Favorite Alnico 8 humbucker?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SpiderWars
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Favorite would be a Duncan Custom shop S-Deco w/ A8 magnet and two rows of hex screws.

Second would be a Duncan Custom shop Screamin' Demon wound to 13k with an A8 magnet. That thing was a firebreather.

The Alternative 8 is also a great pickup. I did a mag swap in the Custom and didn't like it as much as the Custom or Custom 5.
 
I have a couple A8 equipped bridge humbuckers made by Home Wrecker. They do have a lot of low end but they're wound so hot that lowering the pickup and raising the pole pieces compensated for it. They took a lot of adjusting but they're tops if you can dial them in properly.
 
I hade a local pickup maker(Kolev Custom Pickups) who’s very knowledgeable about original paf pickups and just knowledgeable about pickups in general made me a clone of a Ibanez Super 70 pickup which is alnico 8 wound to 8.2k and it sounds amazing
 
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I have a pair of vintage Ibanez Super 80’s. Anyone know what magnets they use? Wonder if they’re also Alnico 8

EDIT: according to what I googled it says they’re ceramic
 
On its own, i am not so much a fan of A8 and would go with the description of braintheory about the tone it gives.

But I like it combined with ceramic boosters.

Recently i have been playing this combo in a pickup wound slightly lower than a distortion/JB. Ultimately, i thought the mids were a bit too much.

So next, i would like to try that in something like a lower wind duncan custom wind, that should work really well.
That is also what that new duncan jeff loomis pickup seems to be, judging by the dcr.

I was not familiar with arcane pickups so i checked them out. My guess is there 13 is similar to a duncan custom and work well. Powerdozer seems similar to distortion/jb, so also worth a try. But they seem to use a8 alone.

Heathen pickups hugin and munin uses a8 with ceramic boosters, i would give that one a try.
 
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SpiderWars said:
Here's a pretty good comp showing just that. And to the point.

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Great video!:2thumbsup:

I had a Super 70 clone with an A-8 magnet made by Smit's pickups circa 2007 and I felt it was thin and super clanky and kinda harsh, It could have been the winder who made it but I didn't care for it. I wanted to like it... I just never could.

For me the Duncan 78 model covers what I like best and is a really harmonically rich pickup that can be grindy without being harsh but still have some PAF warmth to it.

People seem to love the Duncan Alternative 8 and the Arcane Mr Scary I just haven't tried them. You almost have to actually play them in person to see it they will work for you.
 
BrutalRob said:
On its own, i am not so much a fan of A8 and would go with the description of braintheory about the tone it gives.

But I like it combined with ceramic boosters.

Recently i have been playing this combo in a pickup wound slightly lower than a distortion/JB. Ultimately, i thought the mids were a bit too much.

So next, i would like to try that in something like a lower wind duncan custom wind, that should work really well.
That is also what that new duncan jeff loomis pickup seems to be, judging by the dcr.

I was not familiar with arcane pickups so i checked them out. My guess is there 13 is similar to a duncan custom and work well. Powerdozer seems similar to distortion/jb, so also worth a try. But they seem to use a8 alone.

Heathen pickups hugin and munin uses a8 with ceramic boosters, i would give that one a try.
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What is a ceramic booster?
 
BrutalRob said:
When you use two small ceramic magnets on the sides in place of the plastic spacers.
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Oh interesting. Some pickup makers have told me of potential issues with mixing magnets, but not sure if heard any examples myself. What if instead of ceramic you used Alnico 8 or 5 as boosters. I wonder if maybe the ceramic is filling where A8 was lacking for my taste
 
braintheory said:
Oh interesting. Some pickup makers have told me of potential issues with mixing magnets, but not sure if heard any examples myself. What if instead of ceramic you used Alnico 8 or 5 as boosters. I wonder if maybe the ceramic is filling where A8 was lacking for my taste
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Well you could demagnetise any alnico below 5 if mixed with ceramic. You could as well use alnico 5 or 8, sure. But you will not find these easily in the size needed, so ceramic is most common for that use.
It will boost the tone and add ceramic tone, making the bass tighter and the highs more aggressive. That is why i prefer a8 in combination with ceramic.
Could indeed help to fill where a8 was lacking for you.
 
I decided to just use something I've used in another guitar that I like with a 250k Volume pot...Jalen Fair Warning. I think it's ~15.5k/A5/mismatched coils, a little gnarly with a 500k volume but a 250k volume brings it right in. Greg is making me a trem spaced with nickel cover. The Arcane Lost Spec in my new partscaster just isn't cutting it thru the Marshall. That's the benchmark test...into the Marshall. If it gets dusted by my other humbucker Strat (w Jalen FW) and both my Lesters it's just not going to get played much. The Arcane neck single coil sounds killer tho. That's not going anywhere.
 
BrutalRob said:
Well you could demagnetise any alnico below 5 if mixed with ceramic. You could as well use alnico 5 or 8, sure. But you will not find these easily in the size needed, so ceramic is most common for that use.
It will boost the tone and add ceramic tone, making the bass tighter and the highs more aggressive. That is why i prefer a8 in combination with ceramic.
Could indeed help to fill where a8 was lacking for you.
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Yes that was I think why they advised me against mixing ceramic and alnico due to demagnetizing. That all makes sense. Hopefully it could also fix what I didn't like in the A8 midrange. The thing is I'd need to find now a pickup that I inherently like the voicing of and then get an A8 and Ceramic boosters to try in it. Probably not a great idea to mess with my vintage pickups for that. Not many modern pickups I care for, but maybe I could try it in my Lundgren M6 since I have several. I'd imagine an A8 with ceramic boosters in that or a Dirty Finger (both pickups with beefy low end) could sound massive. Like the Ronnie Coleman of pickups hahaha

Actually a dirty finger would be perfect to try this in. It has already 2 ceramic's on the side (which I have tried taking out and didn't care for that) and has the biggest low end I've heard so far in a pickup, but still tight and I do have one or extra A8's lying around. Thanks for the idea!
 
So @braintheory and @BrutalRob , is that the whole deal behind the Dirty Fingers and 500T? Ceramic boosters with A5 bars? I hear a distinct similarity between them. I really like the Tonenerd Psykes for that. Its almost like a PAF to the tenth power.
 
SpiderWars said:
So @braintheory and @BrutalRob , is that the whole deal behind the Dirty Fingers and 500T? Ceramic boosters with A5 bars? I hear a distinct similarity between them. I really like the Tonenerd Psykes for that. Its almost like a PAF to the tenth power.
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No I'm almost positive the Dirty Fingers is all ceramic, but just meant how it may possibly sound if I replaced the center magnet with an A8 one. The Dirty FInger's are monsters no doubt! The Psykes imo captures the overall flavor very well, but just seems hard for newer pickups to match the same rawness, extra harmonics/overtones and some other nuances of the real deal vintage versions that for me make them more inspiring to play, but you also of course have to find ways to control their noise from being unpotted vs the Psykes and many modern pickups
 
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