Alnico 8 Pickups are cool.

[dd12939]

I got a pair of A8s in from chill (thanks a million!!) last week and this weekend I got to make use of them. Originally, I knew I was gonna put one in my C5 because of all the hype about the Custom-8's. Friday evening I got that put together with new strings and all. I dig the sound. I had always fought with the C5 because when playing chordy stuff in my SG, it just got a little mushy. I could hear the bass note and the top note and not much in between. The A8 really kicked the mids and clarity up a bunch. The sound is a lot more aggressive now, even verging on harsh, but to be fair, I have hardly toyed with the pickup height or amp settings yet (haven't had much time).

So I got done with that project and started thinking, "I have a spare Alnico 8 magnet. What should I do with it?" Well, about 30 seconds of thinking led me to my poor modified Strat.

I took the A5 out of the PATB1 and replaced it with the remaining A8. Unfortunately, the tape didn't hold together on the PATB so I had to use electrical tape for the time being. During the process, I FUBAR'd the wiring on the PATB (it used to be one coil/both/other coil) but I pulled off a wire and was too lazy to look up the answer, so I just soldered it on a random connection. Now it is full/weak/weak. The Full on setting sounds awesome though. As much as I liked this pickup before, I like it even better now. Just a little more kick and fullness to an already kicking and full pickup. I am just really sad I can't fit the PATB in my SG.

 

[AmirH]

Re: Alnico 8 Pickups are cool.

I wonder what that would do to my jb... It really would be nice to tighten up the low end without losing that nice singing lead tone. Did that one guy ever come through with that huge order of a8's?

 

[dd12939]

Re: Alnico 8 Pickups are cool.

I have very little experience with the JB, though I would be interested to see how the JB/Distortion reacted to an A8. From what I remember, it doesn't have a whole lot of bass to it, so maybe the 8 would fatten that up a bit. If worse comes to worse, it's an easy mod to reverse.

chill got his in and sent out apparently (as I got mine)
Zhangliun(sp?) had some coming in and I am pretty sure he got them and sent them out to other folks too. PM them for more info I guess.

 

[AmirH]

Re: Alnico 8 Pickups are cool.

Ah, well my problem isn't lack of bass cuz- that was an easy fix with some technique adjustment and amp tweakage. It's just a little too loose so I had been using my emg equipped epi for basically all rhythm work. If the low end was tighter I'd be a happy camper. Feels a little compressed sometimes too but I'm pretty sure that's the nature of the pickup and it's not a terribly huge issue for me.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Alnico 8 Pickups are cool.

The Alnico 8's are killer. I put out a review thread called "Alnico 8 results...are in..."

I can't imagine any bridge pickup that it wouldn't make sound better.