Alnico Or Ceramic

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

Alnico or ceramic. These magnets are softer than ceramic magnets and provide a weaker magnetic field. The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response. A lot of people automatically say that alnico is superior to ceramic in pickups. Try the blind test to find out.

Alnico is nice and warm and great for blues. Alnico speakers compress at high volumes. You see ceramic is easier to come by than alnico making it a cheaper magnet to make. Because the ceramic magnet isn t introducing compression the result is a cleaner sound in comparison to alnico.

Let s listen to how they sound. Ceramic magnets are made of ceramic surprise. Ceramic speakers are heavier because their magnet must be heavier to achieve the same power all other thing equal. Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico.

Some folks might liken the difference between alnico and ceramic speakers to the difference between tube and solid state amplifiers where one compresses smoothly and the other gives all it has and then clips hard. If you enjoyed this video be sure to like and subscribe https nextgeng. What s the difference between ceramic alnico magnet pickups. Alnico speaker breakup quicker that ceramic i e.

So we often hear. Alnico tends to produce a very musical pickup in most. 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. Donate to guitars for good causes.

Are alnico speakers really worth the extra cost. Ceramic speaker have more headroom ceramic speakers tend to have smoother breakup. Ceramic magnets are made from ferrites often iron oxides.