You have a very down to earth style with DIY and I really like how you live in a "Can" world instead of a "Can't" meaning you are willing to try things instead of scoff at them with undo cynicism. Cheers to you man, keep up the righteous contributions to the DIY musicians all over the world.
Thank you SO much for the kind and inspiring words Jaguar. That's the whole deal that I'm trying to accomplish and share, some things work - some dont but I figured out long ago: the general consensus is actually wrong more times than not... I'd rather see or perform an experiment. Then I like to share the info with others so they can also escape the myths, conjecture, marketing and greater than thou brand loyalty. I'm so glad you get and appreciate the message. Thanks again!
I live in a jar world, sometimes a door a-jar one, which is difficult, if one just has a can opener, soon, I'll be in the can world too though! As we should all be, and more will be with helpful inspiration.
I have seen people losing their minds on seeing someone make their own mousepad by cutting one out from a larger size. Really an alt breed of such people :D Proving everyone wrong by actually doing it is an ethos to live by.
I like your style of explaining and subscribed to see more as I have just started making my own pups and watching channels like yours really helps me understand for my own future projects. Thanks, from the UK.
Thanks a ton Russell. I'm glad to have helped in any small way. Just remember not to listen to the "internet experts" and try whatever YOU feel is a good idea. You might create the next great thing. Then they will say everything else they were raving about before is now a bad idea. LOL thank you again for watching and taking the time to leave such kind words.
heavymetalATC You’re very welcome I have a few ideas that I will muck around with and I look forward to seeing more of your videos. Best wishes Russell 🤘🎸🤘
Great video! The way you do it the differences are easy to hear. Here's something to try; stand one of those neodymium bars on edge, insulate it, and wind up a strat pickup on it. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Joel. I am so glad this info helped you out. I have done a lot more builds and experimenting since this time and I can say neo magnets would be FANTASTIC for a bass, just keep them from being too close to the strings.. behind the pickup is fine but i wouldn't use them as poles. Also for a clearer sound than possible with other pickups you can under-wind and add more magnet and you will retain bass and volume but gain clarity and top end due to less capacitance of the windings.
I had been wondering if this might be worth trying for a while. I see these neo mags at harbor fright all the time. I am going to try it now. Thanks for the vid man, earned you my subscription today! Keep the experiments goin'.
Thank you so much K9er. Let me know how it went. If you need more info I have some more recent videos on neo pickups the p90 turned out to be quite magical. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a comment. Sorry for the delayed response I took a break for a few months but I'm back on now fresh and ready to go with much better equipment and a lot of projects to film. Thanks again I'm so glad I could inspire you to try something unusual.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Viktor. Absolutely. Through the experiments that I have done on the channel I have found that MANY of the things that are thought to be facts in the guitar world are completely incorrect.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Beeks. I am so glad you found this info to be of use. You may also find this of interest P90 build with Neo magnets has some decent info for changing parameters to get a good sound with the powerful magnets: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
I'm sure you know but if you ever find them to have too high a resonance, put a capacitor in parallel and it'll shift the resonant peak down a bit. Loading the output down harder will bring the volume level of the peak down as well.
Did you ever take an ohm reading off that coil? Im fixin to wind my copycat to throw on my acoustic and was just wondering what to aim for. I guess Ill just follow my heart.
I'm trying to work out if I can make a P90 Z coil pickup that would fit on a humbucker base plate. I may have to use the wide ranging HB base to fit it all in.
Is this the same pickup that the wire broke while you were winding the coil? If so, I think that the smaller coil count helped to allow the stronger magnets to work so well. Had you wound twice as many windings then these magnets would likely have overdriven the audio and damaged the sound quality.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Dan. Yes its the same pickup very low impedance. It does definitely help the neodymium have a balanced sound to be used on an underwound pickup. It does help the tone, Neo tends to have a very heavy bass response which is exactly the opposite of everything I had read but.. using the info from this and other experiments I have made quite a few neo pickups now and I slightly underwind so that it will have less capacitance and the pickup ends up having the same output and bass response as an overwound pickup but with more clarity due to the decreased number of winds. You can take a normal cheap strat copy coil and replace the ceramic magnet with a neo magnet and it sounds much better its just very bassy. The neo P90 that I built was wound to 7.8K so it wasn't super low but wow what a sound. I did end up putting 12 more button magnets on it though to bring the output up to match another set of split coil 3 pole neo humbuckers that are going in the same guitar. Those were supercharged with thick dual copper back plates wired into the coils. So yes it does help to underwind with neo but its not so much of a power thing as it can add too much bass. All in all though you can work around that with design and get a very good or I dare say "better" (more hi-fi clearer) result, I really dont understand why its not a popular method in the industry except for marketing and the idea of retro=better. Heres the video of the build and demo of the P90: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
Thank you so much Schwifty. I'm glad you enjoyed it and yes I can and Here is the link to a P90 build: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html It actually worked very well when done in a more serious manner. I appreciate the interest in my projects and the time you took to watch and write a comment. I apologize for the late response I took a break from youtube but I'm back with better gear, fresh attitude, and many more projects ready to work and help people as much as I can. Thanks again.
Nicely done... i have a set or two of these cheap chinese pickups pulled out of guitars i've bought & upgraded etc, i have not wanted to just toss 'em out, but I figured i'd NEVER use them in a guitar again esp. when good quality alnico etc, imported pickups are so cheap... now im going to find some of these disc magnets and experiment ;- )
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind and inspiring comment Ed. I love it when people take the info from the videos and decide to do experiments. Thats what its all about. I have seen a video where another viewer did exactly what you are proposing. He used 3 disks between the poles of a cheap set of strat coils and did a shoot out between the modded ones, Wilkinson, and Fender pickups and man did the Neos take those others to lunch. It was like he kicked on a clean boost and a rack mount tube EQ. Here is the video the modded pickups is the last guitar: th-cam.com/video/-0jN8gws0V4/w-d-xo.html
Hi just wanted to ask a question,well I actually put my EMG H4 and H4A both facing each other with one of it upside down when im not using it (now its stick to each other because the of magnet attraction), My question is, will it affect the humbucker in any sort of way?The EMG HZ uses ceramic tho
Thanks for taking the time to watch and leave a comment Charles. If they didn't stick before and they do now? The Strong Ceramic magnet in the H4 has flipped the polarity of the H4As Alnico magnet. It will still work fine on its own but it may be out of phase when used with other pickups. Its easy to fix though. just flip one of them over so they are both facing the same way and let them stay together for the same amount of time they were stored the other way. If they repel each other tape them. Alnico can be charged or uncharged or flipped an unlimited amount of times its more like a tank that holds magnetic power than a real magnet. You can always recharge and fix an Alnico magnet.
