I can haz every mag?

Clint 55

OH THE DOUBLE THICK GLAZE!
I now haz every mag in my guitars except the 2 I don't care for. I think they all serve their purpose well, too. I have A2, A3, UOA5, A5, A6, A8, and A9. I don't care for A4, ceramic, or roughcasts. I use double thick in all my bridge hums.
 
I can haz every mag?

I now haz every mag in my guitars except the 2 I don't care for. I think they all serve their purpose well, too. I have A2, A3, UOA5, A5, A6, A8, and A9. I don't care for A4, ceramic, or roughcasts. I use double thick in all my bridge hums.

Any interesting discoveries as as a result?
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

I now haz every mag in my guitars except the 2 I don't care for. I think they all serve their purpose well, too. I have A2, A3, UOA5, A5, A6, A8, and A9. I don't care for A4, ceramic, or roughcasts. I use double thick in all my bridge hums.

Right on brother!

I'm just about there with you. I've tried everything except Alnico 9.
I received two A6s from AddictionFx earlier this week, and I haven't quite found a permanent home for them yet, though I'm thinking of potentially swapping it for the A8 I have in a Gibson 498T
Like you, I just haven't found a good use for A4

These are my 10 electrics (pickups have stock magnets if magnet is not specified):
Les Paul, SD JB A2 bridge, SD Alnico II Pro neck
Les Paul, DMZ Transition A5 bridge, Air Norton A3 neck
Les Paul, Gibson 498T bridge, GFS Dream 90 middle, SD Seth Lover A3 neck
Strat HSS, SD JB A2 bridge, SD SSL6s middle/neck
Strat HSS hardtail, SD perpetual burn bridge, SD SSL6s middle/neck
Tele, SD Quarter Pound Tele bridge, SD Hot for Tele neck
Tele, DMZ Transition A2 bridge, Air Norton A3 neck
Jackson V, Gibson 500T bridge, Gibson 490R UOA5 neck
RG, DMZ Evo2 bridge, DMZ Fred Neck
Travel-sized Strat HSS: Gibson 498T A8 bridge, SD SSL6s middle/neck
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

Any interesting discoveries as as a result?

To my ears, magnets with a lot of bass are often a problem with gain. I find this to be true even in situations where they pack a lot of treble (e.g., the bright treble response of an A5 is often outweighed by the excess bass from an A5, which gives you the problem that production model JBs often have – they're muddy with a lot of gain, yet they ALSO have an unpleasant treble spike)

I've found that I often like A2 in the bridge in order to keep things from getting muddy when the gain is turned up. Hell, I even had an A3 in a JB in the bridge position for a bit. These days, have a huge magnet to really push the front end of an amp doesn't seem as essential, given the wide availability of boost pedals and the loads of gain built into most amp's circuits.

On a related note, I often like weaker magnets in hotter winds (JB with an A2), or hotter magnets in a weaker wind (Transition with an A5, Perpetual burn with an A5 – I say this knowing that for a lot of people these are both hot pickups... but I like gain, so I dont see it that way...)

Just my 2 cents
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

Any interesting discoveries as as a result?

Besides just learning the tones from each mag, the 2 most interesting things were how good A6 and double thick alnicos are but nobody uses them???? Makes no sense to me. The community at large acts like A6 is niche when it's one of the most balanced and versatile out of all of them! Also double thick mags are insane for giving vintage bridge hums the boost they need. But people go, no don't buy a new mag for $15, that's too expensive. Better spend $100 on a new pedal or pickup instead! Lol!
 
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Re: I can haz every mag?

A4 is my favorite neck pickup magnet. Though I suspect that I would also like it in the bridge. That being said, while I like ceramic in the bridge, one of my favorite neck pickups the D-Activator N, has a ceramic magnet. I also like A8, A5 and UOA5 for the bridge. A5 can also work for me in the neck.
Never tried A2, A3 or any of the others.
I wouldn't mind trying an El Diablo, which is A2. Or an X2N made with A9 magnets instead of the stock ceramics.

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Re: I can haz every mag?

A4 is my favorite neck pickup magnet. Though I suspect that I would also like it in the bridge. That being said, while I like ceramic in the bridge, one of my favorite neck pickups the D-Activator N, has a ceramic magnet. I also like A8, A5 and UOA5 for the bridge. A5 can also work for me in the neck.
Never tried A2, A3 or any of the others.
I wouldn't mind trying an El Diablo, which is A2. Or an X2N made with A9 magnets instead of the stock ceramics.

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Interesting!

Your magnet preferences are very different from mine. What genres / styles are home turf for you? What kind of tone do you go for?

A2 is probably my favorite magnet, and A3 seems to work beautifully for the neck for me. I tend to like blues influenced hard rock gain tones (e.g. GnR in the Appetite era, or Zeppelin II) rather than metal tones, though I have a boost pedal to kick things into the next gear if I want to play proper metal. I don't really do modern metal though, or the types of distorted tones that accompany extended range / downtuned guitars.
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

I like many different genres; country rock, jazz (old standards to fusion), classical, classic rock and metal to extreme thrash/death metal. And when I play at home, I can go for all of those tones often in the same jam.
Notice, I didn't say "song".
I tend to prefer a very clear balanced (to my old ears) clean sound that I can then distort the living #@$& out, to one degree or another, with pedals.

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Re: I can haz every mag?

I really dig roughcast mags...it is my favorite kind of A5 type.
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

Beginning to be a fan of doublethick bars in humbuckers. Two A8s and one A5 so far, all good.

I'd love to try a doublethick UA5. Do you think Cermag could do that?
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

I’ve never tried a double-thick alnico mag. How do they differ in tone from their more svelte counterparts? I assume higher output, but is there an EQ shift as well?
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

Same tone color but bassier, fuller, and deeper. Really helps vintage output bridge hums.
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

As far as thicc mags go, have you ever tried stacking two mags, the way Gibson did in the Iommi signature humbucker?

Surely, they would degauss over time, but it might yield some cool results in the mean time
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

I was thinking about either ordering them that way or getting a magnetizer and building them that way so they wouldn't degauss. I like mixed mags in p90s or in hums with spacer magnets so I bet it would sound great.
 
Re: I can haz every mag?

I'm still waiting for a room temperature superconductor to use in conjunction with something neodymium.

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