Replacing ceramic magnets with neodymium?

[bassbenj]

Update, I've abandoned the J for now but I'm still going foward with this idea. I have two cheap ceramic P pickups coming along with 100 6x1.5mm n52 neodymium disc magnets. I'm putting it in a Double P Bass so my plan is to put two on each bridge pickup pole and one on each neck pickup pole.

I boosted the output of my SX J bass with Neodymium magnets: Ultimate Essex 6er Neo pickup mod...

Some of the website references no longer work but basically all you do is get a rectangular magnet and stick to the bottom of the ceramic (The way it wants to stick not opposite)

It works pretty well though some have commented that it seems to have perhaps a saturation effect. You can decide. If your original magnets are alnico then sticking a Neo magnet on the bottom won't do anything in my experience. There is another thread where someone solved that problem by sticking tiny circular Neo magnets on the TOP of the pole pieces. (again the way they want to go not N-N)

I'm reasonably happy with the boost it gave my SX J.

 

[Will_White]

All the parts are in, and the magnets are freaking strong it'll be interesting to hear how it sounds when I get it done. My predictions are it'll be a bit G&L ish.

 

[JustForSport]

Re: If your original magnets are alnico then sticking a Neo magnet on the bottom won't do anything in my experience.

I placed small neo buttons on the bottom of an alnico 51 P single coil pickup and they gave it a fair boost. It is positioned at the end of the fretboard so I was leery of the pull on the strings if I placed them on top of the poles. Still going to place another button on top of each pole just to see, as that should help extend the stronger magnetic field thru the coil. Plus, a denser/ stronger field by the strings should strengthen the signal more.

 

[Will_White]

It's under way.

I carefully removed the ceramic magnets from the pickups, cleaned up the backs as best I could, and added a stack of NEOs in its place. That was the idea at least. It didn't work that way on the first one. I'll let the picture tell the story.

Because the pickup was a whole $7, I wasn't distraught, and good news I learned how not to remove the magnet from a pickup . The problem with that one was I went from the side without the wires down onto a hard surface and both of those combined lead to the bobbin tearing off at the eyelet and ruining the coil. For the other half I turned the pickup around and set it on the foam sanding pad and used a flat-head screwdriver and (smaller) hammer to wedge it off.

Much better. I'll be keeping this one for a four string CBG down the road. Repeated the process two more times for the other coil, then I added magnets until it got to just slightly stronger then an unmodified pickup for the neck, for the bridge I'll add 1 more to even things out but because of the mishap I'm going to have to do that one on Wednesday when it gets here.

I coloured the backs of the magnets to keep them oriented correctly.

Another thing I have to do is replace the harness because I'm going from active to passive. So its getting a 4way switch, 1 meg volume, and a new tone switch with a .047 cap and a pair of diodes.

 

[Will_White]

Third set came in got the magnets replaced and everything installed, the pickups are definitely hot, but they are still pretty clear not like overwound pickups. I think I might of messed something up on the 4 way switch, the bridge and series position sound very similar. The bridge pickup is actually usable now and something interesting is that with the tone switch on cap it has a very pronounced peak on the bridge pickup giving an almost cocked wah tone.