@@heavymetalATC So I just put and tape them in the same direction, both EMG logo facing the wall and then tape them together? Concerning with the "If they didnt stick before and they do now" I actually was playing with the magnet like sticking them together and tryna force each other to stick (dumb move tbh) before I put them away XD
@@subzero8410 It would be good practice to make the logo be in the same orientation but, as I understood it you had them stacked face to face? This is what you don't want. You want the face of one against the back plate of the other. You want the magnetic polarity pulling on the strings to be the same. You can check this with a toy or cheap survival compass, put it in front of the pickups where the strings would be and see if the needle points toward or away from the pickup. As long as both pickups do the same thing to the needle then you are "in phase" magnetically.
I start thinking about that around 25 years ago.I made a few prototypes and got too busy with the lutherie work ....your way will never work because you did not understand yet in how many ways a magnetic pick up can work.Try to put any pickup under the sound board and holding it up by a Neodymium bar from the top...the sound will be already way better than your crappy result...not all, it can pick up tapping and strings sound uniformly and you'll be able to go under the strings or far from them for sound variation...you'll be surprised.Gluing or not the pickup can be a difficult choice and could destroy the result so need to spend some time around that rather than winding all day.
Yeah, I know this is not a great pickup this was just an experiment that I did to decide the path I would take in later pickup designs for actual electric guitars. I did come out with some pretty good results using the info I gained here. Like this neodymium p90/jazzmaster hybrid: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
@@heavymetalATC of course you had a good result with a normal pickup...but our research and development was about acoustic guitar...I did go into it again after watching your good video and got the solid proof that gluing the pick up to the sound board it kill all the microphony...so no tapping all around will be detected as good as when not glued, but...the sound was still solid with acoustic characteristic and ready for an equalization of its own...who knows ...way of the future? I live it to you...I am too old now for all that ,good luck.
I tried it recently except there were no pole pieces just the bar magnet right under the strings. The behavior of the string changed immediately and very noticeably whenever I moved the pickup around. There is a sort of warbling sound that gets worse the closer the magnet is to the strings.
Awesome I am glad to see that you started doing some experiments... yes they are too strong to be right there close to the strings... they call that stratitus because it happens often on strats because the pickups have slug magnets and they pull too hard and affect the strings... Its rad that you are experimenting though that is great.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to interact Randy. The bars are 60x10x3mm and the buttons are 3.5mm and the strength is 24p I got them from amazon. I apologize for the late reply I took a break from youtube for a few months but I'm back with a fresh attitude and better equipment ready to work and help people.
It all depends on wire gauge and magnet type, if you use higher gauge wire you get a higher output. The stronger the magnet the higher the output as well. It all depends how you do your pickups
@@heavymetalATC Dear Sir, if that is true, why can nobody build a pickup that sounds like the first horse-shoe pickups ever made in the rickenbacher lap steel guitars (called frying Pan) around the 30 ties. I never heard a sound like that. I am making pickups for a while now, trying to find that sound with no success. You are right, there are a lot of myths out there, it is a good thing that persons like you actually test things to prove them wrong. The recap at 3.06 was very usefull. Thanks.
@@germona One of the reasons is probably the actual recording tech back then. Even if you made the exact same pickup, you won't hear the same sound through modern gear. Lots of EQing is the only way to reproduce. Several parametric EQs would help. Doing this on a DAW (digital audio workstation) is way cheaper to experiment by the way. Get the free version of Reaper and install some EQ plugins and have your fun! :)
@@4L10 Hey, people still use these old lapsteels with the horse-shoe pickups. And even with modern equipment they sound to kill for...):= If you watch the you-tube video of Jeff au Hoy in Fort Collins from 2014 with a frying pan and a simple Peavy amp, you know what i mean. I don't know if a Url will work in this textbox but i will try. th-cam.com/video/fv4XrNr9AnI/w-d-xo.html Of course it is also about the way Jeff plays.
@@germona I'll listen again on good headphones but even on phone speakers it sounds good indeed. Are you trying this on lapsteels too? I'm a bass player and believe me there are people trying to get finger attack sounds with picks and vice versa. It's not all about the pickup. In my experience strings make the most impact on sound before processing of any kind like preamps, EQ, compression but these things are always used on stage and everywhere. In short, do you get everything else close enough so you can make sure it's the pickups that's lacking the "mojo"? Just trying to help because I was obsessed with a bass sound and went through many stuff to reproduce. What I found myself was actually what they did but they didn't tell anyone to make it easy! Found years later when they released their signature pedal and all the settings that mattered was right there. 500hz, cut, 50hz, boost, this and that...
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave a comment Michael. I agree. When I was first looking into using Neodymium in pickups I asked some guys on the winding forums and I was overwhelmingly told they were great for use in bass pickups. I got some pretty great results on the channel with P90 and 3 pole split humbucker pickups.
A question but since Neodymiums love the bass (who doesn't) why not use ceramic, or alnico, on strings 1-3 and for 4-6/7/8 use Neodymiums so it becomes the best of both worlds? Love to hear that. Try the two bars though as that sounded the best to me.
Thanks for watching and leaving a suggestion General. That is a very good idea and I am sure it would sound great. I will put this in my notes and try to remember to get some short neo bars so I can try this out. If/when I get around to making a video from it I will give you a shoutout. It is a great idea.
Maybe they are basing on results using neodymium slugs in the pickup rather than behind it, which could mean there was more of a magnetic field pull on the strings.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write a comment Lee. I think that does have a lot to do with it. It definitely wouldnt be a good thing to put a super strong magnet millimeters from the string... I think it also may just be a correlation thing. In the guitar world most people assume Ceramic=Bad because those are most often found in cheap pickups that are not made very well. Alnico=Good because thats what they used in most all of the old vintage guitars. So if Ceramic is worse than Alnico it must be beacuse its stronger and Neodymium is stronger than Ceramic so it must be twice as bad, but you can get very good pickups with ceramic magnets because the stronger magnet is whats needed for the particular application, they just know better than to use that as a marketing point. They just come up with a flashy name like Crystal Flame bucker or something. Ive gone on to create a couple of really great pickups that sound much like the vintage alnico ones using neodymium magnets from simply adjusting the other parameters to compensate or using other materials to coax a different resonance like copper plates to lower the resonant peak. All in all Yes you are quite correct.
