Alnico 3 59's

[blueman335]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

You can pop the solder by gently twisting a flat blade screwdriver between the baseplate and cover without damaging the pickup at all. The cover pays a price, but nothing that can't be straightened out with the needle nose afterwards. Way easier than razor blades and dremels and soldering irons, actually less likely to do any damage too.

Thank you.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

A soldering iron and a piece of soldering braid works wonders w/o having to dremel stuff or bend covers and risk damage to the coils...

Just saying.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

After years of using a soldering iron, I've been using a (hotter) soldering gun instead, as it works much better for getting solder to stick to the back of some pots and getting covers to stick to baseplates. I even use a soldering gun to wire push-pulls now.

Well... if the Dremel works for you, great. I don't use it for this particular task as it messes the workbench a bit too much for my taste.

About the soldering gun: it produces a very strong magnetic field and an even greater magnetic pulse when turned on, I wouldn't use it nowhere near a p'up. it DOES mess with the magnets, specially at risk are A2 and A3 in HBs and any type of rod found in single coils. I've confirmed this in the past with my now broken Gaussmeter.

I use a 40W iron for most wiring jobs and a 100W iron just for p'up covers.

HTH,

 

[Kam]

Alnico 3 59's

Thanks for the info on the A3s. I really love my Tele bridge pup, and I put at least some of that down to the A3 mags in it. Bright but not sharp, very sweet on the high end, and tight (enough for me) on the lows. I've been thinking about getting some A3 bar mags to try out in the either the neck P90 I have paired up with it, or a spare '59n that I have lying around.

How much did it affect the output? When I had the stock '59 in there, I found it to be too overpowering for the bridge pup.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

Glad you like it Christian. A3s are cool...

B

 

[blueman335]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

Well... if the Dremel works for you, great. I don't use it for this particular task as it messes the workbench a bit too much for my taste.

About the soldering gun: it produces a very strong magnetic field and an even greater magnetic pulse when turned on, I wouldn't use it nowhere near a p'up. it DOES mess with the magnets, specially at risk are A2 and A3 in HBs and any type of rod found in single coils.

Thanks for that info. I use a soldering gun on pots, and rarely with PU's. I usually don't solder covers on, because of the ever-looming possibility of mag swaps.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

Kam- Output I do think they are noticeable weaker but not so much that I need to change things in the rig or anything...

My dual humbucker guitars have aged A2's, OUA5's, A3's and plain A5's all in PAFish winds and while they all vary it's not like any one is greatly louder than another.

Barlo-Thanks man...I might try an A4 in the bridge just to see but the midrange of the A3 that's in there is really great so I dunno, I might just leave well enough alone.

As for the soldering gun vs iron vs dremel tool I keep guns away from guitars...too much heat too fast. A 100 watt gun is GREAT for doing a chassis ground on an amp but I keep 'em away from guitars. I use a 25 watt or a 40 watt pencil iron for everything I do in a guitar but the key is the correct size tip for the job at hand and as I mentioned above desoldering braid, maybe even a solder sucker and the right size solder for going back...I burned up a lot of pots, demolished wire, killed pickups and destroyed caps learning out to solder and at the end of it all I realized that it wasn't nearly as much about technique as it was about having the right tools for the job!

 

[polifemo]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

Put an A3 in my (bridge) Brobucker last week, and it sounds great!

 

[MattPete]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

40-watt soldering iron and a box-cutter. Heat up the solder, and then swipe the box cutter through the solder before it cools.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Alnico 3 59's

Kam- Output I do think they are noticeable weaker but not so much that I need to change things in the rig or anything...

My dual humbucker guitars have aged A2's, OUA5's, A3's and plain A5's all in PAFish winds and while they all vary it's not like any one is greatly louder than another.

Barlo-Thanks man...I might try an A4 in the bridge just to see but the midrange of the A3 that's in there is really great so I dunno, I might just leave well enough alone.

As for the soldering gun vs iron vs dremel tool I keep guns away from guitars...too much heat too fast. A 100 watt gun is GREAT for doing a chassis ground on an amp but I keep 'em away from guitars. I use a 25 watt or a 40 watt pencil iron for everything I do in a guitar but the key is the correct size tip for the job at hand and as I mentioned above desoldering braid, maybe even a solder sucker and the right size solder for going back...I burned up a lot of pots, demolished wire, killed pickups and destroyed caps learning out to solder and at the end of it all I realized that it wasn't nearly as much about technique as it was about having the right tools for the job!

If you like the a3... don't touch it you know. Personally, I prefer a4s in ant and 59 bridges. But then again it's all tastes.

B