Members wankdeplank Posted March 6, 2016 Members Share Posted March 6, 2016 Anybody done any degaussing? How about re-gaussing? This was all new to me as I ran into those terms while looking something up on Google. In any event, as you may recall, I had recently put an alnico II into the bridge of an 89 American Strat to try to tame the brightness of that position. I liked the other two pickups and left them in. As the specs suggested they would be the same output, I was a little chagrined when the Alnico II came in a little too faint in the sound department although I was totally pleased with the results in taming the brightness issue. So, following the lead of a poster on another forum, I found a good magnet that attracted that pickup and spent about five or ten minutes leaving it on and running it up and down (really didn't know the correct procedure). In any event the experiment was an unqualified success making that pickup much much louder without changing the tonal characteristics to any large extent. Totally balanced now - and that guitar is totally beasty. PS If you try it remember it works on alnicos but apparently not on ceramics. Also never leave your guitar leaning against an amp a speaker or anything else magnetic. Just wanted to pass that along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 6, 2016 Members Share Posted March 6, 2016 Cool to know. If the pickup in question were a humbucker raising the height would do pretty much the same thing but with a Strat single coil that can be a recipe for trouble. Anyway, glad it worked for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chordite Posted March 6, 2016 Members Share Posted March 6, 2016 Strange to relate I was considering what to do with the weak pups on my Peavey Falcon. What did you use? I have a big speaker magnet or one of those really powerful busterds from a hard drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Well you can only raise pickups so far before they start to distort. I actually did raise it to the limit but it was still a distinct drop off when I switched to the bridge. Searching for a solution, I actually considered using the notch (two) as my lead as it was so much stronger output. So, contemplating another pickup swap, I was a little desperate, and now, I couldn't be happier. No drop off in output now, in fact the bridge seems just a tad louder than middle which is what I want when switching to the lead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Hey Chord, no expert here. It seems Stewmac sells a special magnet just for this purpose. (Seems you have to be careful as you might degauss one as you are re-gaussing another.) In my case, I took the lead of a poster on another forum (found on google) and just used the magnet on the back of my nametag for work (Casino Floorman and yes I wear a nametag), after realizing it attracted rather than repelled. As I said, I was a bit desperate, but man did I get lucky. PS I would definitely suggest you google degaussing pickups before getting started as I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members *BLEEP* Posted March 7, 2016 Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 An AlNiCo magnet is manufactured by sintering aluminium, nickel, and cobalt powders into shape in a mold. The different grades of AlNiCo magnets are derived from using different ratios of the three powders. After an AlNiCo magnet cools down from its molten state (sintering), it has no magnetism until it is magnetically charged. There are expensive precision electro-magnet chargers designed for charging AlNiCo magents, but, you can also charge an AlNiCo magnet by hand with a N56 neodymium magnet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2016 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2016 Alnico is easily regaussed to full power with a decent NeoD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Strange to relate I was considering what to do with the weak pups on my Peavey Falcon. What did you use? I have a big speaker magnet or one of those really powerful busterds from a hard drive Today's hard disc drives are neodymium as are magnetic fasteners. However if the pickups in the Falcon are ceramic rather than alnico it will not work. Also if the magnet is extremely strong I'd take the pickups out first before charging as the other pickups can be negatively effected I understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Yes but you would think that a new pickup would be full power to begin with. What I did was an experiment with a pair of neoD disc magnets on a new Alnico II pickup purchased from GFS and it brought the output up significantly. Perhaps the pickup had been degaussed in transit to some extent I don't know. All I know is that it worked and I'm thankful that it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2016 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2016 Yes, degaussing is ofetn used to "relic" a pickups, bery often knocks off some undesirable trebly peaks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2016 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2016 The NeoD in HDDs is pretty strong, but you can buy stupid strong NeoD from magnet suppliers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2016 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2016 Just a note of caution, if you are remagnetising say Strat pickup, that have an up/down orientation or Gretsch DynaSonics etc with pole magnets, you'll need to check the polarities. There are some guitar specific gadgets for this, but I just use an orienteering compass, but as the magnetic north has a south polarity, don't forget if you bring your compass to the top end of a pickup and the North needle points to it, it is in fact a South up, and vise versa. To magnetise, you will then