds flubby and the neo is blowing the speakers with bass, in a bedroom setting with a quiet amp it sounds better to have a stronger magnet.
@@heavymetalATC I've changed the bar magnet in 2 chinese humbuckers for a Neodynium ones and the tone was ... bad ... I was expecting something stronger and fat ... so I ended buying another set of humbuckers (12 kohms) to get what I wanted: SC tones (6 kohms and HB vintage to moderm tones (8-12 k ohms). My experimentes with Neodynium ended. Your mod, btw, is perfect. Thabx for your response ¡¡¡
That pixellated crotch makes me wonder about where you got the idea--LMAO! I feel like both sounds have their purposes, but I really felt like the alnico mod was an overall improvement. I guess that's to be expected, given the premium price on new pups with alnicos. Still glad to see you back!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a Kind comment Rob. Yeah, I don't have a problem with ceramic pickups at all myself and Im sure some people would prefer that sound due to the bass and grit. I could always turn the bass and gain up on the preamp and make up for that while retaining sparkle or fully charge the magnets for more bite and low end. I just thought it would be a cool project to show everyone how to save some $s. Thanks again Rob, glad you are glad im back cause Im glad to be back. UA-cam is a heck of a lot of work TBH but I have been working on landing some product reviews with companies and trying to keep a decent schedule and I think the youtube robot is noticing my #s look like they are rising so Right ON!
I think the main difference is the field strength of the magnets. I recently bought a Squier Infinity Tele with ceramic pups and compared it to my Tele with Vintage 65 Jazzmaster pups, recorded one in the left and the other in the right channel playing the same patterns. They both sounded the same. Both had 250K pots. I changed the JM to 1 Meg vol pot and 25k tone pot. There is and unmistakably difference now. Windings and pots make more difference than magnets.
The field strength and location is absolutely the only real "scientific" difference that happened in the video. You can design a pickup around different magnet types and strengths to mimic the sound of others by slight changes in winding pattern/scatter amount, magnet wire size and amount, magnet wire coating types, back plate and pole piece materials and configurations. This video does however show exactly what alnico magnets sound like in comparison to a ferrous slug and ceramic bar configuration all other variables identical. In the past videos I have used self made bobbins and designs to get the tone of vintage Alnico pickups with fiber flatwork and formvar wiring from DIY pickups using neodymium magnets with wood flatwork and poly wire by under-winding with tons of scatter and changing the dimensions of the bobbin perversely to shape the tone. lots of experimenting to go yet though like maybe a lifetime... Your very right about pot values, that extra signal not bleeding to ground especially in the high end makes a heck of an audible difference and if you play the edge of breakup tuby kinda gain the feel can change day and nigh on how it bumps the amp into breakup. man I love talking and learning about this stuff either in comments or videos or reading books.
@@heavymetalATC Ceramic magnets have gotten a bad rap throughout the years. This all started I believe back in the late 50s and early 60s as many imports from Japan used ceramic magnets. Most of them were hand wound and not stable on tension plus scatter wound and were not potted. They were indeed harsh and very microphonic. That being said, I'm talking about mostly the imports that sold for a range from $40 to $100. The very late 60s Cort, Samick, Ibanez, Yamaha and a few others started making better pickups.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Uncle dad! No I havent tried it on this one yet, I do keep the neck pickup just about sunk below the guard on the other strat I played briefly in the video though so Im sure it will get adjusted.
Absolutely. I was just helping the string fit better not taking it down or widening the whole slot mostly opening it up towards the headstock to keep it from slipping while leaving the edge toward fretboard more or less close to the same.
If you have a ceramic magnet, you probably don't have enough copper wire either, as the two methods of making a cheap pickup go hand in hand. But you could hardly make the pickup any worse if you killed it trying. I do have a set of Japanese strat pickups with dual ceramic magnets either side of the pole pieces, which I do like, they have a stratty but different tone.
I've done this a few times and it definitely improved the tone. But... I think Fender discovered that around 7,000 winds was the Goldilocks number for the right tone. Squier pickups use fewer winds to save copper and stronger magnets to compensate, I believe (and probably to keep Squiers inferior to Fenders off the shelf). Apart from that, is it really the magnet material or could it be just having separate magnets for/near each string? How does an AlNiCo bar magnet compare to AlNiCo pole pieces or a ceramic bar? One variation on this might be to split ceramic or strong rubber bar magnets into six pieces and glue it to each of the pole-piece rods, compare it to single bar. Another one would be to somehow split a ceramic bar into six equal pieces and stick them in sideways (if it's a humbucker type with polarity on the edges). This is just stuff I wondered while I was doing this, someone might want to see. Cheers.
I'm really enjoying your videos. I´ve started playing guitars about 6 months ago, but im enjoying tinkering with my setup way more. Im currently routing a guitar hollow to make an acoustic sounding guitar. Have you tried anything like that?
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Sanlo. I am so glad you enjoy the videos. I have not built a hollow body or chambered guitar yet but I do plan on doing so in the future as I have a lot of oak and chestnut that is very heavy and I would like to use it as a core with a cedar or pine top for resonance and weight savings.
Wow I like the ceramic sound better. It's warmer. Alnicos sounds good if you like that spank. I like a little warmer tone on strats like alnico 2 pickups.
Hi , I have a question! I own Squier Start with ceramic HSS . Can I change only one pickup , to have 1 ceramic hambucker , 1 single alnico on mid position , and one ceramic on neck? Thanx
AlNiCo is just a big lie that is most cases s used to overprice pickups. Pairing properly the amount of copper and the magnetic strength will give the best tone, being ceramic or AlNiCo.
Being a Squire, it needed 500k pots for those ceramic pickups. Alnico should be tamed down with either 250k pots - or now you have the opportunity to run long cable lengths and welcome how the cable capacitances runs off the high end
What gets me is that if it cost you 10 something on eBay for a guitar company they would cost, at most, 1 dollar (more like 25-75 cents) so they saved about 50 cents using the ceramic bar magnets.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment General. Yeah, I dont know if its availability ease of manufacture or what? Maybe those companies just all started using stronger magnets so they could use less wire and save money that way and its a "hold over" either way the bassier sound of ceramic pickups do tend to sound better on smaller cheap amps that come with cheap guitar packs?
