Ceramic Or Alnico Pickups

Alnico tends to produce a very musical pickup in most.

Ceramic or alnico pickups.

So much so that alnico is almost never used in grades of 5 or higher grades are used to tell a magnet s strength but only in comparison to magnets made of the same material. Alnico vii is in some pickups but this is rare. Alnico is a lot more expensive than ceramic. Due to the strong magnetic pull the alnico viii is a nice middle ground between the punch and clarity from a ceramic pickup and the sweet organic sound of an alnico which brings us to ceramic.

You often hear that the sound of a pickup is dominated by the choice of magnet used in its construction. Ceramic magnets are made from ferrites often iron oxides. A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups. Alnico vs ceramic magnets.

The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response. To crown a winner in our alnico vs ceramic magnets shootout we would need a way to accurately compare the two which is not an easy task. So we often hear. Technically more efficient ceramic magnets took over in a wide variety of commercial applications starting in the 1960s but ceramic magnet guitar pickups were found to have a generally harsher more brittle sound with sharper peaks than their alnico predecessors.

Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico. Alnico vs ceramic pickups if you re into guitar or bass guitar pickups and mods you probably hear the words alnico and ceramic a lot call us today. Alnico seems to be the popular favorite but on the other hand there is no shortage of popular recordings that feature ceramic.