need to match the upness of the NeoD, and I find a plastic ruler laid across the top of the say Strat pickup is a useful rail, to then slide your NeoD along with slow gentle motions, and I use a circular NeoD with a hole in the middle, and stop when the hole is over the high and low E. If you want to experiment with knocking gauss out, reverse the magnet, so say N-N and see what kno0cking gausss out of the treble side does, or knocking gauss out of the bass side does. Hours of fun with magnets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 7, 2016 Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 You can use spacers between the coil and magnet to change its strength. It works well with ceramic magnets too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 7, 2016 Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Also never leave your guitar leaning against an amp a speaker or anything else magnetic. Just wanted to pass that along. You can place two magnets directly together and one isn't going to discharge the other. Putting a pickup near an amp or speaker isn't going to harm your pickup in any way. People have been setting guitars near amps ever since they were invented and pickups have never gone dead on them. It takes an coil passing high AC current and specific placement of a magnet within that "AC magnetic field" to degauss a magnet. A speaker coil isn't going to do that, in fact, the core of the speaker is a magnet, and it doesn't loose strength with AC signals (music) passing through the voice coil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Well I'm just going by what I've read on the internetz. There is apparently a pretty strong contingent out there that would disagree with you on that one. And when I say lean your guitar against an amp, I'm inferring for long periods, not five ten minutes. Though I am a McGyver and an adventurer, and I respect your opinion, I'm certainly not going to tempt fate on that one after seeing what another magnet was able to do to my bridge Alnico II in the output department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Thanks for that Ratae. You're obviously no stranger to this, and for me it was more of a happy accident, realizing it was not nonreversible and taking the chance. I will say that from what I've read, the majority of magnet tinkering is done to either add or reduce brightness and the increased or decreased output is more of a side effect. I think more folks degauss than the other way around to cut the treble and get a more PAF tone. In my case I did get some more treble to go along with the increased output, but it was not excessive and actually welcomed as originally the alnico II in the bridge had less treble than the alnico V in the middle position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 I commented on your other post before reading this one, just confirming what you say about degaussing and treble peaks. I guess, had I known about this before I might have just tried to degauss the original alnico V in the bridge rather than exchanging it with an Alnico II. Having said that, I love the character of the alnico II and really can't imagine a better outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2016 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2016 In that case try a rough cast Unoriented Alnico V, the most glorious of all the Alnico family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 I've never messed around with gaussing or degaussing pickups, but like any recording engineer who started in the analog era, I've done a ton of degaussing of tape heads. It has always been one of the maintenance procedures I am as cautious as possible about performing, since doing it wrong can permanently magnetize the tape heads and other parts of the tape path, erase nearby master tapes, etc. etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Retae I know you mean well but please don't send me down that money trail again Dude. This configuration - boutique ceramic in the neck, alnico V in the middle and alnico II in the bridge gives me a whole lot of useful options. Think I'll stay content for awhile. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 7, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 Interesting, I had no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2016 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2016 Sorry dude:-| But ceramic? Ewww:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted March 7, 2016 Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 I read once that Andy Summers of the Police was riding on the NYC subway with his guitar and apparently he was sitting really close to a transformer or train motor or somesuch electronics and it totally demagnatized the pickups in his favorite guitar. He had to have the pickups recharged by Seymour Duncan. I read the story on Seymour Duncan's web site but it's not there anymore. Just third-hand accounts from other sources via google search. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 7, 2016 Members Share Posted March 7, 2016 You could also lower the other pickups. That's part of what I did recently with my Schecter. I wanted to get the pickups more in balance and make the neck sound less ''Meh.'' I raised the neck pickup and lowered the bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted March 8, 2016 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2016 Not your garden variety ceramic. I've never heard anything like it, not ceramic like at all in the tonez dept. - sounds like a tenor sax. High-end boutique; something the original owner put in and he's one of the busiest gigging musicians in town. Nothing wrong with a good ceramic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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