Busting A BIG Guitar Myth!!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ย. 2018
- Do Ceramic magnets make pickups sound thin, harsh, and cold?
Do AlNiCo magnets make pickups sound warm, sweet, and smooth? Let's find out!
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Nice demonstration D! Helpful to many, Bustin' Them Myths! We're all Guilty of perpetuating them until we know Better! Well done and thanks for sharing brother!
Tele pickups.. Noise cancelling.. DiMarzio vs Fender vs Seymore Duncan vs Lace Sensor... That would be a GREAT comparison vid!! I just ordered Seymores vintage stack.. Kinda wishing I went with Lace.. Your thoughts???
James Hill in my opinion most of the negative comments about lace sensors is because people don’t like the look! It’s rumoured Jeff Beck wanted pole pieces painted on them!
Magnet strength influences the RLC system and that's easily shown by both physical theory and lab measurements. But it's a system, and every value is influenced by multiple things. You can make ceramic bar pickups sound warm or brittle, and things in between, no problem. You CANNOT take a single part of the system and figure out what the pickup will sound like just by that. Still, everything else being exactly the same, a Ceramic magnet, which will only have a fraction of the strength of an equally built AlNiCo V, will produce a different tone because it will shift the resonant frequency of the system.
Whether the difference is big enough to be RELEVANT is another question, at least on a non-bass guitar with its more limited frequency spectrum. But unlike some other guitar components, difference in the magnet strength, if big enough, can actually be perceived by the ear of a regular human.
😂
The biggest myth in guitar history is that it gets you girls.
😂😂😂
A good friend of mine joked to me a long time ago, "We got into this business to get girls... and, damnit, we'll stay in it until we do."
Only thing it ever got me was calls from debt collectors
Yes 😂😂😂😂😂
Certainly was a myth in my case.
The whole industry depends on the fervent hope that whatever sounds best is whatever isn't in your guitar.
Well, its pretty much a given, that if you spend less than $2k on a guitar, that will be true.
@@springbloom5940 And if you spend more than $2k. It seems some people are never satisfied.
@@curtwuollet2912
I know Ive never had anything under ~$600 that didnt benefit from relatively cheap upgrades. Particularly electronics. I just bought a $400 Jackson and got a noticeable tone improvement, with a $15 Chinese A5 humbucker. The ceramics were HOT at 16k, but flat and murky. I cut the output significantly, but got a lot more definition. I think you probably pay 20%+ for the headstock decal.
@@springbloom5940 that's great. But I doubt the manufacturers seek out junk, and decent pickups, for example, aren't very spendy
@@curtwuollet2912
They don't seek out junk, but they do seek out 'good enough'. Pretty much any guitar under $500 is going to have the cheapest switches and pots available. That may not cost much on your end to upgrade, but it does put a pretty big hit on mass production. For example, you can much easier afford $200 of incremental upgrades, than an extra $150 on the initial purchase. Also, market drives specs. Most people buying budget instruments are going to be playing by themselves in their bedroom, the vast majority of the time. Those thicc high output ceramics go a long way to filling in for other absent instruments and give a satisfying tone. Most beginners or wild kids wouldn't be as appreciative of the relatively thin, mid centered tone of high end pickups that are meant to cut through a band.
Had to put it to the Test. Recorded an open D string . Once using a ceramic pickup, once using an alnico. Lined the 2 waveforms up and compared them. The ceramic was not too far from a regular sinewave, close to a piano waveform, rolling peaks and not a lot of harmonic content. The alnico was full of jagged peaks throughout the wave much more like a violin and full of harmonic content. Ceramics give a warm sound with a lot of fundamental frequency when clean and a controlled sound at super high gain. Alnicos are full of harmonic content and top end with an incredible musical response to the way you play and I love `em.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing, Maureen.
don't trust guitar forums, only trust your ears
Agree. Don't listen with your eyes.
Yeah, and most people can't tell a difference.
I'm deaf
@@29Caly Do you read music?
@@qua7771 back in black was an exciting read.
I don't really care about pickups that much they tend to sound the same once I run them through 3 boss metal zones and tune lower than drop F
Im kidding btw great vid Darrel
Lol kidding but there is a lot of truth to that! If you cram enough effects on it and eq you can even make it really hard to tell between a humbucker or a single.
@@Emergentministry lol that is true tho \m/
Better be running those Metal Zones through a solid state.
@@bradh6185 actually your supposed to run through an amp sim... duh
@@geetarislife2843 Well yeah, if you're playing at such an elite level.
This is specifically why I stopped engaging in guitar forums. You get guys recommending magnet swaps all day to fix a problem with "tone", and then you realize the "advisor" just sucks at playing and dialing in their amp/eq.
yup. The worst cork sniffers usually cant play for sh*t. They also like to make strong ascertions about gear they, in reality, have NEVER EVEN OWNED
so true.
Alpha Centauri haha true that. Tiger vs lion, Messi vs Ronaldo, katana vs european sword and many more
Yeah I wish more people would take online music advice with a grain of salt.
All eqs at noon, just a little bit of reverb.
Bleeding love the sound of the ceramics in that Tele. Holy hells. That just sounded amazing. Warm and wonderful.
