put a set of texas specials in a box, theyve been stuck together since i removed them for some time

can they get damaged,degaused, change polarity etc....?

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Howdy

I think they can loose magnetism but that will take a quite while to achieve. Your much more likely to break a wire or worse still, knock a pole piece and muller the coil.

On the whole they're pretty hardy bits of kit.

Andy

Edit: spooling mishtakes

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Pending Greatness

I remember Martian discussing this topic in the past. Don't recall exactly what he said though.
Where has our pickup guru been as I've not seen him post lately? Come back to Earth Martian!!!

He's probably busy rocking out on the Fratocaster!

Perhaps we can bait him out with some Infallible Web Dogma? Something like...

"I read on the Inter-web and Face-tube that stringing your guitar unside down during a full moon increases the DC resistance of you pickups and makes you play faster"



Andy

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Pending Greatness

That ought to work Andy!!!

thanks, pheeeewwwww...

i got the box last night, in order to try to figure out the texas specials polarity,
and noticed they were stuckpole pieces to pole pieces.

then i realised the american standard were stored in the same way.
when i reinstalled them i noticed the tone was pretty sheetay.
still kind of is.
that is why im also looking for new pickups.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Hehehe!

I remember that thread too. Here it is.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37030

Andy

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Pending Greatness

You're good Andy. I haven't tried the search option on this new format yet.

Your pickups will be fine. You won't live long enough to likely see them loose their magnetism. It is hard to store pickups without them sticking to other pickups or other metal objects.

what do you know that i dont??

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

I think I read on Seymour Duncan's site, or it may have been the BareKnuckles site. They recommend the use of a keeper magnet across the polepieces. The same site also said, don't just throw it in the drawer.

Wish I could remember which site and where.

It's quite easy to degauss your pickup magnets. Force em onto the same polarity side of another stronger magnet for a month or two. Expose them to extreme heat. High impact contact. So don't tie your pickups onto a big speaker magnet or place them in the center of a particle accelerator, in a burning flat on the 40th floor, then throw them out the window.

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No no and no

You've smoked me out!

I've been around but haven't seen the opportunity to comment all that much. Besides, you know me, I don't want to be accused of, "Literary Diarrhea" for when I do post, they always wind up being novellas any way.

I see a couple of threads which do indeed, border on, "Infallible Web Dogma" but I figured I'd reserve comment in order to see which way they head. Besides, who doesn't love a good fiction tale?

And yes, I've been wailing on the Fratocaster ever chance I get!!

But I digress. On to the topic at hand as it relates to guitar pickups:

EXACTLY alike magnets with the EXACT same charge, shape, etc, magnetically attracted to each other, north pole to south pole will not be a problem. It is when magnets are pitted AGAINST each other, meaning, same pole to same pole that they begin to repel and with this repulsion comes the potential for their respective charges to weaken or where one magnet may begin to out do the other in terms of 'pull'. Hence, individual strength of each will become an issue.

Say for example, you have an Alnico II magnetically locked with a Ceramic. Obviously, that Ceramic has a much higher charge than that of the Alnico II. Either of two things can happen: The Alnico II will have some of the magnetism sucked out of it by the Ceramic or the Ceramic can actually infuse a higher charge in the Alnico II. The same holds true for either type magnet touching a non-magnetized hunk of ferrous (meaning, magnetizable) material.

Contrary to popular belief, ceramic magnets do not peter down over time like Alnicos do. Further, with Alnicos, it takes like half a century for this degaussing to start happening where even at this, the weakening although progressive, is nominal.

Extreme heat impressed upon a magnet will eventually relieve an Alnico or Ceramic magnet of its magnetism.

A forceful blow can wipe out the magnetism of a Ceramic but not an Alnico.

Like any object prone to chipping, cracking, interaction with its surroundings, etc, magnets or in this case, guitar pickups should be stored with appropriate care. Needless to say, if a pickup is stored incorrectly or haphazardly, well, this is exactly how the pickup may react when it is put back into service.

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You dig?

I can't get the Search utility to find anything earlier than the Forum Refit, and one or two others have said the same thing. Am I doing something wrong? How did you find that post, Andy?

I've resorted to Google as my Forum search engine a couple of times - but that always produces about a million other results too, which can be tiresome.

Anyhow. It doesn't directly relate to bluestrattone's issue but I read an interesting thing once about pickup magnetism. Ritchie Fliegler (player, tech, luthier and now Fender VP) said he once saw Andy Summers' Tele subjected to airport bomb detection equipment and it killed the pickup magnets stone dead on the spot.

Weird! Especially since thousands of other guitars undergo that treatment without adverse effect.

Strange thing, magnetism...

Cheers - C

PS: personally, I'd welcome Martian's input on any and all threads about Infallible Web Dogma. I'm wondering which ones you've been looking at, Martian...?

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Like I said, I'd rather just follow them at this point to see which way they go. If they outright slide away from reality, you'll surely know then.

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You dig?

I was pretty sure it was down in the Pickup Forum.... so I spent 5 mim trawling till I found it

Not a big fan of the search function.


Hi Martian,

IMO 99.8% of your posts are a bloody good read for us geeks (the missing 0.2% was due to that Marmite fad, but we'll let you off!) Post away!

Andy

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Pending Greatness