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, by the way, you have a lot of knowledge about guitar stuff, could you make a video about smart guitar shopping please? Let's say pickups, lots of company's try to sell you snake oil, like the Seymour Duncan Zephyrs
To my ear ceramic vs alnico... to me ceramic sounds a little mid scooped so great for metal especially if your shooting for a dimebag tone. But alnico sounds much fuller better for bluesy tones.
Some think that when you reverse wire the middle pickup for humcancelling you lose highs when playing positions 2 and 4 vs. the non-humbucking alternative. What's your opinion?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment T.U. I think it depends on the middle pickup being reverse wound or not. With this RWRP middle pickup it does mid quack and lose a little highs but if I were to flip polarity on it then it would be magnetically out of phase and then it would definitely have a lot of highs... and only highs LOL If it weren't reverse wound and the magnets were in the same polarity it would be just a clean strong sound like a telecaster in the middle position but... it wouldn't hum-cancel or mid quack. I personally like those 2-4 sounds as its just the strat-sound to me like SRV or Sultans of Swing.
There is a lot of discussion on this as I am sure you know, its in my experiments that Ive found the RWRP to quack more but at the same time lowering and raising the pickups have a lot to do with it as well as the strength of the two in relation to one another, matched or unmatched.
@@heavymetalATC Oops. I didn't mean change the polarity. I meant reverse the wiring for a humbucking effect. I changed my original post to reflect that. So you do observe a loss of highs when using a reversed middle pickup. I thought I did as well. I removed the hum-cancelling option from my guitar for that reason. Too much of a tone change when going from a single pickup to two in hum-cancel mode.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Elmarg. If you can find a cheap loaded pick guard or something similar from ebay or amazon you can stick that on and be good?
Is there a way to verify that those are in fact ALNICO slugs? Judging from the origin on the e-bay screenshot, can't be too sure :P Not that it matters if you get what you want out of them, of course.
You can take one and try to magnetise it to the opposite poles. If you can, it's most certainly Alnico. If not, it's neodymium. Also, Alnico has a relatively weak magnetic strength, way weaker than neodymium. If you're somewhat familiar with the thing, you won't confuse them at all.
I don't see a reason why they should lie about that. I recently bought some AlNiCo and Neodymium magnets and I have to say the price difference isn't that big. It's like 80 cents for one AlNiCo magnet and 60 cents for neodymium one.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Avi. You know I had not even considered that they may not be real alnico? If Id have got um and they were plain steel or something Id have been pissed. But as Jose said if you are familiar with them and the way they work its pretty easy to determine that they are alnico. They have the right look and they took and held a charge from the other magnets. They were pretty weak right out of the pack. Also as Michal stated Alnico magnets arent really very expensive to produce its just aluminum nickel and cobalt. The name brand pickup companies sure do think they are worth a lot once they wind a coil around them though LOL The p90 I used in the last video was only $20 and it was Alnico. Kudos on you though man, that never crossed my mind and it could possibly be some other alloy and Id never know as long as the properties were the same.
Alnico is just an acronym; Al-Ni-Co which are the periodic table names for aluminium + nickel + cobalt. It's not a brand or anything. The numerals like II, III, IV, V and VIII that you might see in a guitar just represent the ratios of each material in the magnets composition. AlNiCo is probably the cheapest way to get slugs in that size as making anything else conform to that standard to be cheaper than commercial AlNiCo would require setting up a pretty serious factory.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Woo. LOL yeah, it just seemed to kind of give them a much clearer bell like vintage tone... you can really hear the strings, If one was going for a bigger fatter sound Neo bars would have done it up... Funny thing is this is the opposite of what you will read in a guitar forum. Nope more magnet = more bass in "reality" when you actually try things Hahaha
Both have their uses. It seems very popular to praise Alnico mics these days, but personally, I do not think they suit for everything, they have a quite shrill top end, specially if you run them trough 500kO potks. If you have dark sounding speakers fine, but if not, they rip your ears apart.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment Jesse. Yes, I agree I was modding this guitar more for use with a warm tube amps rather than the solid state PA used in the video. I just think a lot of the hype is marketing and misplaced nostalgia from the guitar heros of the past. The worst thing is if you go on a guitar forum and ask which pickup is warmer, ceramic or alnico... they will preach how bassy and fat and warm alnico is and how shrill and treble stabbing terrible ceramic is, then ask about neodymium, "oh no it will be so much treble it will drive neighborhood dogs crazy it will suck its too much pull it'll kill sustain" I have actually done the experiments... Neodymium pickups are the most bass, the warmest you have to under-wind to keep the highs there. The magnetic pull at the front of the pickup if neo bars are used behind steel poles is less than regular alnico poles. Its a bunch of misinformation repeated like a religious doctrine.
Honestly, the alnico are perfect! That glassy top end is amazing! And yes it sounds more thin, but it’s a strat! That’s the tone I dig!
I liked the ceramics much more,didn't expect that but they sounded just rounder to me. Keep up the good work!
You are correct, sir. I'm guessing there isn't a lot of wire on those coils, so they start off thin and bright, and the alnico magnet just emphasizes that.
@@fretbuzz59 You've just explained exactly how ceramic microphones are typically built. Little cable and ceramic magnet to recover volume and bass.
If you like bassy tone perhaps you could try neodymium magnets.
@@brunocejas No. A microphones has a diaphragm that moves in response to sound waves. A magnetic guitar pickup works when a metal string moves within a magnetic field--it doesn't pick up actual sound waves.
@@fretbuzz59 There is no specific translation in Spanish for "pickup", we say microphone to everything. Anyway that was not my point.
I am a welder and have been setting up + modifying guitars for over 25 years now.
Never thought to use torch tip cleaners as a nut file.
Thats a freaking great idea! Thanks!
i havent tried modding a pickup yet but the knowledge ive gained from this video and your others has nonetheless allowed me to make smarter purchases and get beautiful sound. thanks heavymetalATC!
I just did this to a set of Wilkinson ceramic pickups, and I'm blown away with the results!
Took me about 15 minutes to do it! Thank you for the idea!
I have to say I preferred the sound of the original ceramic magnets. Good video.
There you go... Many people will choose ceramic in a blind test.
Glad you taught me this stuff. Very helpful and destroys a lot of myths!
