alnico 8?

[RockGuitarDude1]

I'm thinking about messing with my pickups to experiment a bit and was wondering what kind of output alnico 8 magnets have. I would assume it falls between alnico 5 and ceramic as far as output but I'm not completely sure. Also, where can I get a hold of one? Has anyone tried this in the SD Custom?

What affect on tone would it have going from alnico 5 to alnico 8? More mids than A5 but less than ceramic?

 

[blueman335]

Re: alnico 8?

A8's are open to experimentation. I think we'll keep finding more applications for them. I got mine at Wymore Guitars.com. To me they have more output & mids than an A5. But as for ceramics, which I think are harsh and overly bright, an A8 is warmer and almost as powerful. If you have a Custom, 500T, or other high output ceramic HB, putting an A8 in there would give an alnico feel to it.

 

[Quicksilver689]

Re: alnico 8?

A8's are open to experimentation. I think we'll keep finding more applications for them. I got mine at Wymore Guitars.com. To me they have more output & mids than an A5. But as for ceramics, which I think are harsh and overly bright, an A8 is warmer and almost as powerful. If you have a Custom, 500T, or other high output ceramic HB, putting an A8 in there would give an alnico feel to it.

+1.....although I changed pickups in the process (and thus diff winds and EQ's also factor into this), I went from ceramic (DiM. D-Sonic) to A8 (Crazy 8), and the diff. is like night and day - no shrill highs, the same output level, the tightness in the bass reponse, and yet the bass is full and punchy without ever getting boomy, and the mids are there but never overpowering. I think I'm going to try an A8 mag in *any* bridge pickup I get from now on.

 

[RockGuitarDude1]

Re: alnico 8?

Ok I'm trying to see what sort of information I can gather. From what I've managed to find on this board:

A2 = lower output, lots of mids
A3 = ??
A4 = moderate output, flat eq
A5 = moderate output, scooped eq
A8 = high output, a warmer ceramic
Ceramic = high output, harsh, meaty

 

[uOpt]

Re: alnico 8?

That's not quite accurate and much more complicated.

First, the major thing about the ceramic magnets is that they compress more. At low force string hits such as picking a small ceramic magnet can sound very similar to A5. And it's not louder. At least not when I stuffed A5 and a small ceramic into my CC. I would have difficulty telling them from each other on fingerpicking when just listening to a recording.

More importantly, it depends on the coils. The A5 behaves differently depending on coil. In a PAF coil (awg42) it is very scooped, but with the Custom coil (awg43) it's much more even. In the JB/DD coils (awg44) the highs that were "on the top of the PAF/59 scoop" are suddenly moved into the high mids where you ear is more sensitive and hence a JB is more piercing sounding.

Likewise, A2 has higher mids and some highs in awg42 coils but with the awg43 coils that drops by one notch and now you have lots of low mids, some upper mids and very few highs.

 

[Quicksilver689]

Re: alnico 8?

thx for chiming in, uOpt...people like you and blueman335, et al, are a lot more versed in this stuff than I am, and contribute greatly to my learning curve