How/why do magnets make a difference?
- Thread starter Sporky McGuffin
- Start date
Natman
New member
Re: How/why do magnets make a difference?
Brown Note's explanation is pretty complete, but you have to realize we're talking about how pickups work. The question was about why different magnets change the tone. One reason is that alnico is a metallic material while ceramic is metal oxide. Metal conducts electrons, and metal oxide does not. So with all these interacting parameters (voltage, current, inductance, resistance and even capacitance) you also have eddy currents created in the magnet itself if the magnet is metallic but not if it is ceramic.
Bill Lawrence has said that the magnet material should not make a difference but the whole pickup's circuit does. It's up to you if you want to agree. As for the differences in alnico, you have to recognize the differences in alloy make for a complex atomic structure and even a tiny little amount of one element can affect the properties of the bulk. I would guess that there are very few people on the planet who can really understand what is going on when a couple % copper is added to the mix, but heck! If you add 0.4% carbon to iron and it becomes steel. The people who study alloys are metallurgists and the ones who study the atomic arrangement of materials are called crystallographers. The majority of people who make these magnets just follow a recipe and won't know what's really going on. It's extremely complicated.
There are also grains in metals, so I would assume that the different types of A5 have to do with grain size & isotropy. Am I a Walters now? :earl:
Brown Note's explanation is pretty complete, but you have to realize we're talking about how pickups work. The question was about why different magnets change the tone. One reason is that alnico is a metallic material while ceramic is metal oxide. Metal conducts electrons, and metal oxide does not. So with all these interacting parameters (voltage, current, inductance, resistance and even capacitance) you also have eddy currents created in the magnet itself if the magnet is metallic but not if it is ceramic.
Bill Lawrence has said that the magnet material should not make a difference but the whole pickup's circuit does. It's up to you if you want to agree. As for the differences in alnico, you have to recognize the differences in alloy make for a complex atomic structure and even a tiny little amount of one element can affect the properties of the bulk. I would guess that there are very few people on the planet who can really understand what is going on when a couple % copper is added to the mix, but heck! If you add 0.4% carbon to iron and it becomes steel. The people who study alloys are metallurgists and the ones who study the atomic arrangement of materials are called crystallographers. The majority of people who make these magnets just follow a recipe and won't know what's really going on. It's extremely complicated.
There are also grains in metals, so I would assume that the different types of A5 have to do with grain size & isotropy. Am I a Walters now? :earl:
Robert Delahunt
Showmasterologist
Re: How/why do magnets make a difference?
Magnetic field strength and density. That's how.
Magnetic field strength and density. That's how.