If you have one of the pickups that you can't change the pole pieces, you can still put alnico bar magnets on to get the sound. You do such a good job emphasizing the obvious, I'm surprised you skipped it. Great vid, thanks.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Troy. Yeah, I guess I dropped the ball on that one. I guess I just didnt think to include it because Ive never actually tried it myself. I should put that in my notes though and plan to include it in a future video.
@@heavymetalATC thanks, the neodymium work you have posted has had me paying a lot more attention to all the different ways that pickups are built, and has given me some ideas. I plan on repeating most of it. I love the sound of a cheap pup with a neodymium bar. I think it's the same principle as G& L's MFD's.
Please keep posting. I have learned a lot.
good to know
That will not work, because the iron slugs in the coil need to be removed to change the sound. The magnetic flux change from the string entering an alnico magnet is different from the magnetic flux channelled through iron. It should not matter much what magnet type is magnetising the iron, only the flux change entering the coil matters!
@@atraneberlin1977 have you tried it? How do you know it will not work? A very basic understanding of physics will let you know it will change something. Whether or not you'll like the change is entirely on you. But it is really simple to find out.
The middle pickup being opposite polarity isn't what gives you "the quacky sound" in the inbetween positions (unless the pickup is wired out of phase, which then does indeed further emphasize the quack). It's what makes the inbetween positions hum cancelling, because the two pickups with their opposite polarities essentially turn into the coils of a humbucker.
Thank You Clementine for showing us how to cope with the squire tuners
definitely going to try this until I get new tuners.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Ai. I hope that info helps you out.
Definitely an improvement in tone. Well done! Why pay ridiculous prices when you can learn to modify?
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Baron. It really did get that vintage bell-clear slinky sound. Yeah Im always gonna try to tinker with something before I go spending $... Because I have no $ hahaha
but how else will some dude charge $500 a pop for some PAFs he made in his garage (which is to imply you could make them in your garage too. or even a bedroom!)
"Improvement" is in the ear of the listener. With those pickups, in this test, I much prefer the ceramic. Perhaps with a beefier coil the alnico would be an improvement. But here they just sound thin and brittle.
@fretbuzz59 perfectly agree with you: "improvement" is matter of personal taste
Hey now! I heard you saying in one of your videos that for the subject matter of swapping magnets in pups you get better bass response in this order: alnico, then ceramic and then neodymium. That said, would be great to have a reference for doing that, I mean taking one or even better, several coils resistance measurements as examples, that way anyone could look specifically for the type of magnets for their needs/preferences to swap them having a more certain scenario regarding on what to expect. I'm asking because I saw several cases where they change magnets and get the opposite result they were looking for. Cheers!
Well I'm torn. I actually liked the ceramic tone better in a few cases, especially the Klon boost neck and middle. The harsher, more twangy and metallic sound of the Alnicos didn't come into their own for me until the overdrive pedal entered the mix. That's both the delight and downside of tone: it's very subjective. Regardless, this was an excellent video on how these pickups actually work and what can be done to change the tone - well done!
Billy Corgan’s signature bridge pickup is… Ceramic. Ceramic pickups can be awesome
^ This, plus, for me the Ceramics were preferred for the majority, but that's with my ears : )
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Absolutely Ceramic pickups can be awesome! Fat bottoms and more grit. I love the ceramics in my burl Tele. I do like that vintage bell tone chime though, if I now add a bit of bass to the preamp and crank the volume I think it will still chug like the ceramics but also sparkle.
You could split the bar and only replace the upper three slugs. I have seen mixed alnico 5/2 pickups, why not do it with ceramics. Maybe score the bar with a glass-cutter first
first time i understand the anatomy of different pickups, thank you
Those stock pickups sounded decent
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Stevie. Yeah nothing wrong with them at all. I just needed that thinner vintage sound for tickling a fatboy loud tubby tube amp the right way. They the bees knees on it but yeah for low volume playing or super aggressive music ceramic is the better deal.
I've done this mod many times, always works well.
I NEED to stop finding these sick videos on mods... I opened my MiM strat to switch 1 pot, and now it’s been 3 months and I can’t stop: coil split, concentric treble and bass cut, 10-way selector switch, shielding, artec QDD2 (check it out), and now I want to do this. It never ends, it’s so fun.
This is one of the best videos on the internet!
Thank you SO much for the kind words Wallace Sessions. I am so glad you enjoyed the video.
@@heavymetalATC could you do a Tele neck and bridge video?
@@heavymetalATC could we get some Trisonic Pickup construction video?
Alnico with the Klon boost gets you right in that bell-like ballpark.
Very cool.
interesting modification. for the money it makes sense if you have the patience and time. cool video.
That neck and middle pickup sound crazy amazing!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Arthur. Yeah I was well pleased personally much more clarity and way more laid back, they kill with chuggy srv sparkle on a big tubby tube amp now.
Love the content... but curious if you just bought an alnico bar would it have had close to the same result? Or at least a distinct improvement? Cause that would be cool to see also
I like the sound of the alnicos more. Thank you for this awesome instructional video! I have serval sets of ceramic single coils and I think I'll order some alnico slugs and try this.
Definitely has that bell like ring with the alnico. Would going from a ceramic bar to an alnico bar have the same results?
Thanks again Lou. I really dont know as I haven't tried it myself but I will put that in my notes and plan to do an experiment in a future video. Someone else mentioned the same thing.
i can't really give an answer to this but my experience has been pretty much all ceramics have a midrange compression that kills the high end. i'm an alnico guy
@@heavymetalATC ill second that suggestion/great to see a vid on an Alnico bar magnet swap out 🤘
Got two really nice guitars there
Thank you so much spaceandstuff. I'm always trying to collect and improve my gear but some of them like that Tele I know I cant touch it'll kill the vibe. Its perfect just like it is.
man the background music in these videos is pretty groovy
another cool project, i love pickup experiments
that mexico dance thing))😁
Thank you so much for watching I'm glad you dig the videos as well as the funky background music. I used to be a pretty serious underground rapper and music producer. I was managed by a DJ that ran a radio station in New York, I was signed to BMI (I think I'm still currently under contract for publishing), ICP featured me on Juggalo news... I just kinda slowly fell out of it, if you dont keep the music coming you lose all the steam you built up fast So nowadays I just make music on the side for fun and I'll slip it in as background music in the videos. After all I started collecting modding and building gear to make music. I'm glad you noticed it, That's awesome. I did this one trying to play classical guitar with only two fingers like Django Reinhardt or my buddy Petey TwoFinger. Then I did percussion using tin cans and bongos and stuff. It came out pretty funky so I looped 2 sections and threw a hip-hop beat on top and used it as a background track.
