Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

[V-Spot]

Alright, so I just got my Warmoth Tele finished and playable.. So I've had a couple days now, and I've noticed today that it sounds quite thin. Now, my friend being a Steve Vai fanatic, showed me one of his DVD's. He does a little trick where he takes the whammy bar and touches it against his pickup, blah blah. So, I went home to experiment, blah blah. Touched the whammy bar (after taking the bar out) against the closest coil to the bridge, and an unusual event happens. Usually, on an Invader, the magentism is so strong you really have to force something to come loose from the coil if it stuck. Well, on this coil, it just slid right off. No magnetism whatsoever. It worked on the further coil, but not on the closer coil.

Now, I've come to the conclusion that the pickup is probably wired in split, only giving me the further coil. Would I be right in assuming this?

I don't wanna call the tech today, seeing as it's Christmas and he's with family celebrating, but sometime (possibly after Boxing Day) I'll phone him and see if it won't be too much of a hassle to try and figure it out. But remember, I've got tons of wiring (Sustainer, Afterburner, tone, volume, blah) in there, so I really don't want to put him through to much trouble, but I also don't feel comfortable picking up the soldering iron (even when it's covered the wiring cavity scares me.. it'd scare EVH!).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Gibsononly]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

How your pickups are wired has nothing to do with the magnetism. If it is that weak then you may have a very weak magnet or a different magnet in there from the other pup. I have noticed great differences in gauss strength between magnets of the same grade. It's probably due to improper handling or manufacture. You can weaken an Alnico magnet quite efficiently by forcing opposite poles together.

I just did a search on that pup and it has ceramic magnets. I don't know if Duncan does their own magnetising or not but it might be that the magnet was not fully charged. Ceramic is very resistant to loss of magnetism so it withstands rough handling. I don't believe you could have done anything to weaken the magnet.

 

[V-Spot]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

See, thing is, I've got the Invader in another guitar of mine, and it's consistent all the way through.

I'm beyond befuddled now.

 

[Marcel]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

it's an permanent magnet... now matter how you wired it or even unwired the magnets stay the same

 

[V-Spot]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

Alright. Thanks Gibsononly and Marcel. Now that I know it's just the magnet, I'm fine.

 

[Artie]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

Aren't you refering to the two coils of the same pup? If so, I don't think a magnet can be asymmetrical in its magnetism. However, the two coils have different pole pieces. The coil closest to the bridge will be the screws, and the coil farther away will be slugs. The slugs will have a stronger pull. Thats why SD diagrams show splitting to the stud coil.

Does this make sense?

Artie

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

Aren't you refering to the two coils of the same pup? If so, I don't think a magnet can be asymmetrical in its magnetism. However, the two coils have different pole pieces. The coil closest to the bridge will be the screws, and the coil farther away will be slugs. The slugs will have a stronger pull. Thats why SD diagrams show splitting to the stud coil.

Does this make sense?

Artie

Its conceivable that for some reason the magnet is further removed from one coil than the other. Kind of like an "air" design but only on one coil.

 

[Jester700]

Re: Whoa whoa.. magnetism difference?

When you said "usually on an invader", did you mean the pickup we're discussing IS an invader? If so, it should be symmetrical, with a strong magnetic field. If not, yeah - these other guys have some good ideas for the reasons.