Ceramic Magnet Vs Alnico 5

Ceramic magnets are made of ceramic surprise.

Ceramic magnet vs alnico 5.

By some players the ceramic magnets are given a bad reputation when compared to. That lower inductance means a little less in the way of lower midrange tone and again more brightness. The alnico 2 tends to sound just a little more organic woody and. Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico.

However when the magnet geometry is ideal or the magnet is used with iron steel elements in a magnetic circuit then the. Ceramic magnets are made from ferrites often iron oxides. You often hear that the sound of a pickup is dominated by the choice of magnet used in its construction. There are different numbers associated with alnico magnets such as alnico 2 or alnico 5.

Ceramic magnets have a lower inductance since they are not metallic. Alnico 5 has more magnetic material and less ferric material resulting in slightly lower inductance. These magnets are softer than ceramic magnets and provide a weaker magnetic field. Alnico has a higher inductance due to the iron content technically ferrite magnets are made from iron oxide so to generalize alnico will increase the inductance a bit and sound a bit warmer than a ceramic in the same pickup.

But it all depends on the pickup. The weaker magnetic field created by alnico magnets is said to give them a warmer smoother quality than a ceramic magnet but at the cost of reduced gain. So we often hear. Whereas ceramic is used in metal as it sounds tight loud and cool.

This immediately suggests that alnico 8 will have a larger magnetic field compared to alnico 5 when magnets are short compared to their pole area. Because the ceramic magnet isn t introducing compression the result is a cleaner sound in comparison to alnico. Alnico 8 has a lower residual induction but a higher coercive force. A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups.

Alnico 2 is a little weaker resulting in a slightly warmer tone. Alnico is nice and warm and great for blues. The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response.