Refrigerator magnets on the back of demarzio pick up made the old Kramer back in the 80' s sustain for days....I could strike a harmonic , roll a hooter smoke it 😜 get the munchies pass out wake up in the driveway face down and get up and go finish the song she would still be singing.... AIN'T IT JUST AIN'T IT 😜 lols.... only kidding but refrigerator magnets was a trick for sustain ... Keep it up...I like what you are doing....😎
Hahahaha thank you for watching and taking the time to write such an awesome comment JL. Oh yeah bro, when they took apart jimmy pages dragon telecaster it had ceramic fridge magnets stuck to the backplate of the alnico bridge pickup. so yeah, double magnets I bet thats why that thing was screaming like that with the fuzz and marshall.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a kind comment Basil. Yes, that is absolutely a Great Idea! I have a general outline for a build in the future that would take advantage of this configuration very well. I'll put this in my notes and If/When I do a video on the subject I will give you a shout-out.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment Jule. Good question. This was a very under-wound pickup coil. In general with less wounds you will get a clearer sound and more highs and definition and with more winds it will be a louder boomier sound and with a whole lot of winds it will be more muted in the top end and very loud but kind of muffled. The great thing I've found with neo magnets its that unlike ceramic or alnico magnets which increase volume and high end with more magnetic power put on the coil.. (using a stronger magnet), neo makes more bass with more magnetic power. So you can use much less winds and still get the volume using neo, this means that the pickup will be clear and defined yet loud and still have good bass. I really dont know why they arent used more in the industry accept guitar players are stuck in their ways and tastes and the industry loves to use the "vintage" word as a selling point. Here are a few more example builds I have done with neo magnets with different amounts of winding and different configurations: P90 using neo magnet: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html Split single coil 3 pole humbuckers: th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html Very loud but clear humbucker: th-cam.com/video/zNjXuzHRcPM/w-d-xo.html Copper Neo Alumitone: th-cam.com/video/qyGEHDnnWmo/w-d-xo.html I hope that short explanation and the info and demos in these videos will help. Thanks again.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave a helpful comment. I liked the way it sounded as well so I decided to use them in the bridge pickups of my next guitar build. If you want to check that out... Here is a link to the video where I built and tested them: th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html Thanks again.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment Zero. Yes I think that has a lot to do with it and If the companies use the cheap ceramic magnets which are fairly strong they can get away with using less copper winds to get the same output. The use of Alnico with more winds is not only for the sparkly bell like sound they have but also to be able to market it as being like the "vintage" ones. I think that if the price of neodymium ever becomes low enough that it is more economical to use them instead of ceramic and even less copper that will be the new normal for the cheapest of pickups. Thats the answer to just about everything... Follow the $.
This is interesting. And i was just searching what will happeng if i get one around 3.5cm close to my alnico pick up. I just wanted to put ones for the cavity controls cover, and i am worry this would change my pickup polarity
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment Washa. Yes a strong magnet could flip the poles on the pickup or drain the magnetic power to one end of the coil. I see people doing the magnet thing on guitar building videos quite a bit and It doesnt seem like a great idea to me but the guitars always seem to sound good in the demos. The good part is that if you do damage an alnico pickup you can swipe it between 2 neo magnets to fix and recharge it but, that shows you how strong they can act on the poles when in close proximity. I'm sorry if that isn't a defined answer but I really don't know how much it would do or not do. I apologize as well for taking so long to respond I took a break from youtube but I am back. if you have already done this please let me know how it went. Also if you have any more questions feel free to leave another comment I will try to get to it much quicker next time. Thanks again.
@@heavymetalATC thanks. Actually i quit the idea, even if the magnet is a little one i feel is too strong. I didnt want phase problems so... but now i wonder what would happen if you build a pickups with those strong magnet? Maybe more output, and more noise. ( i mean a humbucker on a electric guitar)
@@washaconte3956 I actually build pickups exclusively with neodymium magnets since I did this experiment. I haven't built built a normal humbucker with them yet but I built a P90 and a set of split 3 pole 2 coil humbuckers with them and the results have been great. I find them to be strong but not too muddy or gritty. you could buy a cheap humbucker and a 60x10x3mm neo bar magnet and change it out there are a bunch of videos on YT showing how to change the magnet. But.. if you wind it yourself or rewind it. I suggest using less wire then you will get a more high fidelity articulate sound with the same bass and output level as the normal pickup if you just stick the magnet in a hot overwound pickup it will tend to be VERY high output and a little muddy. though i have had decent results changing the ceramic magnet from a strat copy pickup to neo. It was just super fat sounding and loud. Here is a link to the 3 pole humbuckers. th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html
@@heavymetalATC i dont build my own pickups, i am not so skilled to even try hahaha. Last year I got dimarzios and am happy actually, maybe they have a little bit more mids that. But this is interesting indeed. Does it have disaventage? For example you know how alnico can change with too much heat ant etc. I fear those can pick a lot of the springs noise on floating bridges. With what you describe, i see this ones could do a great job on acoustic instruments and clean tones. With high gain i dont know if you could exploit its potential, as many just cut the low end before the preamp.
@@washaconte3956 I just bet you could build a fine pickup if you tried it. Its not very hard at all. As far as temperatures go neo magnets are good up to about 1652 degrees F so that's no issue. But, you may be on to something with the trem springs being picked up, they are very sensitive. I haven't tried one on a guitar with springs in the back but once and it was in the neck position. I tried the p90 with high gain and it was actually very good really articulate and great for pinch harmonics and muted chugging sounds. I suppose a properly built humbucker would do much the same with an eq pedal. I'll have to build a neo humbucker soon and see how it sounds. the only ones I could find on YT sounded over wound and muddy. I will also have to see how it works with trem springs. That was a good point. Thank you for the questions and suggestions. Very much Appreciated. Here is the neo P90 doing high gain sounds: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Waruta. The first guy I talked to about neo magnets in a pickup forum uses them for bass pickups.. its a very good fit for the bassy strong tone. I have since built some pretty great guitar pickups with them by under-winding and letting the decreased capacitance add highs and clarity and I really dont see why they arent the hottest thing on the market to be honest.
@@heavymetalATC if you play guitar, then you should know how the cult of tradition controls so much of what people do and use. I live in Japan right now, and I've seen people pay $1,000 for a Stratocaster that came from the United States, and argue that it actually sounds different from one that was made in this country. This is despite the fact that they have exactly the same parts, woods, and construction techniques. There's a book you should try to track down called "animal magnetism for musicians" by Erno Zwaan. There are some great project ideas in there, and there's a lot of information about pickup building that I haven't found anywhere else.
@@waruta69 Yes I agree fully. I have played limited edition american strats that feel like a dead plank and MIJ squires that plays like a lively snappy bow and arrow. I actually think that in the 80s the squires were probably much better. Thank you so much for the book recommendation I put that in my notes Ill have to try to find a copy.
@@heavymetalATC it is, unfortunately, long out of print. If you can't track down any PDFs or anything on the internet, please let me know. There is some really powerful information in the book, and it is driven my personal work on designing better pickups for my basses. If you have a chance, you should also check out my page. It's not monetized or anything, but you can hear the pickup sound there.
