How to degauss

[copperheadroads]

Re: How to degauss

I'm curious, is it possible to charge the alnicos by attaching to ceramic 8?

Yes ,depending on the size & strength of the ceramic 8 magnet
i dont think a humbucker bar magnet will do
but stacking magnets doubles there strength

Most important question is if we can permanently change polarity in single coil slugs by using 2 discs,1 facing pickup from up and 1 from bellow.Say for example north(disk) facing top of slug,south(disk) facing bottom of slug will permanently charge the slug as opposite per disc for each side?Hope I expressed it well enough.That could save a lot of wiring and pickup changing to some people.

You can reverse the magnet polarity by using neo disc & like you mentioned
but how is it going to save wiring ?

Which leads me to ask; does Stewart McDonald, or anyone else, sell a device to measure the actual gauss of our pups so that we can see if we are doing it right?

You will need a Gauss meter to measure the strength of a magnet
They cost hundreds

 

[lazyfinger]

Re: How to degauss

Yes ,depending on the size & strength of the ceramic 8 magnet
i dont think a humbucker bar magnet will do
but stacking magnets doubles there strength

Yes, that's what I mean, not completely magnetizing a non-magnetized alnico, but rather increase their strength with an equal size ceramic 8.

 

[Mad Raxz]

Re: How to degauss

You will need a Gauss meter to measure the strength of a magnet
They cost hundreds

Ouch! I guess Ill just stick em on the fridge and feel how hard it is to pull them off, ha!

 

[JHN]

Re: How to degauss

You can reverse the magnet polarity by using neo disc & like you mentioned
but how is it going to save wiring ?

I have reversed the single coil cables in many hss fender strats,as i prefer a noisy split duncan humbucker+single middle 4th position sound than a noiseless but out of phase.Reason is I mostly use it with very little or no gain at all,and I hate out of phase sounds.
So,slug polarity reversal in single coils can be done with 2 neodymium discs hmmmmmmmm.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: How to degauss

Just waving it over the top doesn't work. You need to be aware of which way each pole of the magnet in the pickup points. With a bridge pickup, assuming you want to weaken it and assuming it's the more standard layout of the S pole touching the screws (N touching slugs), you wave it over the bridge (the actual bridge, not bridge pickup) with the S side of the disk pointing toward the screws, but with the flat plane of the disk as close to perpendicular to the top of the pickup as possible and still have an effect. Not 90 degrees but about 70 to 80.

I tested this out today. I'm obviously a fool, either I can't notice the difference, or I'm doing it wrong.

At first, I waved it across the pickup, about an inch above the pickups, with the magnet parallel to the top of the guitar, heard very little difference. Flipped it over, tried again, also, not enough difference to know if it was an actual change or just placebo. Then followed the instructions more closely, did it around 2" above the outer bridge poles, with the face of the disc aimed toward the poles.

Is this correct? Should I be hearing a drastic difference? Any change in output?

 

[MikeM]

Re: How to degauss

Thanks Zhang!!

Will I notice a decrease in output, or just a change in tone?

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: How to degauss

A little of both, depending on how close and how fast/slow the wave is.

 

[T.M.A.]

Re: How to degauss

It's all trial and error and depends on how much you want to degauss. Just a few seconds on a side (S to S and N to N) will take the edge off.

Although now I have come up with a new way of both degaussing and re-gaussing without even having to take the pu out of the guitar. Just use a neo disk mag like you can get from Stewmac and wave it once very quickly along the length of the pickup with the disk a couple of inches above the pickup, off to the side, with the surface of the disk at a 45-degree angle to the surface of the pu. How much degauss or recharge effect is determined by how fast you wave the disk and how far away the disk is from the pickup. Faster and farther away both = less effect.

This is a great way for several reasons:

1) It's goofproof. If you degauss it too much, just flip the disk over and wave it again to recharge it, flip it again and try again.

2) You don't have to do anything to the guitar at all, you don't even have to remove strings or pickups.

3) You hear the results immediately. You can have the guitar in your lap plugged into the amp while you do this so you can really dial in the tone. Wave it and play, wave it and play -- no memory degradation of what it sounded like before as would happen during the time you had to yank the pickup out of the guitar and then yank the magnet out of the pu.

I recommend the wave be to the "outside" of the pickups, meaning over the bridge for the bridge pu and over the neck for the neck pu. This way the neo disk's magnetic field doesn't affect the other pickup.

OK, I hate to necro-bump here, but this article is very compelling and I think a few more things could be clarified for posterity...

1. How does this "waving disk method" apply to humbuckers? could we leave a humbucker in the guitar as well? Would a 1/2" neo mag be strong enough to recharge the magnet through that thick plastic?? (I am in a situation where i need to re-magnetize a magnet and i would rather not have to open up the pickup of course...)

