What's so special about the "Gibson's special Alnico II magnet" in Classic 57 pickups

[wanderoo222]

Replaced mine with an alnico A5 then lost the A1. Now I want go back to the A1.

[vintage clubber]

Replaced mine with an alnico A5 then lost the A1. Now I want go back to the A1.

 

A1 ??

[wanderoo222]

A1 ??

 

I meant A2.Sorry, I'm just so broken up,

[honeyiscool]

You put steak sauce in your pickups?

[wanderoo222]

 

You put steak sauce in your pickups?

 

Gives tasty toanz!

[PunkKitty]

You can buy a set of A2 magnets from eBay. FWIW, my set of Classic 57s uses alnico 3.

[wanderoo222]

 

You can buy a set of A2 magnets from eBay. FWIW, my set of Classic 57s uses alnico 3.

 

 

Were those the original magnets installed?

[PunkKitty]

Were those the original magnets installed?

Yes. This is the set I have installed. I can't find a scratch on them. And they sound awesome.

[nicholai]

I really should remember, anyone know what was used in the prototype/first bath of PAFs? Bah google is my friend I'll look it up, but since I typed this much....

[nicholai]

Ok, apparently Gibson was all over the place. Wish I knew how to identify a magnet. Taking pup apart not an option.

[PunkKitty]

You can identify if it is alnico or ceramic by looking at it. Ceramic magnets are black. Alnico magnets are silver. I don't know how to check the strength of alnico.

[nicholai]

Oh they're definitely alnico, they are real 57 PAFs.

 

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[PunkKitty]

Nice.

[wanderoo222]

 

very nice!

[wanderoo222]

 

You can identify if it is alnico or ceramic by looking at it. Ceramic magnets are black. Alnico magnets are silver. I don't know how to check the strength of alnico.

 

 

Found it, whew! It's shiny but no markings. I only asumed it was an A2 magnet. Any one no how to determine the strenght?

[wanderoo222]

But I'm still curious as to why it's refered to as "Gibson's special alnico II magnets"?

[cratz2]

They are about as special as the caps you get with Gibsons 'repackaged' Bumblebee caps.

[PunkKitty]

They are special because they were sprinkled with fairy dust before they were installed.

[nicholai]

very nice!

 

Thanks guys. Didn't mean to hijack.

 

Fairy dust indeed, I've tried some real bumblebee caps in modern guitars (which can be sourced really cheaply if you use your noggin) and they are different and cool (almost have reverb on a strat) but I cannot re-create the tone circuit of my 57, I've tried really hard.

 

Truth is they switched every magnet around in 50's and 60's. I wouldn't be surprised if there are mixed magnets in some pups from Seth's descriptions. Fairy Dust. Gibson want's us to believe in something that never was. Seth put the value of a real paf at around 5$ and gave out the recipe. Gibson is not using it, one of the reasons being no one really knows what happened. To recreate it it would be so boutique, acetone and celluloid i think for the bobbins, etc.