Great videos, very informative but as a physicist there were a couple things that bugged me 1) as others noted treble frequencies being more pronounced near the bridge is not due to differences in amplitude. It’s because the string vibrates in a combination of standing waves and lower frequency standing waves have their max amplitude further away from the bridge. If amplitude determined frequency then the frequency would change as the note decays 2) “Gauss” is a German name and rhymes with mouse.

A million more years and I won't hear a better explanation of the pickup generating a guitar signal. Thank you!

First guy that has talked that in depthly about magnets. Awesome!

You know, I'm not new to pickups, yet this was the most informative pickup video I've come across! Not a second wasted! All info, all facts, step-by-logical-step, and the Gaussing part was just a damn thrill, it really was! THANK you!!

Excellent lecture! I’ve watched dozens of videos from others and essentially I learned nothing. Glad I found you.

I watched this a few years ago and decided to watch it again as a refresher. Great stuff!!

Extremely inspiring, thank you!!! I'm building pickups myself and I just bought a Gaussmeter. Now, following your approach I do not need to have faith on my purchased magnetized magents having all a consistent/equivalent magnet stregth (which they do not, and it can mess up your self built single coils). I can now homogenize my magnet rod strength or EQ my pickups. I will try next degaussing Alnico 5s into Alnico 2s (which are more scarce and pricy).

Wow! My mind is blown. I’m a retired EE and thought I understood the magnetic workings of PU and coil. You are a master Jedi of the PU. I even heard you say “ feel the force”. This is the best explanation I’ve ever heard. And being new to guitar See described as an inverse relationship between knowledge of the science and the ability to play the guitar. (Naming something a hummbucker because it bucks the hum is my go to example). Please keep making these videos. I feel like I just entered a masters degree course in Maxwell’s equations.

Yes, please - more episodes on magnets. I have done a bit of magnet swaps and Alnico recharging. It's been quite fun & rewarding. The HB's, in my inexpensive 335 & hollow body, have received a nice tuneup.

You may have simplified enough that some essential points got fuzzy: 1) The string sound is brighter when closer to the bridge because the higher overtones have higher amplitude, since they have shorter wavelengths and their peaks are closer to the bridge pickup. 2) The reason people associate brighter sounds with stronger magnets is that they allow fewer windings (than when using a weaker magnet) to get the the same output signal level. Fewer windings mean less of both inductance and inter-winding capacitance, which means a higher resonant frequency. In the extreme, you end up with a one-turn "Lace Sensor". If you can show some math where the strength of the magnet alone (and no change in mutual inductance due to different magnet material) affects resonant frequency (or the frequency response), I'm listening! Last quibble: Gauss is pronounced to rhyme with "mouse", no big deal, but that's how Carl Friedrich himself said it when we hung out together. He could sweep pick a gut-string guitar like nobody else. He had a way of making the "ss" sound a bit softer like "sz", though.

INSTANT SUB!!! I really appreciated how you explained all this in such simple words. I'm a 54yr old Tx blues guitar player and I searched for ''my'' perfect tone for decades. I know that it much comes down to the player himself which is obviously why I'm not yet satisfied 😁. In an attempt to find other culprits than myself, and also out of a great curiosity, I've been searching into the magic world of luthery and electronics 😉. This is the most comprehensive video about pu's I ever came across. I really thank you for this sir 🙏. Now, if I can't improve my playing to my likings, I will be in position to better explain this in much more scientific ways lol 😂 Be safe and happy brother! Blues on 👍

After 30 yrs of playing someone finally explains this. Thank you 😀

Thank you so much!!! I've been waiting for this information for ages. Not that it matters at all but Gausse (sp.?) rhymes with house, he was a German mathematician.

I found my very first electro guitar recently, so I decided to restorate it with new parts.Funny enough, I decided on some parts to order but the longer I waited while saving money, the more expensive they got and here I am making my own pickups thanks to you sharing such information...which makes this guitar much more valuable now.I hope you'll have a nice day and keep your awesome work up.

Peavey used a lot of A8 magnets in the pre-1990 days. Contributed greatly to the particular sound of the T-series guitars and basses.

In the mid part it feels like taking physics lectures from professor.. 🙏

Yes please show us the gauss and degauss process

Thanks for sharing your experience on this topic, of which I’ve found very little information in print. I want to try swapping out the magnets in one of my guitars. This ought to be a big help.

Thank you. If you could please describe about the magnet process more that would be much useful

HIGHLINE, try to make a video lesson about the differences between Oriented and Unoriented magnetics because the pattern of particles are different between the two. I think the Oriented magnetics are PREmagnetized during the melting process but they still need to be magnetized after the melting process also.

I love your teaching Yah 1 EXCELLENT...you are concise...God bless you more

Thanks Chris, these last 2 videos on pickups have been awesome! I am trying to learn about pickups currently, and these have really helped. You make complicated stuff easy to understand. Thanks again!

amazing video. Im not planning to make any guitar or magnet myself but your info is highly appreciated

hey I want to see that video about magnetizing / demganetizing ALnico Bars.

