what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

[Snoogles]

to the tone?

i'm assuming that "airing" means to put a slight gap between the bar magnet and the pole pieces

[LonePhantom]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Yes, airing in simple terms is putting a gap between the magnet and pole-pieces. There needs to be something non-ferrous bwtween them so the magnet doesn't drag to either side.

Airing softens the ouput, and the tone. The point of DiMarzio using "Air" design is to give pickups a more vintage tone and output without resorting to Alnico 2 and the like magnets.

[CloneRanger]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Magnets come in so many different widths, I'm guessing that quite a few mag swappers have been doing quite a bit of inadvertent "airing"... In my (in)experience, an air gap can produce a sort of "dual tone", probably because the coil that isn't touching the magnet then has a lower inductance/higher resonance than the other coil.

[idsnowdog]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

It is meant to lessen magnetic pull and simulate a weaker magnet.

[75lespaul]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Using a forum bro's advice, I took an old credit card and sliced a thin piece off of it and glued it to the side of the magnet in an Ibanez neck pickup (forget the model) and it turned it from a muddy piece of junk into a pretty potent usable bridge pickup. You have to take the spacer out IIRC and I removed some of the wax off the pickup using a hairdryer, but it turned out nice. The guy who bought the guitar I put it in loved the pickup.

[Zhangliqun]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Some DiMarzios took a different approach -- don't know if they still make them -- but they were very deep, the idea being to have the magnet itself a good 1/2" or more farther from the strings than they otherwise would be.

I have not noticed much in the way of significant difference in the width of standard bar mags, they all measure right at 1/2" in my experience.

[Left Hand Life]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Wrap the magnet with one lap of black electrical tape and the sustain will be better (less magnetic string pull).

[CloneRanger]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

I have not noticed much in the way of significant difference in the width of standard bar mags, they all measure right at 1/2" in my experience.

On my table right now, I've got a StewMac A5 at 12.67mm, two Mojotones (A8 & A2) at 12.49 and 12.51mm, a ´79 DiMarzio A5 at 12.66mm and a ´78 Ibanez Super 70 A8 at 12.47mm. The last Gibson RCA5 I measured was about 12.6mm, AFAIR. These days, I remember to jiggle the mag a little as I slide it in, so as to get a sense of how good a fit it is...

[tenniso]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

remove the pole pieces. i did that once to Epiphone Pro-Buckers and loved it. Made the pickups much more articulate and clear. the pickups still had plenty of output.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

On my table right now, I've got a StewMac A5 at 12.67mm, two Mojotones (A8 & A2) at 12.49 and 12.51mm, a ´79 DiMarzio A5 at 12.66mm and a ´78 Ibanez Super 70 A8 at 12.47mm. The last Gibson RCA5 I measured was about 12.6mm, AFAIR. These days, I remember to jiggle the mag a little as I slide it in, so as to get a sense of how good a fit it is...

Exactly what Zhang said...your largest mag is 12.67 mm which is .498". Your smallest mag is 12.47mm which is .491"...both "right at 1/2" ."

[King IzzO)))]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Jeebus, 75lp did it right, I don't know what the rest of you are going on about. Take out the keeper bar(s) and put some plastic in between the poles and magnet to keep the magnet in place. This is your air gap. This is exactly how Dimarzio does it on double screw pickups. On a slug/screw DMZ (Air Norton) the slugs are machined with a smaller diameter on the bottom to make more room. Dimarzio uses plastic sleeves on the outside poles only, there is nothing between the middle four poles and the magnet.

There is a slightly larger gap in an Air Norton than you'll be able to make in a normal screw/slug pickup, but the desired result is maintained by just having the physical connection between the poles and magnet broken. The size of the gap is negligible in my experience, we're talking 1mm more clearance in an Air Norton vs your ghetto air pickup.

Soundwise the result using an A5 is most similar to swapping to an A4. I never did it with a ceramic.

[Zhangliqun]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Your largest mag is 12.67 mm which is .498". Your smallest mag is 12.47mm which is .491"...both "right at 1/2" ."

Yup, a tolerance of less than 1/100th of an inch sounds like right at 1/2" to me. There are pieces of dust that are almost invisible on the magnet and the slugs thicker than that. And there's probably much more variance in the exact width/thickness of slugs and of pole-piece shoes, shims, keepers, whatever you like to call them that would interfere much more with the fit.

[CloneRanger]

Re: what does "airing" a humbucker pickup do

Sure, I've switched out keeper bars to make a good tight fit, and now I'm very aware of making a good fit; But it's a simple case of either/or. If the magnet touches on both sides, you've got the intended inductance. If there's a gap, you get a lower inductance.