Changing pickup magnets.

[Toha5150]

Hey guys,

I have an old Ibanez Roadstar II p-bass. I like the feel and the sound but... output level is really low since I bought it years ago.

All other passive basses that I have sound much louder. Setting up the pickup heigh doesn’t help.

Easy solution is to buy a new pickup, but...

May be, new magnets will be chipper and easier mod?

It’s easy for me to replace the magnets, because I can remove old magnets just by taking pickup cover off.

What do you think?

 

[thewildest]

My first recommendation (if you feel something is weird with the amplitude against other basses) would be to bypass the circuitry (knobs, eq, etc); perhaps a faulty knob or loose wire is a factor.

If after that you’re still unsatisfied, I commend you for trying to work with the magnets, never thought of that, I would have tried to mess with the wiring (secondary section of the pickup) and ruined the whole thing...

 

[96tbird]

Doesn’t that bass have adjustable height pickup poles? All the roadstars I've seen do.

They have allen head screws in each pole and you can dial them up and down.

 

[Domespeed]

if so, the magnets are ceramic bars located at the bottom of the pickups (like with DiMarzio pickups).

I've heard of cases where the magnet fell off.

 

[sikamikanico]

If you can take magnets off that easily, are they perhaps not attached properly, weakening the sound?

 

[RobbieK]

Yeah, as others have said, I'd check that the original mags are still there.

But an other option is simply to add magnets. A couple of small neo disks under there might do the trick too.

 

[Toha5150]

Yes, the magnets could fell out. So I had to fix it with scotch tape.
And I tried a different magnet attachments, and I’m sure it’s attached properly.
The sound is not weak at all, all strings has the same volume, no out-off-phase or something (I got this effect with different magnet placement).
Tone is good as well.
I tried to dial pickup poles - no significant effect...

So may be it’s magnets produse less magnetic field???

I will try to bypass all the electronics, to check if the problem is in pickup. But pots work well and smooth...

 

[40Hz]

Different magnets are designed to have different strengths. And selecting the precisely right magnet is part of the art of pickup design. From my own experience, ceramic magnets usually retain their strength quite well over time (better than many Alnico formulations) unless they’re regularly exposed to strong electrical fields and/or other magnets.

Tastes gave also changed. So it may be less a matter of yours losing strength over time as it’s how you’ve become used to the output of modern hotter wound pickups. With the new magnet formulations we now have, coupled with far better researched pickup designs, even our “classic” or “normal” wound pickups have a far hotter output than pickups had back in the day.