Here's a great Fender article we found that answers a very common question amongst guitarists shopping for guitar pickups.. What Are Alnico Pickups???

When guitar shopping at a retail outlet or online, you’re bound to run across mention of alnico pickups. What does that mean? What are alnico pickups and what do they do that non-alnico pickups don’t?

The same physical properties of alnico found in the child's toy magnet set above also make for great-sounding pickups on the American Deluxe series Stratocaster below.

First let’s explain the word itself. Alnico is an acronym comprising the first two letters of three different metallic elements, aluminum, nickel and cobalt.

Second, let’s explain what’s special about alnico. In the early 1930s in Japan, alloys of iron, nickel and aluminum were found to display twice the strength of the best steel magnets of the time. Cobalt was soon found to be a useful addition to the mix, as cobalt alloys are highly corrosion-resistant. Iron alloys that contain alnico display a high resistance to heat and to loss of magnetism, and are hence used to make strong and durable permanent magnets. In fact, before the development of rare earth “super” magnets (i.e., neodymium and samarium-cobalt) in the 1970s and 1980s, alnico magnets were the strongest magnets you could get, capable of producing strength at their poles as high as 3,000 times the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field.

In a nutshell then, alnico alloys make for very strong, long-lasting magnets.

Given their strength and durability, alnico alloys were consequently adopted for widespread consumer applications in which magnets with such properties were especially useful, such as electric motors, sensors, loudspeakers …

And electric guitar pickups. At its simplest, an electric guitar pickup consists of a permanent magnet wrapped in coils of wire, so it stands to reason that high-quality magnets such as those containing alnico would make for high-quality guitar pickups. And that they certainly did—alnico-magnet pickups were found to produce a smooth, warm and highly musical tone.

Sure enough, Fender started making pickups with alnico magnets as early as the late 1940s. Back then, alnico was the high-tech material of the age, and Fender continued to use it through the 1950s and 1960s. 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. Many players and hence many manufacturers—Fender included—stuck with the mellower rounded-peak tone of alnico pickups (analogous to “worn shock absorbers” in the words of one pickup expert), and their use continues to this day (more on that presently).

Another element you’ll run into when guitar shopping is that there are different kinds of alnico pickups, usually designated by Roman numerals—i.e., alnico II, alnico III and alnico V (although you do see standard Arabic numerals 2, 3 and 5 just as often, really).

The alnico number is used to differentiate the strength of the magnetic field produced; it designates a sort of “recipe” in which the percentage of the different elements in the alloy varies slightly. While all three are actually pretty close, the type of alnico used, when combined with other elements such as the art of pickup placement, does affects the sound of an electric guitar.

Where it gets a bit strange, however, is that alnico numbers do not increase in order of magnetic strength, as you might at first suppose (i.e., II being the weakest, III in the middle and V the strongest). On the contrary, the order of magnetic strength goes like this: alnico III has the weakest magnetic force; alnico II is in the middle and alnico V is the strongest.

Alnico II is what you find on the earliest Telecaster® guitars of the 1950s. It is especially good for middle-position pickups, and it contributes to a very sweet and musical “vintage-y” sound.

Alnico III is the weakest of the three because it actually contains no cobalt. Since it exhibits the least amount of magnetic pull, it’s the type that impedes free string vibration the least, hence making it a great choice for neck pickups (over which there is usually the greatest amount of string vibration). This is the type used in the first Stratocaster® guitars in the mid-1950s, and use of this particular alnico blend is one of the reasons why their neck pickups sound so amazingly good.

Alnico V is the strongest of the three; more powerful in tone and response. Its greater output makes it a good choice for bridge pickups, over which there is usually a smaller amount of string vibration. Good for an aggressive, punchy sound.

As noted, Fender continues to use alnico pickups in many of its guitars. Good examples include Highway One series guitars, which use alnico III; American Standard and American Special series guitars, which use alnico V; and the American Vintage series ’62 Stratocaster Reissue, which uses three alnico II pickups. And in a nuanced nod to the art and science of pickup construction and placement, current American Deluxe series Stratocaster models have an alnico III neck pickup, and alnico II middle pickup and an alnico V bridge pickup.

