Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

[Dirtyking]

Anyone here put an alnico 5 magnet in a 490R? I'd think it would tighten up the loose bottm end.

My bad, I meant 490t.

 

[Jazz Rock]

Re: Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

Excellent question! I was tempted to do a magnet swap between the 490R and the 498T, so...

 

[Fusion1]

Re: Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

Didn't the 490R and 498T combo both come with Alnico V's? I'd be surprised if they were ceramics.

 

[Jazz Rock]

Re: Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

The 490R is an alnico 2 and the 498T is an alnico 5.
Luke Duke is praising the 498T with A2 but the question is: What about the 490R with A5?

 

[PRG]

Re: Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

Seems like swapping mags between the bridge and neck would fix the problem of a too-bright bridge p'up and a too-muddy neck p'up.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

Nope, but it's probably worth a try.

I bought a set of Seths to replace my 490s. I turns out that the Seth bridge sounded weak and thin compared to the 490t bridge, so I kept the 490t. However, the Seth neck was a step in the right direction: not as strong or as muddy as the 490r. Still, it wasn't as big of a step as I had hoped, so I swaped the A2 in the Seth neck for an A5. Much better.

I realized that the Seth neck != 490r, but I bet an A5 could clean up the muddiness of the 490r. My hunch is that you might have to drop the bass string side, as the A5 might make it a little bass heavy.

 

[Dirtyking]

Re: Gibson 490R with and alnico 5 mag?

My Bad, I meant to say 490t instead of 490r. The neck 490r is great out of the box. It's the 490t that needs help. So I thought an Alnico 5 mag would bring this pup up to standard and not be as harsh as the 498t can be.