{"id":1087,"date":"2012-05-10T19:17:36","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T19:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2012-08-02T20:25:37","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T20:25:37","slug":"so-what-really-is-an-alnico-magnet-anyways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/gear\/electronics\/pickup\/so-what-really-is-an-alnico-magnet-anyways.html","title":{"rendered":"So what really is an Alnico magnet anyways?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now you’ve probably heard Alnico magnets referenced when checking out pickups . They are used in a wide variety of pickups, from Fender’s Vintage Jazz-Bass Set<\/a> to Antiquity’s Precision-Bass pickup<\/a>. But what exactly is an Alnico magnet anyways?<\/p>\n

An alnico is an iron alloy that is composed of, as you might guess from it’s name,\u00a0al<\/strong>uminium, ni<\/strong>ckle,\u00a0co<\/strong>balt, and iron. Yeah, not sure why iron got left out of the celebrity-couple-esque naming amalgamation device.<\/p>\n

It’s what they call a permanent magnet<\/em>, which means it holds its magnetism for a longer period of time. Along with it’s strength, this is why Alnico is often the choice of magnets in production, not just in pickups, microphones, and speakers, but also in motors and radars.<\/p>\n

When it was discovered in the 1930’s they found that it possessed a\u00a0coercivity of 400 oersted, the unit for measuring the strength and \u00a0intensity. That was double the levels they were getting from the steel magnets popular at the time.<\/p>\n

An Alnico II pickup is weaker than an Alnico V, which is weaker than an Alnico VII.\u00a0The different strength in alnico magnet pickups helps create a different tone. The strength of a magnetic field from the pickup effects the vibrations of the strings. A weaker magnet means more string vibration.<\/p>\n

However, when it comes to creating great tone, materials are often given too much credit, and great design not enough.<\/p>\n

While it’s the general opinion that Alnico creates a warm tone, in classifying one material as strictly one thing we run the risk of oversimplifying things. It’s not an exact science. There are Lindy Fralin pickups<\/a> that are designed with Alnico magnets to have a wonderful bright sound, while there are also pickups from EMG<\/a> that use ceramic magnets, but which still possess that vintage warm tone.<\/p>\n

Check out this video of Seymour Duncan, of Seymour Duncan pickups, explain the difference between Alnico magnets.<\/p>\n