Ceramic Vs Alnico Magnets Pickups

The magnets are then allowed to cool in a magnetic field to pick up their magnetic charge.

Ceramic vs alnico magnets pickups.

Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico. Ceramic magnets are made from ferrites often iron oxides. You see ceramic is easier to come by than alnico making it a cheaper magnet to make. Of commercial applications starting in the 1960s but ceramic magnet guitar pickups were found to have a generally harsher more brittle in general ceramic pickups display strong treble and tight bass with noticably less midrange scooped mids.

A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups. The stronger magnetic field is also said to put out more high end frequencies potentially leading to a harsh and brittle tone. A different frequency response or dynamics. The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response.

Alnico pickups usually sound cleaner with more dynamics more treble and mids and more picking attack instead of note sustain. Ceramic magnets ceramic magnets are made of ceramic surprise. Ceramic magnets are typically a slab of material attached to the bottom of the pickup while alnico magnets are attached along the sides of the pole pieces. There are lower output pickups though that use ceramic magnets for other reasons e g.

By some players the ceramic magnets are given a bad reputation when compared to alnico which is probably due to their association with cheaper instruments. So we often hear. For an idea of what that looks like see this image from the guitar dreamer blog. Alnico is nice and warm and great for blues.

Whereas ceramic is used in metal as it sounds tight loud and cool. Ceramic magnets are typically stronger than alnico magnets so they produce more output. Wider frequency range than alnico and sound full and balanced when using high gain.