Great mag swap & ceramic question

[Mad Raxz]

Thanx Kojak! I followed your advice and tried the A8-A4 combo. I just swapped the mags on an Ibanez RG which had infinity pickups, I pulled out the ceramic and A5 and put in an A8 & A4, great combo. Lt Kojack is always right, except when he´s wrong!

The infinity bridge pup is supposed to have a ceramic mag but it has less pull than an alnico 5 (I compared the pull on the ceramic with alnicos by sticking them on the fridge). Is this normal? I was thinking on keeping the ceramic but I don´t know if they normally have less gauss than alnicos.

Are ceramics weaker, gauss wise, yet more powerfull, decibel wise, than alnicos? Or was this just a bad ceramic? Please let me know your experience with ceramics!

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Great mag swap & ceramic question

Glad you're enjoying the combo. Just give it a few days and it'll sound even better!

Ceramic mags don't lose their magnetic properties in the same way as alnico does, but it's not completely unheard of bars losing their properties, most probably a faulty one than a faulty batch.

HTH,

 

[Guston7]

Re: Great mag swap & ceramic question

I'm not surprised to hear this. I think this is part of the reason people say their stocks sound lousy, and some say they're pretty good. Yes, it's different tastes, but it's also poor quality control. I've had multiple sets of Asian made stockers (IBZ V1's,2's,7's,8's) where the same model sounds very different. Even with some more costly pickups like the Gibson P-94's, that I was unhappy with, Kojak found gauss strength all over the map.

 

[Mad Raxz]

Re: Great mag swap & ceramic question

Glad you're enjoying the combo. Just give it a few days and it'll sound even better!

Yup, the A8 sounded immediately better and the A4 was a so-so. The next day the A4 sounded WAY better, the why of this is beyond me. The A4 seems like wine, it just keeps getting better.

I think I got one of the last batches Adiction FX sends overseas, it´s gonna be a pain in the *ss to get more mags!

 

[Mad Raxz]

Re: Great mag swap & ceramic question

most probably a faulty one than a faulty batch.

Maybe I got a bad batch on my Les Paul! I really hated the Burstbuckers 2 & 3 in my ax and just took them right off. The bloody hell with them peices of no good lame, dull sounding, weak "#$%$%&!!!!

Maybe I´ll try and put in an UOA5 & A2 in them and see if they start sounding decent.

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Great mag swap & ceramic question

Yeah, Kojak has been preaching this combo for a while, and he's right. He should be preaching it. It sounds great. I was running it a long time before I gave Alnico 2 in the neck a shot, and I may still go back to Alnico 4. But the man is nothing if not consistent.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Great mag swap & ceramic question

Yup, the A8 sounded immediately better and the A4 was a so-so. The next day the A4 sounded WAY better, the why of this is beyond me. The A4 seems like wine, it just keeps getting better.

I don't KNOW IT for sure, but the reason might lay in what's call "permeability".

That is that the magnetic field takes some time to PERMEATE the elements conducting it, (keepers, slugs, screws and even the baseplate might have some kind of impact I can't measure for lack of either a process or an instrument) and those are the key elements along with the bobbin's geometry and type of insulation and thickness of the copper wire that determine the ultimate outcome, and that's how the p'up will sound.

In my own observations, the A8 takes a lot less time to stabilize than say A3, which it may take up to a week to deliver the tone. I've noticed this lately when I bought this Gibson L-5 CES copy and had a '57 Classic/'57 Classic Plus to try. The neck p'up was boomy as hell with the stock magnet, so I've tried my "vintage-y-boominess-killer" mag combo, A3neck/UOA5bridge.

It took two days for the bridge p'up, seven days for the neck. They sounded OK, but "too rocky" for my taste and I couldn't get rid of the inherent boominess of the neck position p'up, and that was the dealbreaker for me.

The guitar has a STOCK Seth Lover set now and it couldn't be more suitable for a 20-fretter Jazzbox. No boominess in the neck position and a both-on sound to die for... FWIW, my search is over for this guitar.

HTH,