Pickup magnet swapping?

Brave dog! Seems like the cost is in learning the art of pickup winding after messing up the first how many tries? If it’s easy and gives good results it’ll be interesting to see what folks answer with!
 
After posting this post I ventured into my fave place, YouTube. It looks very very easy and it looks like an alnico 8 will give a hotter pup than an alnico 2. I am going to pull a magnet out from one of my Gibson pups to measure and then I will order some new magnets to try out.

My mostly used LP has 400 series pups in it (490 and 498 I think?), and I need to work out what the magnet ratings are in them? This could save me from swapping an alnico 2 for an already fitted alnico 2. Or 3, or 4 or 5... I honestly don't know the difference, but my pups could have ceramic magnets in them? Time to search Google for the info. Wish me luck.
 
Alnico 2 for the 490R and alnico 5 for the 498T. I think these pups are horrible. They are OK for hi-gain rock but I am not keen on them for lower gain bluesy stuff.

But could the plug in circuit board be the problem...
 
I have had 3 sets of 498/490 and only my 96 498T sound great for everything.

Definitely cheap enough to try! The 490 sounds great once its adjusted.
 
Rob13 said:
I swapped the A5 mags in my DiMarzio 36th Anniversaries for A2s. Easy job.
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Interesting. What kind of difference do you hear now ? i have that 36th Anni pup in my Axis neck position (AT-1 in bridge) Great pickup. Don't ask me why the original pups aren't there. 🤦‍♂️
 
It used to be "a thing" back in the day before we had the choices of after-market pickups that we do now, and I replaced the magnets in two of my Les Pauls to get more output. I got more output which made me happy but I don't bother with it any more because amps have more gain and PAF replicas are common and the better ones sound very good.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
It used to be "a thing" back in the day before we had the choices of after-market pickups that we do now, and I replaced the magnets in two of my Les Pauls to get more output. I got more output which made me happy but I don't bother with it any more because amps have more gain and PAF replicas are common and the better ones sound very good.
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I am just about ready to order some hand wound PAF replica pickups which from demos that I have heard sound incredible, but messing around with magnets could be fun. I look at the idea of trying different magnets in a way that we all look at selecting a new amp model in a Fractal unit.

I enjoy mad cap experimentation.

Earlier today I made a hot drink that was half Horlicks (a UK malted milk drink) and half hot chocolate. It was interesting. I need to experiment to see how things come out. In amp terms it would be like playing a full blown Recto through a 1x8 Fender cab. Something that you would only do once. But it was good to try.
 
Dixiethedog said:
it would be like playing a full blown Recto through a 1x8 Fender cab.
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We used to take damaged car stereo speakers and connect them to a 500 watt high-end stereo amplifier and play The Dark Side of the Moon, starting with it turned down. They'd survive the heartbeats and talking in "Speak to Me", then we'd increase the volume of each song. Eventually they'd hop up and down and spit out sparks. That's what I'd expect would happen with the 1x8.
 
Thing is - a magnet in in category (A2 etc), will be fairly inconsistent in materials mix batch to batch, mfr to mfr. esp chinesium.
 
Budda said:
I have had 3 sets of 498/490 and only my 96 498T sound great for everything.

Definitely cheap enough to try! The 490 sounds great once its adjusted.
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I personally never liked them but they are a lot better than the set in the old Classic. I quite like the burstbuckers and classic 57s. My favourite Paf is the Throbak 101.
 
The Duncan Alnico 2 is quite good but not as warm. The other thing is use enough gain in the clean to fatten it up. if there is enough headroom to stay clean when you strum it it will sound anaemic and thin fo any single not work.
 
Andy Eagle said:
The long discontinued Fender pure vintage 54 set from the 60th anniversary guitars was a very warm set. Limited to 1954 sets. NOT the custom shop 54s these are alnico3.
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This?
https://www.stratcat.biz/099-2244-000.shtml

Andy Eagle said:
The Duncan Alnico 2 is quite good but not as warm. The other thing is use enough gain in the clean to fatten it up. if there is enough headroom to stay clean when you strum it it will sound anaemic and thin fo any single not work.
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This?
https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/alnico-ii-pro-staggered

Speaking of which, what do you think about flat vs staggered pole pieces here?
 
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