Just scored my first A8 pickup...as well as an A4 set...along that same line of thought!

I'm just starting to look into that. Fun stuff you say? 👍🏼

Swapping magnets is easy with most humbuckers. If you don't like how the new magnet sounds, you can swap back to the original. With pickups that have magnetized pole pieces it's usually easier to replace the whole pickup unless you can manipulate the gauss levels.

It is not as difficult as it seems: guitarism-tr.blogspot.com/2016/07/humbuckermagnetswapping.html

Angus...I just nabbed a Tonerider Octane and am looking forward to giving it a try!

Thanks for watching!

I feel the same...the SD Distortion just sounds like nails on the chalkbord to me. Lower windings on ceramic? The Duncan Custom, Dimarzio Super Distortion? I know many of the stock Ibanez pickups are ceramic.

The link in the description offers ceramic and Alnico magnetized or non-magnetized. I usually just pry them off with an X-Acto knife and a pair of pliers.

Even screwdrivers that haven't been magnetized can become magnetized when working on pickups. That being said, you only need to be concerned if your magnetic screwdrivers have a stronger pull than your pickups. If that's the case, which is unlikely, you could alter the strength of your pickup's magnet and even flip its polarity.

@@HighlineGuitars Thank you so much

They’re cheap so buy a bunch of different values and test to see what combinations appeal to you.

Yes, size matters and yes it will change the tone.

Around 400°F

see if you can get some sort of soldering flux for electronics (not the copper pipe soldering stuff), it doesn't need to be anything exotic. regular resin flux is perfect. you'll find soldering much-much easier since the flux will both de-oxidize the metal surfaces and condition the solder to flow easier. if the tip of your iron is heavy enough, anything from 350F and up... if it's a rather lighter tip (less thermal mass) you'll need more heat to solder on the pots' covers for example. ps: any movement of the joint as the solder solidifies will make a dull looking, cold joint. also, lead free solder doesn't have the regular shiny sparkle..older left on the tip of the iron long enough will burn off the flux that comes w/ the solder and become this melted metal that doesn't like to flow)

Neos are like 4 times as powerful as ceramic and Alnico 8. They sound way too bright and the magnetic pull kills sustain. To make them work requires more effort than it's worth. I know, because I tried.

@@HighlineGuitars The magnet pull is weakening exponentially from the distance to the object - just lower the pickup. In general, it would be nice to see an experiment with neo-magnets "killing" sustain. This has not received any scientific confirmation.

@@iridios6127 I tried all kind of magnets and can confirm that usual neodymium magnets are much too strong. You gain nothing if you go beyond ceramic, but loose tone and playability. Fact is, I finally used 4 very small neodymium magnets for a Rickenbacker bass pickup and that did the trick…

It might. I'd have an A8 and an A5 handy to see which sounds to your liking.

Inductance is determined by the iron content of the magnets and pole pieces. Try some different magnets to see how they affect the inductance.

Hey, i think i can help you with this :) I really think brilliant and emotional are not good words to describe pickups but i can help you with the other characteristics you’re searching for. I’m guessing that by powerful you mean a pickup that will drive an amp but the problem with sheer power is that powerful magnets tend to compress the sound so you don’t get as much sensitivity when playing altough you get a tight low end and bright top end. Alnico 2 is just fine as long as you dont drive it too much and lose the tight low end. Alnico 4 is almost always good but the sound is not very special because it has close to even frequency response. Alnico 5 is the most commonly used pickup at the moment because it is exactly what modern players look for, it has tight low end, bright top end and detailed mid response. Alnico 8 is like a substitute for a ceramic magnet and is not very common but can also be used if a ceramic magnet is overkill for the duty. Though i must say that picking a pickup by its magnet is not the perfect way to go. Their resistance among their type of pickups effects the “powerful” keyword that you’ve described. If you’re a metal player i’d suggest alnico 5, alnico 8 or a ceramic pickup. If you’re a rock player I’d suggest sticking with alnico 2, alnico 4 or an alnico 5 pickup. If i had to pick for you, I’d go for an Alnico 4 for my neck pickup and an Alnico 5 for my bridge pickup. The first set you buy doesn’t define you, try them and look for what’s missing in your sound.

The way I see it you can always add gain with pedals etc. or take it out with the volume knob. The pickup is your starting point, or default setting. For me it is about finding an appropriate range of tones I can achieve with all my gear and the specific tone where I spend most of my time.

In a single coil with a bar magnet on the bottom, the slugs are polarized, magnetized, and therefore can be measured for gauss. How much depends on the slug's composition.

@@HighlineGuitars Can you make a video comparing the gauss measurement of a single coil Slugs as the alnico 5 magnets VS compared to a Single coil Slugs with a Alnico 5 Bar magnet on the bottom, because the gauss is going to measure differently and the response of the guitar pickup. When Slugs are sitting on top of an Alnico 5 bar magnet there is an "air gap" not bolded together so the separation causes what types of problems with the magnetic field?

@@waynegram8907 The variables would make such a test unreliable.

One of these days I plan to do a video on why KZfaq audio samples are so bad. I've been holding off in hopes that the technology will improve. So far it hasn't.

@@HighlineGuitars agreed tbh Its hard to judge sound without being there in person or hearing it from a decent source

@@HighlineGuitars In a former life I worked in broadcasting, teaching engineers how digital radio worked including the bit-rate reduction techniques and a bit of 'psychoacoustics'. Any future developments will likely have more to do with further reducing the bit rate than increasing the quality. I learned back then that there is no such thing as a senior manager (ie the person making the decisions) that appreciates technical quality.

You are wrong.

Which works well for "smoother and rounder" music...