This cannel Rocks!btw)
@@heavymetalATC As bass player i ve notice that)).This great.Ive built my first guitar in the summer of 98 (it was explorer from birch plywood x D) and since then i one or another way build pickups guitars etc ).In these old days yo cant geat a gerar because of overpricing .But instead i was ham-radio amator studied this things in Radio classes(local)(and freins too xD) so i start to built monsterous distortion pedals out of soviet chips.then was modding hi fi amplifiers .then learn a guitar gear ( mainly Marshalls (he is great man and genius).
You sir know how to grab my short attention. Great work
I had one of these cheap bullet Squires. The pickups were decent, plugging into a good amp helps. I liked that the humbucker had 3 screws to keep it from moving, more stable. The polarity has nothing to do with the "quacky" sound. It cuts the hum when using 2 pickups at once. I think that quacky sound you're thinking is if the phase is reversed, not the polarity
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Lou. Yes, those humbuckers will also let you angle the pickup more toward the bridge or the middle kinda like an EQ, may not be "proper" but it works. You've gotta consider that there is coil polarity as well as magnetic polarity. Flipping the polarity of a magnet will put a pickup in and out of phase with another. As well as winding a coil clockwise or counterclockwise will put a pickup in or out of phase you can also switch the wires + to - to flip the phase. The middle pickup in the video is both reverse wound and reverse polarity so it is out of phase twice putting it back in phase and this does cancel the hum, but my own experiments have shown me that the RWRP hum-cancelling has a bit of a different sound it rolls highs a little and has mid quack a lot better than two pickups with identical coil and magnetic polarity. Of corse there are other factors that help, pickup height, pickups strength matched or unmatched. Yeah, actual out of phase combo whether done with the coil or the magnet is definitely noticeable it kills all the bass and sounds super nasal and thin. The other strat I played briefly in the video has a ton of switches in it as its wired to swap coil polarity for in out of phase combinations as well as series/parallel but I kept all the pickups in magnetic phase so it really doesnt seem to "strat quack" quite as well. I can however do awesome jazz box humbucker and out of phase tele kinda tones.
I also think the ceramic sounds better. Likely, because the pickup was originally wound to match the ceramic pickups.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment MET3. I Like both Ceramic pickups and Alnico pickups but for different reasons. In a mix/band setting especially when using an 60s fuzz circuit with the volume dialed back to edge of breakup lower wind count Alnicos do some kinda chuggy jangle thing? But its a great tone to have for cutting into a mix. Another thing is... the volume and tone on the amp was set for ceramic as well as having the low wind count with a bigger tube amp cranked up its the beez kneez. You can hear a good example on the fuzzface/rangemaster hybrid pedal video a few episodes back.
No doubt though Ceramics are Awesome for low volume bassy chunky SRV sounds or even heavy rock to punk rock grungy tones. Ceramic Telecaster pickups can be pretty darn sweet too, jazz + Twang.
I think I kinda like most all pickups I just love trying all the different configurations of parts and materials.
The way Keith Richards walks! LOL! I had to stop the video in the middle for that one!
Brilliant. Am thinking about how to apply the idea to one of the guitars I have. I do not need to buy another guitar. I do not need to buy another guitar. I do not need to buy another guitar. I do not need to buy another guitar.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave kind words Erick. I should be doing a review on a chambered f-hole thinline tele thats only $120 soon... Seems like it might be a heck of a modification platform for the guy that "doesnt need another guitar" Hahaha
I have done this in the past, but now you can buy full A5 strat sets for under $10. I compared them to my Texas specials which cost 10 times that much and I swapped them out and gave the Texas specials away.
Thanks for the vids subbed and liked. I dont get why you had to charge the magnets as they came charged. In that way you could have charged the slugs that were already in there?
Love them both and I have them both. They each have their strong and weak points.
Right when you spoke of attention span I was getting up, 😆 you got me!
Wicked video as always, so glad you are back! Thank you 🤘🤘
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write such a kind comment Alex.
Very educational, thanks!!
How many times would you swipe the the magnets over the pickups to "charge them?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Daniel. I dont have any specific or scientific answer but I guess 4-5 times for a decent charge and 10+ to be damn sure? Hahaha I really dont have enough experience doing it to have a great answer. :)
I have been doing this for quite some time. I noticed that most ceramic single coils are around 5k, some even lower. So I add some more coils to the existing one, winding in the same direction of it, till getting 6k or more. It's much better.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Jose. I never did even test the resistance of these pickups. Thanks for the info.
how can you increase ths pickups winding? Curious to know, cheers.
@@elwrongo you simply get more 42 gauge wire, solder it to the end of the coil and wind around the existing coil. Those cheap ceramic pickups normally have enough space to stack up a lot more windings.
When you are charging up the alnicos with the old ceramic bar magnets, just tape a small strip of corrugated cardboard to each bar. You can then just run them back and forth and the cardboard will make it easy to maintain an even distance.
I adjust the pole pieces to the radius of the neck.
Great video, i like the sound of the ceramic more, in my ears the alnico sound way to harsh.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment PT. Nothing wrong with that at all. Yes it was thin sounding too with this rig.
