G&L Z-coil magnet change to alnico revisited

 :

5/17/2003 6:57 AM

Ed

G&L Z-coil magnet change to alnico revisited I recently recieved some alnico II and alnico VIII (8) magnets from Buntington magnetics. They did not at the time have any alnico IV. I first felt that Alnico II would be the ticket as drop in replacements.... Well I also thought from all info I read that the Alnico 8 would be somewhat brite and brittle.... So the II went the neck pickup first, I had to first use a little acetone to cut the crazy glue holding the ceramic magnets to the coils. The II's were sweet, but lacked output and they had to be in the righ direction (polarized?) or the A and B strings were dead! So the 8's went in and was I surprized at how good they sounded! Not too brite at all so maybe the type of wire and the windings work ok with the 8's? The output was on a par maybe a slight tiny less output, (I adjusted the highth slightly) with the other two (still stock at this time) pickups, middle and bridge. The neck now has some of that sweet old vintage alnico taste, and what an improvement on tone! Very touch sensitive, where the stock ceramic had more pronounced midrange and slight harshness to it. Eventually I will do this to the other two. I used a small amount of RV silicone to mount the magnet to the base plate but not to the coil, since its a pain in the A>> trying to get them apart without damaging the coil windings... Thank you all for your input and refering me to Buntington, since they were good to send me a few samples, where another company charges $150!     thanks!   Ed

 

5/17/2003 6:49 PM

anonymous

Ed   I'm glad the Alnico 8's worked out for you. I've been fascinated with them for a long time. My first experience with A8 was when I heard pickups by Lynn Collins in Tacoma, and I was amazed by them...extremely touch sensitive, and sustained forever. A bit more aggressive than A5, but when adjusted right, the tone is sweeter to my ears.   There's definately a sweet spot that has to be found with the 8's...it's a fine line between brittle and bleah, but when you hit it, hold onto your hat!     Wolfe

 

5/21/2003 7:48 AM
Ed	Hi Wolfe, thanks! Hey are you the Wolfe who was interested in Rock amps? I wanted the Alnico II to work, but there is a lot more info I need to do it right. The 8 actually matches up to the other pickups output well but is sweeter, I will play with the highth more, but they sound pretty good now.     take care!   Ed

 

5/21/2003 9:27 PM
WolfeMacleod	Ed   Dang right that's me! I love those little Rock amps!   I still want to reproduce the Min-rock 6x8 amp that I have...I love it's tone...needs some 'verb though.     Wolfe

 

5/22/2003 6:01 AM
Ed	Wolfe, have you checked out some of the reverb circuits for adding reverb, such as using op-amps etc? Good to see you here!     Ed

 

Page 1 of 1