Stacking magnets..?

[DeathMetalRob]

If you have a magnet for a pickup that is too thin - say 1.5mm - could you stack it with another of the same size without damaging the tone of the pickup..?

[King IzzO)))]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Basically no. If you stack them so they attract the magetic field is weakened considerably. Try it, take two mags and stack them, then do the screwdriver test with the magnets stacked and apart, you'll see what I mean.

I think if you could get them crammed in with the poles together that would work, but the magnets would be fighting eachother, possibly degaussing eachother over time.

The spacer mag job does work, the new Bareknuckle Juggernaut has an oversized A5 in the middle with ceramic spacers.

[CloneRanger]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

I think if you could get them crammed in with the poles together that would work, but the magnets would be fighting eachother, possibly degaussing eachother over time.

You'll have to glue 'em together, but they won't "degauss each other".

[idsnowdog]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Just put a plastic or wood spacer beneath the magnet to make up the difference.

[blueman335]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Basically no. If you stack them so they attract the magetic field is weakened considerably.

+1. When they're stacked and attracting, their magnetic power mostly goes to each other, and there's not much availabe for the strings. When they're repelling, they degauss each other.

[CloneRanger]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

+1. When they're stacked and attracting, their magnetic power mostly goes to each other, and there's not much availabe for the strings. When they're repelling, they degauss each other.

Whaaaa..? blueman, all your P-90's are degaussing as we speak! If you're right...

[LtKojak]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Whaaaa..? blueman, all your P-90's are degaussing as we speak! If you're right...

Yes, he IS right. And yes, by design, they ARE constantly degaussing. That's the nature of the beast.

Glueing'em together is a bad idea. A lot worse than the P-90 magnetic structure's design.

HTH,

[CloneRanger]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Glueing'em together is a bad idea. A lot worse than the P-90 magnetic structure's design.

I'm going to have ask you to qualify, Pepe. Gluing two mags together (same size, polarity, charge) is just making one mag out of two. I've been mucking with p'ups for better than 35 yrs. Prove me a dummy, please.

[King IzzO)))]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

I'm no scientist, but I think the ferrous separation in a P90 or between the spacers and center magnet in triple mag humbuckers is what keeps them from degaussing, without it all bets are off.

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[CTN]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

field geometry changes when you put two magnets together.

gluing one to another doesn't make 1 new magnet, it makes two magnets forced into close proximity and yields a magnetic field that has fundamentally different geometry than would be present if you had a single magnet of the same thickness/size.

The only possible exception to that is if you have two magnets placed end to end ie N-S/N-S

THEN it would act like a single magnet.

But placing them on top like this
N-S
S-N
has different geometry

and this
N-S
N-S
also has WAY different geometry and will degauss each of the separate magnets.

[LtKojak]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

I'm going to have ask you to qualify, Pepe. Gluing two mags together (same size, polarity, charge) is just making one mag out of two. I've been mucking with p'ups for better than 35 yrs. Prove me a dummy, please.

Gonna need to do some reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field

HTH,

[CloneRanger]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

field geometry changes when you put two magnets together.

gluing one to another doesn't make 1 new magnet, it makes two magnets forced into close proximity and yields a magnetic field that has fundamentally different geometry than would be present if you had a single magnet of the same thickness/size.

The only possible exception to that is if you have two magnets placed end to end ie N-S/N-S

THEN it would act like a single magnet.

But placing them on top like this
N-S
S-N
has different geometry

and this
N-S
N-S
also has WAY different geometry and will degauss each of the separate magnets.

Alright CTN; take two uncharged Alnico bars and glue 'em together. Now charge 'em. Are they now as one mag? What else can they be? Now break 'em apart; yes, now they are two. Put 'em back together. Have they now somehow changed, or are they again as one?

[blueman335]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Whaaaa..? blueman, all your P-90's are degaussing as we speak! If you're right...

It's not just 'my' P-90's, it's the world's P-90's. If there was a problem with side-by-side magnets, all the P-90's ever made would have stopped working by now, within days of being produced. The OP"s question is on stacking, and the contact is very different.

[DeathMetalRob]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

Basically no. If you stack them so they attract the magetic field is weakened considerably. Try it, take two mags and stack them, then do the screwdriver test with the magnets stacked and apart, you'll see what I mean.

I think if you could get them crammed in with the poles together that would work, but the magnets would be fighting eachother, possibly degaussing eachother over time.

The spacer mag job does work, the new Bareknuckle Juggernaut has an oversized A5 in the middle with ceramic spacers.

I'm looking to use neodymium magnets. They're 1.5mm thick and I'm looking to get a thicker one. The only thicker models are either too long, too short or too wide for a pickup plate.

I don't know how easy neodymium is to cut - which, brings it's own set of problems - might that be an option..?

[Demina]

Re: Stacking magnets..?

I'm confused, but then I'm not that well versed in pickup construction. Doesn't a pickup magnet have one pole on top and the other on the bottom?

___N___
|______|
.....S

So the stacking them would be like what CTN referred to as end to end?

___N___
|______|
.... S
___N___
|______|
.....S

This is how the Neo magnet is that I got for a Jaguar SS Bass. I haven't used it yet, but a lot of people have reported that putting this magnet on top of the weak J pickup on the bass improves it considerably, which is actually stacking the magnets, is it not? Don't know how it affects the tone, but it's done to increase the output.

edit: The editor messed up the labeling so ignore the dots to the left of the S's