2. once we determine the polarity of the magnet that we will be using to degauss (or in this case re-gauss...), wouldn't we still have to take out the humbucker and figure out the polarity of that magnet as well, so as to not jack up the polarity of that magnet?? Unless, well, it is common knowledge that the N end of the magnet inside the humbucker is always pointing towards the neck and not the bridge. Wait, did i say that correctly??

So yeah, a little more help and clarity on this procedure would be appreciated... I found a tube of NEO magnets at the local hardware store for 3 bucks!!

Also, 2 more questions here:

1. Can we recharge ceramic magnets with this method??

2. Why does iti have to be a neodymnium magnet that we use to do the recharging/ decharging? Someone brought up a good question about just using a really stong normal magnet -like the one off our guitar speakers...Anyway... Cheers...

 

[jeremy]

Re: How to degauss

1- i dont think you can recharge ceramics, at least ive never seen it done.
2- neodymium is much stronger than the ceramic magnet on a speaker, up to 18x stronger is what ive heard. the speaker magnet is bigger and im sure you could charge alnico to some extent but not sure itll be enough to hold.

 

[T.M.A.]

Re: How to degauss

1- i dont think you can recharge ceramics, at least ive never seen it done.
2- neodymium is much stronger than the ceramic magnet on a speaker, up to 18x stronger is what ive heard. the speaker magnet is bigger and im sure you could charge alnico to some extent but not sure itll be enough to hold.

Well, forgive this ignorant question -but how does the ceramic magnet get charged in the first place?? And doesn't stand to reason that if my magnet has been "de-charged" it can then again be re=charged?? Unless, it's just much easier to de-charge a magnet rather than re-charge...?

 

[jeremy]

Re: How to degauss

ceramic magnets (hard ferrite) are molded and charged as they are made as far as i know. its not easy to charge or de-charge a ceramic magnet

 

[T.M.A.]

Re: How to degauss

ceramic magnets (hard ferrite) are molded and charged as they are made as far as i know. its not easy to charge or de-charge a ceramic magnet

Hmm... so I'm wondering what may have happened to my pickup then? The resistance is reading the same on my multimeter, but it just doesn't sound right at all. It's hooked up properly and I have two other pickups of the same model that sound as they should... The only thing I can think of is that the magnet has been demagnetized. The pickup was sitting in a box with a very strong neodymnium magnet for a while (stupid on my part) -Could that have demagnetized it perhaps??

Hmm... If one of the leads was jacked up then the resistance would not read as regular on the multimeter, correct??

 

[jeremy]

Re: How to degauss

in theory yes, a neo mag could have messed things up. they are crazy strong. if the wiring was messed up most likely it would not read correctly but again its hard to say with certainty.

what pup is this? in any case if the magnet is messed up youll probably need to pull it out.

 

[T.M.A.]

Re: How to degauss

jeremy, Thanks a lot for getting back to me!!

The pickup is an old stock humbucker from a Westone Spectrum ST. Love the sound of those...

Actually, I think I figured it out. The leads are fine and the magnet is fine as well. I think the main problem was my connection...

I did two things

1. i pulled the pickup apart and flipped the magenet end over end, so that the N pole was till facing towards the neck (didn't know what that was supposed to do, but whatever...)

2. I am using this ancient (the stock one that came with the guitar that I learned how to solder on...) volume pot that has a humongous, R2D2 sized mountain of solder on it. Before, I just smashed the ground from the pup into this mountain of solder, but just now I decided to disconnect the ground and resolder it to the side of the pot where it was clean and solder free... Everything is coming through clean now and the pickup sounds (I think) how it should...

Thanks again for your time...

T

 

[jeremy]

Re: How to degauss

ive never seen a ceramic lose it charge other than being broken. glad got it working!

 

[Mincer]

Re: How to degauss

Oh awesome! Problem solved. But it was interesting to me to learn a little bit about magnets.

 

[mcentee2]

Re: How to degauss

Apols for raising this thread, but easier to reply to it with a context

The procedure with a neo disk seems to degauss only one "half" of the magnet.

Does the other half just fall in line, or is it left at full gauss and the above method is just a "practical" way of semi-degaussing as the pickup is still in the guitar.

Quick and easy has some advantages, I can see, but that other half of the mag is on my mind

 

[Discharged]

Re: How to degauss

The procedure with a neo disk seems to degauss only one "half" of the magnet.

You can't degauss only the "one half", as by definition a magnet is an unity where opposing sides happen to have opposing polarities.

/Peter

 

[mcentee2]

Re: How to degauss

Makes sense, in my mind I was thinking of the descriptions and processes for magnetising pickups where they were passed through two opposing neos in a vice or similar.

Thanks, Peter.


Rather than buy the Stewmac ones and pay for shipping to the UK I am trying to find similar neo mags in the UK - does anyone know the thickness and "N" strength of the Stewmac 1" magnet so I don't buy rubbish ones! ?

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: How to degauss

I don't have specs for my StewMac one but I imagine any good strong neo disc should work just as well.
You might send a PM to Zhangliqun if he doesn't pop back into the conversation here soon.