I usually play with a bigger size tubby-flubby tube amp on the edge and then often with a fat germanium preamp so that thinner oldschool pickup sound will co-operate better with that stuff for me. (its whiney hahaha) If im playing more aggressive music or using a modeller or multiFX with solid state amps I definitely want a hot loud ceramic.
wow thats really interesting how you charge them... you do such good handy work , its a joy watching along . i wish i had the patience to film my work i just work and then run my mouth after the fact . this is a lot more fun to watch pal . your hard work is not lost on me . the sound comparisons are excellent and its funny how the ceramic does not soun as terrible as i have read in the past but i also have a set in my cort 45 and i love the sound since i installed them . it had duncin (doughnuts?) design in there that i got for 5 dollars as one tab was broke off but i used some jb weld . you live and learn hopefully . thats one thing that sets this channel apart lack of hype mispeak group-think general marketing influenced bullshit that feeds the comment sections and forums . this is why i try to keep an opened mind , think for myself , hear with my hears and never take anything i read in a comment section or forum seriously until i have tried it for myself . a lot of people mean well but a lot of people are wrong. ultimately yes of course we do need gear, (not too long ago almost all players pretended you didnt need pedals remember that i do and i was chastized badly for using them- even kicked out of an open mic for using a board with a single power supply , big muff and eq and a delay pedal on it! - you dont need all that sh@t here and if you do you are not welcome to come back. Now that everyone is ok with using pedals does your rig have to be rediculously expensive for you to be taken seriously ? (yes - 3x strymon guy i am lookin your way) do we need to constantly be buying the latest greatest thing when what we allready have is absolutely excellent ? that all comes down to your point of view / personal preference but its kind of moot point to anyone but some other guitar player who is judging you on your gear. its the sort of stuff that only guitar players themselves care about , no one listening would ever think of or cross their mind but have become very important to a lot of us , this stuff snowballs into myths and then social laws . if you go against the grain you are labelled some kid in a bedroom with a line 6 by people who may talk big in the comments but when you look a little deeper these types never have a single iotta of work to show for their talkin . our gear does not define us , this is the job of our MUSIC , now if you do not have ANY music well then YOU sir have a problem . keep on rockin in the free world clem .
Thank you so much for watching Petey. I do like to tinker with stuff but it is a heck of an added workload to get everything out and set up and put lighting and camera on there and make sure its all in focus and proper aperture settings and all that stuff. I have looked of at my old lady before when I was up for like 2 days editing and said man Petey is one person I know that does truly understand what actually goes into all this. This one wasn't too terribly bad but adding a close mic to the amp did end up with an extra step in editing at least I didn't have to try to mix or tune and blend it or anything as it was just a dry mic for comparison. The hardest part for me was trying to play what I already played days before. I don't operate like that I just play by cutting my brain off and letting my hands take off so trying to copy my own parts was a bastard. I had to listen to them and watch my hands and take a few cracks at each one. Yeah, nothing wrong with ceramic pickups at all. I think they just get a bad wrap because a lot of really cheapo pickups use super strong ceramic to get away with a super low wind count to save money so they end up ear-piercing grimy pickups with no balls. Decent ones are warm and strong. It has surprised me how much the popular consensus is exactly opposite of the truth ask any guitar forum besides a pickup winding forum put in order from warmest to brightest... Alnico, Ceramic and Neodymium. They will say Neo is brightest and Alnico is warmest... NOPE! opposite. I dont think its even the actual magnet composition I just think as more magnetism is added they make more bass. So I have a pretty damn cool high tech experiment coming up soon. I'll prove it once and for all. I know this dude named Timmy Wayne and he is a great guitar player but he is so against pedals... I showed him the fuzz I built for my dad its got a capacitor switch that changes from overdrive sound to like maestro velcro tone. He's like naw, I don't USE THOSE! My tone is in my fingers. He plays... Guess it. Yep an old timey Les Paul Burst thats worth more than my whole life and a Marshall blues breaker combo is his practice and travel amp his home amp is a Plexy full stack. I played the combo and it was awesome but he saw me turning the volume knob on the amp for gain and I saw him looking at me funny... I said yeah I bet you just use the guitar volume huh? He said yep. Then I hear him whisper to his girlfriend yeah thats what I used to do too before I had TONE. I have come to kinda hate this word tone... for a long time I didnt get it, I was like well tone means either it has treble or bass or it doesnt and to an extent I still think thats kinda at the heart of it. People just dont realize what a 6 band EQ could do to "tone" but I didnt know people meant the gain, the speaker, the way you pick, the reverb, the pickups, the color of your jacket... apparently whole damn thing is "tone"??? I didnt say it but I was thinking yeah, I understand what an RC circuit is and if you don't have a treble bleed then when you turn that volume knob down your TONE is bleeding to ground, but I guess when you have a muffled I mean "warm" guitar you cant really tell. LOL I will fully admit though that I have become a gear fiend myself. Its only because this is like basically the ultimate time in history to become that way. I can get guitars and pedals on reverb or amazon for almost nothing and the used market is so saturated at thrift stores and pawn shops and their are companies like Mooer, Monoprice and Glarry. There are 60 yr old speakers, amp parts, tubes, chips and transistors on ebay and I'll keep using this Channel as an excuse to stroke my hoarding and as long as any company wants to send me something I'll take it and tell the viewers if I think it sucks or not and let them hear it and decide. I was a much better guitar player back when I had only 2 Strats 1 twin reverb amp and 1 multi-FX pedal for 8-10 years. I was practiced and intimate with them and damn good at using them. I really should be making more music than I do but I still remember what all the gear is for from time to time but it just doesn't seem so important for me to get it out anymore. There are a lot of songs on that hard drive in the studio room. I use one for background music or something from time to time but I guess they are just in waiting... for what I don't know but they are waiting. Take it easy brother and thank you so much for all the kind words, interest and interaction.
I love this! Thank your recording these “adventures” in guitar modification. I love taking guitars, and modding them into something original!
Great video... Not sure if it really made that much of a difference..like mentioned in the video... ceramics are not necessarily bad..and if you like fat tones... They actually deliver quite well..but the video was awesome and educational..good work thanks for sharing
Great video dude, funny and very informative! Much appreciated.
Interesting!!! And well done..... Just wondering how the mod would be with replacing the Ceramic Bar with an Alnico Bar.
I did a little experimenting on that exact thing: ua-cam.com/video/lM0xLYCjddc/v-deo.html
I used Alnico 5 for the 3 lower strings and Alnico 2 for the three higher strings for deep low and smooth highs. Nice demo. Like the Alnico the most cause they sound better in overdrive and distortion to my ears. And yes i tried neodymium magnets but I did not like the tone.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment snakebite. Yes that is a great idea I have had similar suggested to me but never tried it. Yes.. The thing many people didnt seem to consider is the way the guitar would sound with a fat tubby tube amp or a lot of gain. In a mix you dont want that fat ceramic sound its great in a cheap amp and in a bedroom though cause its fat and loud. Ceramic just also dont caress tubes on the edge of fizz the same?
Yeah, I found that with neodymium its the opposite of alnico its so strong its all bass no highs so you have to build a pickup around that and make a weak coil or place the magnets in a less direct path to "turn it down" so to speak. I did that whole rabbithole on the channel good tools to have in the box for later builds I reckon.