Bro, as an amature garage luthier, I really can't stress enough how great this channel actually is. Your presentation is clear. The editing is concise. Super efficient and super enjoyable! I'm hooked!
What did I learn from this video, “I need a Tele with a P90 in the neck!”
Contemporary Telecaster® HH
I put a p90 in the neck of a tele and its staying there !
From Leo: The P90 is a great tone, also: Check out his video with Gretsch Fltertron style pickups on a Telecaster style guitar. That is going to be my next mod project.
@velvetonestudios on instagram. Our standard Tele has a p-94 or TV Jones T-90!or T-Armound in the neck.
Strings vibrate further physically nearer the neck pup. Therefore a wider magnetic field is better up there!
I want a Tele with a p90 in the neck badly. I used to hate teles until I actually played one a few years ago and it was great stock but I thought the only thing better would be if it had a p90 at the neck. I'm still itching to get one
4:41- "We'll talk about where some of these things come from."
From guitar snobs.
To my ears, alnico souded brighter, tipical strat sounding, reminds me of a clean John Mayer sound. Ceramics seemed warmer, with more low end.
Both sounded AWESOME and had their own characteristics.
Thank you for the great video.
Agree. Ceramic sounds like it has more body and round. Maybe bit muddy. For vintage sounds alnico is much more suited according to what i am hearing from the video.
Super human hearing lol 😆😆😆😅
100% agree I just purchased a squire contemporary jazz bass with ceramic active pickups and it’s soo much warmer then anything I played before. I’m pro ceramic from now on 👍🏻
They sounded a little different but both sounded very good.
"Ceramic pickups are brittle and harsh"
- laughs in Seymour Duncan invader
What i always love about this channel is all the content is real stuff. This guy knows what he's talking about and what he's doing of course. İ always find what im looking for in the content of the video. Never disappointed. Keep up the awesome work Darrell ! Loves from Turkey
Great demonstration, fair and unbiased. I believe you have nailed the differences accurately and to my ears spot on. Great job!
Some of the coolest recorded guitar sounds come from ceramic magnet loaded pickups. Old Gibson dirty fingers pickups were ceramic loaded (and John Sykes wrote some badass chops there), Ace Frehley from KISS used DiMarzio SuperDistortion extensively and he got great crunchy tones as well. Ritchie Blackmore in his first Rainbow era played with Schecter Monstertones, which were/are ceramic tapped single coils. Rhoads and Lynch both did great use of the Duncan Distortion back in the day . Joe Barden made a lot of great sounding ceramic pickups as well. No reason to bash the entire category
You make an excellent point. I don't think anyone can argue with the tones Frehley, Sykes, Blackmore, Rhoads, and Lynch put out.
They also happen to be some of my favorite guitarists.
@@fortj3 I almost forgot. Brian May played Trisonic single coils. Ceramic magnet in there as well.
My opinion is flux is flux and the difference is in the strength of the magnet. Stronger magnets should dampen sustain because of eddy currents.
@@bjl1000 You're ignoring the shape of the field. The ceramic magnet stuck to the back will have a different field shape vs the alnico poles.
love your channel and I love the fact that you are proving what I've been saying for years about "tone woods" and pickups etc.
I love your channel, all your videos really show the light in many aspects. Thanks!
Great job dispelling more guitar myths. I've learned so much from Darrell. I'm a huge fan of Alnico 5 pickups because the majority of my guitars are Strats. I have two "metal" guitars with ceramic pickups and they have their strengths. My new Soloist sports Duncan Hot Rails that I've definitely learned to appreciate in the last two weeks!
I wind my own guitar pickups, and I've made about thirty so far. I've tried different types of alnico rod magets, 2,3,4 and 5. The stronger the magnet
strength, the louder and brighter the pickup sounds, using the same magnet diameter and length, bobbin size and turns of wire. I personally don't
like alnico 5 magnets in Strat style pickups, because they're too bright. I don't give a damn about output, because I'm not trying to overdrive an amp,
so I use alnico 2 and 3, mostly. I've also mixed alnico 2 and 4 in the same bobbin, which sounds very nice.
Some cheap Squier Strats use ceramic magnets with bobbins that only measure 3.7K. They use more powerful ceramics to boost the pickup's
output to compensate for fewer turns of wire. A slightly stronger ceramic magnet is apparently cheaper than copper wire and the additional
time it takes to put more windings on a coil. Fewer turns of wire seems to have an effect on the attack and dynamic range of the pickup as well,
fewer turns = faster attack and less compression/more dynamic range. These are not good things, if they don't suit your playing style. If you
do like more attack and dynamics, then a Charlie Christian style pickup will give you that, with the heavier gauge wire on the coil augmenting
those characteristics. I've also wound Strat style pickups with larger p90 sized bobbins and 38, 39, 40 and 41 gauge wire, FWIW, and I'm well
aware of the effects of wire gauge as a result.
I use alnico RA5 EMG's and they sound great! You need to run an EQ pedal on them and choose the right cabinets to run them with though or they can sound brittle, chimey, or breaking glass. haha! But if you get the right ones (also depending on your amplifier you use)? They sound badass! I also like ceramic pickups as well. I like the DP100 Super distortion in a bridge and DP104 in the neck. Some like the dp103 PAF in the neck.
