neodymium?

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dazedandconfused001

New member
so i was browseing ebay for pickups and found these people
http://www.caliguitar.com/pickup/guitar_pickups.htm

what stands out to me is 1 the prices seem dirt cheap for whats offered and 2 neodymium pickups. i have heard of this magnet before because my roommates a wackadoodle for metal and not the music kind but never thought of it in guitar terms. they seem to be one of the few people makeing these type of pickups, especially to this degree. any one try them yet? i would but pay day is awhile off and bills are calling. also need a new soldering iron i know stew-mac has one for like $15ish so probably goin there
 
Re: neodymium?

I've tried a bunch of Calig pickups. Great pickups, and the prices are amazing.
 
Re: neodymium?

I have both the Entwistle XS62N and the HDN which are neo pickups. They are bright, high output, have good definition and a strong clear tone
 
Re: neodymium?

Not to derail the thread, but anyone have any idea what neo mags would due to a pup? Example: a2 usually adds mids, softens the tone. ceramic makes more aggressive, less warmth. A8 makes everything great; neo:
 
Re: neodymium?

BloodRose said:
Not to derail the thread, but anyone have any idea what neo mags would due to a pup? Example: a2 usually adds mids, softens the tone. ceramic makes more aggressive, less warmth. A8 makes everything great; neo:
Click to expand...

I put Neo in a DD once. It was a violently high treble content and the clean tone HURT! My dogs took a couple days to forgive me. It seems to add highs.
 
Re: neodymium?

Personally I'm not a fan of Neo but it can be used in a variety of non-traditional ways with good results. It is a very powerful and stiff magnet, with the stiffness being the important part. Pickups work because the magnetic field is disturbed. There are other permeability issues, but generally, if you have too powerful of a magnet, the string vibrating is not intense enough to get a good disturbance. Alnico II is easy to disturb. It's weaker so the output is lower, but the attack and sustain characteristics are sweeter and more natural than A5 or A8. By the time you get to Neo, even if you weaken it by using a small Neo plus copious amounts of steel or other material to transmit the flux to the string window, the attack is very harsh to my ears. If you play soft most of the time, you may never notice it. But if you have a heavy picking hand it will seem like an unnatural attack and decay. All the early Taylor electric pickups were Neo, and for my playing style they did exactly that. But with a soft touch, or under a lot of distortion, it is masked.

Sometimes I make the analogy of a pole in the ground. If the pole is in sand, you can swirl it around easily. If it's in mud or clay, it's harder to move around. Eventually if it's in cement, it's almost impossible to move. That's how a Neo magnet behaves in an electric guitar pickup. It can work very well in bass, because the bass string is so much larger, and moves with more inertia. I also like it in acoustic pickups like Fishman's NeoMag line, because on an acoustic only the core of the wound strings is magnetic. So you have a lot of mass on the string, but only a small percentage being controlled by the Neo magnetic field. Also Acoustic pickups are usually further from the strings, and the attack/decay of an acoustic is shorter so it's a natural fit.
 
Re: neodymium?

I've found with the neo mag you'll seem to get more treble and more output when you're swapping from a ceramic or AlNiCo.
 
Re: neodymium?

Neodymium is a natural magnet found only in China. From the economic view point it is unattractive material for pickup manufactures. I tried Entwistle and GFS neodymium pickups. Their magnets were unbelievably strong but I sold them. They sounded neither bad nor awesome, just different. Someone may like them, someone not. I liked them but it was my problem. I change pickups frequently.
 
Re: neodymium?

Music Man uses Neodymium in their Bongo Bass pickups. I had a friend back in high school who played a six string one. I loved the sound it put out. Maybe they sound better in basses than guitars?
 
Re: neodymium?

Scott Lawing uses NDym in his Zexcoil pickups. http://lawingmusicalproducts.com/

NDym is the strongest commonly found magnet. I have 2 magnets that are about 3" x 1/2" x 1/2" to charge pickups mags, and they will crush skin if you let them slam together. I imagine you'd use pretty small ones in pickups. Zexcoil ones are pretty small.
 
Re: neodymium?

dominus said:
I've tried a bunch of Calig pickups. Great pickups, and the prices are amazing.
Click to expand...

Which one would you say is your favorite ? I've been curious about the calig rail humbucker with the 2 alnico 5 rails . There aren't many pickups out there like that it seems ..

OP , I put a neodymium magnet in my dimarzio super distortion today , it seems to have brightened/ and cleaned the sound . I guess it sounds a little more " modern " now . Crunchier , brighter and tighter . I have only had it in there for an hour , so far it's good . I was planning to do a comparison with the stock magnet and this neodymium magnet , but my friend took back his 6505+ amp today , about an hour before the magnet was delivered :/ . I had his amp for months and he takes it back today ... My luck .. My other amp is broke and I only have guitar rig 5 right now to mess with . I did a comparison with the same height and settings and it's clearer , but the difference became more obvious when I raised the pickup . It does feel tighter .
 
Re: neodymium?

I had one in a Custom years ago. It's like adding an OD pedal, basically: lots more output and treble.
It was fun to play around with, but not something very controllable.
 
Re: neodymium?

The magnets are so strong that they pull on the strings a bit and make them feel a little different when you play . I'll have to lower the hexpieces because the pull is so strong it can hold a small screwdriver in place over the strings
 
Re: neodymium?

I'm almost certain it would work. Also the eq curve change seems like it would be usable as SLUG does not have vast amounts of treble to begin with.. The output... I am not so sure about. The string pull... might render the instrument sounding like a banjo.
 
Re: neodymium?

Sounds like it would make for a shriek bucker... Thanks for the detailed info Mr Falbo!! Im not sure if you were referring to the orig Taylor electric pup in the solidbodies? I had one of the solid bodies 2008 and really regret selling it.
 
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