Mikelamury
New member
Wondering which is going to have more output; alnico 2 or alnico 4?
Alnico output question
- Thread starter Mikelamury
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uOpt
Something Cool
They are all equal except maybe Alnico 8 which is more piercing and might be louder. Hard to say.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Output and perceived loudness can be pretty different things.
A4 is a stronger mag, but A2 punches above its weight because of the extra high mids.
A4 has pleny of mids but they aren't concentrated into a narrow band like A2.
A lot depends on the guitar and amp but sometimes A2 can sound as loud as A5, which technically is quite a bit stronger.
I agree with uOpt about A8 though. Swapping in A8 or ceramic can make just about any alnico pickup perceptibly louder.
A4 is a stronger mag, but A2 punches above its weight because of the extra high mids.
A4 has pleny of mids but they aren't concentrated into a narrow band like A2.
A lot depends on the guitar and amp but sometimes A2 can sound as loud as A5, which technically is quite a bit stronger.
I agree with uOpt about A8 though. Swapping in A8 or ceramic can make just about any alnico pickup perceptibly louder.
With the exception of A8, I don't think you're going to notice much difference in output between the other alnico magnets. While technically there IS a difference in output, like eclecticsynergy said, what you will notice is a "perceived" difference due to the different prominent frequencies. The human ear does not react the same as a machine.
maug2122
New member
I noticed, I had a 16.92k ohms pickup with an Alnico 5 and it was slightly lower in precieved volume, while the ceramic version of that pickup was hotter meaner and seemed louder .:wrf:
With the Alnico 5 humbucker, I just pumped in my SD SFX-1 Pickup Booster for a hotter punch from that pickup.
With the Alnico 5 humbucker, I just pumped in my SD SFX-1 Pickup Booster for a hotter punch from that pickup.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Ceramic is much stronger than A5. It's got more of everything, and a fairly different overall character as well.
It has more highs, more mids, more bass, and bigger output - hotter, meaner and louder is exactly what you get soundwise.
Ceramic's highs are aggressive, so it generally does better in heavier winds than light ones - can be a bit fizzy, especially in a low wind.
And ceramic's bass is huge & very tight, one reason why it appears in nearly every humbucker intended for metal players.
Long ago, when Seymour was doing mostly rewinds, he also sometimes used to customize humbuckers without rewinding by replacing the regular A5s with ceramics. These pickups were said to have been "Seymourized."
A8 is not quite as hot as ceramic but it's a bit bouncier, while its highs are hot yet not quite so supercharged.
That makes it sort of a middle ground - often good for beefing up an A5 pickup, or taming the fizz of a ceramic one.
Either way, it changes feel as well as the output.
Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
It techincally is. Pretty much. I don't remember if I saw it in this forum, but there was a chart where it showed that A8 and Ceramic had pretty much the same gauss.
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Might be as strong magnetically, I guess. But IMO it's not quite as loud as ceramic in practice.
Not that I've done many comparisons between the two, and I don't own a Gaussmeter either.
My experience is limited to swapping double A8s into a Distortion set and I was happy with the result.
I didn't do actual dB measurements and it's possible the A8s were not actually quieter, but simply a bit less aggressive.
Of course, like so many other things, YMMV.
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