The best ‘myth buster’ video you have done was the tone wood comparison where you chopped up the guitar. Only very minor nearly imperceptible differences. Thanks again Darrell. Just play what feels and sounds good to you.
I’d love to see you expend on this, similar tests for alnico 2, 3, 4, 5 etc
You are in luck!
I've got one in the works :) 👍
I was about to comment the same
@@DarrellBraunGuitar alnico 8 will be in that test? Greetings from Uruguay
I thought he did those already a while ago.
These are my favourite videos to make - bustin' some myths :)
Is this one you guys had heard before?
If you have any "common misconceptions" you want me to challenge let me know in the comments!
I had a front row seat on the Alnico bandwagon for way too many years, turning my nose up at everything ceramic that came along, no matter what. I thought people that made ceramic pickups were building junk the easy way with cheaper parts and a faster process that resulted in an inferior sound. Alnico magnets required love and care, attention to detail, and a love of the knowledge of how to build a pickup correctly. To be fair, I was hit on the head a lot as a child. Honestly, though, while I could have gone the rest of my life without this being dispelled, I do love learning stuff. Again, Mr. D, a great video.
I don't guess you'd dare to do the ultimate myth video, would you? Do you dare? Could you even say the word in a video without breaking the web? I dare you. Come on, say it! Say it!
_TOOOOOOOOOOOOOONEWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD_
🙈🙉🙊
No one component of a pickup's construction will dictate the tone. Look at the product listings for Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio. There are only a few types of magnets that are used in pickups and tons of flavors of pickups. There are too many variables to be able to predict how a pickup will sound just by looking at magnet type or DCR or any other single point.
The best way to find a pickup that will be good for you is to first identify what you want to change. If you have a vintage sounding PAF already, you're likely not going to see a drastic change by getting another vintage sounding PAF. But if you know you want something brighter, or darker, or hotter, that gives you an idea of where to go. Then find a builder that has a ton of info and some good sound clips. That's why I like Duncans. Their website is great, the EQ curves they list for each pickup are pretty true to form, and they have good clips that allow you to compare their different models.
That being said, the wood in each guitar is different and you don't know exactly how a pickup will play until you get it in there.
😄 👍
Great comment!
Almost every boutique maker offers some form of ceramic pickup too. People would never know as they just sound like great pups :)
I've noticed when people disprove the myth about, "You need to start on an accoustic." They almost overcorrect and might make someone who wants to play accoustic decide they need to start on an electric. This is easily fixed by adding the statement "Start out on whatever appeals to you."
Why aren’t there any neodymium magnet pickups? Wouldn’t they be great for pickups?
Also, for another myth busting episode how about nuts? Brass vs Bone!
I'm in love with this doublebinding Fender Tele & thanks for the Video!
First electric guitar I ever got as a kid was an MIJ Squier ‘Wayne’s World’ 62 OlyWhite Strat... it had ceramic Strat pickups in it and sounded killer; true single coil vintage vibes coming out of those with a 5-way... cool comparison, fun vid to watch, thx for taking the time. Side note on the whole subject, the Ceramic/Alnico Hybrid, like in those Tony Iommi pickups are a trip too...
Myth destroyed!! Thank you!
This is EXACTLY why I trust what my EARS HEAR vs the uneducated online forums. I've been a bass player for almost 30 years, and the myths like this are so discouraging for new generations of guitarist and bassists. Many factors come into play with sound. Room dynamics, pickups, type of amp, the way you play the instrument. Sound is subjective and EVERYONE hears sound differently. So test many combinations until you find what you love and what sounds best to your ears.
Thank you Darrell for the video. It is a great starting point. :-)
Just great! Always smart, and meticulous. Also, great respect to you as a player. Thanks a lot for everything you do for humanity!
Great video. I definitely loved the ceramic more. I would say ceramic is warmer, mid or balanced EQ and alnico is more bright like it is EQ'd for treble and has more clarity. But both sound great. Neither was harsh. Great depending on style.
Love the videos.
Wow. That Tele sounded absolutely awesome with either magnet. Nice job busting the myth, too.
I switched from ceramic to alnico on my strat and immediately smiled when i played the first E chord. It was chime-y, bright, sparkly and exactly what i was looking for. I thought ceramic was too warm and muddy
I did like the characteristic of Alnico sound, but probably because it was thinner and brighter or even "scooped" sounding. I used to buy and fix up old worn out and beat up guitars on ebay - usually replacing electronics - and I got one that I loved the sound of that sounded very different than many I got. Based on this video I'm thinking that maybe alnico magnet pickups might've been what I was hearing.
I just watched the speaker video before this one (AlNiCo vs ceramic) and after watching both, I must say that I'm shocked by how much of a difference the magnet made in both instances. I did, for the most part, prefer the sound of the AlNiCo speaker, even though the ceramic one still sounded good, but in this instance, I think the ceramic pickups sound better. I'll still do listening tests before buying, but I'll probably be more likely to stick with ceramic magnets when it comes to the pickups.
Great video!
Fabulous, thank you Darrell - great information - happy new year to you.
The AlNiCo magnets definitely have more bite and clarity and sounded good for the louder stuff. The ceramic magnets sounded better on the softer stuff.
Much of the difference in Ceramic vs Alnico is that usually they are of different strengths in magnets. And people fail to realize you have to adjust pickup height to compensate.