@@waruta69 absolutely bro, Ill check it out. I saw a paper back copy for sale on amazon. I may have to snatch it, it seems he also has a few books about building basses and guitars and stuff too.
When I made some actual electric guitar pickups I used exactly that combo. buttons for the neck and the 2 bar deal for a p90 at the bridge. Thanks for the comment.
I don't understand why the music crowd is so obsessed with material types. All that matters is the density (strength) of the field and its orientation relative to the strings. The material of the magnet will make zero difference if those two factors are the same. I'm wanting to get some small cube magnets and experiment with halbach arrays in pickups.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such an intelligent and coherent comment John. I think its just because of correlation made in the mind and also the mindless repetition and parroting of myths and anecdotes. In the guitar scene ceramic=cheap so crappy... and alnico=expensive and what was used in the past so the best.. and Neodymium well ceramic sucks compared to alnico because its stronger so neo will REALLY suck. LOL i think their is some correlation for people with really well trained ears due to the strength of field compared to relative shape. I really feel that I can tell I do but im sure its just also correlation. I am pretty darn sure I can hear and pick out a vintage alnico speaker all day but its a certain way its built, it has a big metal box around the magnet changing the shape of the field. Its more efficient therefore it is louder and splats and buckles sooner before the actual distortion of a tube amp starts to kick in. So am I hearing the alnico or is it the shape of that magnet pack. Also Marketing straight up marketing... Or convenience, You like a certain sound you heard you can say I want a P90 design with ceramic 3 wound to 8k ohm or I want a staggered pole strat pickup with alnico 3 poles slightly under charged wound to 6.5k. I have been asked about halback arrays on this channel before. If you did or still plan to do the experiments. Id love to know how it went and what results you got.
@@heavymetalATC There's definitely a degree of correlation. As you say, it's easier to find a strong field in one type compared to the cheaper types. But 99% of everything musicians and audiophiles say is pure bunk. I'm genuinely not trying to sound mean. It's just frustrating as a student of logic and a fan of physics to listen to claims that defy both. Like when people say they can hear the difference between types of capacitors. Now major changes, like P90 to lipstick, are obvious. The rest falls into the realm of "the emperor's new clothes", confirmation bias. One thing I suspect would make a difference that I've never seen tested is bobbin height. 8,000 wraps around a tall bobbin would make a thinner pickup compared to 8,000 wraps around a normal bobbin. More of the wire would fall in the stronger inner field. Maybe? My favorite idea, at the moment, is 1/8th-inch cube magnets in a halbach array, wrapped in a "horseshoe" of copper. So a single-winding pickup. But instead of the soapbar looking ones on the market these would be pencil-thin, several inches long, and set parallel to the strings. One pickup per string, covering a fair length of the string so they see all the vibrations. No way for a pickup to be stuck under a node or miss one of the harmonics.
@@johnterpack3940 Hey I may have to do a how bobbin shape effects the pickup experiment video. That's a great Idea man, I use that as a tool in pickup design and building but I have never just made 2 identical pickups with one deep like a tele bridge and one short and flat like a p90. Im putting that in my notes... if/when I do that video I will give you a shout-out. Your pickup idea sound awesome I would love to hear how that turns out.
Hi! I have made 3 experimental pickups with neodymium poles, but i always keep getting a rather too bright and noisy output. Has you ever experienced the same results? Thanks for the video :D
Thank you for watching and for taking the time to write a comment Luis. Yes, I haven't tried using Neo poles as I was afraid it would put too much pull on the strings and cause a warbling (Stratitus) You may be able to tame that high-end and noise down a bit with a grounded sheet of thick copper, aluminum or brass over the top of the pickup. The non-ferrous plate may slow the eddy currents and shift the resonant peak a little lower in frequency as well as shield from interference. I have had much the opposite effect with placing the neodymium magnets on the bottom of humbucker type pole pieces in several different pickup designs, the result I got was a smooth pickup with a strong bass response. Increasing the windings or adding a capacitor to the pickup could also help bring down the high end... Here is a video of a set of neo splitcoils I made as well as a neo P90 with buttons and bars behind the poles and also copper plates on the back and it was a very smooth alnico type sound: th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html
@@elluisito000 Yes, You are very much welcome, Some people sand the end of the wire or scratch it with a razor which is a wise idea, but I personally just wrap it several times around the lead or post Im soldering it too and hold the solder and the iron on it for extra time till the enamel just becomes smoke. I just burn it off in the soldering process.
@@heavymetalATC i maybe using a wire too thin, because when i do this i always end up scorching the wire :D or maybe my soldering iron is just too hot.
Apparently, Fender used Neodymium magnets as pole pieces in a humbucker. They called this a 'wide range pickup'. I guess they didn't care about pulling on the strings. Or maybe they did because they stopped making them until recently.
Hi, I modified a vpick by putting a magnet inside. I would like to send you a couple for review. The first question has been, “won’t they interfere with the pickups?” They don’t, but I would love more opinions. SVPick.com. Thanks
You have a very down to earth style with DIY and I really like how you live in a "Can" world instead of a "Can't" meaning you are willing to try things instead of scoff at them with undo cynicism. Cheers to you man, keep up the righteous contributions to the DIY musicians all over the world.
Thank you SO much for the kind and inspiring words Jaguar. That's the whole deal that I'm trying to accomplish and share, some things work - some dont but I figured out long ago: the general consensus is actually wrong more times than not... I'd rather see or perform an experiment. Then I like to share the info with others so they can also escape the myths, conjecture, marketing and greater than thou brand loyalty. I'm so glad you get and appreciate the message. Thanks again!
I live in a jar world, sometimes a door a-jar one, which is difficult, if one just has a can opener, soon, I'll be in the can world too though! As we should all be, and more will be with helpful inspiration.
@@TheRamsberg I'm not sure if I understood that but right on brotha
@@mihailmilev9909 Thanks!
I have seen people losing their minds on seeing someone make their own mousepad by cutting one out from a larger size. Really an alt breed of such people :D
Proving everyone wrong by actually doing it is an ethos to live by.
I think it's time to try the 300lb metal fishing magnets
you could degauss magnet supposedly
I like your style of explaining and subscribed to see more as I have just started making my own pups and watching channels like yours really helps me understand for my own future projects. Thanks, from the UK.
Thanks a ton Russell. I'm glad to have helped in any small way. Just remember not to listen to the "internet experts" and try whatever YOU feel is a good idea. You might create the next great thing. Then they will say everything else they were raving about before is now a bad idea. LOL thank you again for watching and taking the time to leave such kind words.
heavymetalATC
You’re very welcome I have a few ideas that I will muck around with and I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
Best wishes
Russell
🤘🎸🤘
Great video! The way you do it the differences are easy to hear. Here's something to try; stand one of those neodymium bars on edge, insulate it, and wind up a strat pickup on it. Keep up the good work.
