Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

[arya44]

Hi there,
I have a Godin Core CT P90 (sort of like a Les Paul guitar with chambered mahogany body and carved top) with Seymour Duncan SP90-1n on the neck. I like to make it warmer and more mellow sounding especially on the treble side to reduce that sizzle. I like to make it have thicker sound to be used for jazz style. Some people use Humbucker for that. I have a good PAF humbucker equipped Les Paul but it is a bit too dark for what I like to achieve. I thought P90 just requires a bit of work to get there. I already worked on the tone control, pedal side of things and the amp stuff to make it geared toward that tone. I also brought the pickup as low as possible but still I hear that sizzle that I suspect is to do with Alnico 5 magnets. I heard that A2 magnets are better for this purpose. I guess if I change the A5 to A2, it becomes sort of like Seymour Duncan Antiquity P90. Not sure what else is different in the Antiquity model vs. Vintage (SP90-1) model.
Anyway, I rather spend a few bucks on the magnet to see if it makes me happy enough to avoid spending 100+ dollars for the whole pickup.
I have below questions:
1- Currently I have one A3, two Unoriented A5, and one A4. I can also buy two A2 as well. What combination gives me the mellowest and warmest tone with smooth highs and maximum mid-range tone?
2- If I need to buy A2 magnets, do you recommend rough or polished and why?
3- Which vendor do you recommend?
4- I took the pickup out of the housing and opened the back plate. I noticed the magnets are quite stuck in their place no matter how much I tried to push them out. Is that light brown stuff smeared around it is wax or glue? I was checking this forum and people commented on using hair dryer to loosen it up (if it is wax). Is that the best method? Could it be possibly glued to the body of the pickup? because if so, that hair dryer trick is not going to work. I'm surprised it is so hard for the magnets to come off. I saw a youtube video of someone reversing the polarity of his P90 magnets and he just loosened the back plate and pushed the magnet from one side with a screw driver and it slid out easily. I found this part to be really the daunting step in this whole process. I don't know why Seymour Duncan should make it so hard to change these magnets.
Anyway, sorry for the long question #4!
and thanks a lot for helping me with this. 🙏🏼👍🏼

[Clint 55]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

If you want the warmest and smoothest you want 2 smooth A2s. Mixing mags is cool but not necessary. The next warmest is A3 so you could do A2 and A3.

[arya44]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

If you want the warmest and smoothest you want 2 smooth A2s. Mixing mags is cool but not necessary. The next warmest is A3 so you could do A2 and A3.

Thanks for the reply. So which smooth A2s do you recommend? Any vendor / brand / model in mind?

[Clint 55]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

You're welcome. I just use ebay. I don't know of a difference between models. Most people just choose which alnico they want, which dimensions, which texture, and gauss or charge level. These for example would be fully charged, smooth A2s.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Alnico-2-Bar-Magnet-2-5-x-5-x-125-Guitar-Humbucker-Pickup-Magnetized-Qty-2-/131761364505

[arya44]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

You're welcome. I just use ebay. I don't know of a difference between models. Most people just choose which alnico they want, which dimensions, which texture, and gauss or charge level. These for example would be fully charged, smooth A2s.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Alnico-2-Ba...-/131761364505

Thanks for the reference to this eBay listing. Although, I prefer to have more knowledge about differences of polished vs. rough, the source and quality of magnet, etc.
I know I am not doing this again so I like to gather as much info before purchasing the magnets, and even if I can get more info about what people miss that some go back to A5 again. This is a P90 pickup and I imagine some may think using a weaker attitude on the P90 takes away its personality. I'm just hoping this thread ends up getting more replies so I can increase my knowledge in this process. I appreciate your comments though.

[Blille]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Thanks for the reply. So which smooth A2s do you recommend? Any vendor / brand / model in mind?

Agree with Clint on A2 - I always get my magnets from addiction-fx on eBay.

https://ebay.com/usr/addiction-fx

[Clint 55]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Rough kind of changes the glossy top end to a textured one. I don't think it suits jazz, I want a subtle gloss on top. Others may have input on quality or grade.

