Anyone ever tried an Alnico 8 in a PAF Neck HB backed away from the strings?

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Anyone ever tried an Alnico 8 in a PAF Neck HB backed away from the strings?

A8's are warmer than A3's. A3's are the next brightest alnico after A5's.

Ah, ok. Warmer was a poor choice of words. I do think of A3s as more vintage in character than A8s, despite being brighter and tighter than A2s. My only A3 is a ReWind humbucker that was meant to be PAF-like, so that's colored my impression of them. An A8 would certainly be fatter- perhaps pretty midrangey in a low wind pickup, possibly honky in a good way like Orpheo's jazz neck- but also perhaps also a bit "big" considering the OP prefers low output neck pickups. The darker-natured A2 would still be my first recommendation, especially since he has one on hand. Then an A3, with the A8 as a last resort before giving up on the pickup (which still might sound great in a darker guitar).

I don't know what the bridge pickup from that set is like. Could be fairly low output. If so, it might be worth trying that in the neck position, before buying something else.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Anyone ever tried an Alnico 8 in a PAF Neck HB backed away from the strings?

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[blueman335]

Re: Anyone ever tried an Alnico 8 in a PAF Neck HB backed away from the strings?

Ah, ok. Warmer was a poor choice of words. I do think of A3s as more vintage in character than A8s, despite being brighter and tighter than A2s.

Right. A3's are unoriented (as are A2's and A4's) and have a vintage sound to them (color, character, texture, etc). A8's don't have as much texture, and are sometimes considered to sound like a cross between an alnico and a ceramic. The higher numbered alnicos increase in output, and lose some of the alnico 'feel'.

 

[p4vl]

Re: Anyone ever tried an Alnico 8 in a PAF Neck HB backed away from the strings?

The only Jon Baxter set with A4 mags Is the Diablo Grande, which has almost the same specs as the Duncan Distortion set.

Assuming that's the one you have, I'd like to suggest an A3 in the neck and an A2 in the bridge. IME, that'll get you closer to the tone you're after.

Having said that, I think you'll be better off with a new set of p'ups of another brand.

HTH,

The guy said that they were from a custom-made guitar and the luthier went to Baxter for a set of custom-wound, one-off humbuckers (I was told that they don't have an officially designated name, besides; I got the A5 for the neck Pickup from the Baxter set Bridge pickup). I was surprised he was offering a set of pickups when I was looking to trade my Reverb pedal for a zebra 59 or PAF/PAF Pro (I think that some kind of proof of the pickups being made by Baxter was shown to me before the trade, I wasn't going to give up my Hardwire for a couple of GFS pickups).

I understood when I made the trade that it might not be right for my guitar; everyone that has ever purchased an aftermarket pickup has to simply hope for the best.

BTW, My next bridge pickup is probably (99%) going to be a BKP Ceramic Black Hawk. It's one of the few high output bridge pickups recommended for Ibanez RG's that isn't a Dimarzio (I'm not going back to Dimarzio bridge pickups).

 

[p4vl]

Re: Anyone ever tried an Alnico 8 in a PAF Neck HB backed away from the strings?

A8's don't have as much texture, and are sometimes considered to sound like a cross between an alnico and a ceramic. The higher numbered alnicos increase in output, and lose some of the alnico 'feel'.

Yes, the A8 is sort of a hybrid. That's really my only concern, I've put A8's in pickups that were originally meant to have A5's and the only trouble I've had was that the harmonics were a little weird. The overall tone was much punchier, thicker and more aggressive but that was an 18k bridge pickup that was somewhat close to the strings.