Something between A5 and A2

C

CarlosG

Member
Hi!
I have Custom Overwound PAF pickup from my friend who builds guitar pickups.
I tried a few magnets and I most like A5 Roughcast and A2 polished.
A5 is great for fast heavy metal, hard rock riffs, but sometimes it's thin and trebly and without smooth.
A2 is great for hard rock, has great warm on treble string and smooth solo and slow riffs, but low end is too floppy, I can't play fast metal riffs.
Both is great but if I had to choose one, I would choose the A5.
Is there a magnet that sounds between them?
 
There are several that share their characteristics.

On the A2 chewy side are UOA5 and A3. They're both unoriented and it makes UOA5 slightly chewier without being flabby. A3 is a step further in chewiness and it's the weakest mag.

On the tighter A5 side are A6 and A4. A4 is unoriented but is actually really tight and even. Since you want the A5 solidness but softened, I would recommend A6.
 
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I haven't tried A6, but UOA5 and A4 are where I would go based on my use of them in other guitars
 
UOA5 is exactly what you're talking about. A4 is it's own beast. Very neutral in coloration, it just gives the flavor of the wind, but with a decent amount of power. No experience with A6. A3 can work great in the bridge, but only in a fairly thick wind. Otherwise, any standard neck pickup will overpower it. In an overly boomy neck pickup, A3 can be magic.
 
I concur about UA5; I think that's probably what you're looking for.
Vintagey attack with a looser feel than A5 but deeper (and tighter) bass than A2.
Slightly vocal midrange and nice smooth lead tones with gain.

A4 is very transparent to the voice of the guitar it's in, and to the coils of the pickup.
Wonderful in good wood. Quite responsive to dynamics, and it really comes alive at band volume.
Often doesn't reveal its true personality at low levels.

A6 is big and firm, but with gentler highs than A5.
Good choice for a bright or thin sounding guitar, or when A5 is too harsh.
Might need a moderately strong wind to be smooth; can feel a bit stiff in light winds.
 
I pulled some magnets from 70 ies DiMarzio PAF. I used them in some Ant buckers for the win since then. The gauss values are close to my newly bought UA5.
Highly recommended.
 
If the A5 sounds too thin, you can use an A4 magnet to get a fuller sound. IMO, A4 is the middle ground between A2 and A5.

UOA5, to me doesn't really sound different enough from regular A5, except the output is less.
 
CarlosG said:
Hi!
I have Custom Overwound PAF pickup from my friend who builds guitar pickups.
I tried a few magnets and I most like A5 Roughcast and A2 polished.
A5 is great for fast heavy metal, hard rock riffs, but sometimes it's thin and trebly and without smooth.
A2 is great for hard rock, has great warm on treble string and smooth solo and slow riffs, but low end is too floppy, I can't play fast metal riffs.
Both is great but if I had to choose one, I would choose the A5.
Is there a magnet that sounds between them?
Click to expand...

I have become a big fan of the A 4 as of late. Had a Suhr Thornbucker bridge I liked a lot and love the Saturday Night Special set I have in my Carvin AE 185.
 
Technically (IOW: when it comes to measurable magnetism and inductance), A4 and UOA5 appear to me as being "between" A2 and A5. As the weakest magnetically but also the most inductive, A3 is just "below" A2 in my mind . For opposite reasons (slightly less inductivity and more magnetism), A6 is just "above" A5.

That said, in such situations, I most often try several mags. Reasons: 1)a same magnet can magnify a pickup and devitalize another one. 2) magnets of a "same" alloy can affect the tone in different ways according to their size/mass, to their actual charge (knowing that every mag can be seen as unique in its repartition of magnetism once charged)... and to the foundry where they come from. Even mags from different batches can differ, in fact.

Good luck in your experiments and let us know which mag you'll have selected. :-)
 
My vote is for A4 since I think it fits the description and I don’t have experience with UOA5.

Personally I like A2 or A3 in the neck and A5 in the bridge.

To me A6 is not in the spectrum between A2 and A5, it’s something else, you may like it or not. Here’s a test with an A2 Pro I recorded before and after flipping the magnet to A6.

https://youtu.be/zPPT6ooOUio
 
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Clint 55 said:
WAT
Click to expand...

I don’t think the A6 is somewhere in between the A2 and A5, if you drew a line between the two, like the A4 is for example.

It’s in a different line if you will. It’s not just less mids and more volume than an A2 but less scooped and less volume than an A5. I think it’s more its own thing.
 
Theoretically, the differences between A5 and A6 are 2% more nickel and 2% less iron in A6, with the related effect in terms of coercitive force: 780 Oersteds with A6, 640 with A6 if memory serves me.

So, an A6 should be slightly less inductive and a wee bit more powerful magnetically, all other parms being equal.


Practically, "other parms" vary:

2% less or more of nickel or iron in a mag matter way less if the mass differs (reason why a guy in my country was absurdly measuring a higher inductance with an A5 than with an A2, for example: his A5 had in fact 11% more mass than his A2) .

Magnetism changes according to the origin and "personal" history of a magnet. The lab Teslameter used here has virtually NEVER measured two mags exhibiting exactly the same charge and shape of magnetic field, for instance. Especially with rough cast mags.


That's why each magnet is potentially "its own thing". I wish I could find a video in which a guy tried various mags in a Gibson PAT: some mags didn't change the tone while they were meant to be of different alloys. Some supposedly made of the same alloy altered the sound in an unexpected way. Expected differences could be noticed too, but only for 1/3 of the sample or something like that.

So, iI find risky to say that "AlNi(Co) this does this and AlNi(Co) that does that". There's certainly tendencies due to the objective properties of each alloy BUT if things were so clear, other winders wouldn't evoke different tones from a "same" alloy:


https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/sources-for-alnico-2-magnets.473321/#post-10350453

https://www.throbak.com/alnico-magnets.html

Which bring me back to my own mantra : I prefer to try various mags in a pickup, without expecting stable results from the alloys or indivdual magnets involved. YMMV. :-)
 
Blille said:
I don’t think the A6 is somewhere in between the A2 and A5, if you drew a line between the two, like the A4 is for example.

It’s in a different line if you will. It’s not just less mids and more volume than an A2 but less scooped and less volume than an A5. I think it’s more its own thing.
Click to expand...

It's more a variation of A5, not half way between A2 and A5.
 
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