Original Fender Article

Some pickups are “hotter” than others. But what does this mean? Does it mean that these pickups will push an amplifier harder, resulting in more gain and volume? Yes. Does it mean that these pickups will impart a warmer, fuller tone? Generally, yes. But why is this? And how do you make a pickup hotter? And how does DC resistance correlate to “hotness” or output?

Let’s consider again how a pickup “picks up” the string vibration and how this is turned into something musical.

Pickups use coils of wire and magnets as their core components. The ferrous guitar strings pass through the magnetic field that exists above the pickup, and as the strings vibrate, they move the magnetic field, while the coil(s) remains stationary. This movement of the magnetic field relative to the stationary coil induces voltage, which is sent to the amp.

If you were to make a device wherein the mobility of the two components was reversed—that is, where the coil moved relative to a stationary magnetic field— then this device would also induce voltage (and would be called a generator).

The voltage that’s generated by a pickup is measured in millivolts, and you can increase its strength in several ways:

1. Increase the strength of the magnetic field

5. Increase the mass of the strings

If you think of the magnetic field as being able to “grab onto” the strings, then you can see that it would hold on more tightly to a string with a higher iron content, for instance, than it would to a string with a lower iron content. So heavier strings of a given brand, having more iron content (more steel mass) than a lighter set of the same brand of strings, would move the magnetic field to a greater degree when a string is plucked, and would generate more voltage in the process. This is one reason for the difference in tone between heavier strings and lighter strings.

Similarly, if we increase the strength of the pickup’s magnetic field, all other things remaining equal, we’ll get a higher voltage. And if we add more turns of magnet wire onto the coil, we’ll get a higher voltage. In either case, this higher input voltage will drive the amplifier harder, resulting in more gain, and more volume.

There is also a tonal change. As the voltage increases—and again, all other things remaining equal—we’ll see more mids and less highs, at least up to a point.

Fender and Gibson are really the two makers who defined what now constitutes 90 percent or more of the pickup market. In the early days of the electric guitar, many designs were tried, as is usually the case with new technologies. But Fender and Gibson came up with enduring form factors: the PAF humbucker, the P-90, the Strat pickup, and the Tele pickup. The majority of guitars currently in production use one or more of these, and the overwhelming majority of replacement pickups being produced derive their form factor and basic architecture from these five designs.

There have been many other influential designs, of course, such as the Gretsch FilterTron (and its DeArmond predecessors), as well as other pickups from Fender and Gibson, such as the Jaguar and Jazzmaster pickups. And of course there are very popular bass pickup designs, such as Fender’s Precision Bass and Jazz Bass pickups, as well as various soapbar designs. But when we exclude bass guitars from the discussion, the five designs listed above really define the market.

But because these five pickups all have a different form factor and construction details, they vary considerably. The statement “all other things remaining equal” certainly doesn’t apply here.

It can be difficult, confusing as hell to the untrained ear and possibly expensive, depending on your budget.

How can you tell (in advance) what pickup will be right for the sound you want?

If you don't already know, then you simply can't answer this question without help or a lot of work. You will have to rely on someone you believe you can trust. This could be a friend, a guitar repairman with a good reputation, a cool guitar shop known for their expertise, or even a pickup company that you have heard good things about.

There are many online sites with reviews of pickups from all the manufacturers. Validating the information found there is another matter altogether. Sound clips are great, but do they represent your guitar, your rig, in your environment? Pickup tone charts generally only talk about the characteristics of the pickup itself and might even confuse you more. If you are new to the pickup game, understanding all the vague jargon just doesn't happen overnight. Do you really want to go back to school just to change your pickups? I don't think so. You just want to improve your tone and get back to playing your guitar!

