sscovill Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Can someone please explain to me the difference between the ceramic and alnico pick ups? What are the benefits and the downside of each? I'm building a Les Paul and like a crunchier sound and am not sure which style to go with. Thanks in advance for the help. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Alnico is an abbreviation for Aluminium Nickel Cobalt (I think) and usually you'll see Alnico 3 or Alnico 5 magnets in pickups. Basically between Alnico and Ceramic magnets, the magnetic field is going to be different around the strings. This will have a direct effect on the sound. Ceramic magnets, from what I keep reading and based on my own experience, are strong but the note quality tends to be "scratchy" sounding. There's not a lot of note definition. Alnico 5's on the other hand, are strong metallic magnets and have a brighter snappy tone. Those magnets are in just about every guitar around today. The older Alnico 3's are more often found in vintage pickups. I think there are a few pickups available that have these instead to get a softer blues sort of sound. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard_King Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 There's also an Alnico II, Seymour Duncan uses them alot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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