Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

arya44 said:
This is from Fralin pickup website:
Alnico 3 is the weakest of the Alnico magnets and has the lowest amount of string pull in a bar magnet. As a guitar pickup magnet, it's lows are soft and bouncy, mids are generally warm and full, and highs are glassy. We use Alnico 3 magnets in our Real 54's to give them a bright, glassy tone.

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Well, I try to avoid the bright and glassy. This is the characteristic of single coil. I like my P90 gets closer to Humbucker (thick mids and not bright) not like single coil tone.
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Everyone describes the things they hear differently, I would never use those terms to describe an A3 humbucker, especially in the neck
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Clint 55 said:
It's the 2nd warmest. All mags have some sort of top end. And no it doesn't turn the pup into jingle jangles.
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Hi there,
You mean A3 is not making a P90 more toward a single coil character? I know Humbucker users find A3 is great for neck position especially for les Paul design. How about P90 though? Do you have first hand experience using A3 on the neck on P90?

Thanks.
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Sorry, I've only tried A3 in humbuckers. It has a warm character like A2 but a little more snap. A2 then A3 are the warmest, then I'd say A4 and A6 are medium, then A5 and UOA5 are bright. (Not usable to your application, A8 and A9 have the most grit.)
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Clint 55 said:
Duncan uses south for its single coils. But in 2 pup sets, the neck is rwrp. So that means your neck pup originally had the magnets' north facing in.
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Again, you didn't read the post before answering.

He has P-90 pups!
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

arya44 said:
The problem is that I don't know if they were facing north up (toward the strings or north down toward the body of the guitar).
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The north and south are on the long edges of the magnets used in pups. NOT on the top or bottom.

For P-90 pups both north poles (the long edges with the black marks) go in toward the pole pieces, facing each other. You will feel them repelling each other if you have oriented them correctly. If you happen to have magnets that are not marked on the edges you can check the orientation of them by using a compass.
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

GuitarDoc said:
The north and south are on the long edges of the magnets used in pups. NOT on the top or bottom.

For P-90 pups both north poles (the long edges with the black marks) go in toward the pole pieces, facing each other. You will feel them repelling each other if you have oriented them correctly. If you happen to have magnets that are not marked on the edges you can check the orientation of them by using a compass.
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Thanks for the tip. I made the narrow long faces marked N to face each other (inward).
It is funny how for the narrow short faces (the tips) it is easy to find north on the polished A5 pieces by noticing repelling or attracting quite clearly but with my rough cast UOA5, the difference between attracting and repelling of either tip is barely noticeable.
Quite a different magnetic behaviour altogether. Weird!
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

blueman335 said:
I hear A8 & A6 as warm, warmer than A3.
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They aren't. A3 and A2 are both mellow in neck position. A6 is medium and A8 is gritty. A8 could be interpreted as warm in bridge position but its aggression would have nothing to do with warm in a neck jazz application.
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

If your post is so unclear that I have no clue what you're talking about, it will certainly be confusing to others less experienced in guitar electronics.
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Hi there again. I was reading somewhere that A3 was called a low-mid power pickup. They didn’t mention A2 with that label! They just mentioned A2 has less top end and rounder tone. I’m targeting maximizing low-mid. Also it was mentioned A3 tightens up the bass compared to loose bass A2. Well both of those objectives are great. What about I use A2/A3 combo? Is it done before for the neck position of P90 to use that combination? What do you think?
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

I think that would be a fantastic combo. I've thought about doing that for jazz. I have a A2/A5 combo right now.
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

Clint 55 said:
I think that would be a fantastic combo. I've thought about doing that for jazz. I have a A2/A5 combo right now.
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Hi there,
I got two A2 magnets.
I also decided to make the bridge sound more vintage.
I like to follow late 50s approach as much possible to maximize tone character and reduce hotness.
Right now I swapped 2 A5 of neck with an A4/ UO A5 and still I have ceramic in bridge P90.
A- do you know if vintage P90s had A2 in neck
If so what about the bridge vintage P90?
B- what do you think with 2xA2 in neck and A4/UOA5 for bridge?
C- I also heard good complement of A3 here so I could do A2/A3 in neck, and A2/UOA5 in bridge.
What do you think?

Thanks a lot.
A
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

That will sound vintage. There's a lot you can do, you just have to make your best guess based on what you know about how each mag sounds and maybe experiment a bit. My 1st choice based on your options would be A2/A3 neck and A2/UOA5 bridge. All 3 of those mags are chewy and vintage. A2 is the darkest, A3 is medium, and UOA5 is the brightest. I don't care for A4.
 
Re: Magnet Swapping for Seymour Duncan SP90-1n

hi there Clint,
Wouldn’t you mind refresh my memory are both neck and bridge magnets are facing north upward and inward (toward each other) or I should do the bridge north facing downward for sake of convention of reverse polarity to cater the middle position?
Thanks,
Arya
 
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