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Is the Neck Pup on a 51 Alnico?


zerkalo

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You know I pulled that pick-up then put put it back in. I had a Seymour Duncan Tele pup, a Alnico II Pro in. But the out of phase Tone was weak sounding. With the 51 its not bad, definatly usable.

 

To answer your question? I really didn't take a good look at it, but I believe so. I don't remember the Ceramic bars.

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I swear .... me and my buddy both bought one for $99 and we must have gotten some bad ones or something. They were by far the worst sounding guitars either of us have ever owned. I am still amazed by the praise people give the stock pickups. All we could get was totally shrill, toneless, grating, annoying sounds out of them. We both replaced the pickups with some GFS pups and they helped. But, less than a year later we got rid of the guitars totally.

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I think it's ceramic. I never took either of mine apart, but they sounded more like ceramic single coils I've had in the past. Ceramic isn't bad though... just different. I think the reason most folks prefer the sound of AlNiCo single coil pickups is because most single coil pickups that are well wound and properly balanced use AlNiCo magnets. If a high end company tried to make a great sounding ceramic single coil, I'm sure they would do just fine.

 

I quite liked the single coil of my '51s. Lots of versatility in the '51 in general, but my favorite sounds were the single coil, and both pickups on with the bridge split.

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How can you tell if a pickup is ceramic or alnico? Do ceramic single coils always have the magnetic bars along the bottom? How can you tell with a HB?

 

Ceramics are often associated with a brighter, edgier sound, but I have a set of ceramics in a strat (at least they have the magnetic bars) that sound thicker and warmer than the GFS premium overwound alnicos I have in my other strat.

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I wouldn't say that ceramics are always brighter... I'd say they are smoother with less spank than AlNiCos, at least as far as most single coils go.

 

I've always preferred ceramics to use with higher gain. Ceramic HBs seem to be able to get more into that sailing/soaring type of sound easily while a lot of AlNiCo pickups seem like the amp is just turned up to far. Of course, I've never owned a 16k+ AlNiCo HB to the best of my knowledge.

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Which ceramics are these?


I need some new strat pups.

 

 

You mean the stock pickups in the Squier '51?

 

They are just cheap, non-over-wound ceramic pickups.

 

Lots of folks give ceramic pickups, esp ceramic single coils a lot of grief, but they can sound pretty outstanding. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my 83 MIJ Strat, but the stock AlNiCos in it sound pretty crappy compared to the ceramic pickups in my red 89 E-series Squier strat.

 

I think the key to depth in a ceramic single coil is for it to NOT be over-wound. Nothing wrong with over-wound AlNiCos, but over-wound or hot wound ceramics always seem to end up sounding like thin ceramic HBs rather than single coils.

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I don't think that anyone would be able to tell the difference between the types of magnets in a pickup without checking the specs. There are too many other factors at work--type and gauge of wire used for the coil, thickness of the poles, distance between the strings and the pickups, string gauge used, body material, type of neck, etc.

 

Ceramic magnets are marginally cheaper to make than AlNiCo magnets, but that does not necessarily make them inferior. You find lots of pickups, from hot P90's to blade style humbuckers for strats, with great sounding ceramics. Ceramic magnets, I'm pretty sure, are almost always "bar" style, while AlNiCo's are mostly magnetic rods.

 

Budget guitars imported from the far east often employ the cheapest materials that they can find, so that means ceramic magnets and low quality spacers, bobbins, coil wire, etc.

 

There are a few companies that, even though their guitars are made in China (Epiphone), use better quality materials for pickups, including AlNiCo magnets, on their mid-priced models.

 

But a $99 SX or Squire is going to have ceramic magnets at least 90% of the time.

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