Very timely. Thanks, and perfectly answers my question from last week. Of course you already answered it. Thanks again.

The electrons themselves don't move. They carry the charge as a field outside the conductor. I think this may be the biggest misconception about electricity there is; that electrons move along the wire. They don't, at least, not as we might visualize it. They actually stay right where they are, even though they might get excited. Your videos are really cool BTW.

Many thanks for this information, it's very useful. Maybe you can help me out to understand why do we want south pole up in the pickup? Many thanks in advance.

Thank you for sharing your profound experience in such a comprehensible manner. Truely appreciated

Thank you for the clarity on the explanation

Me encantaría entender lo que está explicando... Se podrá grabar con audio en español? O aunque sea con subtitulo? Desde ya muchas gracias. Saludos desde Jujuy Argentina.

All this content is really interesting. Where do you get your alnico plates and rods? Can you buy them already magnetized?

here you are, summarizing stuff i learned from bouncing all over the internet. thank you, sir. your contribution is noted! SUBBED! (learned about replacing poles to upgrade a pickup. just now realized that that's only a single-coil thing, and that those ARE the magnets. also just learned about the alnico 2 and 5, and you summed those up so well AND mentioned 8s and ceramic! NICE! found this vid when looking for more detail on humbukks and then also maybe doing a complete build of any pickup myself. i've seen someone do it on a machine but also know thicker wire exists and so maybe that can be done by hand? tbd.)

Also as you explained the difference of bridge and neck pichup, so how we identify single coil pickup?

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate it 🙏

Great videos! I learn so much from your videos. Thank you

It is very interesting, how to make a device for magnetizing and demagnetizing pickups with neodymium magnets. Thanks! 👍

Is there any point in mixing magnets? I know of 3 pickups that do. One is the gibson iommi signature that has both A2 and ceramic and they do have a unique sound. Another one is the schecter apocalypse with A5 and ceramic which to my ears doesn't sound anything different. The last one I can't remember but I think it was a signature humbucker with A8 and a different magnet.

Great video lesson. I appreciate you taking the time to educate us. There’s not a ton of info out there on the subject and if i ask questions people are very hesitant to explain anything. Thankyou. Also what pickup winder should I start with. Im eager to start winding and experimenting

Very interesting and informative video, thanks. However I was confused when you pronounced Gauss as 'gauze', in Europe it is pronounced 'gouse', it rhymes with house. Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and physicist.

You sound like a college professor. Great vid!

Wow very cool! Can you mix different alnico slugs within one pickup? Say a #8 on the wound strings, and a #2 on the plain strings?

I read somewhere that the magnet simply magnetizes string, it does not disrupt the field as previously thought, the vibrating string creates a changing magnetic field as it produces its own field. I haven’t tried it yet, but have been meaning to put the magnet there for a minute, then remove the magnet.

Would the electrical conductivity of a magnet effect the tone? I would assume that the same vibrations in the magnetic field that induce a current in the pickup would also induce some eddy-currents in the magnet if it was a conductor. Which in turn would lead to some kind of signal power loss the same way transformer cores would if they're not laminated. I always figured that was why ceramic magnets have more high end because they're the poorest electrical conductor

thanks so much for your tutorials! what's a good source for pickup wire and magnets?

Degaussing would be great as well as how to disorientate a magnet?

Really great stuff... thanks so much for the awesome video content! All the best brother!~

Is there a recipe book so to speak for different types of pickups?

Incredible clear info

Best explanation yet!

Great video! Can you make a video please, about the neodymium bar magnet ? I changed the ceramic H (in my HSS) with one of neodymium. It's like he's on anabolics. Maybe one has to know the diameter and quantity of the coil.

great video, thanks. Question, at what strength do you normally charge your alnico pickup magnets to for single coils?

THANKS, HG!

The more I learn, the deeper I go, the more thin my wallet becomes.

Hi. I had the idea of adding magnet to my single strat pickup. So what exactly will happen if we attach another magnet on back of pick up? Also why manufactures use seramic magnet instead of Neydenuim one which is more powerful ? That 1 pice magnet wont effect the price of pickup for sure

Fantastic video cheers 👍

What a great video! Thanks!

Hello, in your opinion, what characteristics should a pickup for precision bass have?

Well explained!

I just had a guitar arrive with 'PAF' style A5 humbuckers and they are dark and muddy, brittle in the highs. I want new pickups but have no idea what to get.

I was thinking about getting a better gaussmeter, but the URL for the expensive gaussmeter is dead. What was the make and model?

Very interesting thx

Thank you for detailed explanation. Ok. sowhat would happen if I would put an additional flat magnet under my pickup ? ! :O

Maybe a dumb question, but what happened to the other Alnicos? (3, 4, 6, 7 etc)

Cool vid. Do any humbuckers have real magnet polepieces?? Thnxx brother ❤

Hey can i use my big neo magnet as a generator in my Alnico II pickup? And then i am shall wind accordingly. Or would i am be better off just having a big slab of tungsten for a mass, as a generator for the pickup? Also thought of using Stainless steel mass.

