Daniel Sorbera Posted January 5, 2005 Report Share Posted January 5, 2005 (edited) I remember reading somewhere that you can glue a humbucker magnet (such as this one) to the bottom of a single coil pickup to make it more edgy. Is this true? Edited January 5, 2005 by Godin SD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniboy Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 i think you are referring to a brass baseplate. by adding a bar magnet under a singlecoil's pole magnets, you will actually demagnetize the pickup. not a very good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 How is a brass baseplate going to affect the magnetic field?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniboy Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 my bad. its suppose to be steel baseplate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 i think you are referring to a brass baseplate. by adding a bar magnet under a singlecoil's pole magnets, you will actually demagnetize the pickup. not a very good idea. Not if you don't put "like" poles together. I think this will indeed add to the magnetic field's strength and thus the output. I'm trying toget the parts to build a gaussmeter and this is one thing I want to test... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniboy Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 you will need opposite poles to attach the bar magnet. if you put north and north together, i reckon the magnetic field strength will increase, but the magnets will repel one another. i personally haven't tried this. do let us know how your experiment turns out jester. cheers! dani Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomasteven Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 I know little about this type of thing, but as it was said, like charges repel(opposites attract) so unless your gonna be taping or somehow forcing the magnet onto the back of the single-coil, than it's not gonna work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 If you put like poles together, you will hose up an alnico magnet; they are easily degaussed. You'd want to put opposite poles together, so the ceramic (or whatever) mag will stick right to the bottom of the poles. I THINK this will still increase the power, but I'll need to play with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted January 8, 2005 Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 If you wanted to make the magnets stronger inside the pickups could you not use NdFeB (Neodymium Iron Boron) magnets that are supposedly about 7 times stronger than AlNiCo.. I've been meaning to ask about this any way, but has any one ever amde a pickup using these things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted January 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 (edited) I know fishman makes a acoustic humbucker using that magnet. HEy the magnet on my pickups is on the bottom(like I can see the whole thing, it's just glued on the pickup)could I just pop that one off and put a new one in? And if I can do you know where I can buy a Neodymium (I know it's a compound but they call them "Neodymium " magnets) magnet? I know I can get this one from stewmac but it's not a Neodymium. Do you think a Alnico 5 magnet would be somewhat like a neo? I have been thinking about EMG active pickups. How do yuo think there "vintage" models compare to "real" single coils? lol I just read over that and man thats a lot of questions Edited January 8, 2005 by Godin SD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Cavanaugh Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 I've seen that done with cheap single-coils, a bar magnet beneath the poles. It has to be one of the poles directly beneath or on the side. That will probably saturate the bottom part of the coil with magnetism, I don't know about the rest. It will also make it more linear output-wise because there is a more uniform magnetic field acrossed the coil. Here's an idea, Nd 38 magnets can be used to recharge alnico magnets, right? how about putting 6 individual circular ones on the bottom of the poles. Super AlNiCo! Seriously though, someone's gotta try this! I don't use any alnico single coils myself, sorry. I'm addicted to humbuckers, especially now that I know how to build preamps allowing me to get just as much note definition while retaining it's wider harmonic spectrum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 (edited) I have some N-Dym mags. I use a 3"x1/4"x1/2" block for charging alnico poles, and I have a bunch of small 1/16" and 1/8" discs for - you guessed it - putting underneath alnico poles to increase output. I want to do this for my middle single coil because it gets in my way, so i want to screw it WAY down. So far from the strings, the added magnetic pull shouldn't give me the "stratitis" effect, and I need more output. I got mine from www.wondermagnets.com I tried the 1/16" ones and they seemed to add some output. They really add output when stuck on the TOP of the poles, but then they pull on the string. I want to measure the increase here, which is one reason I want to build a gaussmeter. I didn't try the 1/8" ones because they have a greater diameter and once down in the pickup, I don't think I'll get them back out! My singles are the top half of Ibanez C2s - like a DiMarzio HS2 stacked single. You CAN'T use a block underneath the pickup. It is just too strong. But I want to measure this stuff. Like, does Alnico "conduct" magnetism the way steel poles do (which would lead to large increase when a ceramic or Ndym mag is beneath the pup) or does it kinda "replace" the field of the lower mag with its own magnetism? Would humbucker steel poles that were milled to have a flat spot where the magnet contacted them conduct more magnetism to the strings, since the contact area is greater? I could play in my basement with a gaussmeter and some mags & pups for hours... There is a pickup that uses n-dym - the q-tuner. http://www.q-tuner.com/ Note that the magnets are pretty small. And Fender uses samarium cobalt in their new Lawrence designed noiseless pickups. Edited January 9, 2005 by Jester700 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ansil Posted January 17, 2005 Report Share Posted January 17, 2005 http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cata...ct%5Fid=64-1895 six of these in a single coil sound nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester700 Posted January 17, 2005 Report Share Posted January 17, 2005 http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cata...ct%5Fid=64-1895 six of these in a single coil sound nice. ← If you were only buying 6, OK. But the ones I got were 20 cents-ish each. There was shipping to pay, but I think once you're buying over a dozen or so, check out wonder magnets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Bell Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 In answer to the original posters question you can do what you are suggesting but you will need some different magnets. Cheaper single coils have a ceramic bar magnet attached to the six steel poles. You could replace this with an alnico magnet but not a standard humbucker type. The magnet needs to have it's poles on the 7mm x 63mm face, a standard humbucker magnet is magnetised so that the 2mm x 63mm face on the side is the pole. It would work, just not very well. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 ok I think I got it now. Can I buy 5 (5 is all that will fit under a single coil) of these. Those are Neodymium. There used to charge alnico magnets. Could I just pop off my magnet now and put these little guys on? If so how do they need to go on? do they need to want to stick or want to repulse? Or does it matter cuse theres no other magnets on anyway? Also If I just did this to the middle pickup would it effect the other pickups because the magnetic pull is sooo strong???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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