Alnico II vs Alnico IV Magnets
Channel: The Vigilant Stewards
Date: 31/05/2019

I made every effort to keep these the same.  I kept the same strings on the guitar, made sure I used the same pick, same tuning, same technique, same input on audio interface, knobs on full, and tried not to favor either one in setting the amp models in Logic.  If I were really setup here I would do a re-amp session.

The only difference that I can think of currently is that the Alnico IV pickups are going to be a little bit lower because that's where they sounded best.  The tech and I both forgot to measure pickup height, but that wouldn't have been good anyway because they need to be where they will actually be functioning at.  Because of this though, the Alnico II may be pushing the front end a little harder.  

I did level match the audio files as best as I could using the multi-meter in Logic and individual file gain reduction. 

A 2009 Les Paul was used in this clip... I'm not sure if it's chambered or not.  It was one of the Guitar Center runs (Traditional Pro I think?).... anyway it has got Amalfitano custom wound humbuckers, Callaham bridge and tailpiece, Angela Musical caps, CTS pots, 50s wiring, bone nut, and Kluson tuners done to it.  

Strings:  Thomastik Infeld Jazz Bebop 11's.  Action just a little higher than "standard".  

There was nothing done in Logic to the file except a pinch of studio reverb and some adaptive limiting to get the signal up to grade - hoping it would degrade less if I did it myself in Logic and YouTube didn't have to boost it.  I just used amp model, reverb, and adaptive compression.  I did add a pedal emulator on the Grissly tone for variety.

I wanted to get a range of sounds so that is why I used multiple amps, to get a better feel for how the magnet effects change instead of just one case. 

The Alnico II magnets were what came in my Amalfitano humbuckers.  The ones that Jerry so kindly swapped back in for me was an order I made from Throbak.  


Hopefully that covers most of it... let me know if you have any questions or want me to send you the wav file for better audio.  

Thanks

***Why?/Notes/Opinion:***  The actual reason I did this to my guitar is because while I was really liking everything, I just felt that it lacked midrange.  There was no woody punch to it or overall dryness.  My guitar is a dense and scooped sounding Les Paul acoustically, and my top end was a tad too wet electrically.  I wanted it to squish and sing in the mids when I hit it and have less treble crunch.  

I think both magnets sound good and I don't prefer either one.  I do like the results that I got with the A4 for this guitar though.  My only issue is that there is a bit of low mid wallow going on and I'm not sure if that can be fixed.  It can sound a bit muffled in parts of the neck.  I'm not sure if it's revealing my guitar more and Gibson used bad wood, or if it's just accenting it in an undesirable manner.

P.S.  The clips may sound dry/plain, but it was my goal to use the right hand as close to the same as I did for the AII clip.  It would be easy to get carried away with different reaction to the new magnet, but that would also skew the comparison.  I limited the allowable difference to pickup height since that aspect of setup is necessary in my viewpoint in installing pickups or magnets properly (ok ok ... and since we didn't measure before hand too).