Wow! Just the result I needed to know! Will be doing this to my bass guitars... Thanks, man!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Joel. I am so glad this info helped you out. I have done a lot more builds and experimenting since this time and I can say neo magnets would be FANTASTIC for a bass, just keep them from being too close to the strings.. behind the pickup is fine but i wouldn't use them as poles. Also for a clearer sound than possible with other pickups you can under-wind and add more magnet and you will retain bass and volume but gain clarity and top end due to less capacitance of the windings.
I had been wondering if this might be worth trying for a while. I see these neo mags at harbor fright all the time. I am going to try it now. Thanks for the vid man, earned you my subscription today! Keep the experiments goin'.
Thank you so much K9er. Let me know how it went. If you need more info I have some more recent videos on neo pickups the p90 turned out to be quite magical. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a comment. Sorry for the delayed response I took a break for a few months but I'm back on now fresh and ready to go with much better equipment and a lot of projects to film. Thanks again I'm so glad I could inspire you to try something unusual.
@@heavymetalATC interesting
@@heavymetalATC how many winds did u put on the p90?
Thats why experiments are holly, because only they can shows you is your mind going right way really. Thanks alot, bro!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Viktor. Absolutely. Through the experiments that I have done on the channel I have found that MANY of the things that are thought to be facts in the guitar world are completely incorrect.
Good info my man! Just what I needed to hear.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Beeks. I am so glad you found this info to be of use. You may also find this of interest P90 build with Neo magnets has some decent info for changing parameters to get a good sound with the powerful magnets:
th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
I'm sure you know but if you ever find them to have too high a resonance, put a capacitor in parallel and it'll shift the resonant peak down a bit. Loading the output down harder will bring the volume level of the peak down as well.
nice going, easy to understand, keep up the good work, thank you
Thank you so much Doc, I appreciate your time and kind words.
Myths busted ! Love it !
Did you ever take an ohm reading off that coil? Im fixin to wind my copycat to throw on my acoustic and was just wondering what to aim for. I guess Ill just follow my heart.
I'm trying to work out if I can make a P90 Z coil pickup that would fit on a humbucker base plate. I may have to use the wide ranging HB base to fit it all in.
Thank u for the review 👌
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a kind comment MIX5G. No problem. I appreciate the support.
i made one with a broken popsicle stick and super glue, it floats on my single coil and gives a super meaty tone
The Barbie doll’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts Haqhahahahahaha
Well done thank you.
Thanks for watching!
what a capeless hero you are
Thank you so much for your time and kind words Flywittz. I truly appreciate it.
Is this the same pickup that the wire broke while you were winding the coil?
If so, I think that the smaller coil count helped to allow the stronger magnets to work so well.
Had you wound twice as many windings then these magnets would likely have overdriven the audio and damaged the sound quality.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Dan. Yes its the same pickup very low impedance. It does definitely help the neodymium have a balanced sound to be used on an underwound pickup. It does help the tone, Neo tends to have a very heavy bass response which is exactly the opposite of everything I had read but.. using the info from this and other experiments I have made quite a few neo pickups now and I slightly underwind so that it will have less capacitance and the pickup ends up having the same output and bass response as an overwound pickup but with more clarity due to the decreased number of winds. You can take a normal cheap strat copy coil and replace the ceramic magnet with a neo magnet and it sounds much better its just very bassy. The neo P90 that I built was wound to 7.8K so it wasn't super low but wow what a sound. I did end up putting 12 more button magnets on it though to bring the output up to match another set of split coil 3 pole neo humbuckers that are going in the same guitar. Those were supercharged with thick dual copper back plates wired into the coils. So yes it does help to underwind with neo but its not so much of a power thing as it can add too much bass. All in all though you can work around that with design and get a very good or I dare say "better" (more hi-fi clearer) result, I really dont understand why its not a popular method in the industry except for marketing and the idea of retro=better. Heres the video of the build and demo of the P90: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
Hey man, great experiment. Can you try this for electric guitar and see how it is?
Thank you so much Schwifty. I'm glad you enjoyed it and yes I can and Here is the link to a P90 build:
th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
It actually worked very well when done in a more serious manner. I appreciate the interest in my projects and the time you took to watch and write a comment. I apologize for the late response I took a break from youtube but I'm back with better gear, fresh attitude, and many more projects ready to work and help people as much as I can. Thanks again.
Nice job
Thanks so much Badchizzle
Nicely done... i have a set or two of these cheap chinese pickups pulled out of guitars i've bought & upgraded etc, i have not wanted to just toss 'em out, but I figured i'd NEVER use them in a guitar again esp. when good quality alnico etc, imported pickups are so cheap... now im going to find some of these disc magnets and experiment ;- )
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind and inspiring comment Ed. I love it when people take the info from the videos and decide to do experiments. Thats what its all about. I have seen a video where another viewer did exactly what you are proposing. He used 3 disks between the poles of a cheap set of strat coils and did a shoot out between the modded ones, Wilkinson, and Fender pickups and man did the Neos take those others to lunch. It was like he kicked on a clean boost and a rack mount tube EQ. Here is the video the modded pickups is the last guitar: th-cam.com/video/-0jN8gws0V4/w-d-xo.html
Diy pickups works better than paying alot for those damn humbuckers or b&g pickups $$$$
Hi just wanted to ask a question,well I actually put my EMG H4 and H4A both facing each other with one of it upside down when im not using it (now its stick to each other because the of magnet attraction), My question is, will it affect the humbucker in any sort of way?The EMG HZ uses ceramic tho
Thanks for taking the time to watch and leave a comment Charles. If they didn't stick before and they do now? The Strong Ceramic magnet in the H4 has flipped the polarity of the H4As Alnico magnet. It will still work fine on its own but it may be out of phase when used with other pickups. Its easy to fix though. just flip one of them over so they are both facing the same way and let them stay together for the same amount of time they were stored the other way. If they repel each other tape them. Alnico can be charged or uncharged or flipped an unlimited amount of times its more like a tank that holds magnetic power than a real magnet. You can always recharge and fix an Alnico magnet.
@@heavymetalATC So I just put and tape them in the same direction, both EMG logo facing the wall and then tape them together? Concerning with the "If they didnt stick before and they do now" I actually was playing with the magnet like sticking them together and tryna force each other to stick (dumb move tbh) before I put them away XD
@@subzero8410 It would be good practice to make the logo be in the same orientation but, as I understood it you had them stacked face to face? This is what you don't want. You want the face of one against the back plate of the other. You want the magnetic polarity pulling on the strings to be the same. You can check this with a toy or cheap survival compass, put it in front of the pickups where the strings would be and see if the needle points toward or away from the pickup. As long as both pickups do the same thing to the needle then you are "in phase" magnetically.
