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how to verify magnet type

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 10:03 am
by Greg Martin
i have about 20 or so humbucker magnets.none were marked.is there a way to id magnet type v2 v5v7 ceramic ????

Re: how to verify magnet type

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:14 pm
by David King
Ceramic is easy being non-conductive and dark brown/black. The most common Ceramic is C8 followed by C5 which is weaker.
Various alnico alloys can be roughly identified with a Gauss meter. To do that at home without a Gauss meter you need to charge them up to saturation and then go through them to sort out the strongest ones from the weakest ones and the ones in the middle. The strongest and most plentiful will most likely be AlNiCo 5 (possibly AlNiCo8 but that's rare stuff). The weakest will be AlNiCo 3 (also rare), next up AlNiCo 2 (most common after A-5) and then AlNiCo 4.
To find equivalents with a Gauss meter you'll need some know samples or you can go search through threads at MEF where folks have kindly posted their field strength findings for different dimensions and alloys.