Magnet Swap Question

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

Yes the DD neck pickup used to be called the Seymourizer and it was a bridge pickup actually.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

You are desecrating the mighty DD

Lol!

Yes, we desecrate many beloved pups don't we?! It's heresy, to be sure.

(But, the bridge DD sounds mighty good with either an A8 or an A2 in it!)

 

[uOpt]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

Yeah but you can have a JB2 much cheaper by starting from one of the 1.43 million unwanted JBs people sell on Ebay. They are much cheaper than a DD.

 

[Texas Slim]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

No pickups have been harmed or desecrated yet, honest. i was just wondering about what to expect from any possible changes.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

But we are speaking sacrilege, aren't we?

 

[Uncle Fred]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

No,, i haven't changed any yet, this will be my first.
i have wood for making spacers, and i have magnets.
Will it make any difference which way the replacement magnet's polarity is facing, as in, toward the screws, or toward the slugs?

Your north will face the rod pole pieces not the screws. When you remove the magnet this is how it works, the 4 brass screws in the baseplate go first, but dont completely remove them. Then run all 6 adjustable pole piece screws up just out of your baseplate (remember just out of baseplate as there is a threaded block the go through before baseplate that you want to leave them treaded into because it will be stuck to south side of magnet and it makes it easier to bust it loose from wax), the magnet is glued into place by wax so first use a flat tool to push upwards on your 4 brass screws in the base plate. This will dislodge the coils, carefully pop the magnet loose and slide it out. the north edge of the magnet goes on the rod side, there is no other action required to align polarity just the north edge against the rods. Once the magnet is in place tighten your 4 brass screws. Now run your 6 adjustable screws back into the baseplate. Next use a hairdryer and heat the pickup on both coil side and baseplate side to reseat the magnet and wax. You dont have to remove the pickup from the guitar. But its better the first time you do it.

It all sounds hard but once you start moding your own pickups you will always be thinking on it to get more custom tones you want. I have the Distortion Neck in my Floyd Rose Fender Strat. I always like to throw an AlNiCo 2 in there because to me thats the perfect magnet for the neck and AlNiCo 5 is best for bridge in my book.

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

You hear about the Custom/59 set? Ceramic and alnico, my friend. No problem.

I went through what you're about to attempt. In my Les Paul, I eventually just gave up on the Distortion set. Double-thick ceramic was too hot in neck and bridge. All I tried in the bridge was A8, and that worked well for a long time, but I could never get it to calm down to a reasonable level. It was just screamy/screechy all the time, and my ears just got tired of it eventually. I went through A2, A4, and A5 in the neck, and I think the A5 was the best by a pretty large margin. It's a cool pickup, and worth trying.

Eventually, I ended up with Custom 8 and 59n with A4 in that guitar. But my PRS SE Custom 22 has the Distortion set stock, and it sounds phenomenal. Sometimes what you put it in makes a gigantic difference.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

My rough A4 and polished A2 came in today. I'm going to install that A4 as soon as I get a chance. We'll hear how that sounds in the DDn. The A2 I'm thinking of putting in my Custom 8 to make it a Custom Custom, hopefully with a little tighter highs due to the polished mag.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

It all sounds hard but once you start moding your own pickups you will always be thinking on it to get more custom tones you want. I have the Distortion Neck in my Floyd Rose Fender Strat. I always like to throw an AlNiCo 2 in there because to me thats the perfect magnet for the neck and AlNiCo 5 is best for bridge in my book.

Or, If I don't like the A4 in there, maybe I'll try what you've done. Tell me, does it have a reasonably tight bass? I don't mean super modern tight, just not too flabby under gain.

 

[Uncle Fred]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

Or, If I don't like the A4 in there, maybe I'll try what you've done. Tell me, does it have a reasonably tight bass? I don't mean super modern tight, just not too flabby under gain.

It got a sound close to my les pauls neck when I put the A2 in the distortion neck and put it in the strat. I use it for soloing mostly. It sounds perfect in my strat. The Duncan distortion bridge is just a JB with a ceramic magnet instead of AlNiCo 5 really. Standard paf style pickups are limited to windings and magnet to determine their sound. Magnet is really the eq factor more and windings is output. I think tight bass comes mostly in A5. A2 is softer and mushy more for sustain because of the softer pull. Ceramic is a harsh glassy brittle tone in my opinion alot of people think of it as more distortion but its just a tone factor. An AlNiCo 5 pickups with the exact same windings such as the JB compared to the Distortion gets the same tones when the amps eq is adjusted. Some mistakes people make on pickups is 1. Thinking the the magnet is going to determine much more than eq and 2. Not giving the pickup air to breath. you need space between the strings and pickup. 1/4 inch to 3/8 is when a pickup comes alive and breaths its actual tone.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Magnet Swap Question

^^ Based on this, I think that the A4 should do the trick then.