P90 magnet mixing

[dnabbet2]

I'll just go ahead and give this a try myself, but what does anybody think'll be the effect of putting two different types of magnets in a P90, such as one ceramic 8 and one ALNICO 2?

 

[dnabbet2]

I did the appropriate searches and found the existing threads.

I apologise for not doing that in the first place.

 

[goldtop0]

Let us know how it works out.

 

[dnabbet2]

Repo-o-o-o-orting!

I'm sorry this isn't more scientific, but I had an underwound Lollar P90 in the bridge of my '54-style Custom and it wasn't as bright a I thought it could be -- I play a lot of jangly R 'n' B and Soul stuff without much distortion.

So I ordered a pair of ceramic 8 magnets from Alegree, who seem easy to work with, and they made the pickup just a bit TOO bright.

And I just now slipped an old ALNICO 5, I assume, from an old Gibson P90, in one side of the pickup and now it sounds good to me, though I understand the stronger magnet will degauss the weaker one over time. But, like, how much time?

There ARE really good threads on this topic, by the way.

 

[goldtop0]

Well sounds like you've found your good combination.
A5s were also used in T-Tops back in the day, I liked the '60s ones.
I did a little swapping a few years ago with an A5 into my neck Custombucker which completely changed the middle position tone on my R8, just made it too harsh for me as the bridge pup is a monster, very strong and biting, settled on an A4 in the end and that gave the neck and middle a tad more transparency, a slightly brighter tone.
No need to worry about any degaussing, it'll be many many decades before there's deterioration I think.

 

[dnabbet2]

Well sounds like you've found your good combination.
A5s were also used in T-Tops back in the day, I liked the '60s ones.
I did a little swapping a few years ago with an A5 into my neck Custombucker which completely changed the middle position tone on my R8, just made it too harsh for me as the bridge pup is a monster, very strong and biting, settled on an A4 in the end and that gave the neck and middle a tad more transparency, a slightly brighter tone.
No need to worry about any degaussing, it'll be many many decades before there's deterioration I think.

I use the middle position a lot too, and I found after a few days' playing that the ceramic 8 in the bridge pickup was affecting the middle position sound and making it too "compressed" sounding. So I tried all the permutations for the magnets I have, and a combination of an ALNICO 2 and an ALNICO 5 sounds like the best compromise to me right now.