Yup yup yup. Electro mechanically, the magnets and the strings don't care what chemical composition the magnet is made up of, they care about the maxwells and inductance of the pickup. YES that's a function of the chemical composition in use, but it's also a function of the positioning, the number of coils, the size of the magnets used, the material of the pole pieces used to transfer the magnetic field from the ceramic bar magnet, the size of the magnetic filament, the chemical composition of the strings you're using, the age of all of these things. There's just too many factors to say any one exact thing is the reason you're hearing what you're hearing from a guitar. You can do controls like this where you have two pickups with the same coils and the same positioning but a different magnet, but all of these things can be compensated away somewhere else unless you've done something to make a total pastiche of what you started with (lipstick tube pickups come to mind, where the shielding of the housing and lack of pole pieces severely limits how much you can compensate for the magnet's chemical composition)
The guitar world and the audiophile world are filled the placebos, things we convince ourselves do things because we already think they do things. The most controversial of which is that in blind tests, what material you make a solid guitar body of doesn't matter so long as it's sufficiently stiff to support the neck (and nearly all of them are). We want to believe that building a telecaster out of maple instead of alder or ash will sound different, or that the polyester coats that CBS Fender started using will restrict the wood's ability to resonate the sounds, but the truth is, how the pickups are picking up the sound (by creating a magnic field and disturbances in that magnetic field to create an electrical current), how the guitar body sounds doesn't impact anything except for that perhaps very slightly a less stiff wood will absorb some of the strings vibrations thus reducing the overall sustain of your instrument.
Ultimately, what determines how good your guitar sounds is a stiff high quality neck, a good setup, the pickups, and the electronics in that order. And when I say the pickups in that list, I don't even mean better or worse. Just different in terms of setup and what you'll be able to draw from it based on that setup (because I want to make clear, the radical difference in topology for a humbucker and a lipstick tube pickup means you can probably never reconcile them via setup)
@@traviswrigg5158 The shape of the field between ceramic and alnico is different. The magnet stuck on the back of the ceramic vs the open rear poles on alnico will have a different field shape. Notably, affecting one side of the field warps the other, magnets are wierd.
@@traviswrigg5158 😴
This is gold. Bold. Hats off... Bless your heart and bless your work
Brilliant! Thanks for publishing this!
One thing you have to consider about this test is usually the comparisons drawn online differ from like a basic tier Squier versus a Fender Custom pickup. Often they are jaded by bad potentiometers to start, but I would say Squiers ceramic pickups arent exactly the most juicy sound.
You're such a Canadian I love it
Soary, I have no idea what you're talking aboat.
All depends on what alnico is used. Alnico 2, smooth and warm. Alnico 5, bright and strong. Alnico 4, in between 2 and 5 in tone and power. Alnico 3 old broadcaster tone...Keith Richard's tone when overwound to around 11k.
What are you talking aboot? 🤣
I have ceramic pickups in my made in favourite guitar and I wouldn't describe the sound they produce as brittle etc. I think your bang on busting these ancient myths. Crack on making awesome videos.
I literally needed this video. I have been planning to change the stock pick ups on my squier bullet which have cheap ceramic and scratchy pickups. This led me to believe that ceramics tend to have that tone characteristic.
Another myth: Shielding eliminates single coil hum.
Yeah, that’s a weird one to me. It just cuts interference from outside sources that can cause static or other anomalies. 60 cycle hum doesn’t come from outside interference.
Forgive me for the 2-years-out reply. Haha.
This is true but there is a caveat. While it can't get rid of 60 cycle hum it can greatly reduce hum from outside sources. And when those outside sources are all but totally eliminated then one realizes that 60 cycle hum is nowhere near as loud or bothersome as once believed. At a clean setting playing at volumes suitable for a living room the guitar can be almost dead quiet. Mine are. While the statement of yours is true it's also a touch misleading but so is thinking it eliminates all hum. I have.peopel that bring guitars over for work and they ask for shielding and I explain it won't cut all but can can reduce some, if not a lot from outside sources as it sits in what is essentially a Faraday cage.
It does eliminate it though. I know how my Strats sound before and after copper tape shielding. They went nearly silent. After all, Fender uses shielding paint for their cavities for a reason, if it doesn't work - why use it?
@@Phoenix_cataclysm_in_2040 "...nearly silent..." Is the point. Cut out all the other him and frequency gibberish making it in and one finds that 60 cycle hum isn't that loud in a low to moderately volumed set-up. It's still there though. Have a tube amp, like a Princeton, on 2, with a properly shielded angle coils guitar and it'll likely sound as quiet as a humbucker. Crank that volume up and you'll hear a little change in the hum. It won't be bad. You didn't get rid of 60 cycle hum you got rid of outside interference.
@@bciecko1
You do you.
Thanks ! Good demo. Ceramics are better for distortion (they overdrive easier and have a warmth to their sound.) Alnicos are better for clarity (They are clearer sounding, but don't have the warmth of a ceramic pickup.) Which one you use, depends on the style of music that you are playing and/or where you want your guitar part to sit in the mix. Want clarity: use alnico. Want warmth and distortion: use ceramic.
You provide a valuable service,Thanks so much for the good work you do!
Awesome demo, Darrell. I could really hear the difference and agree that the ceramics sounded warmer and fatter. Really helpful for a guitarist on a budget.
I recently found some interesting pickups in an old used guitar I bought very cheap. The guitar is from a Brazilian brand called status, that existed during the 80, and made lower quality cheap guitars.
The pickups were dead, but interestingly, they had ceramic magnets, but not like you normally see today. Instead of steel slugs and a ceramic bar, there was 6 cylindrical magnets, with the same dimensions of alnico magnets, but ceramic. So I tried replacing the alnico slugs from a pickup and it sounded the very same. By the way, they were weaker ceramic magnets, measuring virtually the same as the alnico ones, according to the phone gaussmeter.
By that, I think the difference we usually hear when comparing alnico and ceramic is more related to the distribution of the magnetic field around the pickup, more than anything else.
Not sure if its the same company but Status made basses and guitars in England since the 80s maybe before. They where considered high end.
@@markdavis4754 the one I got is certainly not high end, so I assume those are different companies
Ever since I found you on TH-cam, I have followed your videos. Excellent information every time.
I am 72, been playing guitar for 60 years. Been in two BIG touring bands.
I REALLY enjoy your videos, Thank You.
The difference I heard between the 2 was definition of the notes was clearer with the Alnico. Especially the crunch tones, the ceramics sounded muddier.I've played ceramic pick ups that just sounded great, and then some not so much.
NICE! Very helpful. I like the way you roll. Thank you for your time
REALLY well done comparison on this topic. It answered all of the questions that I have seen floating around the rock-o-sphere. 😎👍👍
Please title this as Ceramic vs Alnico mythbusters. People need to see this video when researching pickups!! Great vid nonetheless
The ceramic pickups just seemed fuller to my ears and I preferred them over the alnico pickups
Havent been playing long but pretty difficult to cut through the bs when reading reviews for sure! Thanks for your positive proof approach. Cheers
I really enjoy your videos! Very Informative. IMHO, the overall sound of the AlNiCos were superior, but you were absolutely correct that the adjectives used to describe the ceramics were abysmally incorrect. I listened with headphones, and found that the AlNiCos actually had more high end clarity and pronounced attack, which is the opposite of what most people mean when they use descriptors like warm, or vintage, which seem to more appropriately fit the ceramics. The a/b tests you did perfectly show the distinction. Additionally, I detected more external hum on the USA ASAT with ceramics (3:49 mark), but that might have been a cable or positional difference as well.
I just loved the sound of the Custom DBG Tele with the AlNiCos. What a sweet tone!
Great job. For my preference, the AlNiCos appeal to my ears, but thanks for the education!
Wonder how those pick ups would look through a wave graph on a recording software.
That's what I'm hoping people start doing in their reviews. The words say nothing to me: clappy, bright, muddy. Don't know what that means. Show me a graph associated with the sound and I'll understand that.
Totally agree! I think what Darrell mentioned about focusing on eq profile etc... is definitely the way to go
You mean a frequency response graph? It's only been done in forums but not in videos. There should be some content for the science enthusiast guitar players. A Google search of something like "ceramic vs alnico pickup frequency response graph" will do the job, hopefully.
There is a learning curve to reading that kind of graph, and knowing what it translates to in a real world scenario. It's easier to listen to what they sound like.
Maybe we should ask Brian Wampler? He does that all of the time, only with pedals, on his channel.
Yeah, those magnetic fields do not know or care who their parents are
Haha...THAT'S what it boils down too.
I wonder if the field shapes are different...eg. the metal base of a tele bridge single makes the magnetic field more 'bell' shaped (looking at it as a cross section). This changes the sound and rounds it, compared to a strat single. So the tele was prefered for rock by many. Maybe the base loaded ceramic pups have a similar pattern (? I will have to research this now)
You should never forget where you come from! Bad bad magnetic fields!
@@carlosclaptrix I'm still electron from the block!
@@stoosam3244 You can pour some iron filings on it to see the pattern
They may not know who their parents are, but alnico and ceramics certainly sound different.
This is simply the best video I've seen on this topic.
And I've always had this very same impression regarding ceramic pickups: they are the opposite of "bright", but this doesn't have to be a bad thing.
Great overall analysts!
Way to go, pal. Rock on!
arooso
Nice video Darrell. Sooooo many crazy myths out there draining our pockets. I have a cheap Ibanez with ceramics that sounds just as good as my PRS. Tonewood, finish, magnets etc.. Most guitars with a decent setup will sound great. Thanks for helping us understand these things!
Now that I've seen the comparison side by side I can honestly say that I prefer the ceramic over alnico.
I came here to agree but the demo prove me that alnico is better. Did a blind a test
You can't prefer ceramics or alnicos, in general. You can prefer a certain pickup, with ceramic o alnico magnets.
How about "String Through Body vs Top Loader," particularly looking at Teles and Jazz/P Basses?
