Am I the only one who finds Alnico II pickups "squishy" for fast leads?

[diogoguitar]

So I've had this Charvel Dk24 for about a week now... I can't say enough good things about it,... and I love its neck pickup (SD Alnico II Pro) for cleans and mid-drive stuff.

But, when kick in the overdrive and play faster-ish solos, I find it hard to hear the notes and I end up having to pick much harder to be able to hear the individual notes. Is this a placebo thing or this is normal for an Alnico 2 pickup?

(I played around with pickup height, etc... it's not too tall or too low... I think it's at 6/64")

Thanks!

 

[shalev98732]

So I've had this Charvel Dk24 for about a week now... I can't say enough good things about it,... and I love its neck pickup (SD Alnico II Pro) for cleans and mid-drive stuff.

But, when kick in the overdrive and play faster-ish solos, I find it hard to hear the notes and I end up having to pick much harder to be able to hear the individual notes. Is this a placebo thing or this is normal for an Alnico 2 pickup?

(I played around with pickup height, etc... it's not too tall or too low... I think it's at 6/64")

Thanks!

i had a charvel althrough it wasnt a dk but same pickups, and i agree with you but i think they built in mind that the alnico 2 pro will be for cleans and mid drive and the full shred in the bridge will be for the rest, if you still like the tone of the aph-2 but want it for high gain and fast leads, i recommend putting a slash or slash 2.0 neck in it, it sounds good in them all.

 

[STRHelvete]

I don't do fast leads so it works for me. The Alnico Pro 2 is my favorite neck pickup. Now, that being said I stay on the bridge pickup most of the time anyways, even for leads

 

[diogoguitar]

alright I put some higher output pickups (a pair of Suhr Aldrich). I immediately felt that it got a more direct pick response on the neck position. I'm happy

@shalev98732

 

[shalev98732]

alright I put some higher output pickups (a pair of Suhr Aldrich). I immediately felt that it got a more direct pick response on the neck position. I'm happy

@shalev98732

View attachment 135850

how are the aldrichs?

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

Alnico II magnets generally have a squishier or “soft” low end. I find, depending on the rig, lowering the pickup height helps quite a bit.

 

[Zhysick]

Yes, that's why I only want to use Alnico5 or ceramic for the neck. I like its fluid tone but I need to hear a bit the pick attack since I am not capable of picking fast lines and basically only do legato so without a heavy attack it just sounds too bland