Demagnetized pickups

[thanoskant]

Hello,i baught the seymour duncan full shred pickups for my guitar about 6 years ago in my first guitar. After a while , i was playing around and i contact a magnet to my neck pickup(i know im stupid) .so after that the pickup sounded less loud, more clean and had a single coil like sound.does any one know what can i do?

 

[beaubrummels]

Welcome to the forum

Most guys use like neodymium types (or any magnet that is stronger than the pickup mag type) to recharge pickup magnets to full strength. Instructions are on the internet if you search. You pass the dead magnet between 2 stronger magnets, ensure North > South (opposites attract, don't force North to North, you want opposite poles to pass by each other.)

 

[GuitarStv]

Buying a new fully charged humbucker magnet is only a couple dollars from most places. You might be better off to simply buy a new one that worry about buying special strong magnets to recharge the one you've currently got.

 

['59]

Well if you demagnetized your pickup just put the magnet back?

 

[Demanic]

Just touching the magnet to another magnet for a brief moment shouldn't do any harm. Breaking a coil wire would cause a drop in output and a single coil like sound.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[freefrog]

I've nothing to object to all the good advices above but it might be useful to post a sample of the neck pickup played in comparison with the bridge one and to precise a bit what happened: what was the external magnet? Did it hit the PU violently? Did it stay stuck directly on the poles? Etc.

BTW, if the problem is what Demanic explains, it's easy to check : the tone pot should behave like a second volume control (because a broken wire changes the coil in a capacitor, for the record).
I've repaired more than one humbucker with this issue after some physical stress.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

A neo magnet is strong enough to degauss an A5 partly in seconds, even from a couple of inches away.
Fortunately the same effect can also be used to recharge a weakened magnet.

Forum member Zhangliqun (maker of Zhangbucker pickups) posted about this some years ago.
The cool thing is, you don't need to remove the magnet so it can be done right in the guitar.
Even better, you can audition the result immediately and undo/redo the change right away if you want.

Link to the post is below - pay attention to the very last lines because treating a neck hum can mess with the bridge hum if you aren't careful.
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forum/the-pickup-lounge/123856-how-to-degauss?p=1820751#post1820751

Of course, this presupposes that your problem is a weakened magnet; it will not help for a broken winding or any other wiring issue.
Also, my own experience is limited to taking a little edge off, so I can't confirm this is able to return an A5 to full 100% charge.

Perhaps David (or someone else with more experience than me) can expand on this?

 

[GuitarDoc]

I think we need a little more information because what you describe doesn't sound like a degaussed pickup magnet, it sounds more like your pup is in split/single coil mode:

Was the pickup installed into your guitar when this happened?
Was it out of the guitar...on the desk or in a drawer when it happened?
Did the magnet come in direct contact with your pickup?
If so, could the magnet have contacted and broken a pickup wire or caused the series connection to become grounded?

 

[Mincer]

You can always do the 'screwdriver test' (tap each coil with a screwdriver with the volume barely up) to see if only 1 coil is working.

 

[Zhangliqun]

A neo magnet is strong enough to degauss an A5 partly in seconds, even from a couple of inches away.
Fortunately the same effect can also be used to recharge a weakened magnet.

Forum member Zhangliqun (maker of Zhangbucker pickups)
Also, my own experience is limited to taking a little edge off, so I can't confirm this is able to return an A5 to full 100% charge.

Perhaps David (or someone else with more experience than me) can expand on this?

I do have experience with it but I can't say if it gives you a 100% charge or not. The only way to be sure would be to have a fully charged mag and a gaussmeter, soften the mag and then try to bring it back with this technique, obviously taking readings before and after.

What I can say is that it seems to charge the magnet up enough that it sounds fully charged or really close to it to my ear, but try it and judge for yourself.

 

[Clint 55]

Unless it was a neo magnet that stuck to your pickup, it likely did nothing. You can have a bunch of alnicos stuck to each other and nothing happens. Your pickup probably got split somehow. Do what Mincer said and test it.