Great post thanks
Thank you RAMA. I'm glad you liked it and you are very welcome.
I start thinking about that around 25 years ago.I made a few prototypes and got too busy with the lutherie work ....your way will never work because you did not understand yet in how many ways a magnetic pick up can work.Try to put any pickup under the sound board and holding it up by a Neodymium bar from the top...the sound will be already way better than your crappy result...not all, it can pick up tapping and strings sound uniformly and you'll be able to go under the strings or far from them for sound variation...you'll be surprised.Gluing or not the pickup can be a difficult choice and could destroy the result so need to spend some time around that rather than winding all day.
Yeah, I know this is not a great pickup this was just an experiment that I did to decide the path I would take in later pickup designs for actual electric guitars. I did come out with some pretty good results using the info I gained here. Like this neodymium p90/jazzmaster hybrid: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
@@heavymetalATC of course you had a good result with a normal pickup...but our research and development was about acoustic guitar...I did go into it again after watching your good video and got the solid proof that gluing the pick up to the sound board it kill all the microphony...so no tapping all around will be detected as good as when not glued, but...the sound was still solid with acoustic characteristic and ready for an equalization of its own...who knows ...way of the future? I live it to you...I am too old now for all that ,good luck.
I tried it recently except there were no pole pieces just the bar magnet right under the strings. The behavior of the string changed immediately and very noticeably whenever I moved the pickup around. There is a sort of warbling sound that gets worse the closer the magnet is to the strings.
Awesome I am glad to see that you started doing some experiments... yes they are too strong to be right there close to the strings... they call that stratitus because it happens often on strats because the pickups have slug magnets and they pull too hard and affect the strings... Its rad that you are experimenting though that is great.
How long are those little magnets? I'm gonna try experimenting with my electric guitar pickups.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to interact Randy. The bars are 60x10x3mm and the buttons are 3.5mm and the strength is 24p I got them from amazon. I apologize for the late reply I took a break from youtube for a few months but I'm back with a fresh attitude and better equipment ready to work and help people.
It all depends on wire gauge and magnet type, if you use higher gauge wire you get a higher output. The stronger the magnet the higher the output as well. It all depends how you do your pickups
Spot on. All variables can be compensated for and designed around to create the sound you want with almost any materials used.
@@heavymetalATC Dear Sir, if that is true, why can nobody build a pickup that sounds like the first horse-shoe pickups ever made in the rickenbacher lap steel guitars (called frying Pan) around the 30 ties. I never heard a sound like that. I am making pickups for a while now, trying to find that sound with no success. You are right, there are a lot of myths out there, it is a good thing that persons like you actually test things to prove them wrong. The recap at 3.06 was very usefull. Thanks.
@@germona One of the reasons is probably the actual recording tech back then. Even if you made the exact same pickup, you won't hear the same sound through modern gear. Lots of EQing is the only way to reproduce. Several parametric EQs would help. Doing this on a DAW (digital audio workstation) is way cheaper to experiment by the way. Get the free version of Reaper and install some EQ plugins and have your fun! :)
@@4L10 Hey, people still use these old lapsteels with the horse-shoe pickups. And even with modern equipment they sound to kill for...):= If you watch the you-tube video of Jeff au Hoy in Fort Collins from 2014 with a frying pan and a simple Peavy amp, you know what i mean. I don't know if a Url will work in this textbox but i will try.
th-cam.com/video/fv4XrNr9AnI/w-d-xo.html
Of course it is also about the way Jeff plays.
@@germona I'll listen again on good headphones but even on phone speakers it sounds good indeed. Are you trying this on lapsteels too? I'm a bass player and believe me there are people trying to get finger attack sounds with picks and vice versa. It's not all about the pickup. In my experience strings make the most impact on sound before processing of any kind like preamps, EQ, compression but these things are always used on stage and everywhere. In short, do you get everything else close enough so you can make sure it's the pickups that's lacking the "mojo"? Just trying to help because I was obsessed with a bass sound and went through many stuff to reproduce. What I found myself was actually what they did but they didn't tell anyone to make it easy! Found years later when they released their signature pedal and all the settings that mattered was right there. 500hz, cut, 50hz, boost, this and that...
Might make a great bass pickup.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave a comment Michael. I agree. When I was first looking into using Neodymium in pickups I asked some guys on the winding forums and I was overwhelmingly told they were great for use in bass pickups. I got some pretty great results on the channel with P90 and 3 pole split humbucker pickups.
A question but since Neodymiums love the bass (who doesn't) why not use ceramic, or alnico, on strings 1-3 and for 4-6/7/8 use Neodymiums so it becomes the best of both worlds? Love to hear that. Try the two bars though as that sounded the best to me.
Thanks for watching and leaving a suggestion General. That is a very good idea and I am sure it would sound great. I will put this in my notes and try to remember to get some short neo bars so I can try this out. If/when I get around to making a video from it I will give you a shoutout. It is a great idea.
@@heavymetalATC I can't wait to hear it in action.
I’d try it in the reverse of that to balance it out
Awesome.
Very much appreciated Thiago.
Maybe they are basing on results using neodymium slugs in the pickup rather than behind it, which could mean there was more of a magnetic field pull on the strings.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write a comment Lee. I think that does have a lot to do with it. It definitely wouldnt be a good thing to put a super strong magnet millimeters from the string... I think it also may just be a correlation thing. In the guitar world most people assume Ceramic=Bad because those are most often found in cheap pickups that are not made very well. Alnico=Good because thats what they used in most all of the old vintage guitars. So if Ceramic is worse than Alnico it must be beacuse its stronger and Neodymium is stronger than Ceramic so it must be twice as bad, but you can get very good pickups with ceramic magnets because the stronger magnet is whats needed for the particular application, they just know better than to use that as a marketing point. They just come up with a flashy name like Crystal Flame bucker or something. Ive gone on to create a couple of really great pickups that sound much like the vintage alnico ones using neodymium magnets from simply adjusting the other parameters to compensate or using other materials to coax a different resonance like copper plates to lower the resonant peak. All in all Yes you are quite correct.
Refrigerator magnets on the back of demarzio pick up made the old Kramer back in the 80' s sustain for days....I could strike a harmonic , roll a hooter smoke it 😜 get the munchies pass out wake up in the driveway face down and get up and go finish the song she would still be singing.... AIN'T IT JUST AIN'T IT 😜 lols.... only kidding but refrigerator magnets was a trick for sustain ... Keep it up...I like what you are doing....😎
Hahahaha thank you for watching and taking the time to write such an awesome comment JL. Oh yeah bro, when they took apart jimmy pages dragon telecaster it had ceramic fridge magnets stuck to the backplate of the alnico bridge pickup. so yeah, double magnets I bet thats why that thing was screaming like that with the fuzz and marshall.
