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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Alnico 6 & 7

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4/25/2006 5:55 PM
Zhangliqun	Alnico 6 & 7 What do these grades sound like? I know Duncan uses A6 in his Danelectro-style lipstick tube model.

4/25/2006 7:56 PM

Yes, they say they do, but the head of their custom shop didn't even know that they did when I called to check on my recent order of some custom shop lipstick pickups with alnico 6. She thought it would use A2 or A5 and even offered to degauss A5 to A6 specs before I asked her to check on it with their R & D dept to verify. She called me back 10 minutes later to say that yes it would be using A6, but you gotta wonder....

I hope it does because I am looking for the vintage style sound out of these and don't want to get something that isn't, especially when I'm paying quite a bit for them.

I have no idea what A6 would sound like though if you put it in say a PAF or something. It would be expensive to source it since it isn't used much.

BTW, Jerry Jones uses A6 in their lipstick pickups too, but they don't sell pickups individually from what I was able to find out.

Greg

4/26/2006 11:10 AM

I talked to Rob Paar at Allstar Magnetics today and he said that the per unit cost of A6 is about the same as A2/3/4/5, but that at least for the moment, precisely because A6 isn't used all that much, I'd have to buy 400 lbs. of it in one shot.

He did say the next time they get an order for a big chunk of A6, he might shave a little off and make some bars for me, so stay tuned...

(He also said there was no such thing as A7.)

4/26/2006 11:24 AM
Greg Simon	That would be pretty cool if you were able to get some to experiment with. When that happens, please let me know. I'd like to get a handful too. See if I can get Dave to play with them. Greg

4/26/2006 2:54 PM
Lukas	for what can be these alnico bars can be used? are they used in ibanez super HBs?

4/26/2006 8:08 PM
Greg Simon	Well the alnico 6 bar magnets were used in vintage Danelectro lipstick tube pickups, but I have no idea if they are the same size as the ones in Gibson pickups. I don't know of anyone else who has used them either in the past. I'm sure you could use them in anything though if you could make them fit and liked the sound. Greg

5/1/2006 3:27 PM

It's strictly a curiosity/R&D thing for me -- I'm willing to accept the possibility that I'll be wasting my money. I've been going back and forth with another magnet vendor about it and the gal says she can get me some A6 samples, though A7 is another story. She says there IS such a thing as Alnico 7 but it's extremely brittle (even by Alnico standards apparently) and isn't used much for anything at all. I will report on the developments.

The e-mail there is magnetichold@hotmail.com for anyone else who might be interested. If my samples sound like anything, maybe we can get a bulk deal...

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