Ceramic Magnet Vs Alnico 5

You often hear that the sound of a pickup is dominated by the choice of magnet used in its construction.

Ceramic magnet vs alnico 5.

Because the ceramic magnet isn t introducing compression the result is a cleaner sound in comparison to alnico. Alnico is nice and warm and great for blues. Due to the strong magnetic pull the alnico viii is a nice middle ground between the punch and clarity from a ceramic pickup and the sweet organic sound of an alnico which brings us to ceramic. By some players the ceramic magnets are given a bad reputation when compared to.

Alnico 8 has a lower residual induction but a higher coercive force. However when the magnet geometry is ideal or the magnet is used with iron steel elements in a magnetic circuit then the. The weaker magnetic field created by alnico magnets is said to give them a warmer smoother quality than a ceramic magnet but at the cost of reduced gain. A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups.

There are different numbers associated with alnico magnets such as alnico 2 or alnico 5. Some folks might liken the difference between alnico and ceramic speakers to the difference between tube and solid state amplifiers where one compresses smoothly and the other gives all it has and then clips hard. These magnets are softer than ceramic magnets and provide a weaker magnetic field. Ceramic magnets have a lower inductance since they are not metallic.

The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response. So we often hear. Alnico tends to produce a very musical pickup in most. But it all depends on the pickup.

The alnico 2 tends to sound just a little more organic woody and. That lower inductance means a little less in the way of lower midrange tone and again more brightness. Ceramic magnets are made of ceramic surprise. Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico.

Alnico 5 has more magnetic material and less ferric material resulting in slightly lower inductance. Alnico 2 is a little weaker resulting in a slightly warmer tone. This immediately suggests that alnico 8 will have a larger magnetic field compared to alnico 5 when magnets are short compared to their pole area.