Short Alnico 5 actually make a difference?

J

Jcknowles89

New member
Hello Friends,

Yes two posts back to back but I cant find anything in any of the forums on these topics so here we go.

Anyone notice any difference with Short Alnico 5's vs Regular Alnico 5's? Lets say our metric is what is available from MOJO tone at 2.18" length. Go!
 
Re: Short Alnico 5 actually make a difference?

It's not a major difference, most companies sell them for people who want a more vintage correct pickup. A lot of bouqtiue places also cite their tonal benefits in an effort to add uniqueness to their design but the difference is very minor. So minor in fact that while I can hear it, it's not enough that I would care if only had a short A5 when I wanted a regular one. Maybe a tad bit less bass in the short A5, but that's about it. It's a difference that's within the range of tolerances from one batch of magnets to another.
 
Re: Short Alnico 5 actually make a difference?

Yeah, I wouldn't swap a magnet of the same strength just for the size.
 
Re: Short Alnico 5 actually make a difference?

Jcknowles89 said:
Hello Friends,

Yes two posts back to back but I cant find anything in any of the forums on these topics so here we go.

Anyone notice any difference with Short Alnico 5's vs Regular Alnico 5's? Lets say our metric is what is available from MOJO tone at 2.18" length. Go!
Click to expand...

Shorter bar= slighlty less material. ALL other things being equal, it should give a slightly lower inductance and a marginaly different magnetic filed, causing a tad more brightness and "focus". Most of the tests that I"ve done after mag swap confirmed that*.

As mentioned above, such a tonal difference is subtle. I've found it useful in a handful of situations only... But why not?

[*SIDE NOTE - anyway, with mags, "things being equal" are rare: I think that I've never tested two bars from the same batch without noticing a difference... And a "same" AlNiCo from different eras or suppliers might differ even more. So, my generalization above is to take with a grain of salt. Food for thought with a test where a short bar doesn't produce at all the tonal effect that I've described : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iL8eWtF-YU ]
 
Re: Short Alnico 5 actually make a difference?

I agree with everyone else...not enough difference to worry about...and probably not enough difference for most people to hear even when they are trying to be critical of any differences.
 
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