Strat Ceramic Vs Alnico

I haven t seen a strat pickup yet where ceramic magnet rods were used instead of metal polepieces or alnico slugs but it would be interesting to be able to compare them.

Strat ceramic vs alnico. Technically more efficient ceramic magnets took over in a wide variety of commercial applications starting in the 1960s but ceramic magnet guitar pickups were found to have a generally harsher more brittle sound with sharper peaks than their alnico predecessors. Let s listen to how they sound. Alnico aluminum nickel and cobalt or ceramic. So we often hear.

What s the difference between ceramic alnico magnet pickups. Alnico was used in all popular vintage pickups and generally has a warm and smooth response. By some players the ceramic magnets are given a bad reputation when compared to alnico which is probably due to their association with cheaper instruments. You often hear that the sound of a pickup is dominated by the choice of magnet used in its construction.

Donate to guitars for good causes. Ceramic magnets tend to boost treble response and have become popular for pickups with extra coil winding to compensate for the treble loss. Magnet material is usually one of two varieties. Ceramic vs alnico discussion in stratocaster discussion forum started by ratherbefishing.

Ceramic magnets are made of ceramic surprise. A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups. You see ceramic is easier to come by than alnico making it a cheaper magnet to make. Whereas alnico pickups use magnetic slugs direct loading.

The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response. Alnico tends to produce a very musical pickup in most. Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico.