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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2019
- One of the first things I would change on a Squier guitar is the pickups. Now this will always set you back €120-150 if you go for big brands like Fender, Seymour Duncan or even DiMarzio, so I decided to try and replace the ceramic magnets and metal pole pieces with real alnico 3 (my favorite) or alnico 5's. This is not a foolproof process, because the cheap pickups are underwound, i.e. they have less windings and less resistance.
#Squiermod #alnico5 #stratocaster - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Couple tips: Use a flat punch, don't ruin your screwdriver. Put the pickup on flat surfaces, like two pieces of wood so that it's supported everywhere but directly under the magnet. Hitting it like that, with it unsupported, can break off the end tabs.
You are absolutely right.
But I'm just a hack sharing his failure so other fools don't have to fail.
I used to build BMX racing tracks with the boy next door when I was young, so I used my dad's equipment (shovel, spades, etc.). The boy next door never brought any equipment because his dad was so protective of it. He worked construction and was massively frugal. The few times we did use his shovel, the boy next door had to clean it properly afterwards and then oil it before putting it back.
I never do that, I'm sure you don't either... but it's the right way, I'm sure. It's just how valuable your time is.
However, I will never again use a screwdriver like that - I have flat punches. But where? There's another point. You need a workshop to do work, have everything organized.
Thanks for the comment!
Johan
The bar on the back of the neck pick up on my strat has snapped in half and now when i go to middle/neck the sound on some strings sounds weak and the same when i flick neck .if i glue the bar back together will that fix the problem?
My 99 squire bullet had those same integrated magnets.
Ryan Lewis my first strat was 1989 MIJ - now highly sought after... had them too.
@@zjokka MIJ strats are better than the new American standards in my opinion.
You think it adds bass? Or just add to the feed back. I put 59 little in mine. It sounds incredible
Thanks for commenting, Chad! I had a Little 59 Strat bridge pickup which I put in the Strat I built for my good friend Dave (RIP). You can hear it in the most recent Blues Pro Junior repair video towards the end.
Upgrading the pickups from ceramic to alnico is a real upgrade, as it is for speakers.
can anyone point me on how to re-solder this? i changed my ceramic magnet for alnicos (yamaha)but now im not sure on where to solder it to ground and all that
All grounds go to one of the pots in the guitar, which should itself be grounded to the strings... hope this helps
@@zjokka ohhh, that's why it always see it soldered to a bridge piece? :O (yeap, after 10 months couldn't solve that one out) 😅
Man, the little holes i between poles are for something? Sometimes they have little screws, sometimes are left empty/unused, whats with those?
I dont know... maybe they had a function during manufacturing?
Great video, I also have a MIJ Strat 1988-89. My pickups are reading 4.5 - 4.6k. I have been wondering if the the bar magnet has lost it's strength over the past 30+ years ? I am very curious to hear back from you on what you think or were these pickup always that low of output. The sound okay but I really have to turn up the volume to get any juice out them. Thx Steve
Hi Steve, sorry, I saw this a bit late. Yes, that is the range in which my pickups also measured. By now these instruments have become very much sought after, but the electronics were exactly what they put in Squiers now - the switch too!
So putting after market pickups in a MIJ cannot devaluate your guitar, to the contrary. In fact, only the MIJ neck has value because it has the serial...
I really need to quit mucking about and restore my MIJ neck to MIJ body and upgrade all electronics. The thing is, I've become a Telecaster player in the meanwhile.... don't think I'll ever go back.
Did it sound better?
Not in my opinion, but maybe that's exactly how vintage pickups sounded, a bit thin. I see people paying big bucks for stuff like gold foil pickups which to my ear sound cheaper than a Squier pickup.
Anyway, did realise that I never checked the magnetism on the pole pieces and did not remagnetize them. Once I get hold of a good magnet, I will experiment some more.
@@zjokka You need a pair of very strong neodymium magnets to charge alnico rods. One above and one under.
How about the resistance? Any change?
Hi Omar, thanks for the comment. I am (quite, not completely) sure the resistance only depends on the copper wire coil. So it should not be affected.
@@zjokka hello, thank you for your answer, I think the same.
What a bout using neodymium rods?
Vladimir Medvedev great idea but before im going to try that i should check whether these were properly magnatized in first place
@@zjokka Thanks for the advise. Where I work there is machine to demagnetize, but works to magnetize too.
2:20
NEVER do that to any pickup unless you intentionally want to ruin it!!!
99% that such furious hits will tear the wire inside the pickups or/and crack the bobbin. After this procedure this pickup can be broken and you won’t hear the difference right away.
The proper way to pull out the steel rods is:
a) warm up the pickup up to 90-100°F (30-40°C) to make the wax less hard,
b) SLOWLY push onto the rod with a press.
99% of the coils survived the violence! But do make a video explaining your approach... looking forward to it
@@zjokka
:))
@@aleksandrnestrato But of course you are absolutely right. It was a gamble, it's a one of the more crazy videos I did. But should really pickup (!) on the project and remagnetize the alnico rods, that may have been the problem.
I really don't know how heating would work... how to heat the whole pickup, mind you, it's a plastic bobbin... Maybe heating up the pole pieces with a soldering iron? This would make them expand and maybe crack the plastic housing or deform it.
Thanks still for watching the video and your comment.
@@zjokka
I have mentioned the temperature rates earlier, they're about the human body temp level. So you can "heat" the pickups-warm them up actually-by your hands or in your underarm. Just hold them there for about 20 minutes.
Maybe use the hairdryer. It'll take like 5 minutes. The only condition: the blast of air should be warm but not hot. If you put your hand in that airstream you should be able to hold it for any time period comfortably (two minutes, twenty minutes, three hours).
If the air blast's temp doesn't hurt your hand it won't melt the bobbin.
It's wax, it's not welding metal, neither soldering wires, you don't need anything above warm temperatures.
You don't need this wax to melt into liquid as well. Just make it flexible to let the magnets go through.
@@aleksandrnestrato This the case for vintage pickups who are potted... these are cheap chinese Squier pickups assembled with glue to keep ceramic magnet in place...
Yeap offcourse these are underwound! They even put the magnet closer as you showed and they come up with a cheaper pickup that has the same output
Thanks for the video
Hi Stravros, thanks for the comment.
My alnico pole pieces are in the mail, as soon as they arrive, I will try and install them in these pickups and test the result. Stay tuned, get subscribed ;-) J
@@zjokka Definately...also, a before-after demo would be great,but you have allready removed the poles..
They are definitely weaker.
They test at 4 to 5kohms of resistance.
But increasing the magnet strength will give more volume but not more resistance/gain.
Resistance does not always relate to volume output.
Hence a p90 that measures at 9.5k is just as loud or louder than a humbucker at 15k of resistance because of two magnets being used on each side of the coil. Where a humbucker uses one magnet centeted between each coil.
Ceramic pickups are much better.