Alni III in Wolfgang neck

[Chistopher]

I finally bought my Wolfgang, and was disturbed to find out that the slick pair of Lace Sensors I wanted to put in wouldn't fit without routing the guitar.

The bridge pickup sounds phenomenal but the neck has too much bass. I hear that the new EVH top-shelf guitars have the same wind but an Alnico 3 in the neck (fun fact I discovered 15 minutes ago: A3 doesn't have cobalt so it's not technically an AlNiCo)

Short of buying a new pickup, how drastic an effect can I expect A3 to be? This is one of those magnets I've never used and do not own. I've got some on order now, but I'm thinking of trying an A4 first.

 

[beaubrummels]

It's like a lower power A2, without the mid-bump. Depends on the wind it's in though.

 

[Chistopher]

The Wolfgang neck is a few degrees of freedom removed from a Custom Custom.

 

[Demanic]

I think that an A3 would do what you're looking for in that pickup. A4 would be interesting but you would still have plenty of bass, maybe more than you would want.

 

[freefrog]

All other specs being equal, A3 should give to a pickup the highest inductance and weakest magnetic field compared to AlNi-Co alloys. More inductance should shift the response towards the mids. Less magnetic pull should be translated by a slightly rounder resonant peak + flattened overall response (or at least less bass / less treble) + less output voltage.

Now and as usual, the ultimate tonal result would depend on the pickup (+ guitar, pots, cable, strings, etc.) and on the specs of the mag(s) used: how and where it was made, if it's fully charged or not and so on. IMHO. IME.

Indifferent footnote: I love A3 in P90's. Not so much in humbuckers. YMMV.

 

[Chistopher]

[...] compared to AlNi-Co alloys.

the title was a riff of how A3s were designed to combat the high cobalt prices of WW2 and as such were made without it.

I now remember that I do have an A3 magnet, I'll swap it out next time I change the strings, because unfortunately I was unaware I had it when I changed them yesterday.

 

[freefrog]

the title was a riff of how A3s were designed to combat the high cobalt prices of WW2 and as such were made without it.

Clever joke.

Let us know how you find A3 in the neck slot if you try it...

 

[Chistopher]

Yeah, I think I will. It looks to do what I want. Lil less bass, lil more highs.

 

[Chistopher]

On a whim I installed the A3. It's a much needed improvement to the pickup and I can understand why Mr. Van Halen made it into a permanent change for the USA models.

Less bass, more highs, simple as.

It's about as pronounced an effect as changing strings.

I expected it to make the largest effect on the neck only position, but the middle position is surprisingly better now. To be honest, the middle is now my favorite position on this guitar.

 

[hamerfan]

I am glad you liked the A3. I had a bad strat with this pickup with swapping it into Custom in the bridge slot. It was the time it was fashionable to swap different mags in to the Custom. The C3 was so weak and flat: wrong pickup, wrong guitar slot. But on medium neck pickups its really nice.
Fun fact: From your chart i learned that my beloved A6 contains Titanium like the hotter 8 and 9.

 

[freefrog]

Thx for sharing!

An interesting thing with A3 : by rising the inductance, it increases the Q factor of the resonant peak, albeit this resonance becomes rounder and lower pitched. I see how this effect paired with the overall volume drop and tightened bass can give the feeling of "more treble", especially once associated to an already high inductivity of the coils.

Have you measured the DCR and inductance of your Wolfgang neck, by chance? Darth Phineas states 17.812k and 7.993H, which is enormous for a neck model. No wonder if it sounded bassy muddy with the stock A2...

Anyway, nothing replaces personal experiments in such cases. Enjoy with your geetar...

 

[jeremy]

i have a c3 in the bridge of my orpheo strat and i like it a lot, though, as you said maybe wrong guitar slot

 

[Chistopher]

Thx for sharing!

An interesting thing with A3 : by rising the inductance, it increases the Q factor of the resonant peak, albeit this resonance becomes rounder and lower pitched. I see how this effect paired with the overall volume drop and tightened bass can give the feeling of "more treble", especially once associated to an already high inductivity of the coils.

Have you measured the DCR and inductance of your Wolfgang neck, by chance? Darth Phineas states 17.812k and 7.993H, which is enormous for a neck model. No wonder if it sounded bassy muddy with the stock A2...

Anyway, nothing replaces personal experiments in such cases. Enjoy with your geetar...

Apparently the neck model does have a few tricks up it's sleeves to counter this issue, it wasn't the best stock, but it wasn't horrible either.

 

[freefrog]

A friend of mine designed a (covered) neck HB able to sound clear @ 14.9k and 9.5H (which is I think the highest inductance I've ever measured on a regular sized neck HB). So, I don't doubt it's possible. But it's not that easy IMHO/IME. So, I find gratifying and useful to learn that an A3 contributed to this result in a Wolfgang neck PU.

 

[Chistopher]

Now that I got a better chance to play it, I am really liking this neck pickup. The middle position sounds especially good.

If it weren't for the fact that I stayed up way past my bedtime playing this, I'd write up some pretty metaphors for you guys.