So wouldn't it make sense to put neo magnets on the 3 bass string poles and a ceramic or alnico magnet on the poles of the three treble strings?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a kind comment Basil. Yes, that is absolutely a Great Idea! I have a general outline for a build in the future that would take advantage of this configuration very well. I'll put this in my notes and If/When I do a video on the subject I will give you a shout-out.
I tell you what….. this is a good video
Science!
if only he could tune his guitars
What about using different wounds ?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment Jule. Good question. This was a very under-wound pickup coil. In general with less wounds you will get a clearer sound and more highs and definition and with more winds it will be a louder boomier sound and with a whole lot of winds it will be more muted in the top end and very loud but kind of muffled. The great thing I've found with neo magnets its that unlike ceramic or alnico magnets which increase volume and high end with more magnetic power put on the coil.. (using a stronger magnet), neo makes more bass with more magnetic power. So you can use much less winds and still get the volume using neo, this means that the pickup will be clear and defined yet loud and still have good bass. I really dont know why they arent used more in the industry accept guitar players are stuck in their ways and tastes and the industry loves to use the "vintage" word as a selling point. Here are a few more example builds I have done with neo magnets with different amounts of winding and different configurations:
P90 using neo magnet:
th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
Split single coil 3 pole humbuckers:
th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html
Very loud but clear humbucker:
th-cam.com/video/zNjXuzHRcPM/w-d-xo.html
Copper Neo Alumitone:
th-cam.com/video/qyGEHDnnWmo/w-d-xo.html
I hope that short explanation and the info and demos in these videos will help. Thanks again.
The neodymium button sounded the best.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave a helpful comment. I liked the way it sounded as well so I decided to use them in the bridge pickups of my next guitar build. If you want to check that out... Here is a link to the video where I built and tested them:
th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html
Thanks again.
Two bars were best for the bassier strings to my ears and the treble strings the buttons.
i wonder if the use of certain magnets just comes down to cost.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment Zero. Yes I think that has a lot to do with it and If the companies use the cheap ceramic magnets which are fairly strong they can get away with using less copper winds to get the same output. The use of Alnico with more winds is not only for the sparkly bell like sound they have but also to be able to market it as being like the "vintage" ones. I think that if the price of neodymium ever becomes low enough that it is more economical to use them instead of ceramic and even less copper that will be the new normal for the cheapest of pickups. Thats the answer to just about everything... Follow the $.
This is interesting. And i was just searching what will happeng if i get one around 3.5cm close to my alnico pick up. I just wanted to put ones for the cavity controls cover, and i am worry this would change my pickup polarity
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment Washa. Yes a strong magnet could flip the poles on the pickup or drain the magnetic power to one end of the coil. I see people doing the magnet thing on guitar building videos quite a bit and It doesnt seem like a great idea to me but the guitars always seem to sound good in the demos. The good part is that if you do damage an alnico pickup you can swipe it between 2 neo magnets to fix and recharge it but, that shows you how strong they can act on the poles when in close proximity. I'm sorry if that isn't a defined answer but I really don't know how much it would do or not do. I apologize as well for taking so long to respond I took a break from youtube but I am back. if you have already done this please let me know how it went. Also if you have any more questions feel free to leave another comment I will try to get to it much quicker next time. Thanks again.
@@heavymetalATC thanks. Actually i quit the idea, even if the magnet is a little one i feel is too strong. I didnt want phase problems so... but now i wonder what would happen if you build a pickups with those strong magnet? Maybe more output, and more noise. ( i mean a humbucker on a electric guitar)
@@washaconte3956 I actually build pickups exclusively with neodymium magnets since I did this experiment. I haven't built built a normal humbucker with them yet but I built a P90 and a set of split 3 pole 2 coil humbuckers with them and the results have been great. I find them to be strong but not too muddy or gritty. you could buy a cheap humbucker and a 60x10x3mm neo bar magnet and change it out there are a bunch of videos on YT showing how to change the magnet. But.. if you wind it yourself or rewind it. I suggest using less wire then you will get a more high fidelity articulate sound with the same bass and output level as the normal pickup if you just stick the magnet in a hot overwound pickup it will tend to be VERY high output and a little muddy. though i have had decent results changing the ceramic magnet from a strat copy pickup to neo. It was just super fat sounding and loud. Here is a link to the 3 pole humbuckers. th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html
@@heavymetalATC i dont build my own pickups, i am not so skilled to even try hahaha. Last year I got dimarzios and am happy actually, maybe they have a little bit more mids that. But this is interesting indeed. Does it have disaventage? For example you know how alnico can change with too much heat ant etc. I fear those can pick a lot of the springs noise on floating bridges. With what you describe, i see this ones could do a great job on acoustic instruments and clean tones. With high gain i dont know if you could exploit its potential, as many just cut the low end before the preamp.
@@washaconte3956 I just bet you could build a fine pickup if you tried it. Its not very hard at all. As far as temperatures go neo magnets are good up to about 1652 degrees F so that's no issue. But, you may be on to something with the trem springs being picked up, they are very sensitive. I haven't tried one on a guitar with springs in the back but once and it was in the neck position. I tried the p90 with high gain and it was actually very good really articulate and great for pinch harmonics and muted chugging sounds. I suppose a properly built humbucker would do much the same with an eq pedal. I'll have to build a neo humbucker soon and see how it sounds. the only ones I could find on YT sounded over wound and muddy. I will also have to see how it works with trem springs. That was a good point. Thank you for the questions and suggestions. Very much Appreciated. Here is the neo P90 doing high gain sounds: th-cam.com/video/RQaMo6WES4U/w-d-xo.html
Now make a rail-style pickup with neo mags?
Ill put it in my notes right now bro!
fuckin briliant
Thank you so much. I figured I needed to do the experiment for myself to build proper pickups for a project so why not record and share the findings.
I’ve been using neo magnets in my bass pickups for years. As far as I can tell, they sound excellent and save space, and are much cheaper than alnico.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Waruta. The first guy I talked to about neo magnets in a pickup forum uses them for bass pickups.. its a very good fit for the bassy strong tone. I have since built some pretty great guitar pickups with them by under-winding and letting the decreased capacitance add highs and clarity and I really dont see why they arent the hottest thing on the market to be honest.
