Dugz Ink Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 I've been reading about building pickups... mostly because I want to know more about what makes them different so I can start buying better pickups. Then this little voice in my head said "Why don't you build your own pickups?" This is the same voice that urged me to plaster radio station bumper stickers inside of a competing station after hours when I was a young DJ... a stunt that caused me to be arrested... so I try to ignore this voice. But I digress. So I was thinking about the magnets that are used to polarize and charge the poles that go in certain types of pickups, and I remembered that I have some rare-earth magnets that I pulled out of an old SCSI hard-drive. These little monsters are so tough that you literally cannot pull them off of a piece of steel; you have to slide them off the edge of the steel. So... finally... the question: Could I use these for charging poles? I would imagine that they are way to strong to use UNDER the pickups, because I honestly believe they would would pull the strings down towards the pickups. But I could be mistaken. I've had a few bad ideas in the past (ie: the bumper stickers) so I thought I would check with somebody who might know. If you have any ideas, or sites I haven't read yet, I would appreciate it. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Those are Neodymium, and yes you can use them to charge poles. BUT the shape of one from a hard drive may not be the easiest to use. They're a semi-horseshoe, and the ends are different poles. A straight 2 1/2" or 3" bar magnet would be easier to deal with, IMO. You can then put alnico slugs in the pickup and charge them right in the pup. Alnico is funny - this size NDym will instantly change the polarity of the slug. I was trying to find the polarity of a slug and BOTH sides were attracted to the same NDym pole. Then I figured out that the alnico was being re-charged as it approached the NDym... I have 2 - both are stuck to a filing cabinet with a different pole facing outward. This way I can quickly charge either polarity. Careful - 2 mags of this size REALLY want to "come together" and can pinch, break, shatter. And also wreck credit cards. I keep a piece of Tyvek on them so I can always safely pull stuff off that might get stuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 I'm also experimenting with very small ones that fit beneath the alnico slugs in a single coil. They do seem to increase output, and don't affect the strings badly - but that's maybe because I'm using them specifically in a pickup I crank way down into the body (to get it out of my picking path). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dugz Ink Posted October 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 They're a semi-horseshoe, and the ends are different poles. Yes they are. So would I just use one end of the magnet to polarize the poles? (Yes... I'm a newbie, so I ask questions that may seem to have obvious answers.) D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 They're a semi-horseshoe, and the ends are different poles. Yes they are. So would I just use one end of the magnet to polarize the poles? (Yes... I'm a newbie, so I ask questions that may seem to have obvious answers.) D~s Yes. You could charge one pole first and then the other on the other side of the NDym, but you shouldn't have to - it should fully charge the whole magnet. I let mine there for a minute, but I'm inexperienced - it may only take 10 seconds... There are no stupid questions, only stupid people. Those are usually the ones who don't ask questions... ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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