I need a magnet refresher

51501984

51501984

New member
It`s been around 6 years since I did any magnet swapping and was just wondering what was the difference between a roughcast A5 and a roughcast UOA5 ? Wondering what differnce the unoriented A5 roughcast is gonna have over the standard A5 roughcast tonewise . I`d be putting it in a JB . Thanks in advance
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

I put a RCA5 and a RCUOA5 in two exact Seth Lovers. The guitars were very similar mahogany - 61 SG RI, and a LPJr. - to me they sounded a great deal different. Most will say the UOA5 is like a strong A2, but say nothing dramatic.
For me the RCA5 has more harsh high end. The notes tend to feel clumped together in a chord. On a hard down pick it sounded fuzzy for a split second. The RCUOA5 sounded cleaner, not in a sterile way at all. The notes were more pleasing to my ears- chords sounded like I could hear all the note separation, a heavy down pick did not have that high end sizzle (or harsh fuzz) like the RCA5.
The UOA5 also sounded much smoother on a big boost or a big boost with a dirt pedal after, on about half way up.
I am changing all my mags to UOA5's. Even my Jazz neck sounded better, less loose on the bottom with a nice high but no harsh sounds as before with a polished A5. Your JB is so powerful that the distinction might not be as obvious. The JB is very hard to,clean up when needed, so I bet this would help. In my case, to me, it was dramatic. With a JB, I think it will not be dramatic, but noticeable in a good way.
Steve Buffington
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

Nice explanation Steve. Sounds like I need to put my RCUOA5 in my Brobucker and see if that helps the tone any!
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

51501984:
There is one HOT P'up Duncan makes that might work. I am guessing as I don't know all your goals. The JB is around 16K
resistence. That will never get into clean blues like an 8k resistance p'up like mine. Maybe that's ok with you.
I love playing clean blues ala BB King, and with a 30-40watt Hot Rod deluxe or 50 watt Marshall, with a boost (Archer) and
A loud dirt box like OCD, Rockett "The Dude" Dumble like pedal, I can sound like a JB p'up in a death metal band, or turn off the pedals, use the clean channel and sound like BB, or rough like SRV.
There is a middle p'up that registers 11k resistence and is between the Seth Lover (or '59) and your JB called the 59/Custom Hybrid. It's loud and with pedals and a good tube amp, it can tear your head off. I have 2 and intend on changing the sound of the polished A5 I believe is in there. Hell, with a 50 watt tube amp, who needs pedals for this p'up!
Well, that's all I got, happy hunting. When I say 8K, 11K, or 16K resistence, it is but a "general description" of volume. For
Our purposes, I think that works well.
Steve Buffington
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

SJ318 said:
51501984:
There is one HOT P'up Duncan makes that might work. I am guessing as I don't know all your goals. The JB is around 16K
resistence. That will never get into clean blues like an 8k resistance p'up like mine. Maybe that's ok with you.
Click to expand...

A JB can be played clean with little trouble and resistance is not a measure of output or distortion. My L500XL is 13.2k and it is oodles louder than a JB. It distorts easier than a JB, but it can also get into clean blues a whole lot better than some 8k pickups.
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

SJ318 said:
51501984:
There is one HOT P'up Duncan makes that might work. I am guessing as I don't know all your goals. The JB is around 16K
resistence. That will never get into clean blues like an 8k resistance p'up like mine. Maybe that's ok with you.
I love playing clean blues ala BB King, and with a 30-40watt Hot Rod deluxe or 50 watt Marshall, with a boost (Archer) and
A loud dirt box like OCD, Rockett "The Dude" Dumble like pedal, I can sound like a JB p'up in a death metal band, or turn off the pedals, use the clean channel and sound like BB, or rough like SRV.
There is a middle p'up that registers 11k resistence and is between the Seth Lover (or '59) and your JB called the 59/Custom Hybrid. It's loud and with pedals and a good tube amp, it can tear your head off. I have 2 and intend on changing the sound of the polished A5 I believe is in there. Hell, with a 50 watt tube amp, who needs pedals for this p'up!
Well, that's all I got, happy hunting. When I say 8K, 11K, or 16K resistence, it is but a "general description" of volume. For
Our purposes, I think that works well.
Steve Buffington
Click to expand...

I think I`m gonna go with the UOA5 . I rarely play clean but I do split the JB for some single coil type tones and it sounds great for that . I`ve had the 59/Custom hybrid its indeed a cool pickup
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

Chistopher said:
A JB can be played clean with little trouble and resistance is not a measure of output or distortion. My L500XL is 13.2k and it is oodles louder than a JB. It distorts easier than a JB, but it can also get into clean blues a whole lot better than some 8k pickups.
Click to expand...

The only way you could really correlate the two is if you were comparing apples to apples, which you seldom can. It’s one of those misnomers that doesn’t seem to want to go away. Dcr by itself actually has adverse effects on output by more heavily damping the resonance frequency. It’s one of the reasons uncle bill always cited inductance as the more meaningful measurement.
 
Re: I need a magnet refresher

51501984-
Good Idea. That magnet in a JB split will sound great as a single coil. It should sound like a strong single coil.
Jeff_H- Thanks.
Steve
 
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