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Post subject: Does AlNiCo age?
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:14 am
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I was watching a youtube video by eddievegas of a 1963 Strat and someone made the comment.. "I agree, real aged wood, plus real aged alnico magnets are a major factor in why early Fenders sound so sweet. Even the CBS ones that were criticized when new, are now becoming sought after, because the wood and pickups have had time to cure together."

Just wondering if pickups age and will poly guitars sound better in 30-40 years?


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Post subject: Re: Does AlNiCo age?
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:59 am
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ThriftStorePunk77 wrote:
I was watching a youtube video by eddievegas of a 1963 Strat and someone made the comment.. "I agree, real aged wood, plus real aged alnico magnets are a major factor in why early Fenders sound so sweet. Even the CBS ones that were criticized when new, are now becoming sought after, because the wood and pickups have had time to cure together."

Just wondering if pickups age and will poly guitars sound better in 30-40 years?


Yes, pickups age but there is no mystical, magical metamorphosis going on. See, after several decades, alnico magnets may begin losing some their charge, resulting in less pull exerted on the strings which in turn, reduces volume, creates higher frequencies roll off and a spongier bass. Concurrently, the insulation of the coil windings may start breaking down or drying out, resulting in a different overall tension on the windings or in extreme cases, thermal breakdown of the insulation thus, altering the tonality of the pickup as well.

Note that a ceramic magnet's charge does not peter down like an alnico magnet's does.

Although wood does indeed affect the tonality of pickups, IMO, there is too much emphasis/credit attributed to this and not enough put on the hardware's (including the frets') influence. It should also be noted that the more powerful a pickup is, the less these acoustic factors shall affect what you ultimately hear through the amp.

Poly is plastic. It is my experience that no encapsulated in plastic body resonates better or "sweeter" over the decades. If anything, it may sound a touch duller where the aging hardware usually is a contributing factor as well.

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Post subject: Re: Does AlNiCo age?
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:12 am
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Martian wrote:
Yes, pickups age but there is no mystical, magical metamorphosis going on. See, after several decades, alnico magnets may begin losing some their charge, resulting in less pull exerted on the strings which in turn, reduces volume, creates higher frequencies roll off and a spongier bass. Concurrently, the insulation of the coil windings may start breaking down or drying out, resulting in a different overall tension on the windings or in extreme cases, thermal breakdown of the insulation thus, altering the tonality of the pickup as well.

Note that a ceramic magnet's charge does not peter down like an alnico magnet's does.



Yes, exactly. My opinion, and I am biased, is that weakened alnico magnets only make the tone sound weak. Weak can be called sweet in some cases I suppose, but I am generally not a fan.

But I think there is probably a similar reaction to changing your alnico 5 pickups to alnico 3 or alnico 2 pickups. The weaker magnet gives a bit different tone. Go read opinions about how players reacted to installing a set of Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 Pro Strat pickups. They are popular pickups for a reason.

As I indicated, I am more a fan of fully charged magnets and I will usually re-charge any magnets I think may need it. I am one of the (likely) few who spend most of my time in the bridge pickup position of my Strat. I like good strong signals. I would probably be the first one to get in line for a set of Strat pickups using Alnico 8. They may be out there somewhere, but I'm certainly not aware of any. Typically ceramic 8 is used these days, and when used in an otherwise quality made pickup, ceramic 8 does very well and is more consistent over time, as Martian mentions.

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