second go around on building a bass

[T-34]

Wait, if the poles are for humbuckers, they may be made of regular steel and not from proper magnet material like Alnico II or V. Steel poles require external permanent magnets to be used and without them won't magnetize to required strength (or not at all)...

[superquick]

Well if that is the case then it makes perfect sense why my poles feel like they haven't magnetized at all. And why the signal is weak entirely. I've been trying to charge steel and expecting it to keep charge. Which would also explain why they didn't work at all after a few weeks from trying to charge them the first time. It all makes sense now. That too was something that I didn't know to look for when I bought the poles.

Should I get some alnico bars to go under the poles? Would that solve my problem?

[superquick]

And that would also mean that the neodymium magnets I'm using to try and charge the pickups aren't necessarily too weak to do it. The steel just will not hold a charge. I now understand where i went wrong

[suraj]

Yes you will need a ceramic, ferrite or alnico bar magnet under or between the two rows of your pole pieces. Ideally one large magnet is used for this. The magnetic field of the large magnet magnetizes the pole pieces as long as they are in that field. If the large magnet is removed, the steel slugs or screws will hold a useless insignificant charge, which you are probably experiencing now. As a quick test, you could just wire the two ends of the pickup to an output jack, place your neo magnet on one of the pole pieces and test it next to a string.

[superquick]

I just ordered some Alnico 5 bars last night to put under the poles. They should do the trick for sure because the magnetism is rfeally strong coming from the slugs when they're touching one of the neo magnets. I just may try that out suraj. Thanks!

[pilotjones]

Just don't expect alnicos to provide the same kind of field that the neo does. If I'm applying the numbers properly - it's been a while - an N48 will have at least five times the strength of a similarly-sized AlNiCo.

[superquick]

If the alnicos produce a stronger field than nothing, which is what I have now, then I'll be a happy camper. Haha. The neos I have have a pretty stout field. If something that strong were powering the pole pieces I couldn't imagine what it would sound like