Alnico Pol pieces are being ordered before last note played. By the way, you have a good bluesy style for a metal guy, Love it .
Would those neodymium magnets work to replace the ceramic 😅
Very helpful, thanks.
I just did this to an early 2000s Pacifica 012, Alnico 5 poles, worked a treat. Cheers. I always loved how this guitar played, but those ceramics were a brittle approximation of a strat tone. Now I have a proper strat tone. Cheers.
I bought a cheap SX Strat and the sound of its cheap Ceramic pickups like me much more than a set of Fender Custom Shop 69 loaded in my Fender American Standard from 2011... More expensive is not always better. In your case the Ceramics have more mids and the AlNiCos are mid scooped, in my case it's the opposite, the Ceramics are more scooped than the 69s, it's incredible, they sound amazing.
I wish I had 20 sets of the ceramic pickups in my lotus strat copy they are the super deep ones with wax poured in the back.
Great video about how a minor change such as magnet type can really change characteristics of your sound. One pickup can sound good in a guitar but sound great in a different guitar sometimes. Pairing a pickup with a guitar is a thing as well. I have some China pickups that squeal and it hurts your ears at anywhere close to over 80db. My wife was like "what are you doing?!? STOP! I of course took them out and put in better USA pickups but I am curious if it is the magnets, the type of wire, the amount of turns or what that makes them so squealy. At low volume they actually sounded lively and pretty usable but man do NOT turn them up!! If you want I could send you one or two. I had 3 guitars come with them. I began to try and yank them apart but the cover solder was really not melting and the wax was dripping out so I quit. Probably have to cut covers off with a dremel or something. Anyway let me know if you want to do a video on them I can send a few your way. I was thinking about doing one myself but like I said it did not cooperate and my patience that day had gone. Plus I am not as seasoned a pickup maker so likely the cause could escape me.
Great mod, in Germany for 1 pickup 3,90€ Alnico 5! I done it by a Ibanez on Neck and Middle 💥🎸🎼😎Greetings from Düsseldorf ✌️
Just curious, can't I just replace the ceramic magnet with a Alnico bar magnet(like humbucker) and glue it underneath the pickup instead of replacing all the rod?
Yes, you can but make sure the bar magnet has it's magnetic poles in the right sides (I mean the side toward the pole pieces), since the magnets used in humbuckers has it's magnetic poles in the thinner sides.
Exactly or... flip it on its side but I figured out it probably wont fit without the power tools hahahaha.
Thanks for the info, I just bought a set of used Fender American standard A5 pickup for $30 from a friend. I guess the bar magnet thing isn't really a good idea lol.
Have you (or someone) ever tried to hybrid the magnets? For instance, a humbucker is usually a ceramic horizontal bar with steel vertical poles. Instead of steel poles, adding alnico cylinders (like those on a strat) to the ceramic bar. Or using a ceramic cylinder (with half height) on top of an alnico one, or vice-versa.
Or in something like a strat pickup, which has alnico cylinders but adding ceramic cylinders between them, stuff like that. There is the magnetic pull factor, but i guess alnicos are not brutal. This is a great channel.
Can you make a regular guitar into a baritone
Try using copper foil for the wire instead the flat kind that they use for doing like making windows
You should pimp up a cheap bass next
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Takhian. I think you are right I need to do some kinda bass content on the channel. I'll put that in my notes and see if I can makes some moves towards that happening.
Do you think it’d work to use a heat gun to melt the wax such that it’d solidify and stick to the new poles? Essentially re-potting without re-potting to prevent microphonics
Which tool is the polarity measure piece???
Would a alnico bar magnet have the same effect
Obi-Wan. What is a cheap and easy way to make weak pickups have more giddyup? I don't want to buy expensive TV Jones pickups. They are filtertron bass pickups.
Sometimes I preferred the ceramics??? What if one combined them both!!! 🤔
Sounds 100x better!!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Michael. I had many people say they actually liked the Ceramic but when The Alnico is put into a big tube amp at stage volume it does a jangly thing that is great to cut into a mix and generally it just sounds like old records at least to me, but then there is always placebo effect. Hahaha Yeah I really dig the Alnico myself it works great with fuzz circuits when the volume is low for a punchy clean sound too.
great video with some sweet but information A B sound samples. one of the best vids in its class/on this topic 🤘
Thank you so much Deja. It was a tough for me to try to play the same thing 2 times for the A/B comparison as I usually just play by feel but I got it done ok. I am glad you enjoyed the video.
Can you please, share the kohms from the "alnico" pickups ... and the values of the stock pickup magnets. You use a preamp and that hides the weakness of the ceramic pickups. I think the diffrence lies in the preamp (volume) and Neodynium magnets (brightness/piercing highs) in your demo. I'll do this mod in my next squier, they are better that their big brother Strat. Neck is way better and body are thinner.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. The coil used in both sets is identical. its THE same ones. SO resistance of both sets would be the same about 5.7k it never changed.
Having less magnet strength is what made it quieter. Those are legit alnico magnets in the weaker sounding pickup not neodymium, ceramic pickups are stronger and bassier than alnico and neodymium is even stronger and bassier than ceramic. Everyone has it backwards for some reason (i suspect marketing) and Ive been making videos for years to prove it.
The pre amp aint hiding the weakness of ceramic cause ceramic is stronger. the weakest sounding pickup you can get is alnico because alnico is the weakest magnet.... but
With a fat sounding tube amp cranked up that weak pickup sounds amazing and clear, that ceramic pickup sounds flubby and the neo is blowing the speakers with bass, in a bedroom setting with a quiet amp it sounds better to have a stronger magnet.
@@heavymetalATC I've changed the bar magnet in 2 chinese humbuckers for a Neodynium ones and the tone was
... bad ... I was expecting something stronger and fat ... so I ended buying another set of humbuckers (12 kohms) to get what I wanted: SC tones (6 kohms and HB vintage to moderm tones (8-12 k ohms). My experimentes with Neodynium ended. Your mod, btw, is perfect. Thabx for your response ¡¡¡
That pixellated crotch makes me wonder about where you got the idea--LMAO!
I feel like both sounds have their purposes, but I really felt like the alnico mod was an overall improvement. I guess that's to be expected, given the premium price on new pups with alnicos.