@@heavymetalATC if you play guitar, then you should know how the cult of tradition controls so much of what people do and use. I live in Japan right now, and I've seen people pay $1,000 for a Stratocaster that came from the United States, and argue that it actually sounds different from one that was made in this country. This is despite the fact that they have exactly the same parts, woods, and construction techniques. There's a book you should try to track down called "animal magnetism for musicians" by Erno Zwaan. There are some great project ideas in there, and there's a lot of information about pickup building that I haven't found anywhere else.
@@waruta69 Yes I agree fully. I have played limited edition american strats that feel like a dead plank and MIJ squires that plays like a lively snappy bow and arrow. I actually think that in the 80s the squires were probably much better. Thank you so much for the book recommendation I put that in my notes Ill have to try to find a copy.
@@heavymetalATC it is, unfortunately, long out of print. If you can't track down any PDFs or anything on the internet, please let me know. There is some really powerful information in the book, and it is driven my personal work on designing better pickups for my basses. If you have a chance, you should also check out my page. It's not monetized or anything, but you can hear the pickup sound there.
@@waruta69 absolutely bro, Ill check it out. I saw a paper back copy for sale on amazon. I may have to snatch it, it seems he also has a few books about building basses and guitars and stuff too.
I like Neo Button & 2 Bar pickup👍👍👍
When I made some actual electric guitar pickups I used exactly that combo. buttons for the neck and the 2 bar deal for a p90 at the bridge. Thanks for the comment.
neato
Thanks again for watching bro. I really appreciate all the likes and kind comments.
@@heavymetalATC no problem thank you for answering all the hard questions.
I don't understand why the music crowd is so obsessed with material types. All that matters is the density (strength) of the field and its orientation relative to the strings. The material of the magnet will make zero difference if those two factors are the same.
I'm wanting to get some small cube magnets and experiment with halbach arrays in pickups.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such an intelligent and coherent comment John. I think its just because of correlation made in the mind and also the mindless repetition and parroting of myths and anecdotes. In the guitar scene ceramic=cheap so crappy... and alnico=expensive and what was used in the past so the best.. and Neodymium well ceramic sucks compared to alnico because its stronger so neo will REALLY suck. LOL i think their is some correlation for people with really well trained ears due to the strength of field compared to relative shape. I really feel that I can tell I do but im sure its just also correlation. I am pretty darn sure I can hear and pick out a vintage alnico speaker all day but its a certain way its built, it has a big metal box around the magnet changing the shape of the field. Its more efficient therefore it is louder and splats and buckles sooner before the actual distortion of a tube amp starts to kick in. So am I hearing the alnico or is it the shape of that magnet pack. Also Marketing straight up marketing... Or convenience, You like a certain sound you heard you can say I want a P90 design with ceramic 3 wound to 8k ohm or I want a staggered pole strat pickup with alnico 3 poles slightly under charged wound to 6.5k. I have been asked about halback arrays on this channel before. If you did or still plan to do the experiments. Id love to know how it went and what results you got.
@@heavymetalATC There's definitely a degree of correlation. As you say, it's easier to find a strong field in one type compared to the cheaper types. But 99% of everything musicians and audiophiles say is pure bunk. I'm genuinely not trying to sound mean. It's just frustrating as a student of logic and a fan of physics to listen to claims that defy both. Like when people say they can hear the difference between types of capacitors. Now major changes, like P90 to lipstick, are obvious. The rest falls into the realm of "the emperor's new clothes", confirmation bias.
One thing I suspect would make a difference that I've never seen tested is bobbin height. 8,000 wraps around a tall bobbin would make a thinner pickup compared to 8,000 wraps around a normal bobbin. More of the wire would fall in the stronger inner field. Maybe?
My favorite idea, at the moment, is 1/8th-inch cube magnets in a halbach array, wrapped in a "horseshoe" of copper. So a single-winding pickup. But instead of the soapbar looking ones on the market these would be pencil-thin, several inches long, and set parallel to the strings. One pickup per string, covering a fair length of the string so they see all the vibrations. No way for a pickup to be stuck under a node or miss one of the harmonics.
@@johnterpack3940 Hey I may have to do a how bobbin shape effects the pickup experiment video. That's a great Idea man, I use that as a tool in pickup design and building but I have never just made 2 identical pickups with one deep like a tele bridge and one short and flat like a p90. Im putting that in my notes... if/when I do that video I will give you a shout-out. Your pickup idea sound awesome I would love to hear how that turns out.
@@heavymetalATC Too many things going on for me to mess with it anytime soon. Still have two basses I've never gotten around to setting up.
Hi! I have made 3 experimental pickups with neodymium poles, but i always keep getting a rather too bright and noisy output. Has you ever experienced the same results? Thanks for the video :D
Thank you for watching and for taking the time to write a comment Luis. Yes, I haven't tried using Neo poles as I was afraid it would put too much pull on the strings and cause a warbling (Stratitus) You may be able to tame that high-end and noise down a bit with a grounded sheet of thick copper, aluminum or brass over the top of the pickup. The non-ferrous plate may slow the eddy currents and shift the resonant peak a little lower in frequency as well as shield from interference. I have had much the opposite effect with placing the neodymium magnets on the bottom of humbucker type pole pieces in several different pickup designs, the result I got was a smooth pickup with a strong bass response. Increasing the windings or adding a capacitor to the pickup could also help bring down the high end... Here is a video of a set of neo splitcoils I made as well as a neo P90 with buttons and bars behind the poles and also copper plates on the back and it was a very smooth alnico type sound: th-cam.com/video/Nz5GDlFqHO4/w-d-xo.html
@@heavymetalATC nice! Thanks for the link. Can i bother u with another question? How do you strip the enamel in the wire?
@@elluisito000 Yes, You are very much welcome, Some people sand the end of the wire or scratch it with a razor which is a wise idea, but I personally just wrap it several times around the lead or post Im soldering it too and hold the solder and the iron on it for extra time till the enamel just becomes smoke. I just burn it off in the soldering process.
@@heavymetalATC i maybe using a wire too thin, because when i do this i always end up scorching the wire :D or maybe my soldering iron is just too hot.
Time to do a humbucker
I'm sure it will happen. I plan to build lots more pickups in the near future.
@@heavymetalATC hell yea
very very interesting. i have to try some neodymium magnet
More winding😂😅
Always a telecaster bridge pickup has about 9000 winds.
@@heavymetalATC interesting and good to know.. Thanks mate
Apparently, Fender used Neodymium magnets as pole pieces in a humbucker. They called this a 'wide range pickup'. I guess they didn't care about pulling on the strings. Or maybe they did because they stopped making them until recently.
Hi, I modified a vpick by putting a magnet inside. I would like to send you a couple for review. The first question has been, “won’t they interfere with the pickups?” They don’t, but I would love more opinions. SVPick.com. Thanks
i made one with a broken popsicle stick and super glue, it floats on my single coil and gives a super meaty tone
awesome bro! rock on.