[arya44]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Thanks for clarification. I still haven't got any reply regarding removing the magnet stuck there with either glue or wax. Can someone help please? Thank you.

[Clint 55]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

You're welcome. I just pry them out. Duncan uses wax, it shouldn't be glue. You could also put the blow dryer on it.

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

A couple thoughts for you:

There is very little difference in the tone of a rough vs smooth A2 mag. But you originally asked for..."the mellowest and warmest tone with smooth highs and maximum mid-range tone".

That would be rough cast A2, NOT polished A2!

If you try the RC A2 and think they sound too soft, you already have 2 UOA5 mags, an A3, an A4, and two polished A5s (in your pup), so you could try one A2 and one UOA5, or two UOA5s, or one A2 and one polished A5, or an A2 and A3, etc, etc. You have lots of options available to you with a P-90 pup and extra mags. If you buy two polished A2 mags and decide you want a still smoother tone, then you have essentially eliminated one of your options and you will still have to buy two RC A2 mags to get what you want. I strongly recommend buying two RCA2 mags to begin with to give you more potential options if you need them.

As far as removing the mags from your pup...DON'T use a hair dryer! Sure it will melt the wax around the magnets, but you may also remove some of the wax potting in the process. And it's a messy job to try and replace the wax.

You will have a very hard time pushing the magnets out. First pry them up (with a small, thin screw driver or spatula) to "break the seal", then they will push out very easily and you haven't disturbed the wax potting at all.

[arya44]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

You will have a very hard time pushing the magnets out. First pry them up (with a small, thin screw driver or spatula) to "break the seal", then they will push out very easily and you haven't disturbed the wax potting at all.

Thanks for the tip. I already managed to get the magnets out. I used a bit of hair dryer may be for 30 seconds. I was holding the pickup from the back so when I felt hot (it was blowing to my palm) before the pickup was warm, I had to stop doing it. Because I had an idea about prying from you guys and the fact that it is not glue so it can't be that hard, this time I managed to loosen them up and remove them. The problem is that I don't know if they were facing north up (toward the strings or north down toward the body of the guitar). My stash of A3,A4,UOA5 have North written on them but these ones don't for the faces. For the tips, there are two tips that had black dye on them. Both were facing toward the top of the guitar (where the toggle switch is on Les Paul style). Also two of the sides have black dye on them. Assuming black dye is North, I don't know if I should orient the north toward the neck or flip them to face toward the bridge. So for me to follow exact orientation of the poles, I first have to figure out how the original Seymour Duncan magnet poles were arranged on these SP90-1 pickups. Is there a general rule about that? Any resource to learn this from? I watched some youtube videos that the person shows how to swap Humbucker magnet but just follows the repelling and attracting as the guide. For me that can't help because the original magnets are already out and got moved and flipped around, etc. Am I in trouble if I didn't take note of the orientation of the original magnets?

[Clint 55]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Duncan uses south for its single coils. But in 2 pup sets, the neck is rwrp. So that means your neck pup originally had the magnets' north facing in.

[arya44]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Duncan uses south for its single coils. But in 2 pup sets, the neck is rwrp. So that means your neck pup originally had the magnets' north facing in.

Oh thanks so much for confirming this. I was just reading another thread about this in this forum and trying to remember the orientation from the dye on the original magnet. That's what I was trying to conclude as well. Great!

[chadd]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Since you already have the A4 and A3, I'd give them a shot first. Why not take an intermediate step before going from one extreme to the other?

[arya44]

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Since you already have the A4 and A3, I'd give them a shot first. Why not take an intermediate step before going from one extreme to the other?

Hi there Chadd. In fact I do. I was going to try A4 / UOA5 combo to see if I like it. My objective goes against A3 because A3 apparently has a brighter top end and less bass and mids. I like something with more low mids and bass is fine on the neck on that guitar. I like to maximize the mids. Since A4 mids is more than A5 and UOA5 also has more mids than regular A5, and less sizzle in highs, I thought I give that a shot.