Still glad to see you back!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a Kind comment Rob. Yeah, I don't have a problem with ceramic pickups at all myself and Im sure some people would prefer that sound due to the bass and grit. I could always turn the bass and gain up on the preamp and make up for that while retaining sparkle or fully charge the magnets for more bite and low end. I just thought it would be a cool project to show everyone how to save some $s. Thanks again Rob, glad you are glad im back cause Im glad to be back. UA-cam is a heck of a lot of work TBH but I have been working on landing some product reviews with companies and trying to keep a decent schedule and I think the youtube robot is noticing my #s look like they are rising so Right ON!
Oh also Im glad you found the pixellation to be humorous, I got quite a laugh out of it myself during the editing and voiceover.
Pixelated Crotch would make for a killer band name, haha.
I think the main difference is the field strength of the magnets. I recently bought a Squier Infinity Tele with ceramic pups and compared it to my Tele with Vintage 65 Jazzmaster pups, recorded one in the left and the other in the right channel playing the same patterns. They both sounded the same. Both had 250K pots. I changed the JM to 1 Meg vol pot and 25k tone pot. There is and unmistakably difference now. Windings and pots make more difference than magnets.
The field strength and location is absolutely the only real "scientific" difference that happened in the video.
You can design a pickup around different magnet types and strengths to mimic the sound of others by slight changes in winding pattern/scatter amount, magnet wire size and amount, magnet wire coating types, back plate and pole piece materials and configurations.
This video does however show exactly what alnico magnets sound like in comparison to a ferrous slug and ceramic bar configuration all other variables identical.
In the past videos I have used self made bobbins and designs to get the tone of vintage Alnico pickups with fiber flatwork and formvar wiring from DIY pickups using neodymium magnets with wood flatwork and poly wire by under-winding with tons of scatter and changing the dimensions of the bobbin perversely to shape the tone. lots of experimenting to go yet though like maybe a lifetime...
Your very right about pot values, that extra signal not bleeding to ground especially in the high end makes a heck of an audible difference and if you play the edge of breakup tuby kinda gain the feel can change day and nigh on how it bumps the amp into breakup. man I love talking and learning about this stuff either in comments or videos or reading books.
@@heavymetalATC Ceramic magnets have gotten a bad rap throughout the years. This all started I believe back in the late 50s and early 60s as many imports from Japan used ceramic magnets. Most of them were hand wound and not stable on tension plus scatter wound and were not potted. They were indeed harsh and very microphonic. That being said, I'm talking about mostly the imports that sold for a range from $40 to $100. The very late 60s Cort, Samick, Ibanez, Yamaha and a few others started making better pickups.
cool! have you tried lowering the neck pickup?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Uncle dad! No I havent tried it on this one yet, I do keep the neck pickup just about sunk below the guard on the other strat I played briefly in the video though so Im sure it will get adjusted.
@@heavymetalATC it works pretty well on my Partscaster HSS!
Why would you widen your nut slots? couldn't that make the guitar buzz?
Sorry, I've never heard of doing that before. Still learning..
That improves the tune stability, just like using graffite in nut slots.
@@TheForce_Productions I've always found a dab of oil works best, but I can see filing them open a little if maybe you had heavier gage strings.
Absolutely. I was just helping the string fit better not taking it down or widening the whole slot mostly opening it up towards the headstock to keep it from slipping while leaving the edge toward fretboard more or less close to the same.
What about if you put a ceramic bar in an alnico pu
If you have a ceramic magnet, you probably don't have enough copper wire either, as the two methods of making a cheap pickup go hand in hand. But you could hardly make the pickup any worse if you killed it trying. I do have a set of Japanese strat pickups with dual ceramic magnets either side of the pole pieces, which I do like, they have a stratty but different tone.
Nice .I do it too,many years.I use neodymium magnets too,from old harddrives😅,l
What if i add alnico V magnet plate under the pickup?
Wow, the clarity! Fuckin-A
I've done this a few times and it definitely improved the tone. But... I think Fender discovered that around 7,000 winds was the Goldilocks number for the right tone. Squier pickups use fewer winds to save copper and stronger magnets to compensate, I believe (and probably to keep Squiers inferior to Fenders off the shelf). Apart from that, is it really the magnet material or could it be just having separate magnets for/near each string? How does an AlNiCo bar magnet compare to AlNiCo pole pieces or a ceramic bar?
One variation on this might be to split ceramic or strong rubber bar magnets into six pieces and glue it to each of the pole-piece rods, compare it to single bar. Another one would be to somehow split a ceramic bar into six equal pieces and stick them in sideways (if it's a humbucker type with polarity on the edges). This is just stuff I wondered while I was doing this, someone might want to see. Cheers.
thank you for taking the time to type out all this info and suggestions. zfm hadnt ever considered cutting up a bar?
I'm really enjoying your videos. I´ve started playing guitars about 6 months ago, but im enjoying tinkering with my setup way more.
Im currently routing a guitar hollow to make an acoustic sounding guitar. Have you tried anything like that?
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Sanlo. I am so glad you enjoy the videos. I have not built a hollow body or chambered guitar yet but I do plan on doing so in the future as I have a lot of oak and chestnut that is very heavy and I would like to use it as a core with a cedar or pine top for resonance and weight savings.
is theheight of the alnico pickups correct?
Wow I like the ceramic sound better. It's warmer. Alnicos sounds good if you like that spank. I like a little warmer tone on strats like alnico 2 pickups.
Hi , I have a question! I own Squier Start with ceramic HSS . Can I change only one pickup , to have 1 ceramic hambucker , 1 single alnico on mid position , and one ceramic on neck? Thanx
Yes, you can.
I think I prefer ceramic in most of comparisons. My whole world has just felt down.
AlNiCo is just a big lie that is most cases s used to overprice pickups. Pairing properly the amount of copper and the magnetic strength will give the best tone, being ceramic or AlNiCo.
Can you do this to the bridge humbucker as well? I was considering this mod and have a guitar similar to yours that has a bridge humbucker.
so you didnt add copper wire?
nah jake just left the coils as is I reckon they are about 5.7k or so 7 would be maybe ideal but it sounds way awesome on a big tubby tube amp now.
Clem, yer my new fav thing on tube of you lol
Alnico is more high freqs and twang, but ceramic is more loud...
