Nice demonstration D! Helpful to many, Bustin' Them Myths! We're all Guilty of perpetuating them until we know Better! Well done and thanks for sharing brother!

The whole industry depends on the fervent hope that whatever sounds best is whatever isn't in your guitar.

The biggest myth in guitar history is that it gets you girls.

Had to put it to the Test. Recorded an open D string . Once using a ceramic pickup, once using an alnico. Lined the 2 waveforms up and compared them. The ceramic was not too far from a regular sinewave, close to a piano waveform, rolling peaks and not a lot of harmonic content. The alnico was full of jagged peaks throughout the wave much more like a violin and full of harmonic content. Ceramics give a warm sound with a lot of fundamental frequency when clean and a controlled sound at super high gain. Alnicos are full of harmonic content and top end with an incredible musical response to the way you play and I love `em.

This is specifically why I stopped engaging in guitar forums. You get guys recommending magnet swaps all day to fix a problem with "tone", and then you realize the "advisor" just sucks at playing and dialing in their amp/eq.

What did I learn from this video, “I need a Tele with a P90 in the neck!”

I don't really care about pickups that much they tend to sound the same once I run them through 3 boss metal zones and tune lower than drop F Im kidding btw great vid Darrel

don't trust guitar forums, only trust your ears

Bleeding love the sound of the ceramics in that Tele. Holy hells. That just sounded amazing. Warm and wonderful.

4:41- "We'll talk about where some of these things come from." From guitar snobs.

They sounded a little different but both sounded very good.

To my ears, alnico souded brighter, tipical strat sounding, reminds me of a clean John Mayer sound. Ceramics seemed warmer, with more low end. Both sounded AWESOME and had their own characteristics. Thank you for the great video.

100% agree I just purchased a squire contemporary jazz bass with ceramic active pickups and it’s soo much warmer then anything I played before. I’m pro ceramic from now on 👍🏻

These are my favourite videos to make - bustin' some myths :) Is this one you guys had heard before? If you have any "common misconceptions" you want me to challenge let me know in the comments!

Bro, as an amature garage luthier, I really can't stress enough how great this channel actually is. Your presentation is clear. The editing is concise. Super efficient and super enjoyable! I'm hooked!

Great demonstration, fair and unbiased. I believe you have nailed the differences accurately and to my ears spot on. Great job!

"Ceramic pickups are brittle and harsh" - laughs in Seymour Duncan invader

Myth destroyed!! Thank you!

Wow. That Tele sounded absolutely awesome with either magnet. Nice job busting the myth, too.

What i always love about this channel is all the content is real stuff. This guy knows what he's talking about and what he's doing of course. İ always find what im looking for in the content of the video. Never disappointed. Keep up the awesome work Darrell ! Loves from Turkey

I wind my own guitar pickups, and I've made about thirty so far. I've tried different types of alnico rod magets, 2,3,4 and 5. The stronger the magnet strength, the louder and brighter the pickup sounds, using the same magnet diameter and length, bobbin size and turns of wire. I personally don't like alnico 5 magnets in Strat style pickups, because they're too bright. I don't give a damn about output, because I'm not trying to overdrive an amp, so I use alnico 2 and 3, mostly. I've also mixed alnico 2 and 4 in the same bobbin, which sounds very nice. Some cheap Squier Strats use ceramic magnets with bobbins that only measure 3.7K. They use more powerful ceramics to boost the pickup's output to compensate for fewer turns of wire. A slightly stronger ceramic magnet is apparently cheaper than copper wire and the additional time it takes to put more windings on a coil. Fewer turns of wire seems to have an effect on the attack and dynamic range of the pickup as well, fewer turns = faster attack and less compression/more dynamic range. These are not good things, if they don't suit your playing style. If you do like more attack and dynamics, then a Charlie Christian style pickup will give you that, with the heavier gauge wire on the coil augmenting those characteristics. I've also wound Strat style pickups with larger p90 sized bobbins and 38, 39, 40 and 41 gauge wire, FWIW, and I'm well aware of the effects of wire gauge as a result.

Some of the coolest recorded guitar sounds come from ceramic magnet loaded pickups. Old Gibson dirty fingers pickups were ceramic loaded (and John Sykes wrote some badass chops there), Ace Frehley from KISS used DiMarzio SuperDistortion extensively and he got great crunchy tones as well. Ritchie Blackmore in his first Rainbow era played with Schecter Monstertones, which were/are ceramic tapped single coils. Rhoads and Lynch both did great use of the Duncan Distortion back in the day . Joe Barden made a lot of great sounding ceramic pickups as well. No reason to bash the entire category

The best ‘myth buster’ video you have done was the tone wood comparison where you chopped up the guitar. Only very minor nearly imperceptible differences. Thanks again Darrell. Just play what feels and sounds good to you.