I will try to lay down some simple guidelines to get us at least close, if not on the mark in choosing a pickup. And for the sake of keeping it simple in this article, I will focus on single coil pickups for Strat-style guitars. Let's simplify and break it down:

for a true evaluation of what your guitar is capable of. Bring the pickups as close as possible to the strings without physical, or sonic (particularly on the low E string, usually manifested as weird overtones) interference. This is usually about 1/8” from the high E when the string is depressed at the last fret, and as somewhere around 1/8”- 1/4” clearance on the low E depressed at the last fret.

like about the sound of each pickup. Is the neck meaty? Rich? Sound like Stevie? Is the middle clean, strong but full, rhythm supreme? Does the bridge have good, clean bite and cut through? Do your combinations have that quack? Is there hum canceling for bad hum situations?

of your guitar. Consider the weight of your guitar, particularly the density of the wood used, which is the number one factor in the tone. The less dense a body is, the lighter it will be and so on. The neck will certainly play a part, as well as hardware types, and so on, but generally to a lesser degree. An often-used generalization is that maple necks are brighter than rosewood- necked guitars. This is a factor, but a very light guitar will almost always sound warmer with any quality set of pickups (warmer is not always enough for tone hounds!). A medium weight instrument can go either way, while a heavy guitar typically is thinner or bright sounding while breaking your back at the same time.

I often hear complaints that a guitar sounds too weak overall with the bridge position being way too thin, often to the point of being unusable. It is clear in these cases that a stronger pickup is needed in the bridge position. That's why Rio Grande, like most pickup makers, offers more than one style (output) of Strat pickup. These guitars may need a hotter pickup, with more signal to work with, such as our Muy Grande or Dirty Harry (which is actually a miniature P-90).

In most cases pickup configuration, as in all things, is personal taste. For myself, a tapered set is an absolute necessity. Your guitar is physically tapered from the day it was made. A tapered (often referred to as calibrated) set of pickups is only natural. Smooth and round for the neck, solid and compatible for the middle, and strong and punchy for the bridge. That is a set getting stronger from the neck towards the bridge. You can have all these things and still retain pure natural Strat tones without going overboard.

We will change pickups in guitars, usually for one main reason: we do not like the sound we are getting from the guitar. The pickups are the most important variable you have control of on your guitar. Try a new set, you will be amazed at how much it may affect your sound. Once you get a set of pickups you're happy with, you won't have to fight your rig for tone!

One thing is certain...good tone makes you feel and play better. There are lots of pickups out there, so happy hunting!

Have you ever tried to solder to the back of a volume pot, only to watch the joint pop off like a champagne cork? Though we may not want to admit it, we’ve all had them: bad solder joints. A good solder joint should look nice and shiny. A bad solder joint will look … well, bad. It will be cloudy and have a dullish gray look about it. But most importantly, it will be a bad electronic connection. It shouldn’t look like someone stuck a piece of cauliflower in your control cavity.

A bad solder joint is (obviously) the result of improper soldering. Specifically, a bad solder joint is the result of not properly heating the surfaces that you are trying to solder together. That’s why they call them “cold solder joints.” Solder flows and adheres best on surfaces that have been properly heated. How hot should each surface get? Hot enough to melt solder. How long it will take to properly heat a surface depends on the type of surface. A piece of wire, for example, is physically small, and does not have a large surface area to heat up. You can usually be on an off in about a second.

The back of a typical potentiometer, though, is clearly a larger, wider surface, and will require a little more time to heat. This is because as the heat is transferred from your soldering iron to the back of the pot, the heat gets absorbed by the entire potentiometer casing, which (at first) draws heat away from the spot that you are actually trying to heat. Sometimes, with a hot iron, you can get on and off the back of the pot quickly, and get a good joint because the pot casing doesn’t have time to absorb the heat. You get localized heat quickly enough to do your business. But with most irons, you’ll want to stay in contact with the back of the pot for 5 to 10 seconds before bringing the wire in or applying any solder. When you heat your surfaces properly, you will see the ease with which the solder flows, and you will find that it is much easier to get it to flow where you want it to without getting lumpy, gunky, cloudy … maybe there’s a Seven Dwarves joke in there somewhere.

We all get impatient at times, and try to solder quickly, but taking a few extra seconds to heat things properly can eliminate tons of frustration down the road from cold solder joints becoming intermittent or failed connections. Patience is key.

Original Article