# Pole piece rod magnets vs magnet bar in humbucker



## plyta (Apr 22, 2008)

I've noticed only today  that there are 2 different full-size humbucker designs: PAF design with magnet bar under them coils, and the single-coil design with magnet rods as pole pieces inside them coils (kinda like 2 singlecoils on 1 mounting plate: Progressive - Stag Mag&#8482; SH-3 - Seymour Duncan/Basslines, many of them Rio Grande pickups).

Could any one describe sonic differeces between these two designs (comparing sound in standard series wiring)?


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## dpm (Apr 22, 2008)

Humbuckers that use alnico magnet slugs instead of a bar magnet are very unusual. Given identical coil size, shape, and windings the alnico slug pickup will be brighter with less output. The steel polepieces and keeper bar in the PAF design increase the inductance of the coils which results in a warmer and louder sound.


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## D-EJ915 (Apr 22, 2008)

there are also some pickups which use magnets as the rails, such as the SD Scott Ian el diablo


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## dpm (Apr 22, 2008)

This might help.... I just uploaded a quick and dirty clip of my bass pickup. The first half (30 seconds) is alnico poles with ceramic bars underneath, the second half is steel poles with ceramic. The only difference between these two sounds is the slug material so it's a good demo of how iron content effects a pickup's tone.

Sevenstring.org - Jukebox - Now Playing:: alnico & ceramic vs. steel & ceramic bass coils


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## plyta (Apr 22, 2008)

Thanks a lot


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## supertruper1988 (Apr 22, 2008)

the stag mags are made that way so the when split the produce a very authentic strat sound


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## plyta (Apr 23, 2008)

Nordtrand humbuckers in some of Mike Sherman guitars seems to have this magnet slug construction as well







nordstrand signature guitar pickups


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## ibznorange (Apr 23, 2008)

Could you do both? use a small amount of winds to keep it from getting overly hot, have alnico slugs, and a bar magnet?


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## dpm (Apr 23, 2008)

The alnico side of that bass pickup uses ceramic bar magnets as well. The output of that side is still not quite as hot as the steel slug side with exactly the same wind. Adding the ceramics increases the magnetic field of the alnicos and in turn increases output. That's OK on a single bass pickup but a set of guitar pickups with that kind of magnetic pull would seriously effect intonation.


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