I’d love to see you expend on this, similar tests for alnico 2, 3, 4, 5 etc

Great job dispelling more guitar myths. I've learned so much from Darrell. I'm a huge fan of Alnico 5 pickups because the majority of my guitars are Strats. I have two "metal" guitars with ceramic pickups and they have their strengths. My new Soloist sports Duncan Hot Rails that I've definitely learned to appreciate in the last two weeks!

Yeah, those magnetic fields do not know or care who their parents are

I recently found some interesting pickups in an old used guitar I bought very cheap. The guitar is from a Brazilian brand called status, that existed during the 80, and made lower quality cheap guitars. The pickups were dead, but interestingly, they had ceramic magnets, but not like you normally see today. Instead of steel slugs and a ceramic bar, there was 6 cylindrical magnets, with the same dimensions of alnico magnets, but ceramic. So I tried replacing the alnico slugs from a pickup and it sounded the very same. By the way, they were weaker ceramic magnets, measuring virtually the same as the alnico ones, according to the phone gaussmeter. By that, I think the difference we usually hear when comparing alnico and ceramic is more related to the distribution of the magnetic field around the pickup, more than anything else.

You're such a Canadian I love it

Much of the difference in Ceramic vs Alnico is that usually they are of different strengths in magnets. And people fail to realize you have to adjust pickup height to compensate.

I just watched the speaker video before this one (AlNiCo vs ceramic) and after watching both, I must say that I'm shocked by how much of a difference the magnet made in both instances. I did, for the most part, prefer the sound of the AlNiCo speaker, even though the ceramic one still sounded good, but in this instance, I think the ceramic pickups sound better. I'll still do listening tests before buying, but I'll probably be more likely to stick with ceramic magnets when it comes to the pickups. Great video!

I literally needed this video. I have been planning to change the stock pick ups on my squier bullet which have cheap ceramic and scratchy pickups. This led me to believe that ceramics tend to have that tone characteristic.

Please title this as Ceramic vs Alnico mythbusters. People need to see this video when researching pickups!! Great vid nonetheless

This is EXACTLY why I trust what my EARS HEAR vs the uneducated online forums. I've been a bass player for almost 30 years, and the myths like this are so discouraging for new generations of guitarist and bassists. Many factors come into play with sound. Room dynamics, pickups, type of amp, the way you play the instrument. Sound is subjective and EVERYONE hears sound differently. So test many combinations until you find what you love and what sounds best to your ears. Thank you Darrell for the video. It is a great starting point. :-)

I switched from ceramic to alnico on my strat and immediately smiled when i played the first E chord. It was chime-y, bright, sparkly and exactly what i was looking for. I thought ceramic was too warm and muddy

Another myth: Shielding eliminates single coil hum.

Great video. I definitely loved the ceramic more. I would say ceramic is warmer, mid or balanced EQ and alnico is more bright like it is EQ'd for treble and has more clarity. But both sound great. Neither was harsh. Great depending on style. Love the videos.

The AlNiCo magnets definitely have more bite and clarity and sounded good for the louder stuff. The ceramic magnets sounded better on the softer stuff.

Darrell.... BillyJ south of Pittsburgh... just caught this vid and I must say came at a good time... thinking of swapping my Epi pickups... good insight... thanks man... always nice info.. have a great day..

I have ceramic pickups in my made in favourite guitar and I wouldn't describe the sound they produce as brittle etc. I think your bang on busting these ancient myths. Crack on making awesome videos.

Thanks ! Good demo. Ceramics are better for distortion (they overdrive easier and have a warmth to their sound.) Alnicos are better for clarity (They are clearer sounding, but don't have the warmth of a ceramic pickup.) Which one you use, depends on the style of music that you are playing and/or where you want your guitar part to sit in the mix. Want clarity: use alnico. Want warmth and distortion: use ceramic.

My Gibson V has 498r/500t ceramic pickups. They ROCK! My best sounding guitar.

Just great! Always smart, and meticulous. Also, great respect to you as a player. Thanks a lot for everything you do for humanity!

First electric guitar I ever got as a kid was an MIJ Squier ‘Wayne’s World’ 62 OlyWhite Strat... it had ceramic Strat pickups in it and sounded killer; true single coil vintage vibes coming out of those with a 5-way... cool comparison, fun vid to watch, thx for taking the time. Side note on the whole subject, the Ceramic/Alnico Hybrid, like in those Tony Iommi pickups are a trip too...

