More Alnico 6

[Zhangliqun]

I got a reply from the company and this is it:

Dear Dave:

Thanks for the feed back. I can help you with just about any size or shape of magnets. I do not require minimum order. Please send me your quantities, types and sizes and I will gladdly put together a quote for you. It just has to wait until I return to my office which is going to be after June 1st. I hope you are not in a hurry for it.

No minimum order is the key thing I underlined, though I'm assuming that the unspoken caveat is "within reason".

In other words, if some of you want to get together for a halfway decent size but very affordable order, it looks as though you could get your Alnico 6's without having to go through me.

Google "Magnetic Hold, Inc." and take it from there.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: More Alnico 6

There was all this interest, and then suddenly...

....(crickets chirping)....

 

[gripweed]

Re: More Alnico 6

I'm interested. I'm not really in any hurry though. I ordered some a4 from Lew quite a while back and I still haven't used it really.

 

[Sykes]

Re: More Alnico 6

I can help you with just about any size or shape of magnets.

That's what kinda thru me with the mag swaps in general. What size mag was used? I guess you could even make the mag not rectangle, but trapazoid to accentuate the highs or lows?
I know the ceramic mag in a DD is a different size than the Custom, for example.
When you start factoring different mags and different sizes, it becomes a bit much for me.
Although I wonder about the A8 vs Ceramic thing.

 

[beerdrinkingtech]

Re: More Alnico 6

Alnico 5 12200 gauss
Alnico 6 10500 gauss

Degauss your 5's down to 10500 and it will be the same as AlNiCo 6
From looking at the gauss specs, 5 is stronger then 6,
also A-2 is 500 gauss stronger then A-3

 

[Sykes]

Re: More Alnico 6

Degauss your 5's down to 10500 and it will be the same as AlNiCo 6
From looking at the gauss specs, 5 is stronger then 6,
also A-2 is 500 gauss stronger then A-3

I recently got a custom shop pup with A5 mag. The back of the box says gauss=25. WTF? What does this mean/what am I missing here?

 

[jeremy]

Re: More Alnico 6

i have a gaussmeter and ive not seen an alnico V mag with more than 50 gauss, im not sure what our beer drinking friend is talking about.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: More Alnico 6

Hey beer, look a Stephen Kerstings site (sk guitar specialties) and you will see that different Alnicos (the mix of metals is the key!) create different fields. The gauss says in general something about the volume, but the alnico varities are about sound. IMO

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: More Alnico 6

Maybe the 10500 is Gauss-Oerstads, not just Gauss?

 

[Zerberus]

Re: More Alnico 6

Hey beer, look a Stephen Kerstings site (sk guitar specialties) and you will see that different Alnicos (the mix of metals is the key!) create different fields. The gauss says in general something about the volume, but the alnico varities are about sound. IMO

I disagree.... IMO it´s all about the strength of the magnet and not the material it´s made of. I´m pretty sure than an A-2 and an A-5 charged exactly the same amount (i.e. Identical gauss values, size, everything) would sound identical.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: More Alnico 6

I disagree.... IMO it´s all about the strength of the magnet and not the material it´s made of. I´m pretty sure than an A-2 and an A-5 charged exactly the same amount (i.e. Identical gauss values, size, everything) would sound identical.

The two (strength and material) are directly related. An A5 couldn't be stronger than an A2 if it was made of the same materials.

I'll disagree mildly and say I suspect that an A5 degaussed to A2 level would still sound a little different. I say mildly because it's just a suspicion of mine, no hard evidence yet to back it up...

 

[Zerberus]

Re: More Alnico 6

The two (strength and material) are directly related. An A5 couldn't be stronger than an A2 if it was made of the same materials......

THis is true, as A-5 can "hold" a greater charge... which is why it´s used for more powerful applications... but it´s also more expensive IIRC, making the use of A-2 in a situation where the field strength desired is less makes sense.

but both have to be charged first, they have no natural magnetic charge. ANd That´s whrer IMO the difference is that actually makes a difference, the strength of the charge.

Someone would have to test it in a controlled environment to say for sure...

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: More Alnico 6

I Googled, got over 10 million hits, there isn't one supplier I've found that doesn't require a minimum order.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: More Alnico 6

Hi zerberus, greetings to Freiburg! Nice little town!
I have a stash full of magnets and did a lot of swappings. My eye opener is a Alnico 5 from a DiMarizio paf (1979 from a Hamer Special) - awfully degaussed (maybe i have to have a gaussmeter to verify, but it has less pull on the fridge than a new Alnico 2 and virtually the same as a Alnico 3). This ol A5 sound clearly like a A5 (boomy low E, more scooped mids and little less highs than a new A5), but clearly different from the A2 and the A3.
Look at Kerstings graphs that makes it clear.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: More Alnico 6

THis is true, as A-5 can "hold" a greater charge... which is why it´s used for more powerful applications... but it´s also more expensive IIRC, making the use of A-2 in a situation where the field strength desired is less makes sense.

A5 isn't any more expensive than 2, 3 or 4. Same price at Allstar. And I buy plenty of all 4 varieties.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: More Alnico 6

A5 isn't any more expensive than 2, 3 or 4. Same price at Allstar. And I buy plenty of all 4 varieties.

I´m not talking about as a "finished magnet", I´m talking about as a raw material... I doubt that Duncan doesn´t cast their own magnets or have them cast somewhere in a number where the material price plays a role, and even if it´s only 1c per pound .. have to remember how many (I´d wager) hundreds of thousands SD uses each year

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: More Alnico 6

If Duncan casts their own magnets, they must do it somewhere way off-site. I visited the factory on UGD last year and the place is surprisingly small. We saw the whole place top to bottom and they do not have any facilities there for magnet-casting.

And besides, if the raw material is more expensive, why wouldn't the finished magnet also be more expensive?

 

[Zerberus]

Re: More Alnico 6

yes, it would be.... but not by a factor noticable in small quantities, and certainly not enough to justify raising the PU price by more than a few cents.

Also, the main part of the "work" is the actual charging anyway, and that´s where the value of the alloy jumps from a few cents to a few dollars. Uncharged AlNiCo alloys are pretty cheap when you know where to get them from in that kind of quantity (i.e. industrial suppliers, like the People that cast them usually would use if Duncan doesn´t cast them themselves)... they´re more expensive than their component metals, but not really by much....

That said, it may also be a different supply and demand situatuion stateside, making the entire argument "invalid"... But I know that when I was sourcing Magnet materials at GE that different AlNiCo alloys did have different prices, again, in industrial qualtities...

 

[beerdrinkingtech]

Re: More Alnico 6

Magnetic Properties

Grade Br
(Gauss) Hc
Alnico 5 Cast 12,500
5-7 Cast 13,500
6 Cast 10,500
8 Cast 8,300
2 Sintered 6,600

8 Sintered 7,000

 

[snowman3000]

Re: More Alnico 6

You're all talking about AlNiCo mags...What about ceramic mags? Very interesting thread btw