Being a Squire, it needed 500k pots for those ceramic pickups. Alnico should be tamed down with either 250k pots - or now you have the opportunity to run long cable lengths and welcome how the cable capacitances runs off the high end
Impressive stuff!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a kind comment Arthur. I'm so glad you dug the video!
What gets me is that if it cost you 10 something on eBay for a guitar company they would cost, at most, 1 dollar (more like 25-75 cents) so they saved about 50 cents using the ceramic bar magnets.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment General. Yeah, I dont know if its availability ease of manufacture or what? Maybe those companies just all started using stronger magnets so they could use less wire and save money that way and its a "hold over" either way the bassier sound of ceramic pickups do tend to sound better on smaller cheap amps that come with cheap guitar packs?
@@heavymetalATC That is possible, but I bet it has to do with costs.
Which keyboard amp are you using?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Fausto. The amp I am using in the video is a Peavey KB1.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, by the way, you have a lot of knowledge about guitar stuff, could you make a video about smart guitar shopping please?
Let's say pickups, lots of company's try to sell you snake oil, like the Seymour Duncan Zephyrs
I want to understand all of circuit system
To my ear ceramic vs alnico... to me ceramic sounds a little mid scooped so great for metal especially if your shooting for a dimebag tone. But alnico sounds much fuller better for bluesy tones.
Have a like and a comment brother. I'm literally about to drop off to sleep, but look forward to watching tomorrow!
Thank you so much Chris I hope you found it to be worth the wait.
Some think that when you reverse wire the middle pickup for humcancelling you lose highs when playing positions 2 and 4 vs. the non-humbucking alternative. What's your opinion?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment T.U. I think it depends on the middle pickup being reverse wound or not. With this RWRP middle pickup it does mid quack and lose a little highs but if I were to flip polarity on it then it would be magnetically out of phase and then it would definitely have a lot of highs... and only highs LOL If it weren't reverse wound and the magnets were in the same polarity it would be just a clean strong sound like a telecaster in the middle position but... it wouldn't hum-cancel or mid quack. I personally like those 2-4 sounds as its just the strat-sound to me like SRV or Sultans of Swing.
There is a lot of discussion on this as I am sure you know, its in my experiments that Ive found the RWRP to quack more but at the same time lowering and raising the pickups have a lot to do with it as well as the strength of the two in relation to one another, matched or unmatched.
@@heavymetalATC Oops. I didn't mean change the polarity. I meant reverse the wiring for a humbucking effect. I changed my original post to reflect that.
So you do observe a loss of highs when using a reversed middle pickup. I thought I did as well. I removed the hum-cancelling option from my guitar for that reason. Too much of a tone change when going from a single pickup to two in hum-cancel mode.
Just replace the ceramic bar magnet with an alnico bar magnet. I have pickups constructed that way, and they sound incredible
Too late. I have already ruined my Squiers electrics. Need to figure out how to fix it.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Elmarg. If you can find a cheap loaded pick guard or something similar from ebay or amazon you can stick that on and be good?
@@heavymetalATC I was able to fix it using cheapest soldering iron and installed new pickups. Now it sounds way better.
And ya need to try some Dylan pickings. Lol
For me, I like soster,creamy tone. It's better sounder to my hears for blues. Ceramic all the way !!!
Is there a way to verify that those are in fact ALNICO slugs? Judging from the origin on the e-bay screenshot, can't be too sure :P Not that it matters if you get what you want out of them, of course.
You can take one and try to magnetise it to the opposite poles. If you can, it's most certainly Alnico. If not, it's neodymium. Also, Alnico has a relatively weak magnetic strength, way weaker than neodymium. If you're somewhat familiar with the thing, you won't confuse them at all.
I don't see a reason why they should lie about that. I recently bought some AlNiCo and Neodymium magnets and I have to say the price difference isn't that big. It's like 80 cents for one AlNiCo magnet and 60 cents for neodymium one.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Avi. You know I had not even considered that they may not be real alnico? If Id have got um and they were plain steel or something Id have been pissed. But as Jose said if you are familiar with them and the way they work its pretty easy to determine that they are alnico. They have the right look and they took and held a charge from the other magnets. They were pretty weak right out of the pack. Also as Michal stated Alnico magnets arent really very expensive to produce its just aluminum nickel and cobalt. The name brand pickup companies sure do think they are worth a lot once they wind a coil around them though LOL The p90 I used in the last video was only $20 and it was Alnico. Kudos on you though man, that never crossed my mind and it could possibly be some other alloy and Id never know as long as the properties were the same.
Alnico is just an acronym; Al-Ni-Co which are the periodic table names for aluminium + nickel + cobalt. It's not a brand or anything. The numerals like II, III, IV, V and VIII that you might see in a guitar just represent the ratios of each material in the magnets composition.
AlNiCo is probably the cheapest way to get slugs in that size as making anything else conform to that standard to be cheaper than commercial AlNiCo would require setting up a pretty serious factory.
I dont know how the expensive ones are supposed to sound, but the modified ones do sound different!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Woo. LOL yeah, it just seemed to kind of give them a much clearer bell like vintage tone... you can really hear the strings, If one was going for a bigger fatter sound Neo bars would have done it up... Funny thing is this is the opposite of what you will read in a guitar forum. Nope more magnet = more bass in "reality" when you actually try things Hahaha
Both have their uses. It seems very popular to praise Alnico mics these days, but personally, I do not think they suit for everything, they have a quite shrill top end, specially if you run them trough 500kO potks. If you have dark sounding speakers fine, but if not, they rip your ears apart.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment Jesse. Yes, I agree I was modding this guitar more for use with a warm tube amps rather than the solid state PA used in the video. I just think a lot of the hype is marketing and misplaced nostalgia from the guitar heros of the past. The worst thing is if you go on a guitar forum and ask which pickup is warmer, ceramic or alnico... they will preach how bassy and fat and warm alnico is and how shrill and treble stabbing terrible ceramic is, then ask about neodymium, "oh no it will be so much treble it will drive neighborhood dogs crazy it will suck its too much pull it'll kill sustain" I have actually done the experiments... Neodymium pickups are the most bass, the warmest you have to under-wind to keep the highs there. The magnetic pull at the front of the pickup if neo bars are used behind steel poles is less than regular alnico poles. Its a bunch of misinformation repeated like a religious doctrine.