Now that I've seen the comparison side by side I can honestly say that I prefer the ceramic over alnico.

Peavey Super Ferrites are ceramic and are some of the best sounding pickups ever made. Super clean, warm, articulate and refined like a vintage piano.

I have never been more blown away by a set of Strat pickups than I was a couple of months ago when I got a Squier Bullet hardtail Strat. My plans to throw the stock ceramic pickups out and replace them with alnicos has been scrapped. I even found another set of the same pickups on Ebay that I will use for a build project that somebody else took straight out of a brand new Bullet and they cost me almost nothing. They work very well for being clearly heard on a loud stage!

I couldn't bond with the 85/15 "S" pickups in my PRS SE, so instead of changing pickups possibly being further disappointed, So I scoured the net for information on pots and alterations. Eric Johnson uses 300k pots to brighten the guitar, some companies use 450k pots to darken bright guitars. so, I experimented with resistors soldered from output to ground, I ended with 1.2 meg resistor, the 85/15 "S" now have a really nice early PAF sound. also, in my search I found a schematic for PRS DGT, it places resistors between coil tap wires and switch lugs, eliminating volume drop while coil tapped ;)

One thing you have to consider about this test is usually the comparisons drawn online differ from like a basic tier Squier versus a Fender Custom pickup. Often they are jaded by bad potentiometers to start, but I would say Squiers ceramic pickups arent exactly the most juicy sound.

Ever since I found you on KZfaq, I have followed your videos. Excellent information every time. I am 72, been playing guitar for 60 years. Been in two BIG touring bands. I REALLY enjoy your videos, Thank You.

You are right Darrell, the internet is full of this gear bs. By the way, both magnet configurations sounded great to me. Nice work man, and have always loved your telecaster, beautiful looking rock machine.

hey .. Darell, Can u please tell me the pick up you used in this video intro's riff?

Great video. One thing I think I remember about Alnico, is that as it ages, it becomes more mellow, so, a vintage Alnico pickup would be much different from a modern one.

The ceramic pickups just seemed fuller to my ears and I preferred them over the alnico pickups

Fralin uses ceramic in his noiseless dual bar Strat pickups and Seymour uses them in the humbuckers that fit in a strat space , both sound fantastic !

I'm in love with this doublebinding Fender Tele & thanks for the Video!

I love your channel, all your videos really show the light in many aspects. Thanks!

How about "String Through Body vs Top Loader," particularly looking at Teles and Jazz/P Basses?

Great myth buster and video Darrell. Totally agree with your assessment here. How about testing bone nuts against a plain old inexpensive synthetic nut for sound next?

Awesome demo, Darrell. I could really hear the difference and agree that the ceramics sounded warmer and fatter. Really helpful for a guitarist on a budget.

This is gold. Bold. Hats off... Bless your heart and bless your work

Wonder how those pick ups would look through a wave graph on a recording software.

The ASAT with ceramic pickups was my favorite by far.

Hey Darrell! Great video, as usual! Did you consider publishing some of your episodes in a podcast? That would be awesome!

love your channel and I love the fact that you are proving what I've been saying for years about "tone woods" and pickups etc.

When I play Ambiant music with my Gibson Explorer it’s with a strymon big sky, I like the tone of my Seymour Duncan jazz neck (alnico ) it has a lovely presence . And a Duncan distortion in the bridge ( ceramic ) for that heavy stuff , But with my Mexican strat with the singles (HSS -stock ceramics) it sounds very clear ,chimmy , more articulate in responsive , I have a Pegasus (alnico ) in The bridge and it sounds bright when I play metal music , and has too much of a lively presence . It’s a tone that’s taken me awhile to adapt with but it sounds good nonetheless. Depending on what I record , most of the time I go with my fender strat My PRS S2 custom 24 has Alpha/Omega sets (ceramic ) Ambiant, classical music and jazz ..sounds angelic with my strymon big sky . aggressive , full and clear with distortion All in all .. I guess it just depends on what someone’s intent is , how much Output they want and what genre they want to play .. Can’t go wrong with alnico and ceramic mixes sorry for the long stories lol

The difference I heard between the 2 was definition of the notes was clearer with the Alnico. Especially the crunch tones, the ceramics sounded muddier.I've played ceramic pick ups that just sounded great, and then some not so much.

THIS IS .... THE VIDEO. All the truth right to our ears ... to the brain ! No words to convince the crowd. This guy has done a PERFECT video !

Found this 5 year old video to be still so very usefull. Thank you! Excellent objectivity and excellent playing.