Without a doubt the most honest and comprehensive pick up sound demonstration I've seen so far. The basic function of a pickup is to turn string vibration into an electronic signal that can be sent to the front of an amplifier to be manipulated by gain and eq then amplified or made louder. Simple concept, magnet reacts to string vibration and sends that reaction through multiple windings of wire for a typical -20db signal gain. The magnet strength and number of wire windings and wire gauge determine the output of the pick up. The acronym Alnico stands for (al) aluminum, (ni) nickel, (co) cobalt. This metal alloy accepts a certain level of magnetization and looses it's magnetic field over time. This suggests that the Alnico pick up will deliver reduced output over time. Ceramic accepts a stronger level of magnetization and suffers no lose over time. After market pick up manufacturers invest a lot of time and money experimenting and marketing. I've never come across a $110 pick up that had more mojo than a $30 pick up just because a well known person was paid to endorse it. An easy trick to help determine pick up output is to test it for resistance with a volt/ohm meter. The higher the resistance reading, the greater the output. I like the way the sound clips moved quickly for instant sound comparison. The ceramic are noticeably higher output. This will at a certain point slightly overload an amplifier input resulting in slight break up of the signal. A slightly overdriven sound. Want to clean it up? How about a slight adjustment of that variable resister on the front of the guitar, good ole volume pot. Sound a little brighter than your ear would prefer? Change the value of the tone capacitor which is merely a high frequency filter. Even though your tone control lives on 10, the signal is still passing through that capacitor and makes a tonal difference. Hopefully I am staying in bounds with the spirt of myth busting. Ultimately you need to allow your ears to judge.
I love these videos of yours. I find that a lot (not all, of course) of that gear talk is almost like superstition. People believe in certain things, rather than testing it and knowing it for a fact. It's so weird. Your videos, in contrast, are very scientific! Keep it up!:)
Sometimes harsh, brittle and gnarly is a good thing. Some of Neil Young's guitar work sounds like that - and I love it.
Great Video!!! Thank you for spreading the message to a wider audience :)
I have guitars with AlNiCo pickups and Ceramic pickups and they all sound great.
Of cause there are a lot of bad ceramic pickups out there especialy on budget guitares where the factory did not so much care about the sound but about saving money, but that's also true with cheap alnico pickups. It's more the cheap pot metal rods and the thin low-quality
I do love my ceramic pickups, love them. Its just that this video has made me think they could be even better. The bullet pickups i have are only 3.5k. This is ridiculouuuus. However i just turn the bass on 10, mids on 0, treble on 5 and turn the tone knob on guitar onto about 5. I also use a scooped eq on my od/ ds pedal. then you get this vintage extreme articulation. Super expressive and its possible to get the jazzy tele sound on a strat this way. Maybe the 3.5 k is actually a better match for the ceramics. Mine sound really natural and pleasant this way. The other thing that seems to help is 500k pots, eventhough this doesnt seem logical to do.
Thanks Darrell, that was very enlightening. The alnico pickups sounded good, but the ceramic magnet pickups sounded GREAT. Phillip McKnight said he prefers Mexican stratocasters with ceramic magnet pickups over American Strats with alnico pickups, calling the ceramics fuller with more bite (if I recall correctly). Larry Cragg used to put big ceramic magnets in Carlos Santana's SG Special's P-90's, to give him his huge sustain, along with the souped-up Princeton Reverbs Randall Smith was making at the time, soon to become Mesa Boogies. Larry and Randall worked at Prune Music in San Rafael at the time, and sold/serviced instruments to rock stars throughout the SF Bay area. I bought my first strat from Prune Music in 1974, a white hardtail with maple neck, and black pickguard with black pickup covers, which I thought looked cool. Fender did some strats like that back then, but most pickup covers were white. Too bad I didn't keep the strat (sigh).
This reminds me of the alnico speaker magnet vs ceramic speaker magnet question. People used to say alnico was better, but now it seems most use ceramic magnet speakers. I put a ceramic Weber 10F150 in my 1959 GA-18, to replace the stock Jensen P10R, and it was a huge improvement - good choice for a Princeton too. The ceramic magnet Weber 12F150 which replaced the Italian Jensen P12N speaker in my Deluxe Reverb clone sounds much better too. Both alnico speakers sounded good, but the ceramic speakers sound GREAT. I know there is much more to a pickup and speaker than the magnet, but since the inexpensive ceramic magnet pickups sounded better than the more expensive alnico pickups, it must be the magnets that made the big difference - no?
Cheers!
Darrell.... BillyJ south of Pittsburgh... just caught this vid and I must say came at a good time... thinking of swapping my Epi pickups... good insight... thanks man... always nice info.. have a great day..
One single description: Ceramic are not as chimey.
They have more middle tone.
You are right Darrell, the internet is full of this gear bs. By the way, both magnet configurations sounded great to me. Nice work man, and have always loved your telecaster, beautiful looking rock machine.
Thanks Michael!
Great Subject. Loved hearing about the Frankenstein pups too! Never heard that story before.
I have never been more blown away by a set of Strat pickups than I was a couple of months ago when I got a Squier Bullet hardtail Strat. My plans to throw the stock ceramic pickups out and replace them with alnicos has been scrapped. I even found another set of the same pickups on Ebay that I will use for a build project that somebody else took straight out of a brand new Bullet and they cost me almost nothing. They work very well for being clearly heard on a loud stage!
Fralin uses ceramic in his noiseless dual bar Strat pickups and Seymour uses them in the humbuckers that fit in a strat space , both sound fantastic !
Great myth buster and video Darrell. Totally agree with your assessment here. How about testing bone nuts against a plain old inexpensive synthetic nut for sound next?
the only difference, if there is any, would be when playing open strings. If there is any distortion involved..then there is no difference even at the open strings. If you are interested in resale value..then it does make a difference because hype sells better than logic for an audience that is more concerned with popular opinion than reason or common sense.
@@mikkosutube The slots in the cheaper plastic and synthetic nuts absolutely wear down too low much faster then bone, even if the sound isn't very different. I noodle constantly on most of my guitars, and usually within 2-3 years im replacing the nut with bone because the slots are too low on the bass side from friction wearing out the slots, causing open note buzzing. This is the primary purpose for still using bone on higher end guitars. I havent worn the nut slots too low on a single bone equipped guitar i own. I have a schetcer c1+ from 2005 and i wore out the plastic stock nut they came with at the time in about 3 years (i change strings every 2 weeks, sometimes less, and no locking tuners means a LOT of nut friction in the process). The bone nut i replaced it with is still going pretty good, just recently started a hint of buzz when i really dig in on a sustained cord with the 6th string open. And i use this guitar as an example because it's to this day, often my most played guitar. I'd have gone through at least 3 plastic nuts in the same time period, and a bone nut only costs a couple dollars more, and are, imho, easier to properly cut and shape yourself without making mistakes as well.
I strongly recommend bone nuts over the cheap synthetic ones, especially if you play the guitar enough to change strings a lot, or use a tremolo often. But it's not a recommendation i make because of "tone". That's just been a huge market misunderstanding that companies are obviously going to run with for marketing purposes.
Guitar players are, generally (but not always), just pretentious dingbats that apply the label of "tone improvement" over every little thing they buy for their guitar to justify a purchase (mostly based in vanity) to themselves lol (i've even seen people in forums argue tooth and nail that someone else's cheap-o neck plate is destroying the sustain of their instrument). Most of us have done this for so long now, that we believe our own BS and will actually argue in support of something, with no evidence, just to preserve our own vanity and ego (It's true, and well all know it lmfao) This applies to all of us for the most part too, just some more then others.
@@thefloop2813 an excellent point you made about the wear and buzz factor..
Great video. One thing I think I remember about Alnico, is that as it ages, it becomes more mellow, so, a vintage Alnico pickup would be much different from a modern one.
Thank you for the knowledge, brother. Your videos are great.
The ASAT with ceramic pickups was my favorite by far.
Peavey Super Ferrites are ceramic and are some of the best sounding pickups ever made. Super clean, warm, articulate and refined like a vintage piano.
Found this 5 year old video to be still so very usefull. Thank you! Excellent objectivity and excellent playing.
Darrell will make us believe, listen it, feel it, then make it right!
Don't believe on such descriptions, Darrell is here to burst out all myths!
Love your channel Darrell!
I LOOOVE THIS VIDEO!!! After 25+ years in guitars, more than half of those as a guitar tech, luthier and builder, I have a set of EMG TC (ceramic) set of pickups on my own axe. They sound awesome, and my MIM Tele is being used as the reference instrument when clients are trying to describe what they want from a single coil. It sounds clear (not clean, but clear!). You can tell it's a Tele, there is a lot for amp's EQ to work on (as if everything reaches the amp, and EQ potentiometers now actually DO alot of work) and, regardless of clean/drive situation, there is no unpleasant aspect of tone and no noise!
Thank you so much for this vid! Hope you won't get attacked too much for busting this one!
When I play Ambiant music with my Gibson Explorer it’s with a strymon big sky, I like the tone of my Seymour Duncan jazz neck (alnico ) it has a lovely presence . And a Duncan distortion in the bridge ( ceramic ) for that heavy stuff , But with my Mexican strat with the singles (HSS -stock ceramics) it sounds very clear ,chimmy , more articulate in responsive , I have a Pegasus (alnico ) in The bridge and it sounds bright when I play metal music , and has too much of a lively presence . It’s a tone that’s taken me awhile to adapt with but it sounds good nonetheless. Depending on what I record , most of the time I go with my fender strat
My PRS S2 custom 24 has Alpha/Omega sets (ceramic ) Ambiant, classical music and jazz ..sounds angelic with my strymon big sky . aggressive , full and clear with distortion
All in all .. I guess it just depends on what someone’s intent is , how much Output they want and what genre they want to play ..
Can’t go wrong with alnico and ceramic mixes sorry for the long stories lol
Hey Darrell! Love your videos!
Here is a topic for you to check out: Scale leinght - difference between Strat 25,5", PRS 25", Les Paul 24,75", Fender Mustang 24", Gibson Byrdland 23,75" Peavey T30 23"
Do they need different gauges to get the right sound?
Can a shorter scale affect the tone?
Or maybe some other questions?
I think you are absolutely correct about many adjectives just deriving from bias, not from the sound. I did like the AlNiCos mostly better, though the ceramics sounded better for distorted chords - a soft distortion, not a harsh one, maybe less defined but smoother. I would not be able to tell which is which in a blind test, just that they do sound different and some sounds I'm more used to. Neither of them sounded bad in any way to my ear, I might even say the ceramic sounded "more defined" in some ways. It really depends what you're going after. Very interesting to hear only this difference, thank you!
Thanks for breaking the myth. Bought a bunch of wilkinson p90s that sound great as ceramic. I'm a luthier and am guilty of the alnico myth. Was about to spend all this time upgrading the magnet to alnico. But I actually do prefer ceramic p90s.
My Gibson V has 498r/500t ceramic pickups. They ROCK! My best sounding guitar.
496r/500t = I have them too but you cant say they're not harsh sounding. I have them in a 93 Les Paul Studio and its great for metal but it really doesn't sound nice for blues.
Brutus Marcus Brutus Marcus Yep, harsh but can be quite musical - 490R + 498T if you’re going for a smoother tone.
Brutus, my 94 studio has the 490/498 combo. Better for blues, but for rocking the roof off I’ll take 496/500 ceramics all day long.
thats whay ceramics are for lol
490R/498T combo works fine for metal too, off with the covers and adjust them poles, then screw the pups all the way down and raise them slowly until they pronounce pinch harmonics with ease, if rythm sound isn't tight enough consider a thicker pick made out of delrin or simular.
Hey Darrell! Great video, as usual! Did you consider publishing some of your episodes in a podcast? That would be awesome!
I couldn't bond with the 85/15 "S" pickups in my PRS SE, so instead of changing pickups possibly being further disappointed, So I scoured the net for information on pots and alterations. Eric Johnson uses 300k pots to brighten the guitar, some companies use 450k pots to darken bright guitars. so, I experimented with resistors soldered from output to ground, I ended with 1.2 meg resistor, the 85/15 "S" now have a really nice early PAF sound. also, in my search I found a schematic for PRS DGT, it places resistors between coil tap wires and switch lugs, eliminating volume drop while coil tapped ;)
You nailed it, as always, DB. More expensive pickups =better. Right??
Well, it depends.
It’s all relative to what each individual player likes and hears. However, the big manufacturers will lead you to believe that the cheaper option will leave more to be desired. Which isn’t necessarily true. It’s all about marketing and $$$.
Regardless, great video DB. You’re my dude.
Darrell, How about a test on fingerboard Material's. Ebony has me wondering the most !
I really doubt fingerboard material has any significant impact on the sound.
Thanks man. It was about time someone exposed this. In fact, I have a Skier from the nineties with ceramics and it is perfect for jazzy stuff.
THIS IS .... THE VIDEO. All the truth right to our ears ... to the brain !
No words to convince the crowd.
This guy has done a PERFECT video !
This isn't scientific. You don't have the same pickup windings. You don't have the same capacitors. You don't have the same pickup height nor the same guitar for that matter. It's anecdotal.
Personally I can hear a bigger difference then I thought I would. I prefer the AlNiCo over the Ceramic in all cases you presented- the Ceramic sounded like they had a blanket over the amp- they were more "muffled" is how I would describe the tone- but not necessarily "bad" - just less definition I think. Funny because they are supposed to be harsh and brighter- I'd say they sounded exactly the opposite- much warmer (muffled though) and less bright. I feel like the AlNiCo was a much more musical and pleasing tone. Noticeably for me anyway.
Great video as always👌👌👌.. The thing I miss was a blind test (I'm a huge fan your blind test, cause I always failed it most time😅😅).. Well I think another big myth is with string guages. Many articles says that the higher you go it sounds better.. But honestly i watched lots of professionals using 9 and may be 8. Like Clapton, B.B and Steve vai does.. Sorry for bad English😁😁😁
Anyway.. Thanks for sharing this great information with us. Your videos are very very informative and sometimes money saving too☺☺☺ (1x12 cab)🤘🤘🤘.
Yeah Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top uses 7'S. I think that string gauge affecting tone is a myth. Maybe not on acoustic.
@@christopherkaesemeyer1575 thanks for that information😇😇.. And Billy Gibson has a monstrous tone. I mean everyone knows about the LaGrange. It sounds really Fat and juicy even in live🎸🎸
Gibbons almost certainly didn't use 7s on La Grange. He only got the idea of using 7s from talking with BB King long after they recorded La Grange back in the 1970s. BB also used 7s and Gibbons asked him how he played his guitar without his hands getting tired as he got older. BB said go for 7s. Billy gave it a try and was sold. At least that is what Gibbons said in an interview, so I believe it since it came straight from the horse's mouth. ;)
I like the blind comparisons for cheaper and more expensive gear. If you take the time to shop around and not let your eyes take the place of your ears, you can free up a lot of money for other things such as 3 more guitars.
Good info, man... clear and concise... no iper-bowl (hyperbole)... keep it going.
Perfect analysis. Companies do not tell the truth, they need excuses to charge higher. Great "myth buster" series, few on the market have courage to tell the truth about wood, alnico/ceramic, etc.
I think you should do a live show together with @PhillipMcNight. I think that would be simply awesome watching you both guys talk guitar!!!
And you get to take a break from that Canadian winter and head on down south! Or maybe Phil likes the ski!!
😁👍
Always prefered ceramic pups. The whole vintage craze was always lame to me, so I avoided them that way, but I just prefer the sound.
Thanks for confirming these things
Fellow Canuck here love your videos a cut above from what’s out there .Keep up the great work ,eh !!!!
Hi Darrell. Great video. I’d love to see you tackle the most inane myth of them all - tone is all in the hands!