Ceramic Vs Alnico Pickups Tone

Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico.

Ceramic vs alnico pickups tone.

When choosing a new pickup for your guitar consider the magnet one of the essential yet complicating elements involved in the sound creation process. Are alnico speakers really worth the extra cost. It retains articulation and clarity even with heavy distortion which makes it suited for heavy distorted styles. You will find many extreme metal players using low output alnico pickups as well as blues guys using ceramic.

There are two major types of magnets used in loudspeakers. Taking a close look at the differences between alnico and ceramic magnets and their effect on tone. Alnico and pre amp types 3 band vs. Alnico vs ceramic magnets how do they affect guitar pickup tone.

You often hear that the sound of a pickup is dominated by the choice of magnet used in its construction. In it s rod form alnico 5 gives the traditional fender tone. We use alnico 5 in all of our strat tele and bass pickups. If you enjoyed this video be sure to like and subscribe https nextgeng.

Ceramic is quite strong and gives a very bright tone. If you forced me to really break it down for you. The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response. Alnico tends to produce a very musical pickup in most.

Alnico 5 gives that open airy top end sparkle that we re so used to. This is by far our most widely used guitar pickup magnet. In fender style pickups it has the best balance of extended lows mids and highs. The size and type of magnet also affects a speaker s sound.

Whereas ceramic is used in metal as it sounds tight loud and cool. With the proper match of components you can get more sensitivity wider frequency response and more power handling ability. A brief history of stingray 5. Alnico viii is generally between ceramic and alnico v with quite a bit of magnetic pull punchy with upper mids but a little more warmth than ceramic.

You will note the significant differences in the tone that is related to the different pickup ceramic vs. Alnico 3 is weaker than alnico 4 which is weaker than 5. Now alnico 3 will give you a lot less gain and you will get a very vintage eric johnson style tone on clean and kind of a zz top or acdc overdrive. These magnet types differ and this difference affects a speaker s overall tone.

A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups. Try the blind test to find out. Alnico is nice and warm and great for blues. So we often hear.

5 is fairly similar to ceramic.