Thanks for breaking the myth. Bought a bunch of wilkinson p90s that sound great as ceramic. I'm a luthier and am guilty of the alnico myth. Was about to spend all this time upgrading the magnet to alnico. But I actually do prefer ceramic p90s.

One single description: Ceramic are not as chimey. They have more middle tone.

Given the guitars I was buying in the mid 2000s, I settled on Alnico for Teles and Ceramic for Strats. Brings out the best in each and you can get a really bright Tele, and a very woody Strat!

Gran demostración!! Muchas gracias, estoy de acuerdo!!

Sometimes harsh, brittle and gnarly is a good thing. Some of Neil Young's guitar work sounds like that - and I love it.

Darrell, How about a test on fingerboard Material's. Ebony has me wondering the most !

Hey Darrell! Love your videos! Here is a topic for you to check out: Scale leinght - difference between Strat 25,5", PRS 25", Les Paul 24,75", Fender Mustang 24", Gibson Byrdland 23,75" Peavey T30 23" Do they need different gauges to get the right sound? Can a shorter scale affect the tone? Or maybe some other questions?

Fabulous, thank you Darrell - great information - happy new year to you.

Great Video!!! Thank you for spreading the message to a wider audience :) I have guitars with AlNiCo pickups and Ceramic pickups and they all sound great. Of cause there are a lot of bad ceramic pickups out there especialy on budget guitares where the factory did not so much care about the sound but about saving money, but that's also true with cheap alnico pickups. It's more the cheap pot metal rods and the thin low-quality

Great video as always👌👌👌.. The thing I miss was a blind test (I'm a huge fan your blind test, cause I always failed it most time😅😅).. Well I think another big myth is with string guages. Many articles says that the higher you go it sounds better.. But honestly i watched lots of professionals using 9 and may be 8. Like Clapton, B.B and Steve vai does.. Sorry for bad English😁😁😁

Great Subject. Loved hearing about the Frankenstein pups too! Never heard that story before.

This is simply the best video I've seen on this topic. And I've always had this very same impression regarding ceramic pickups: they are the opposite of "bright", but this doesn't have to be a bad thing. Great overall analysts! Way to go, pal. Rock on!

Darrell great video! About time someone started breaking this stuff down. The pickup is designed to be a system in itself. Designed to be a device that makes AC electricity and send it to the amp. It's only my opinion here, but I think it's quite easy to keep these stereotypes going with all the cheap crap pickups coming out of Asia with a 'fridge magnet hot glue gunned to the bottom of an imitation Strat pup. Most of them sound like the descriptive garbage they use. But if you take the Alnico Squier pups coming out of the Cort factory in Indonesia for example, they sound good Really good. But they are weak, and thin. They have that Strat chime we all look for, but nowhere near the volume of say a MexiStrat with the ceramics in it, The big thing about Alnico vs Ceramic is this... Alnico magnets over time, will lose their magnetic strength. Ceramics will not. They will never go flat. So over time, an Alnico will sound like a "vintage" pup. One that has been sitting around for 30 years. But they can be topped off again, and sometimes they sound like crap. That is one of the services I provide. Remagnetizing old pups that have lost their charge. And sometimes I end up having to pull some of the charge back off, just to get it sounding good again. But aside from the MexiStrat pups, the big thing that Leo had learned before his death, was how great the ceramic magnets were. The magnet's big job is, to work in conjunction with the specific winding, and to take that AC charge and hit the front end of the amp, with varying degrees of strength. Anyone that has heard Leo's MFD pups, would never call them harsh or brittle. They are probably some of the fullest and warmest sounding pups I have ever heard, especially from a single coil. Great pups!!! And they will always sound that good, because the ceramic mag will not lose strength over time and they are not shock sensitive. Now I know you did that G&L review with the MFD pups a couple weeks ago. But have you done any reviews with the Z-coil MFD's in a guitar? That would be a great video!! I have a G&L Comanche with the Z-coil pups in it. That is one very unique sound! Almost like a humbucker in it's strength and warmth, but definitely a pup all on it's own!! I've never even messed around with raising or lowering the pole pieces yet. They are all bottomed out, and sound great. That's a video I would definitely be excited to see. Even the Asian model of the Comanche... can't remember what it's called right now, but from what I hear, they are dead quiet in the 60 cycle hum department, without having an onboard preamp. That was the whole idea behind the Z coil anyway. Get rid of the hum, yet still be a single coil. Great pups, but don't expect it to sound like a Strat, regardless of the shape. yeah I would definitely love to see a video on that one. But beware Darrell, you go playing one of those, and you might just have another keeper on your hands. Your collection would definitely end up growing by at least one, because you won't be selling it to make room lol. Great vids as usual Darrell, and definitely a thumbs up for breaking down some more of these stupid guitar myths. If we could tear some more of those down, perhaps the guitar industry could move forward out of the 1950's!!! I like vintage cars as much as the rest of the guys out there, but you don't see me going down and ordering a brand new 1956 Plymouth Belvedere.... Bob in Germany BiG

You nailed it, as always, DB. More expensive pickups =better. Right?? Well, it depends. It’s all relative to what each individual player likes and hears. However, the big manufacturers will lead you to believe that the cheaper option will leave more to be desired. Which isn’t necessarily true. It’s all about marketing and $$$. Regardless, great video DB. You’re my dude.

Darrell will make us believe, listen it, feel it, then make it right! Don't believe on such descriptions, Darrell is here to burst out all myths! Love your channel Darrell!

Without a doubt the most honest and comprehensive pick up sound demonstration I've seen so far. The basic function of a pickup is to turn string vibration into an electronic signal that can be sent to the front of an amplifier to be manipulated by gain and eq then amplified or made louder. Simple concept, magnet reacts to string vibration and sends that reaction through multiple windings of wire for a typical -20db signal gain. The magnet strength and number of wire windings and wire gauge determine the output of the pick up. The acronym Alnico stands for (al) aluminum, (ni) nickel, (co) cobalt. This metal alloy accepts a certain level of magnetization and looses it's magnetic field over time. This suggests that the Alnico pick up will deliver reduced output over time. Ceramic accepts a stronger level of magnetization and suffers no lose over time. After market pick up manufacturers invest a lot of time and money experimenting and marketing. I've never come across a $110 pick up that had more mojo than a $30 pick up just because a well known person was paid to endorse it. An easy trick to help determine pick up output is to test it for resistance with a volt/ohm meter. The higher the resistance reading, the greater the output. I like the way the sound clips moved quickly for instant sound comparison. The ceramic are noticeably higher output. This will at a certain point slightly overload an amplifier input resulting in slight break up of the signal. A slightly overdriven sound. Want to clean it up? How about a slight adjustment of that variable resister on the front of the guitar, good ole volume pot. Sound a little brighter than your ear would prefer? Change the value of the tone capacitor which is merely a high frequency filter. Even though your tone control lives on 10, the signal is still passing through that capacitor and makes a tonal difference. Hopefully I am staying in bounds with the spirt of myth busting. Ultimately you need to allow your ears to judge.

You should do tone Woods. Ash vs Alder vs basswood, vs Mahogany. Does body wood make a sonic impact on overall tone?

Always prefered ceramic pups. The whole vintage craze was always lame to me, so I avoided them that way, but I just prefer the sound. Thanks for confirming these things

NICE! Very helpful. I like the way you roll. Thank you for your time

Brilliant! Thanks for publishing this!

I think you should do a live show together with @PhillipMcNight. I think that would be simply awesome watching you both guys talk guitar!!!

just like tonewood on solid body electric guitars. We use alder cause its warm and balances well with maple. More advertising buzz words that make you feel good. They dont want you to know the wood they choose is cheap to buy and easy on their tools.

You provide a valuable service,Thanks so much for the good work you do!

Thanks for clearing this up. I have had the exact argument with many people.

The ceramic pick up basically sounded like the alnico with the treble turned down.... So the Alnico sounded much more open and for me, better. The only sample I thought the ceramic sounded better was the high gain/crunch chords you played. But, you can probably just dampen the treble a bit on the alnico to smoothen that out. You can’t open up the ceramic any further, therefore it is limited compared to the alnico. My two cents

Brian May's Burns tri-sonics are ceramic. Does anyone think he sounds harsh?

I totally agree with you Darrell!

Wondering if you could do a video on the difference is in blade style pick ups vs pole pickups and z-core pickups. Great work and addicted to your channel!

To my ears, ceramics are just warmer/rounder/better for jazz, yet dead in distortion. Alnico - better high end, tighter bass and mids, belly/chimy, and MUCH livlier w/ distortion.

Thanks for some practical demonstration of this topic. there is so much snake oil surrounding guitars, and their construction, that its nice to see some of this nonsense dispelled with actual demonstration. It just goes to show some people simply recycle what they read as opposed to fact.

REALLY well done comparison on this topic. It answered all of the questions that I have seen floating around the rock-o-sphere. 😎👍👍

Thanks for this Darrell if anything the ceramics sound a little more rounder and warmer to me than the alnicos...interesting and I wont be afraid to try a guitar with them in the future.