This is so informative Chris, thank you. Do you think Ceramic and 44 awg copper wire would make a nice combination for heavy gain pickups? (For playing extreme music)

Great info, thanks

What megnet best for a humbucker pickup Distraction or metal sound?

i have a question. so the gentleman says stronger the magnet makes the tone brighter and neodymium magnets are considered to be stronger than alnico yet they are shown to be warmer than alnicos in the tests. so whats up with this? google 'the strongest magnet' and it'll say neo but why isnt it giving a brighter tone?

GREAT VIDEO CHRIS!!! THANK YOU!

Hello and thank you for this informative episode. I would like to ask you a question on a subject that intrigues me. A while ago, I bought an epiphone 335 with P90 pickups, those pickups aren't crappy, but close. So I tried to upgrade them and upon opening them, I found that these pickups are actually the reverse of humbucker pickups, a single coil with two bar magnets on each side. I changed the polarity of one of the bars, without conclusive result, still bad then I removed a bar, and there, the microphone became exploitable and almost not bad. The DC resistance has remained the same (11-12 K ohm) but the nature of the sound has clearly changed, less bass and mud, more defined and more trebly. I had a friend listen to them, he agrees with me, so it's not a placebo effect but I don't understand what happened anyway... do you ?

I just like too know ,(if you don’t mind) could I use an alnico 2 magnet of a humbucher , & put it on a single coil pickup , to replace the ceramic magnet ?? Thanks . I do find your show , very interesting.

Does Alinco 3 and 4 not exist anymore? I was under the impression that Alnico 4 ( for example) was even better for higher mids? But I have struggled to find these magnets.

If you wound the coil to produce a warm sound wouldn't you use a bright magnet like alnico 5 to balance it out?

Also I have noticed 1 out of 3 of my strat pickups has opposide pole magnet direction. Why is that?

Great info. Thanks!

Technically, I think the correct way to say it is when a magnet field moves through the copper wire it generates the electric signal, so is not the string vibrations, but the fact a metal element affects the magnetic field, making it move thus generating the electric signal of the pickup. Is not that the string waves generate the electricity per se. And this is why a nylon or plastic string will not affect the pickup, since you need a metalic/magnetic element to affect the magnetic field.

Does a magnetic pickup have a negative effect on hip endoprosthesis? This is very important information for me and I do not know the answer.

Dude, thank you

What are the issues around ceramic magnets, and why do you prefer using Alnico 8 instead of ceramics. Can ceramic magnets lose their charge over time? I have pickups in my 1985 Ibanez Artist that were some of the first joint ventures between Ibanez and DiMarzio, which have a triple ceramic magnet set up. I really like them for their strength as a passive pickup. What makes a triple ceramic magnet more appropriate for the job as a high output pickup?

Great video, but very noisy and strange sounding sound (with high quality headphones).

Great video

do you have the magnet color codes many dealers use?

Brilliant !

Is it possible to accidentally de-charge my charging magnet with an alnico magnet? Also if i want to change the polarity of say a strat pickup, could I just throw it in my magnetizing jig to flip the polarity?

is it fine to replace one type of magnet with another type?

love your videos, i find them really honest and objective Here's my question: i've recently seen a couple nice sounding neodymium magnet loaded pickups, do you have experienced using that type of magnet? and if not: in theory, what do you think that would be a good aproach for making a pickup with that kind of magnets? Thank you a lot!

Is it difficult to un-orientate a magnets direction or shape of field?

I want to buy this pickup winding machine, how to order? Plz reply sir

Love your videos! I do have a question though: I'm looking to replace the ceramic bar magnets on the bottom of a stock Sterling Stingray humbucker with Alnico. However, the Alnico magnets I'm finding aren't as tall as the ceramic ones. Is it possible to stack two of them together to replicate a taller magnet? Thanks!

So if you tuned your 6 string to a C, you feel .44 gage and ceramic or alnico8 would be a good match? Oh and what would a .30 or.34 gage do or be good for? Or why wouldn't you use those?

Hi! And I am again. Can you give me recommendations? I bought a humbucker in bridge position 15.5 kohm, 8.21 H , Alnico 8 - very sharp sound. A lot of high fr. on clean and too much sharpness on gain, what kind type of magnet I can replace this Alnico 8 to get soften sound like classic PAF? Thanks!

Very informative, Thank You. Could you talk a little about using Neo magnets in pickups? I have been making some flatpup type humbucker pickups for my 3 string CBG's with good success using 2mm x 8mm neo magnets, using them mainly for their economy, I can't find the others at a reasonable price. Can you advise me on this?

That gauss meter you linked is no longer available. Can you find another and link to it ?

Thank you for another great video! I've tried to re-magnetize a rod magnet using two big neodinium button magnet ( they sell me as "neodinium" ) but didn't worked to me. The little rod din't change much its magnetic force; so how strong ( in term fo gauss ) are the big bar you use to magnetize ? Thak you !

Did the Alnico contain any iron in composition, or only AL, Ni and Co ?

How about neodymium magnets?

Great video TY ! Liked Subbed!

👍

Thank you