Possible to tell Alnico 5 magnet from a Ceramic magnet visually?

[strattyguy]

I recently received two humbuckers of the same type, but one is Alnico 5 magnet and the other is Ceramic magnet. They are identical and the seller did not indicate which is which :lame:. Except that one is slightly hotter than the other : 7.4 ohm vs 7.8 ohm.

I have a need to pull the magnet out of one of them and flip it so I can have RWRP noise cancelling in a middle/coil split position, so I am hoping that the magnets might be visually distinct enough that I can tell them apart.

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[freefrog]

Here is a typical example:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...TnoNE7BbRmenNiEezfX5cdDuVDE7bx8MxrZsMMLugUJGw

Now and as AlNiCo can also be very dark in some cases: if you want to be sure and have a multimeter at disposal, set it to measure DCR and put one probe on each side of each magnet. Ceramic being not conductive electrically, the meter shouldn't be able to measure a resistance on it (while AlNiCo is conductive). Just be sure that your probes don't touch the baseplate...

 

[beaubrummels]

Ceramic usually look black, while Alnico will look like dark gun metal.

 

[strattyguy]

Freefrog and beau, thank you guys a lot. Freefrog that tip about the multimeter test is awesome, will definitely do that. Once I have the covers off I'll try to take some pictures, maybe will be useful to somebody in the future :cool2: