Great guide have swapped magnets on many cheap humbuckers to good effect . and as a small tip always break the solder joints to the cover rather than desolder them . a stanley knife blade and a small tap through with a hammer does the trick . its not happened to me but know someone who had it happen , when desoldering some small amount of solder dripped down and got under the bobbin tape ( which was rather loose ) and shorted out the windings .
@@JRobsonGuitar Indeed, i do it also that way. Forgot something. In these kind of guitars it's hard to swap out pots.. but i've found an easy way to do that. Put a small chirugical rubber tube or a tube from an aquarium pump OVER the shank of the pot and pull the shank like that trough the hole ! And to easy pull on the wire to the output or elsewhere, i simply use an iron clothes hanger with a tiny neodymium magnet glued at the top end..
I watched this video a couple of weeks ago and it inspired me to try swapping the magnets on a LTD Viper that I've had for a few years. Finally got around to swapping them yesterday and now I can't put that guitar down. Love it! Thanks for the video!
I've ordered a pair of Alnico II and a pair of Alnico 5 magnets (not because of this video), which I'll either stick on my epiphone les paul humbuckers or on a pair of vintage PAF style humbuckers that i bought off the fleabay a while back. I guess Alnico II for the vintage 8k range humbuckers, and Alnico 5 for the more modern (8k 14k) humbuckers. Could always stick the neck pickup magnet in the wrong way around to attempt to get something more like the Peter Green 'Greeny' sound, and put that humbucker in the guitar upside down.
Learning still, I’ve kicked out ceramics and paid out to put alnico replacements quite a few times and now I’ve been given a free lesson that can save me a few quid and up my tone zone 🥳 many thanks 🙏
Great guide! This would never have ocurred to me. My HB-35 _plus,_ however, already comes with AlNICo humbuckers. Now I just have to check if upgrading from AlNiCo 5 to 2 makes any relevant difference. I think I will have to watch Darrel Brown's video on that again. 😉 Thanks for the inspiration!
I have an HB-35 and swapped the magnets to make the bridge Alnico 4 and the neck Alnico 3. I love it. The bridge has great view and character and the neck is sweet and smooth
There is a Video on pickups and magnets on Will Gelvin's channel, he knows a lot more about coils and magnets. So an AlNiCo 2/3/4/5/8 bar can be magnetized stronger or weaker, the strength of the magnet should fit the windings of the coils. More windings, more DC-resistance result to the need for a stronger magnet.
Hi John, I'm fairly sure that on a Throwback p/u channel vid, the owner recommended a modest clamping force between backplate and cover when soldering, to tighten the components up to battle microphonics (and presumably potential wolf tones/resonances). More critical on non-waxed period correct PAFs but worth noting .... possibly?
Great video. I've been messing around with magnets for a while on a Vintage Lemon Drop. Swapped the A5s for A4s a couple of years ago... Man, IMOtakes it closer to how it should sound. Got another experiment coming soon. If only I had the personality to do videos, I'd have a ton of ideas for videos.
Just to help others. My experience. I did the same with one of my Gibson humbuckers. Careful, the fine wires that connect the two coils together are down the lollipop stick end so just pull the bar magnets out. Also mine were tight so I had to loosen all 6 pole screws from the threads to give me enough room to slide it out. Replace the pole screws to their original height though afterwards.
Really interesting . Is it really necessary to change and pay a lot more money for the whole pickup change . I did this with my epiphone lp ii . Definitely sound less harsh with distortion with a alnico magnet in .
Thanks for this video John just what ive been looking for and ive just ordered some alnico ll's for both my epi lp and my epi dot, looking forward for some cheap vintage tones. Its gotta be worth a try for £26, its not like paying out 100's for new pups without knowing how they will sound for £26 i dont much care and theyve got to be an improvement, fingers crossed ;)
Great video , surprised more people don't do this . If you put one of the replacement magnets in the wrong way around you should get the "Peter Green" tone in the middle position 👍
Hi, I was wondering if the magnet swapping thing only applies to humbuckers or is it something that you can do with single coil pickups too? Thanks for the informative and useful videos
Just changed magnets on affinity tele...(has cheapo ceramic strat pup in neck...original ceramic bridge). had a pair of CIJ jazzmaster pups in parts drawer...so use the magnets out of those. Totally changed the sound of the guitar...in a very good way. It didnt sound bad before..but after swapping magnets a huge increase in clarity and definition. A/B against squier jag...re mag tele gives much better sound...just goes to show what can be done...and that pickup makers are having folks eyes out. the jazzmaster pickups were dreadful sounding things....i had my old mate Jim Cairns make me a proper set...now those ARE good pickups....but my re magged tele runs it close... which isnt bad considering the tele pickups were El Cheapos. next job on tele is swap out the pots...for some reason its got 500k...bit sharp n bright with these magnets. as for taking off the old ceramics...one was loose enough to take off by hand...(neck pup...no wonder it was microphonic....it isnt now)...bridge pup...long nose pliers...then twist..mag popped off...easy... My 2 bobs worth.....do it!...you wont be dissapointed Skol Wul
i did this to the stock yamaha pickups HSH but i do not know how to resolder the plaques to ground and all that stuff. Can anyone direct me to right path or tutorial? Thanks
Thanks for this test video. I have also this HB guitar and thinking change the magnet to alnico, it was nice to hear demo here. Neck pickup is okay but maybe too bass heavy and little bland. Bridge pickup is nice as stock but that thing that bothers me is that, it's too hot my opinion.
Cheers mate, I use a Vox Tonelab ST on the US HIGAIN SPL amp model through a UK 4x12 cab sim (also in the Vox) for my driven tones, and clean is the US BLUES SPL amp model through the same cab sim. Then add reverb/delay etc to taste.
Hi! I vainly tried to desold the ring from a filtertron. Yet ,even at 480 centigrads it doesn't melt and I can't open it. I usually use 300 c to install pickups... Any suggestion, please?
They sound great John. To my ears there has also been a boost to mid frequencies. But as you say definitely a sweeter warmer sound. I've got some ceramic P90s that I am tempted to try the same trick with. They seem to have two magnets each. I've done some searching which suggests the P90 magnets are the same size as the humbucking ones but will make sure of this before doing anything drastic!
A little, but only noticeable when you view the waveform after recording the guitar. What you perceive when listening is that there's more clean "headroom" before the sound starts to distort.
Cheers. I was using a Vox Tonelab on the US HIGAIN model. Didn't wax pot it again as that's really only a measure to protect the coils from vibration & the wax on those was still intact. Anyway, many PAF pickups weren't potted in the first place, so it's not crucial.
Best pickup ever made find a 1988 to 1990 Seymour Duncan trembucker i think they renamed them the Parallel Axis patb1 now but i have a 1989 bobbin has no duncan label it just labeled on chrome baseplate trembucker . but its resistance is 17k ohms whereas the newer patb1 i have is 14.8k ohms. Anyways swap out the alnico 5 magnets and install a ceramic they are amazing . i have the orignal installed into my 1988 peavey vandenburg and the patb1 installed into a ibanez lawsuit les paul copy.
Hi John, nice job mate ! You actually made me laugh hard now. Remember when i said to you i was going to put Alinco 2's in my SG ? You were disputing.. nooo.. put Alnico 5's in there, that's much better ! You apparently converted to Alnico 2 now.. LOL. First the swap in the CST 24 and now this one. About swapping out those magnets..someone commented here under,.. so then you can easely swap the ceramic bar on a single coil too ? I've answered to that. Maybee you could do a small update or a more dedicated vid about how the polarity works on this type of magnet ? Also, there are not only varieties in numbers of magnets, but also in size. The most common standard used is in mm, not inch, 58 long, 12.5 wide and 3.2 mm thick, and is probably the size you needed for these ones. So.. better check before ordering. Just a suggestion. Cheers mate.
Yeah... The a2 sound got me in the end. Saw your reply to the other question... Thanks for that. You're the pickup guru so you're probably better qualified to make that video... Go on, you know you want to 😆
@@JRobsonGuitar Well i would like too.. and i will, but i'm way to far beyond with work to do, that i'm still not able to open my own channel, and i regret that very much.. i'm like you.. a one man band.. LOL. BTW.. i've just added something above i forgot also..and added a good tip above to the pinned comment about an easy way to swap pots, etc..
Thanks John, can you explain again about putting the magnet in the correct way, I did not understand. It just so happens I've just ordered the HB35plus left handed and I'll probably want to do the same in as much as changing the magnets, or if I'm brave enough change the pickups. I want a Jazz sound - I've heard the Alnico 3's are good for a Jazzy tone?
OK... The end of the magnet poking out (let's say the North Pole) will repel the North Pole on the new magnet, but will be attracted to the south Pole of said new magnet. This end is the end which has to go in "head first" if you see what I mean. This will mean that the North Pole of the new magnet is at the same end of the pickup as was the case with the old magnet. Hope this helps 😁 Check out the Axesrus link & go to the page where they sell the magnets and they have a summary of the different tonal properties of each type as well as sound clips.
John Robson Guitarist Thanks for the prompt reply, makes total sense now. Oh btw how do the magnets compare to the Vanson pickups you installed in your other Harley Benton?
John - instead of de-soldering the joints you could’ve just used a razor knife & carefully cut through the solder. You have to be careful you don’t go too deep, but the trade off is that you’re not applying more heat to the pickups.
I ended up using a very small jeweller's file in pretty much that manner. Just got my new soldering iron & fixed the covers back on. New tuners installed too... Job done!
@@JRobsonGuitar Higher wattage soldering irons are a must nowadays with the crappy lead free solder lol. I bought a high wattage adjustable temperature soldering iron and plenty of lead tin solder because I got fed up with how crap the lead free solder is. I also made up a large tin of flux by melting plenty of pine rosin into vaseline and it smells great and works great.
Do you have a direct link to the specific magnet instead Of the overall website link to axesRus? Love your vids, from one side of the fence to the other really cool stuff 😎👍🏻
You'll feel a little resistance from the wax sticking the magnet to the pickup assembly, but it doesn't take much more than a gentle push to break the seal & move the magnet. These pickups are wax potted & the magnet came out OK.
Put both magnets in the wrong way round & it makes no difference. Put one in the opposite way to the other & you get that famous "Peter Green" tone on the middle setting of the pickup selector.
Yup...The story goes, as far as i know, the pickups in that guitar came from the factory like that..a cock-up so to speak..I never really looked further into but always thought it was something to do with the magnets..So thought i'd ask and clear that one up ...finally.. Everyone's gonna be doing that now aren't they....
These pickups are wax potted, and there were no issues 😁 As for knowing what magnets are in there... The sound usually gives a big clue. If you can see the magnet, you can spot the ceramic ones by their colour... It'll be black. If it's a metallic silver colour, it's going to be some sort of alnico.
@@The_Macaroon You're probably OK as the coil is still impregnated with wax even if the magnet isn't glued in place with wax any more. Just don't play with Slipknot levels of gain & you should avoid any microphonic feedback. Incidentally, the famous Gary Moore/Peter Green Les Paul had unpotted pickups (they didn't always wax pot them back in the 50s) as does the Bare Knuckle replica set, I believe.
As long as nothing is obvious rattling and the pickup is screwed tight again as one homogeneous mass, it should be totally fine. The magnets are almost never glued in
@@skobywankenobi Actually.. no.. you can't do that, because of the polarity issue, or you would have to glue the bar magnets with the thin side on to the poles. And also, then you would have seen hundreds of vids about that on You tube. What you can do however, with cheap Chinese single coils is ( ONLY IF THE WIRE IS NOT TOUCHING THE POLES INSIDE ! ), meaning, that the inside where the poles go in, is covered up with plastic, same as in a humbucker..than you could slide alnico poles in it. But.. that's not worth the cost, because those cheap Chinese are using much less wire and much thinner wire with hardly some copper in, to reduce cost. Never heard the term "Chinese potmetal ? Better buy some Toneriders or Vansons and save yourself a ton of work and frustration. And.. never trie that with Fender style single coils, because if you push those poles out.. you simply break the wire and it's ready for the bin. Greets from Belgium.
Great video John thank you. Most people sent that ceramic equals shit. But that's not the case. There are many expensive amazing pickups that have ceramic magnets. but this is a great idea. I am now thinking about switching my ceramic magnets out for amigos as an experiment since it's such a to-do. I have very very hot amazingly crazy hot ceramic pickups in my Firebird. why they switched over to such a hot pick up I don't know because the original Firebirds if I'm not mistaken head-on ecotools in them. There anyway after looking on the website for a different types of pickups to see if I can find something I might want to play around with I came upon mojotone. They have a really great pick up signature series from Johnny Winter and it was Johnny Winter who actually in collaboration with mojotone made these pickups. Although that was not what caught my eyes look what my I was they had a hot bridge pickup with alnico 8 send them. And I'm so curious to see what that difference is cuz it's a 16k resistance the resistance on my bridge pickup on the side of birds if I remember right is about 25 yeah 25 LOL. I'm wondering what the 8l Nico would do In those pickups removing the ceramic ones. I'm assuming like someone made a comment in your in this video about how will some bulls easy get socks had a few videos on pickups magnets coils winding the whole bit and how they have to be matched for a really good sound. So I'm thinking with a hot 8 alnico pickup it should be more compatible if or with the windings in the original pickups in the firebird since it's such a hot pick up if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on this please let me know in the comments thank you oh and please excuse any misspelled words weird punctuation anyting not quite grammatically right I am not a bad typo, I am not illiterate, I'm just legally blind and I depend on the speech to text and it often is not correct again thanks all
Yeah, ceramic has it's place. Great for hot metal sounds, but not my cup of tea. I think it's fair to say that I like a sweeter alnico sound & I find ceramic magnets give a harshness to the treble that I can never EQ away. Throw some gain at it, though, & you have a great metal tone.
It's not that simple! It is good if the magnets are of the same thickness. Alnico magnets are often thinner than ceramic magnets, which means that in addition to magnets, plastic (wooden) gaskets that support the shape of the humbucker will have to be changed too.
A simple bodge to swap out pickups in a semi without the gynaecological work . Cut the wires of the old pickups and solder the new ones to those. The impact of the break in the cable screen will be negligible but you Could wrap the joins (metal foil/tape - copper slug tape) if you Really wanted to. 50W controlled solder station £15'ish on eBay usually.
Dear John, This is really spooky - I was just thinking I wish somebody would take the time and effort to do a direct comparison between Alnico II magnets and other magnets, turned on the computer, opened youtube and there you were!! Thanks so much for this great video you show it's not "Snake Oil" after all and a great refinement to otherwise so-so pickups. The improvement in tone is wonderful. Fantastic!!! Now..... how about some cool licks to play over the 5 chord in a blues??
Hi, I modified a v-pick by imbedding a magnet. I would like to send you a couple to review, or not. SVPick.com, they don’t interfere with pickups, but you might like to see for yourself? Thanks
Oh, that's a tricky one. Breaking the wax seal on a magnet doesn't really affect the integrity of the pickup, as you're not disturbing the seal on the coil. I would imagine that taking out the pole screws would end up making the pickup microphonic as the wax seal on the coil would be broken. Why do you want to do this, by the way?
Basically, what you got is only a bit of less "sharpness" - as if the tone/presence filter was slightly suppressing the highest range, at the same time slightly boosting the lower range. Definitely not worth investing extra (although "peanut") money and effort, since with any decent amp you get all this and much more.
Great guide have swapped magnets on many cheap humbuckers to good effect .
and as a small tip always break the solder joints to the cover rather than desolder them . a stanley knife blade and a small tap through with a hammer does the trick . its not happened to me but know someone who had it happen , when desoldering some small amount of solder dripped down and got under the bobbin tape ( which was rather loose ) and shorted out the windings .
Great tip. You've just become the pinned comment on this video 👍
@@JRobsonGuitar Indeed, i do it also that way. Forgot something. In these kind of guitars it's hard to swap out pots.. but i've found an easy way to do that. Put a small chirugical rubber tube or a tube from an aquarium pump OVER the shank of the pot and pull the shank like that trough the hole ! And to easy pull on the wire to the output or elsewhere, i simply use an iron clothes hanger with a tiny neodymium magnet glued at the top end..
@@JRobsonGuitar
Thank you
Glad to be of help
Or just be a good solder, damn. That is just sloppy. Use some wick or a solder sucker.
Cheers,mate!
I watched this video a couple of weeks ago and it inspired me to try swapping the magnets on a LTD Viper that I've had for a few years. Finally got around to swapping them yesterday and now I can't put that guitar down. Love it! Thanks for the video!
I've ordered a pair of Alnico II and a pair of Alnico 5 magnets (not because of this video), which I'll either stick on my epiphone les paul humbuckers or on a pair of vintage PAF style humbuckers that i bought off the fleabay a while back. I guess Alnico II for the vintage 8k range humbuckers, and Alnico 5 for the more modern (8k 14k) humbuckers. Could always stick the neck pickup magnet in the wrong way around to attempt to get something more like the Peter Green 'Greeny' sound, and put that humbucker in the guitar upside down.
Just thinking of doing that to my HB Bass... and saw your very useful upload listed. Many Thanks
Learning still, I’ve kicked out ceramics and paid out to put alnico replacements quite a few times and now I’ve been given a free lesson that can save me a few quid and up my tone zone 🥳 many thanks 🙏
Now that is a really useful video John. Many thanks.
They sound fantastic with the Alnico II's and you definitely can hear a difference in ceramics to Alnico's. Very nicely done.
Magnet swaps are cheap, easy and one of the biggest tonal differences. I like your simple trick, "if it sticks and not repels then just slide it in"!!
Great idea John. Must say that's a sweet sound when turned up to 11
Lots of love for Axesrus. Thanks for the video, excellent tip!
Always a class act John. Nicely done. Greetings from Canada.
Great guide! This would never have ocurred to me. My HB-35 _plus,_ however, already comes with AlNICo humbuckers. Now I just have to check if upgrading from AlNiCo 5 to 2 makes any relevant difference. I think I will have to watch Darrel Brown's video on that again. 😉 Thanks for the inspiration!
I have an HB-35 and swapped the magnets to make the bridge Alnico 4 and the neck Alnico 3. I love it. The bridge has great view and character and the neck is sweet and smooth
"it's like spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar" - love it!
There is a Video on pickups and magnets on Will Gelvin's channel, he knows a lot more about coils and magnets.
So an AlNiCo 2/3/4/5/8 bar can be magnetized stronger or weaker, the strength of the magnet should fit the windings of the coils. More windings, more DC-resistance result to the need for a stronger magnet.
It sounds much better, smoother and cleaner.
Thanks for doing this video, I think even I could make that swap!!
Hi John, I'm fairly sure that on a Throwback p/u channel vid, the owner recommended a modest clamping force between backplate and cover when soldering, to tighten the components up to battle microphonics (and presumably potential wolf tones/resonances). More critical on non-waxed period correct PAFs but worth noting .... possibly?
I love it such a crisp bite in sound!
What about Alnico to Neodymium?
Great video.
I've been messing around with magnets for a while on a Vintage Lemon Drop. Swapped the A5s for A4s a couple of years ago... Man, IMOtakes it closer to how it should sound.
Got another experiment coming soon. If only I had the personality to do videos, I'd have a ton of ideas for videos.
Let others decide if you have the personality to do videos. Give it a go if you feel like it.
You'll probably be pleasantly surprised.
What a difference. Well worth the effort. Thank you John.
This is a great tip John and well worth knowing, thank you for this, Cheers
Great video! Did you use a Rough or polished alnico ll magnet? Thanks
i recon you got alot of people thinking out there now, i will have to give it a go. As always another top video ; )
Helpful video thanks. Not easy though , soldering pickup covers (and waxing?)is hard!
Nice and useful comparison. Thanks for putting this one together for us.
I think the Alnico, we’re better & much cleaner . Thanks for the information.
Always like your vids, very honest
Sorry honest
Just to help others. My experience. I did the same with one of my Gibson humbuckers. Careful, the fine wires that connect the two coils together are down the lollipop stick end so just pull the bar magnets out. Also mine were tight so I had to loosen all 6 pole screws from the threads to give me enough room to slide it out. Replace the pole screws to their original height though afterwards.
John. If you got the hb35 plus.it has alnico, and there split coil too.206 Elglish5 pounds
Really useful, thanks John
Really interesting . Is it really necessary to change and pay a lot more money for the whole pickup change . I did this with my epiphone lp ii . Definitely sound less harsh with distortion with a alnico magnet in .
Thanks for this video John just what ive been looking for and ive just ordered some alnico ll's for both my epi lp and my epi dot, looking forward for some cheap vintage tones. Its gotta be worth a try for £26, its not like paying out 100's for new pups without knowing how they will sound for £26 i dont much care and theyve got to be an improvement, fingers crossed ;)
Great video , surprised more people don't do this . If you put one of the replacement magnets in the wrong way around you should get the "Peter Green" tone in the middle position 👍
My concern is that many ceramic magnets are thicker than alnico. That would require shimming, or thinner spacers.
Those ceramics would be stuck to the frame of a double decker heading out of town to Birmingham…. Never to be heard from again!!!! Nice choice mate!!
great idea!
any particular reasons you picked the 58mm bar vs the 62mm?
Hi, I was wondering if the magnet swapping thing only applies to humbuckers or is it something that you can do with single coil pickups too? Thanks for the informative and useful videos
Just humbuckers mate 😁
It applies to both but there's a different process
You can buy alnico pole pieces for single coil pickups. Just swap em over.
What’s the difference between alnico 2 and alnico 5. ?
Just changed magnets on affinity tele...(has cheapo ceramic strat pup in neck...original ceramic bridge).
had a pair of CIJ jazzmaster pups in parts drawer...so use the magnets out of those.
Totally changed the sound of the guitar...in a very good way.
It didnt sound bad before..but after swapping magnets a huge increase in clarity and definition.
A/B against squier jag...re mag tele gives much better sound...just goes to show what can be done...and that pickup makers are having folks eyes out.
the jazzmaster pickups were dreadful sounding things....i had my old mate Jim Cairns make me a proper set...now those ARE good pickups....but my re magged tele runs it close...
which isnt bad considering the tele pickups were El Cheapos.
next job on tele is swap out the pots...for some reason its got 500k...bit sharp n bright with these magnets.
as for taking off the old ceramics...one was loose enough to take off by hand...(neck pup...no wonder it was microphonic....it isnt now)...bridge pup...long nose pliers...then twist..mag popped off...easy...
My 2 bobs worth.....do it!...you wont be dissapointed
Skol
Wul
Great mod! I didn't realize you could get the alnico magnets in bar form. Think I'll be trying this in the future. Thanks!👍😎🎸🎶
Yeah the bar for humbuckers and alnico pole pieces for strat type single pickups.
i did this to the stock yamaha pickups HSH but i do not know how to resolder the plaques to ground and all that stuff.
Can anyone direct me to right path or tutorial? Thanks
A very worthwhile upgrade, obviously.
Nice job!
Thanks for this test video. I have also this HB guitar and thinking change the magnet to alnico, it was nice to hear demo here. Neck pickup is okay but maybe too bass heavy and little bland. Bridge pickup is nice as stock but that thing that bothers me is that, it's too hot my opinion.
Can this be done without desoldering the whole pickup from the guitar? Thanks for the advice man
Yes, I didn't disconnect the pickups at all when I did the mod 👍
Dyi heat up weak solder iron with a blow torch type cig lighter or on the stove to get it hotter. Bit bodgey but works in a pinch
Hi John, could you tell us the details of the signal path. It sounds great.
Cheers mate, I use a Vox Tonelab ST on the US HIGAIN SPL amp model through a UK 4x12 cab sim (also in the Vox) for my driven tones, and clean is the US BLUES SPL amp model through the same cab sim. Then add reverb/delay etc to taste.
Many thanks John, that's the shopping list sorted!
Hi! I vainly tried to desold the ring from a filtertron. Yet ,even at 480 centigrads it doesn't melt and I can't open it. I usually use 300 c to install pickups... Any suggestion, please?
Nope, sorry. Never done it on that kind of pickup.
@@JRobsonGuitar it's solded the same way, it's just a bit nerrower. I'd like to know how to desold it.
They sound great John. To my ears there has also been a boost to mid frequencies. But as you say definitely a sweeter warmer sound. I've got some ceramic P90s that I am tempted to try the same trick with. They seem to have two magnets each. I've done some searching which suggests the P90 magnets are the same size as the humbucking ones but will make sure of this before doing anything drastic!
Axesrus list the magnets I used as being for humbuckers or p90s 😁
@@JRobsonGuitar I've just looked at the P90's. The magnets appear o be glued to the plastic bobbins. Could be a major problem!
From Leo: I like the sound of the Alnico II magnets. Did you loose output volume with the less powerful magnets?
A little, but only noticeable when you view the waveform after recording the guitar. What you perceive when listening is that there's more clean "headroom" before the sound starts to distort.
That tone is sweet on the bridge pickup! ❤️ 👍 Sounds alot like Robben Ford tone what kind of amp are you using? Good Job! Did you wax pot it again?
Cheers. I was using a Vox Tonelab on the US HIGAIN model. Didn't wax pot it again as that's really only a measure to protect the coils from vibration & the wax on those was still intact. Anyway, many PAF pickups weren't potted in the first place, so it's not crucial.
@@JRobsonGuitar is that guitar a Harley Benton?
I might pick one of those Leftys
Indeed it is 👍
Best pickup ever made find a 1988 to 1990 Seymour Duncan trembucker i think they renamed them the Parallel Axis patb1 now but i have a 1989 bobbin has no duncan label it just labeled on chrome baseplate trembucker . but its resistance is 17k ohms whereas the newer patb1 i have is 14.8k ohms. Anyways swap out the alnico 5 magnets and install a ceramic they are amazing . i have the orignal installed into my 1988 peavey vandenburg and the patb1 installed into a ibanez lawsuit les paul copy.
Hi John, nice job mate ! You actually made me laugh hard now. Remember when i said to you i was going to put Alinco 2's in my SG ? You were disputing.. nooo.. put Alnico 5's in there, that's much better ! You apparently converted to Alnico 2 now.. LOL. First the swap in the CST 24 and now this one. About swapping out those magnets..someone commented here under,.. so then you can easely swap the ceramic bar on a single coil too ? I've answered to that. Maybee you could do a small update or a more dedicated vid about how the polarity works on this type of magnet ? Also, there are not only varieties in numbers of magnets, but also in size. The most common standard used is in mm, not inch, 58 long, 12.5 wide and 3.2 mm thick, and is probably the size you needed for these ones. So.. better check before ordering. Just a suggestion. Cheers mate.
Yeah... The a2 sound got me in the end. Saw your reply to the other question... Thanks for that. You're the pickup guru so you're probably better qualified to make that video... Go on, you know you want to 😆
@@JRobsonGuitar Well i would like too.. and i will, but i'm way to far beyond with work to do, that i'm still not able to open my own channel, and i regret that very much.. i'm like you.. a one man band.. LOL. BTW.. i've just added something above i forgot also..and added a good tip above to the pinned comment about an easy way to swap pots, etc..
Thanks John, can you explain again about putting the magnet in the correct way, I did not understand. It just so happens I've just ordered the HB35plus left handed and I'll probably want to do the same in as much as changing the magnets, or if I'm brave enough change the pickups. I want a Jazz sound - I've heard the Alnico 3's are good for a Jazzy tone?
OK... The end of the magnet poking out (let's say the North Pole) will repel the North Pole on the new magnet, but will be attracted to the south Pole of said new magnet. This end is the end which has to go in "head first" if you see what I mean. This will mean that the North Pole of the new magnet is at the same end of the pickup as was the case with the old magnet. Hope this helps 😁
Check out the Axesrus link & go to the page where they sell the magnets and they have a summary of the different tonal properties of each type as well as sound clips.
John Robson Guitarist Thanks for the prompt reply, makes total sense now. Oh btw how do the magnets compare to the Vanson pickups you installed in your other Harley Benton?
Great video, very interesting.
I prefer the faster more responsive sound of the ceramic pickups I think it suits your playing better
John - instead of de-soldering the joints you could’ve just used a razor knife & carefully cut through the solder. You have to be careful you don’t go too deep, but the trade off is that you’re not applying more heat to the pickups.
I ended up using a very small jeweller's file in pretty much that manner. Just got my new soldering iron & fixed the covers back on. New tuners installed too... Job done!
@@JRobsonGuitar Higher wattage soldering irons are a must nowadays with the crappy lead free solder lol. I bought a high wattage adjustable temperature soldering iron and plenty of lead tin solder because I got fed up with how crap the lead free solder is. I also made up a large tin of flux by melting plenty of pine rosin into vaseline and it smells great and works great.
Do you have a direct link to the specific magnet instead Of the overall website link to axesRus?
Love your vids, from one side of the fence to the other
really cool stuff 😎👍🏻
Cheers mate. Here you go...
www.axesrus.co.uk/Humbucker-Bar-Magnet-p/g109barssmall.htm
So how would it sound if you swapped the magnets with Neodynium Magnets?
Never had any experience of those, sorry.
What about a pickup that is potted? Wouldn't that make changing the magnets harder?
You'll feel a little resistance from the wax sticking the magnet to the pickup assembly, but it doesn't take much more than a gentle push to break the seal & move the magnet. These pickups are wax potted & the magnet came out OK.
John Robson Guitarist Good to know. Hopefully the new magnets seat properly and don’t end up being microphonic.
What happens if you put the magnet in the wrong way round...just out of interest..?
Earth starts sinning backwards. Please don't do it!! *lol*
@@MyTube4Utoo Sod the matrix..I have to do it....i have to know...I will destroy the machine...
Put both magnets in the wrong way round & it makes no difference. Put one in the opposite way to the other & you get that famous "Peter Green" tone on the middle setting of the pickup selector.
Yup...The story goes, as far as i know, the pickups in that guitar came from the factory like that..a cock-up so to speak..I never really looked further into but always thought it was something to do with the magnets..So thought i'd ask and clear that one up ...finally..
Everyone's gonna be doing that now aren't they....
Well done!
Wax potting could be a problem. Also how do you know what type of magnets are on an old guitar? Great vid.
These pickups are wax potted, and there were no issues 😁
As for knowing what magnets are in there... The sound usually gives a big clue. If you can see the magnet, you can spot the ceramic ones by their colour... It'll be black. If it's a metallic silver colour, it's going to be some sort of alnico.
@@JRobsonGuitar cheers John, so do you not need to seal up the wax again after changing? And thanks for replying
@@The_Macaroon You're probably OK as the coil is still impregnated with wax even if the magnet isn't glued in place with wax any more. Just don't play with Slipknot levels of gain & you should avoid any microphonic feedback. Incidentally, the famous Gary Moore/Peter Green Les Paul had unpotted pickups (they didn't always wax pot them back in the 50s) as does the Bare Knuckle replica set, I believe.
@@JRobsonGuitar everyday is a school day. Much obliged. An no, no slipknot lol
As long as nothing is obvious rattling and the pickup is screwed tight again as one homogeneous mass, it should be totally fine. The magnets are almost never glued in
Can you do the same with single coil pickups with ceramic magnets or would you have to swap the entire pickup?
The bar on single coils is directly under the poles. I assume you just remove it and swap it out with the alnico
@@skobywankenobi Actually.. no.. you can't do that, because of the polarity issue, or you would have to glue the bar magnets with the thin side on to the poles. And also, then you would have seen hundreds of vids about that on You tube. What you can do however, with cheap Chinese single coils is ( ONLY IF THE WIRE IS NOT TOUCHING THE POLES INSIDE ! ), meaning, that the inside where the poles go in, is covered up with plastic, same as in a humbucker..than you could slide alnico poles in it. But.. that's not worth the cost, because those cheap Chinese are using much less wire and much thinner wire with hardly some copper in, to reduce cost. Never heard the term "Chinese potmetal ? Better buy some Toneriders or Vansons and save yourself a ton of work and frustration. And.. never trie that with Fender style single coils, because if you push those poles out.. you simply break the wire and it's ready for the bin. Greets from Belgium.
try "Iron Gear" pick ups, huge variety, great tone, great customer service for VERY affordable cost
@@9wenwilson210 Indeed, i couldn't come up the name of this brand ! But, then it's still about everyones taste.
Great video John thank you. Most people sent that ceramic equals shit. But that's not the case. There are many expensive amazing pickups that have ceramic magnets. but this is a great idea. I am now thinking about switching my ceramic magnets out for amigos as an experiment since it's such a to-do. I have very very hot amazingly crazy hot ceramic pickups in my Firebird. why they switched over to such a hot pick up I don't know because the original Firebirds if I'm not mistaken head-on ecotools in them. There anyway after looking on the website for a different types of pickups to see if I can find something I might want to play around with I came upon mojotone. They have a really great pick up signature series from Johnny Winter and it was Johnny Winter who actually in collaboration with mojotone made these pickups. Although that was not what caught my eyes look what my I was they had a hot bridge pickup with alnico 8 send them. And I'm so curious to see what that difference is cuz it's a 16k resistance the resistance on my bridge pickup on the side of birds if I remember right is about 25 yeah 25 LOL. I'm wondering what the 8l Nico would do In those pickups removing the ceramic ones. I'm assuming like someone made a comment in your in this video about how will some bulls easy get socks had a few videos on pickups magnets coils winding the whole bit and how they have to be matched for a really good sound. So I'm thinking with a hot 8 alnico pickup it should be more compatible if or with the windings in the original pickups in the firebird since it's such a hot pick up if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on this please let me know in the comments thank you oh and please excuse any misspelled words weird punctuation anyting not quite grammatically right I am not a bad typo, I am not illiterate, I'm just legally blind and I depend on the speech to text and it often is not correct again thanks all
Yeah, ceramic has it's place. Great for hot metal sounds, but not my cup of tea. I think it's fair to say that I like a sweeter alnico sound & I find ceramic magnets give a harshness to the treble that I can never EQ away. Throw some gain at it, though, & you have a great metal tone.
It's not that simple! It is good if the magnets are of the same thickness. Alnico magnets are often thinner than ceramic magnets, which means that in addition to magnets, plastic (wooden) gaskets that support the shape of the humbucker will have to be changed too.
Good stuff Dude...
A simple bodge to swap out pickups in a semi without the gynaecological work .
Cut the wires of the old pickups and solder the new ones to those.
The impact of the break in the cable screen will be negligible but you Could wrap the joins (metal foil/tape - copper slug tape) if you Really wanted to.
50W controlled solder station £15'ish on eBay usually.
That said, the magnet swap Did sweeten the tone for a relatively small outlay.
Get another Harley Benton sc-1000??
Can't swap the magnets on those pups as they're sealed active units.
Dear John, This is really spooky - I was just thinking I wish somebody would take the time and effort to do a direct comparison between Alnico II magnets and other magnets, turned on the computer, opened youtube and there you were!! Thanks so much for this great video you show it's not "Snake Oil" after all and a great refinement to otherwise so-so pickups. The improvement in tone is wonderful. Fantastic!!! Now..... how about some cool licks to play over the 5 chord in a blues??
Got a blues video in the works at the moment... BB King & Beyond.
Hi, I modified a v-pick by imbedding a magnet. I would like to send you a couple to review, or not. SVPick.com, they don’t interfere with pickups, but you might like to see for yourself? Thanks
Always happy to review stuff, mate. Ping me an email & we'll set it up. jrguitartuition@gmail.com
John can you help me out can I swop the pole scroos in my humbuckers
Oh, that's a tricky one. Breaking the wax seal on a magnet doesn't really affect the integrity of the pickup, as you're not disturbing the seal on the coil. I would imagine that taking out the pole screws would end up making the pickup microphonic as the wax seal on the coil would be broken. Why do you want to do this, by the way?
@@JRobsonGuitar thank you so very much for getting back to me. I have changed them I will keep you in the loop .I have just got to put them back in
Great sound improvements john have a look at algree pickups website for magnets alex is ot cheaper than axesrus
Magnets are cheap, my favorite mod. Can be reversed to stock with no visible signs, ALNICO 8 are very strong not my favorite choice.
solder flux.
Basically, what you got is only a bit of less "sharpness" - as if the tone/presence filter was slightly suppressing the highest range, at the same time slightly boosting the lower range. Definitely not worth investing extra (although "peanut") money and effort, since with any decent amp you get all this and much more.
You could have had the same effect by swapping the pots