How to degauss

[BigJoe77]

Re: How to degauss

i have found myself to be pretty much a sucker for anything today. i bought a 1/2" neo mag and polarity tester from stew mac earlier.

i'm still curious to see if anyone has any thoughts on doing this to single coils.

[dr. ad]

Re: How to degauss

Bumping and oldish thread because I think it gives good background on the topic.

There was talk about degausing vs airbucking and how to make a guitar top de-gausser. How about a screw adjustable airbucker so that by screwing in or out you could bring the magnet closer to the pole pieces. Kind of like the current screw height adjusters for pickups, but it only moves the magnet.

Would that work?

this is quite off-topic, i've just realised before posting

i was going to say "it's not impossible, but it'd be very difficult to accomplish without some fairly fine engineering work" but unfortunately i think it is impossible, on thinking about it. it'd be pretty **** sweet if it could be done though

i pulled an airzone apart and it just had the spacers that sit next to the bar mag under the coils drilled off-center (so there was only a small amount of material between the pole and mag) and these spacers were made out of plastic or nylon, or something non-conductive anyway. one for the screws, one for the slugs. the slugs are tapered, perhaps so that they fit the same size spacer as the screws...

it's hard to visualise, i should really get a camera and a PC of my own so i can post pics of this stuff ; ]

[marcello252]

Re: How to degauss

gosh, just read this thread.
Some ago, when I swap the magnets between a ceramic pup and alnico V pup, to find out the polarity I put the bars side by side to check if they attract or not, so I gaussed or degaussed, don't know, the mags... Anyway they sound cool however, who knows, maybe I was lucky?

[ToneSage]

Re: How to degauss

I hope this doesn't qualify as an 'hijacking' of the thread, but after reading this, I just remembered I have a bunch of pickups (some pretty good vintage) tossed in a little toolbox all jumbled together! I have done this a lot through the years, to (what I never thought was) no ill effect -but now I am not so sure.

Have any of you had experiences like this? I've been modding my own guitars for years but have just now delved into the Alchemy that is pickup winding/re-winding and have learned some cool little tricks by way of trial and lots of error. Are all the pups in the toolbox going to be of relatively equal strength now that they've 'shared' magnetic properties?

[Quencho092]

Re: How to degauss

how bout regaussing an antiquity? I've heard some people not digging the weaker 'aged' antiquity, perhaps this would bring it back to stock 50's 60's unaged strength?

[MikeM]

Re: How to degauss

I tested this out today. I'm obviously a fool, either I can't notice the difference, or I'm doing it wrong.

At first, I waved it across the pickup, about an inch above the pickups, with the magnet parallel to the top of the guitar, heard very little difference. Flipped it over, tried again, also, not enough difference to know if it was an actual change or just placebo. Then followed the instructions more closely, did it around 2" above the outer bridge poles, with the face of the disc aimed toward the poles.

Is this correct? Should I be hearing a drastic difference? Any change in output?

[Ed Hunter]

Re: How to degauss

ZHANG is a GENIUS! I love the fact you dont even take the pup out of the guitar! I have only aged one magnet it was a A2 from a CC i did it to get it closer to the EVH frankenstein spec's worked rather well

[Mad Raxz]

Re: How to degauss

I tested this out today. I'm obviously a fool, either I can't notice the difference, or I'm doing it wrong.

At first, I waved it across the pickup, about an inch above the pickups, with the magnet parallel to the top of the guitar, heard very little difference. Flipped it over, tried again, also, not enough difference to know if it was an actual change or just placebo. Then followed the instructions more closely, did it around 2" above the outer bridge poles, with the face of the disc aimed toward the poles.

Is this correct? Should I be hearing a drastic difference? Any change in output?

Which leads me to ask; does Stewart McDonald, or anyone else, sell a device to measure the actual gauss of our pups so that we can see if we are doing it right?

[JHN]

Re: How to degauss

Most important question is if we can permanently change polarity in single coil slugs by using 2 discs,1 facing pickup from up and 1 from bellow.Say for example north(disk) facing top of slug,south(disk) facing bottom of slug will permanently charge the slug as opposite per disc for each side?Hope I expressed it well enough.That could save a lot of wiring and pickup changing to some people.

[lazyfinger]

Re: How to degauss

I'm curious, is it possible to charge the alnicos by attaching to ceramic 8?

[copperheadroads]

Re: How to degauss

I'm curious, is it possible to charge the alnicos by attaching to ceramic 8?

Yes ,depending on the size & strength of the ceramic 8 magnet
i dont think a humbucker bar magnet will do
but stacking magnets doubles there strength

Most important question is if we can permanently change polarity in single coil slugs by using 2 discs,1 facing pickup from up and 1 from bellow.Say for example north(disk) facing top of slug,south(disk) facing bottom of slug will permanently charge the slug as opposite per disc for each side?Hope I expressed it well enough.That could save a lot of wiring and pickup changing to some people.

You can reverse the magnet polarity by using neo disc & like you mentioned
but how is it going to save wiring ?

Which leads me to ask; does Stewart McDonald, or anyone else, sell a device to measure the actual gauss of our pups so that we can see if we are doing it right?

You will need a Gauss meter to measure the strength of a magnet
They cost hundreds

[lazyfinger]

Re: How to degauss

Yes ,depending on the size & strength of the ceramic 8 magnet
i dont think a humbucker bar magnet will do
but stacking magnets doubles there strength

Yes, that's what I mean, not completely magnetizing a non-magnetized alnico, but rather increase their strength with an equal size ceramic 8.

[Mad Raxz]

Re: How to degauss

You will need a Gauss meter to measure the strength of a magnet
They cost hundreds

Ouch! I guess Ill just stick em on the fridge and feel how hard it is to pull them off, ha!

[JHN]

Re: How to degauss

You can reverse the magnet polarity by using neo disc & like you mentioned
but how is it going to save wiring ?

I have reversed the single coil cables in many hss fender strats,as i prefer a noisy split duncan humbucker+single middle 4th position sound than a noiseless but out of phase.Reason is I mostly use it with very little or no gain at all,and I hate out of phase sounds.
So,slug polarity reversal in single coils can be done with 2 neodymium discs hmmmmmmmm.

[Zhangliqun]

Re: How to degauss

Just waving it over the top doesn't work. You need to be aware of which way each pole of the magnet in the pickup points. With a bridge pickup, assuming you want to weaken it and assuming it's the more standard layout of the S pole touching the screws (N touching slugs), you wave it over the bridge (the actual bridge, not bridge pickup) with the S side of the disk pointing toward the screws, but with the flat plane of the disk as close to perpendicular to the top of the pickup as possible and still have an effect. Not 90 degrees but about 70 to 80.

I tested this out today. I'm obviously a fool, either I can't notice the difference, or I'm doing it wrong.

At first, I waved it across the pickup, about an inch above the pickups, with the magnet parallel to the top of the guitar, heard very little difference. Flipped it over, tried again, also, not enough difference to know if it was an actual change or just placebo. Then followed the instructions more closely, did it around 2" above the outer bridge poles, with the face of the disc aimed toward the poles.

Is this correct? Should I be hearing a drastic difference? Any change in output?