Ceramic to Alnico magnet swap in humbucker - anyone done it?

[RoyBGood]

I have a 1979 Hamer Sunburst and while it's a great player, I've never got on with the sound of the bridge pickup. I understand (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the neck pickup has an Alnico 5 bar magnet, but the bridge unit has a ceramic bar magnet - it certainly has the same 'raspy' sound when overdriven as a DiMarzio SDS1 I had some time ago - which had a ceramic bar under the polepieces. I've been wondering if swapping the bar magnet to an Alnico 5 or even a 2 would give a less compressed / fuzzy overdrive in favour of a more natural 'creamy' tone - has anyone tried this? If so, what were the sonic results?

[Disturber]

The original Dimarzio OEM PAF is using the same magnet as the neck PAF. Just wound slightly hotter. It uses an A5.

U shure you aint got a SuperDistortion in the bridge, 12 hex pole pickup? Many guitars got their bridge pup switched out to a SuperDistortion in the 70's. They use a larger ceramic mag. If you shim an ordinary A5 or A2 underneath you can swap the mag in a SuperDistortion as well. Makes them more usable to todays standard, (my opinion only).

If you have the original DImarzio PAF with the A5 it can sound a bit bright in some guitars. Swapping to an A2 sometimes makes it better sounding in a bright guitar. But these PAF's are very sensetive to set up. Pickup height, alignment and adjusting the pole pieces by ear can make a huge difference.

[RoyBGood]

Thanks for the quick reply! Yes it's a standard polepiece arrangement with 6 slot-head screws adjacent to the bridge. It's a VERY bright guitar - brighter than the construction would suggest, but I think the through-body stringing and mass in the saddles may be a factor. For the small cost, I'll try an A2 and see what happens.

The original Dimarzio OEM PAF is using the same magnet as the neck PAF. Just wound slightly hotter. It uses an A5.

U shure you aint got a SuperDistortion in the bridge, 12 hex pole pickup? Many guitars got their bridge pup switched out to a SuperDistortion in the 70's. They use a larger ceramic mag. If you shim an ordinary A5 or A2 underneath you can swap the mag in a SuperDistortion as well. Makes them more usable to todays standard, (my opinion only).

If you have the original DImarzio PAF with the A5 it can sound a bit bright in some guitars. Swapping to an A2 sometimes makes it better sounding in a bright guitar. But these PAF's are very sensetive to set up. Pickup height, alignment and adjusting the pole pieces by ear can make a huge difference.

[Jeff R]

Don't know if this adds or detracts from the post, but I'll say it anyway ... in most cases, the only productive purpose ceramic pickup magnets serve in my workshop are as screw and spring holders.

** ducking **

[Disturber]

Thanks for the quick reply! Yes it's a standard polepiece arrangement with 6 slot-head screws adjacent to the bridge. It's a VERY bright guitar - brighter than the construction would suggest, but I think the through-body stringing and mass in the saddles may be a factor. For the small cost, I'll try an A2 and see what happens.

The original Dimarzio OEM PAF is using the same magnet as the neck PAF. Just wound slightly hotter. It uses an A5.

U shure you aint got a SuperDistortion in the bridge, 12 hex pole pickup? Many guitars got their bridge pup switched out to a SuperDistortion in the 70's. They use a larger ceramic mag. If you shim an ordinary A5 or A2 underneath you can swap the mag in a SuperDistortion as well. Makes them more usable to todays standard, (my opinion only).

If you have the original DImarzio PAF with the A5 it can sound a bit bright in some guitars. Swapping to an A2 sometimes makes it better sounding in a bright guitar. But these PAF's are very sensetive to set up. Pickup height, alignment and adjusting the pole pieces by ear can make a huge difference.

I think you will be surprised at the difference it will make. Make sure to try out different heights for the pickup, and you probably want the screw pole pieces aligned with the bobbin.

[sixesandsevens]

Thanks for the quick reply! Yes it's a standard polepiece arrangement with 6 slot-head screws adjacent to the bridge. It's a VERY bright guitar - brighter than the construction would suggest, but I think the through-body stringing and mass in the saddles may be a factor.

Welcome to the HFC Roy!

I agree with you on the construction of those guitars. I have an early Special which is very close in construction to yours (all mahogany, sustainblock bridge, string through body) and it's shockingly bright with the stock DiMarzio pickups.

The conventional wisdom around here is often to dial the tone back to between 5 and 7 to be more in line with the expected brightness of other guitars. Give that a shot too. It's a really cheap fix.

[RoyBGood]

...no need to duck - I fully agree!

Don't know if this adds or detracts from the post, but I'll say it anyway ... in most cases, the only productive purpose ceramic pickup magnets serve in my workshop are as screw and spring holders.

** ducking **

[Ting Ho Dung]

Didn't Hamer typically install .01 mf caps? If yours has this little cap you may want to try a .047 mf cap. I've read that the early LPs typically had the .047 cap and in recent history have switched to the .022 caps to brighten them up a bit. Or try a mag and cap swap. They're both cheap and reversible.