Ceramic Vs Alnico Pickups Tone

You often hear that the sound of a pickup is dominated by the choice of magnet used in its construction.

Ceramic vs alnico pickups tone.

It s more than the. Alnico is nice and warm and great for blues. Ceramic pickups often get a bad rap. Ceramic is a brighter considered harsh by boutique lovers quality.

So we often hear. I m thinking about buying them but i m now sure if they ll work well with original middle pickup. Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico. He doesn t have the middle pickup so he is asking for a nice price.

It s also a lot less expensive magnet. Ceramic is a cheaper material than alnico and these pickups are often found on more affordable guitars. The stronger magnetic field is also said to put out more high end frequencies potentially leading to a harsh and brittle tone. The magnets in ceramic pickups are stronger and the pickups themselves are considered higher output than alnico.

Alnico has a lower output with more give. The ceramic will stay in the middle so it ll be on a lot of time. Whereas ceramic is used in metal as it sounds tight loud and cool. The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response.

Alnico tends to produce a very musical pickup in most setups. The consensus is that ceramic falls short of the sweeter alnico when it comes to clean tones. A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups. I use in between positions a lot.

This association has led to a bad sonic reputation for ceramic pickups. The magnets are then allowed to cool in a magnetic field to pick up their magnetic charge. Ceramic magnets are typically stronger than alnico magnets so they produce more output. Ceramic magnets are made from ferrites often iron oxides.

However one of prs guitars most revered pickups the hfs is ceramic. Pickups are around 5 8k alnico 5. And that s due to lack of pickup design more than the magnet s fault.