Black Winter bridge magnet shootout

[KnightBrolaire]

I've done a magnet shootout with the black winter bridge before and have a bunch of clips of it, but figured it was time to make a new, more comprehensive version.
So the magnets I have on hand are: Alnico 4, ALnico 5, Alnico 8, ALnico 9, Ceramic, and Neodymium. I'm not expecting big changes between alnico 4 and 5, or 8 and 9, but we'll see.
For comparison's sake I'm going to keep the pickup the same height from the strings, use the same IRs, same riffs, same strings, same amp eq, same guitar, etc.

For my own sake, the riffs are limited to 2 clean riffs and 2 dirty riffs per magnet.

Here's the standard ceramic black winter bridge in my PRS Mushok (in BEADF#B):



I'll be adding soundcloud playlists of each as I go. I'll also be making a yt vid with side by side comparisons of them later on.

 

[The Monster With .]

Awesome man, I'm in for this.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

alnico 4 mag is in. I'll give it a few days to adjust and then I'll slap up the clips.

 

[bostjan]

Any idea what sort of ceramic magnet? Too bad it's difficult to find SmCo magnets sized for pickups...

Another random thought, I expect there to be some noticeable differences in output. It'd be cool if there was a way to also do this whilst adjusting pickup height so as to achieve the same mV output, just to add another variable into the mix...

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Any idea what sort of ceramic magnet? Too bad it's difficult to find SmCo magnets sized for pickups...

Another random thought, I expect there to be some noticeable differences in output. It'd be cool if there was a way to also do this whilst adjusting pickup height so as to achieve the same mV output, just to add another variable into the mix...

It's whatever came in the black winter, probably a ferrite ceramic.

I can't easily acquire alnico magnets of the thickness of the stock ceramic, so there will definitely be noticeable output differences on either end of the spectrum. The ceramic flanker mags in the black winter will help mitigate some of that output loss though.

 

[0rimus]

Back in ye olde days I bought a Duncan Performer Detonator and an assload of magnets, since they're only like $5 a pop and I was a broke college student at the time.

Alnico 2, Alnico 2 Roughcast, Alnico 3, A3 Roughcast, A4, A5, A5 Unoriented, Alnico 8, A8 Roughcast, Small Ceramic, Thick Ceramic, Triple Ceramic, Alnico 9, Alnico 9 Roughcast, Neodymium

Blah, blah. Probably missed some. My testing was less than scientific though. Alnico 6 and 7 were pretty much nonexistent at the time (actually bought an A6 bar recently).

Alnico 9 Roughcast was/is my all time favorite outta all the ones I tried.

Watching this thread for sure; super stoked to hear what all happens!

P.S.
Personally I'd only leave the ceramic flanker magnets in for Triple Ceramic test and then remove them for, well, pretty much everything else. The amount of combinations with or without flanker magnets is gonna be too huge a hassle.

Plus those ceramic flanker mags tend to overshadow the central magnet in most cases.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Back in ye olde days I bought a Duncan Performer Detonator and an assload of magnets, since they're only like $5 a pop and I was a broke college student at the time.

Alnico 2, Alnico 2 Roughcast, Alnico 3, A3 Roughcast, A4, A5, A5 Unoriented, Alnico 8, A8 Roughcast, Small Ceramic, Thick Ceramic, Triple Ceramic, Alnico 9, Alnico 9 Roughcast, Neodymium

Blah, blah. Probably missed some. My testing was less than scientific though. Alnico 6 and 7 were pretty much nonexistent at the time (actually bought an A6 bar recently).

Alnico 9 Roughcast was/is my all time favorite outta all the ones I tried.

Watching this thread for sure; super stoked to hear what all happens!

P.S.
Personally I'd only leave the ceramic flanker magnets in for Triple Ceramic test and then remove them for, well, pretty much everything else. The amount of combinations with or without flanker magnets is gonna be too huge a hassle.

Plus those ceramic flanker mags tend to overshadow the central magnet in most cases.

I'm not removing the flanker magnets. That's extra work and tbh the output drops for some of the weaker mags will be mitigated by them, which is nice. They'll definitely make picking up on differences harder, but mag swapping always has relatively subtle effects ime. This is just for fun. If I wanted to better showcase the magnet differences I'd use some low output PAF and just swap mags.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Alnico 4 mag:


Obviously lower output but much clearer as well. Easier to pile extra gain on with. Less hair on the high end, mids are slightly more balanced now imo.

 

[Sdrizis89]

The Alnico 4 sounds tighter, clearer, but less output. I love low-medium output pickups for metal. Interesting experiment you are doing! Can’t wait for the rest!

 

[SubsonicDoom99]

Yeah the Alnico 4 mod definitely sounds cleaner, which is personally more to my taste these days. But it still retains a lot of the original character of the BW.
I'm really liking the way this sounds, but I've found myself gravitating more and more towards lower and medium output pickups especially for high gain tones.
Looking forward to hearing the other magnets.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Neodymium has been installed for a day or so. It's obviously higher output than the alnico 4, but still feels clearer on the low end than the base ceramic option. It can get hairier on the high end much quicker than the alnico 4. Mids are pretty much the same as the alnico 4

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Alnico 9 feels a bit bigger in the low end and a bit looser/thicker than the neodymium. Still clearer than the ceramic though. Less sharp in the upper mids/high end vs the neodymium.
alnico 9 clips:

 

[Emperoff]

Very interested about the Neodymium one. Way less low end than the ceramic and way more top end. Sounds agressive as fuck, even though I prefer the ceramic on these clips.

This is intensifying my GAS for a Q-tuner set.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Very interested about the Neodymium one. Way less low end than the ceramic and way more top end. Sounds agressive as fuck, even though I prefer the ceramic on these clips.

This is intensifying my GAS for a Q-tuner set.

The neodymium was very interesting. I think if I backed it away from the strings more it would have worked better on the high end. That was really my only complaint about it, but for the sake of this comparison I didn't lower the pickup height.

Idk, personally I like the alnico 4 and neodymium options the most so far. I thought I'd like the alnico 9, but it's just getting too close to the ceramic for my tastes.

Next up is the alnico 5.

 

[BrutalRob]

The neodymium was very interesting. I think if I backed it away from the strings more it would have worked better on the high end. That was really my only complaint about it, but for the sake of this comparison I didn't lower the pickup height.

Idk, personally I like the alnico 4 and neodymium options the most so far. I thought I'd like the alnico 9, but it's just getting too close to the ceramic for my tastes.

Next up is the alnico 5.

Guess this is due to the flanker magnets still being in place. But from my experience, A9 is not that close to ceramic. tighter low end, thick high mid grind and overall brighter like turning up presence. Though less of that biting very high end which ceramic has.
I also like it a lot in neck pickups.

Neodymium is a monster on its own. recently put one into a elysian hellfire and i think it is just awesome for such a darker wind.

 

[Emperoff]

Guess this is due to the flanker magnets still being in place. But from my experience, A9 is not that close to ceramic. tighter low end, thick high mid grind and overall brighter like turning up presence. Though less of that biting very high end which ceramic has.
I also like it a lot in neck pickups.

Neodymium is a monster on its own. recently put one into a elysian hellfire and i think it is just awesome for such a darker wind.

+1

I might be wrong but I'd say the ceramic flankers have more effect than people give them credit for. The BKP Juggernaut has ceramic flankers on it and it gives me more of a ceramic response and high end feel than what I usually get with alnicos.

 

[BrutalRob]

The BW also has the thick flankers. So @KnightBrolaire, how did you handle this? Used regular sized flankers with the A9? Or did you get an thick A9 magnet?

 

[KnightBrolaire]

The BW also has the thick flankers. So @KnightBrolaire, how did you handle this? Used regular sized flankers with the A9? Or did you get an thick A9 magnet?

I left the stock flankers in, all the magnets are regular thickness bar magnets beside the stock ceramic.

 

[BrutalRob]

Well then, i am pretty sure the ceramic flankers are pretty overpowering in this case and you would like the A9 a lot more if you tried it in another pickup without flankers sometime

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

Thanks @KnightBrolaire for doing this, this awesome. If u don't mind me asking, where did u buy the magnets? Are they available for the 7-string BW as well?